The essential app for avid travelers
Hey gamers! Welcome to Installer No. 121, your go-to source for the coolest and quirkiest in the gaming universe. If you’re new here, welcome aboard! Good luck in the Elite Eight, and don’t forget you can catch up on all the previous editions at the Installer homepage.
This week, I’ve been diving into the world of Will Wright, exploring sync music, and pondering the smartphone theory of everything. I picked up *The Soul of a New Machine* again after hearing about Tracy Kidder’s passing, added SNL UK to my weekly YouTube watchlist, and enjoyed the delightful chaos when Hilary Duff appeared on *Hot Ones*. I’ve also migrated all my music to Parachord, tinkered with the NewsBlur Android beta, tuned into a new podcast from the Serial team, played a ton of *Ball x Pit* on my phone, and am battling a pesky cold.
I’ve got some great recommendations for you this week, including an app to simplify your travels, a bizarre yet entertaining new show, a fresh reason to revisit an old Mario classic, and more. Let’s jump in!
The Drop
* **Flighty**: Normally, I’d only suggest Flighty to frequent travelers since it’s an incredible app tailored for power users and comes with a price tag. However, with all the current travel chaos, the new Airport Intelligence feature could be a game-changer for navigating security lines and delays.
* **Bait**: This show about an actor auditioning for the role of James Bond is so meta and internet-savvy that it shouldn’t work, but it surprisingly does. I’m all in, especially since I’ll watch Riz Ahmed in anything.
* **Super Mario Bros. Wonder**: As my colleague Andrew Webster points out, it’s always a good time to dive back into this game. The new Switch 2 update brings fresh levels, boss battles, and characters. It’s not a massive content drop, but it gave me the perfect excuse to restart the game. No regrets here!
* **The HTML Review issue 05**: This online magazine continues to be a standout in digital literature. This year’s issue is packed with stunning writing, cartoons, and interactive design — the web is truly amazing!
* **Dropzone 5.0 for Mac**: My favorite apps are the ones that seamlessly integrate into how I use my device. Dropzone is one of those — it’s a customizable tool for saving, sharing, and downloading various items just by dragging a file or link. The new design looks fantastic, and the app is incredibly handy.
* **“The Ten Pounds Episode”**: I mentioned this show last week, but *Friends Keep Secrets* has me hooked. It’s a mix of a celebrity podcast and a trashy reality show, presented in a uniquely captivating way. I’m not even sure if I like it, but I can’t stop watching!
* **Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice**: I have a list of shows and movies that could have been hits if not for their silly names. This movie is quirky and fun! I’d recommend it if I could just remember the title.
* **Notion 3.4**: I still think Notion is an impressive piece of software, even if it can be a bit slow and frustrating at times. The latest updates include tab and heading improvements, a cleaner sidebar, and database archives. Hey, app developers, how about fewer AI features and more updates like this?
Screen Share
I’m excited to share that Casey Liss and I are planning to meet up soon! He’s been one of my favorite podcasters for years as a host of Accidental Tech Podcast. (Recent episodes are tempting me to dive into self-hosting…) He’s also the creator of Callsheet, a fantastic app for movie information, and the first app featured in Installer. Plus, he lives just 90 minutes away from me. Lunch is a must, Casey!
I asked Casey to share his homescreen with us, curious about how he juggles his various interests and roles on his phone. Here’s a peek at his setup, along with some insights into the apps he uses:
The phone: iPhone 17 Pro, 512 GB, in this year’s “blue” shade.
The wallpaper: A simple blue gradient created with Apple’s tools. I know, not the most exciting choice.
The apps: AnyList, Settings, Apple Notes, Apple Maps, Apple Music, Sonos, Overcast, Day One, Instagram, Indigo, Slack, NetNewsWire, Home Assistant, Callsheet, Due, Photos, Fastmail, Messages, Fantastical, Safari.
Most of what’s on my homescreen is pretty standard. The surprising change for me was switching from four semi-organized homescreens (and rarely using Spotlight) to just two, while using Spotlight all the time. I also opted for larger icons for aesthetic reasons. The main screen features weather at the top and my 16 most-used apps. (Speaking of aesthetics, I’m all about light mode during the day and dark mode at night.)
The second screen has two widget stacks: photos from this day (using the Photos app and Widgetsmith), Fantastical and Parcel, a small Foodnoms widget, and four other frequently used apps. These include Pushover for push notifications from apps like Home Assistant, Sports Alerts for scores, Banktivity for financial tracking, and UniFi Protect for home camera access.
