Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 45, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, sorry I love productivity apps so much, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer<\/em> homepage<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019m back from a few days off, feeling rested and sunburned and ready to rumble. Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes! This week, I\u2019ve been reading Made for Love<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and stories about AI gamers<\/strong><\/a> and AI musicians<\/strong><\/a> and Ferrari EVs<\/strong><\/a>, watching Turning Point<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, replacing my weather app with Lazy Weather<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>raging at Ira Glass for listening to podcasts at 2x speed<\/strong><\/a>, and spilling all my feelings to the Dot<\/strong><\/a> AI bot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a new phone, a new smart ring, a new \/ old podcast reunion, a sci-fi show everyone seems to love, a nice update to a great recipe app, and a wild new AI pod to check out. A lot going on for the middle of July! Let\u2019s dig in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n (As always, the best part of Installer<\/em> is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be reading \/ watching \/ playing \/ eating \/ downloading \/ storing for winter? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com<\/a>. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer<\/em>, tell them to subscribe here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A million years ago, I was an intern at Wired, <\/em>and one of the stories I got to help work on was this wild thing where a writer had decided to completely disappear and see if the internet could find him. The story turned out awesome, and the writer was Evan Ratliff, who has been one of my favorite journalists ever since. He cofounded The Atavist<\/strong> Magazine<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and did a ton of great work there, created the terrific Persona<\/strong><\/em><\/a> podcast, and until recently, was one of the cohosts of Longform<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the journalism podcast I always dreamed I might one day get invited on. Alas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now Evan has a new podcast out, called Shell Game<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, <\/em>in which he uses an AI clone of his voice to cause all kinds of chaos in his own life. The first episode is awesome,<\/em> and I\u2019m very excited for what\u2019s next. I asked Evan to share his homescreen with us to see if he had any podcasting tricks I might steal from him and to see how AI-ified his life had become.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s Evan\u2019s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The phone: <\/strong>iPhone 13 Mini.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper: <\/strong>The one I\u2019ve sent here is my cat Henry, an 18-year-old icon who was once a mini-celebrity on Vine and is the sweetest creature on earth. (Normally it\u2019s my kids, but I don\u2019t allow photos of them on the open internet.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps: <\/strong>Google Maps, Photos, Apple Notes, Slack, Settings, Clock, Phone, WhatsApp, Signal, Freedom, Google Translate, CloudBeats, Scrivener, Instapaper, Spotify, TuneIn, Libby, Gmail, Google Calendar, Messages, Brave.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n My homescreen rules are no social media, no news. I\u2019m a certified news junkie, but I at least want it a little out of view. And no Twitter app on the phone, ever. As for some apps:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also asked Evan to share a few things he\u2019s into right now. Here\u2019s what he shared:<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s what the <\/em>Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you\u2019re into right now as well! Email <\/em>installer@theverge.com<\/em><\/a> or message me on Signal \u2014\u00a0@davidpierce.11 \u2014 with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we\u2019ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to <\/em>this post on Threads<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI just wanted to share an app that (and it is a shock for me) no one knows about. It\u2019s called Slick Inbox<\/strong><\/a>. The idea is very simple: it allows you to create your own inbox only for newsletters. I hate reading newsletters in my personal Gmail box, and this is a very convenient solution to my problem.\u201d \u2013 Denis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI just binged all six episodes of Netflix\u2019s Supacell<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s like Heroes<\/em> but grimier, set in South London, with an almost entirely Black cast and made by Rapman. It\u2019s one of the best things I\u2019ve seen this year and such a fresh show in a genre that is basically monopolized by Marvel.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Guilherme<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cCurrently reading The Singularity is Nearer<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Ray Kurzweil. We are lucky to see human evolution in real time.\u201d \u2013 Matthew<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBest Ball drafts on Underdog Fantasy<\/strong><\/a>. What was once a niche version of fantasy football is now an (absurdly?) popular sports betting format where players draft an entire team within an hour or less and then compete against strangers. It\u2019s kind of like trying to win a March Madness bracket but you draft a fantasy football roster.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Noah<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cUsing the VR Exercise Tracker<\/strong><\/a> app created by the VR Health Institute. They use science-backed measurement of VR activity to help you measure your VR workouts. Connects with Apple Watch and other Bluetooth fitness devices.\u201d \u2013 Dan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAs a new dad, Dungeons & Daddies<\/strong><\/em><\/a> resonates with me in a special way. This (self-described non-BDSM) podcast puts a hilarious twist on D&D<\/em>, following four dads navigating a fantastical realm to rescue their lost sons. It\u2019s made me laugh harder than I have in a long time and made me cry more than once. I\u2019ve binged the first season three times already (that\u2019s more than 180 hours of listening) and am relistening to the second season now.\u201d \u2013 Mark<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cJust bought a Boox Go 10.3<\/strong><\/a> E Ink tablet and am really enjoying it. Very slim, nicely designed, no front light, and fairly great to write on when needed. It\u2019s meant more as a competitor to the Remarkable 2 (i.e., a note-taking device), but I\u2019m enjoying it for reading articles via Omnivore.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Patrick<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019ve recently started reading a book called Deep Work<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Cal Newport on the merits of dedicating time to focus on a task with minimal distractions. My attention span, along with many others in recent years, has been obliterated, hence me picking up this book to try and rectify my ability to focus deeply.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Dave<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cApple PenLite: The iPad Before the iPad<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d I have been watching Colin Holter\u2019s channel for a few years now and really love his stuff, but this video is really something different for him. He interviewed several former Apple employees, and I thought it was really well done. I was really young during the time period this is about, so I don\u2019t remember any news about this stuff, but it was so interesting to get this kind of perspective from the engineers and product managers working at Apple at the time.\u201d \u2013 Ian<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I sincerely believe that \u201cEvery Frame a Painting<\/strong><\/a>\u201d is the best YouTube series of all time. If you haven\u2019t watched them, watch all of them. (If you only watch one, watch this one on Edgar Wright<\/strong><\/a>. Or this one on David Fincher<\/strong><\/a>. Or this one on the sound of Marvel movies<\/strong><\/a>. Just watch them all!) So when the channel dropped its first video in seven years \u2014 a short trailer<\/strong><\/a> for a new limited series and short film \u2014\u00a0I immediately started refreshing the page every 10 minutes and rewatching every single thing on the channel all over again. It\u2019s like going to film school at warp speed, and I can\u2019t recommend it highly enough. Chairs<\/strong><\/a>, y\u2019all! Chairs!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Drop<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Crowdsourced<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Signing off<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n