After being a loyal Spotify user for ages, I switched to Apple Music since it’s part of the Apple One bundle. It’s… okay. I’m also a huge fan of Sonos, with speakers in five rooms of my house. I rarely use AirPlay; I prefer the app. Thankfully, they’ve mostly recovered from the dark days of 2025.
Since COVID, I’ve been journaling almost daily. It sounds fancy, but it’s usually just a quick entry with a photo from my day. I’ve used Day One for this forever and have no plans to stop.
The purple icon with the lowercase “i” is Indigo, a beta app from my friends Ben McCarthy and Aaron Vegh. It’s a unified Mastodon and Bluesky client that merges both timelines into one. It’s fantastic and makes it much easier to keep up with my nerdy friends (Mastodon) and regular folks (Bluesky). I use NetNewsWire as my RSS reader for a mix of nerdy and local news. Thanks to my membership, I finally have full-text RSS access here too! ????
The clapperboard icon is my app, Callsheet! Imagine if IMDb was designed by someone who actually cares. Unlike other platforms that push you to buy junk or auto-play videos, Callsheet is built for users. It’s fast, answers your questions, and then gets out of your way.
Next to Callsheet is Due, which I rely on heavily. It keeps reminding you of tasks until you mark them as done. It’s as close as I get to a formal task management system.
My wife and I are all-in on Apple Photos and the Shared Photo Library. It’s been surprisingly reliable for us.
I also asked Casey to share some of his current favorites. Here’s what he sent back:
* I’m a huge *Scrubs* fan and was nervous about the reboot. We’re several episodes in, and it’s surprisingly good! They’ve acknowledged some of the original show’s outdated elements and are taking characters in new directions.
* I own a Vision Pro — it was for work, I promise! I watched the Raye Concert for One when it first came out a couple of years ago. I recently played her album *My 21st Century Blues*; it’s fantastic. I feel like I’m the last to know about it!
* I stumbled upon the slowest yet coolest website on the internet: The Auto Catalog Archive, which has brochures for countless cars.
Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to hear what you’re enjoying too! Email your recommendations to installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — and we’ll feature some of our favorites here each week. For even more great suggestions, check out the replies to this post on Threads and Bluesky.
“I’m playing a bunch of Pokémon ROM hacks (like Eternal X and Renegade Platinum) on my AYN Thor and having the absolute time of my life.” — NEAL
“Giving Noteful a try on iPad. It’s good and packed with nice features, but I’m not sure I can fully ditch pen and paper.” — Nick
“Big into the Bambu Printer A2. Looking for great 3D prints!” – Zach
“Watching *The Capture* on BBC iPlayer, which is excellent and highly recommended. I’m also loving my MacBook Neo, which I bought without Touch ID because I can sign in with my Apple Watch.” — Nathan
“I can’t believe I missed the call for notebook comments! For what it’s worth, Beechmore Books is the undisputed champ of paper that doesn’t bleed through. I haven’t found any others (except dedicated sketchbooks) that do it as well. I now have one on recurring order with Amazon.” — Bruce
“I wear a Bulova Computron. Specifically, the black and red one. It’s glorious — like a little ‘90s alarm clock radio on my wrist.” — Aidan
“Continuing to experiment with my Synology NAS setup, using Plex, Jellyfin, the ARR suite, etc., to prepare for the subscription apocalypse and the resurgence of physical media.” — Jamison
“With all the buzz around the new episode, I finally made time to watch *The Amazing Digital Circus*. It’s a blast (and a bit psychologically intense). I hope indie animation continues to grow stronger.” – Hanna
“I found an amazing E Ink reader, the Xteink X4. It’s pocket-sized and doesn’t support any DRM. Carrying all my books on an e-reader that fits in my pocket is incredible. You can even flash its firmware with an open-source project to enhance it!” — Alric
“I suggest checking out Brad Dowdy at The Pen Addict. (Start with his Top Five Pens list.) He also has a long-running podcast called The Pen Addict.” — Dan
Signing Off
This week, I discovered a website called Obsolete Sounds, and I’m completely smitten. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a collection of sounds you rarely hear anymore, from winding pocket watches to calculating machines to melting glacier ice. Half of these should be turned into white noise machines.
Speaking of which, Cities and Memory, the organization behind Obsolete Sounds, hosts an annual event where they open their sound library for anyone to remix. Listening to last year’s submissions was a wild experience. It’s fascinating to see how people record and reinterpret these seemingly mundane sounds, changing how I perceive the world around me. So cool.
Catch you next week!
