Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 54, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer<\/em> homepage<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, I\u2019ve been reading about AI slop<\/strong><\/a> and sports betting<\/strong><\/a> and Jony Ive<\/strong><\/a>, clearing my schedule for the new season of The Great British Bake Off<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, <\/em>watching Sicario<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and Pirates of the Caribbean<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and A Quiet Place: Day One<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/em>on plane-seat screens like their directors intended, insta-subscribing to Hasan Minhaj\u2019s new YouTube show<\/strong><\/a>, and just relentlessly trolling people with Vergecast<\/em> clips through <\/strong>Pocket Casts\u2019 new feature<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a couple of new Meta gadgets, the mobile game that will eat up all your free time, a couple of hotly anticipated new movies, the best Spotify feature in forever, and much more. So much going on! 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 \/ trying \/ building out of clay this week? 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 Fun fact: Joanna Stern<\/strong><\/a> is the main reason I ever got a job at The Verge <\/em>in the first place. (That story is long and, if I remember correctly, involves her playing a fairy in a video? But I promised her I wouldn\u2019t tell that story.) These days, she\u2019s a columnist at The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>, an Emmy winner, and most recently, the creator of Joannabot<\/a>, the AI chatbot that will tell you everything you need to know about the iPhone 16. (And apparently also do some other things<\/a>, if you\u2019re clever enough, but again, we\u2019ll leave that alone.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I asked Joanna to share her homescreen because she just reviewed the iPhone 16, which means she just <\/em>had to set up a homescreen. And because she\u2019s forever using new gadgets and switching between things, I was curious what always made it to the top of the pile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s Joanna\u2019s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019m submitting my homescreen and<\/em> my Control Center screen because I\u2019m proud of the work I did on the Control Center. I may submit it for an award. But really, I\u2019d like to just use this as a forum to complain about the all-in-one connectivity widget in the new Control Center in iOS 18. I don\u2019t like it. I like the single buttons so I can easily just turn them on and off or long-press to get in there. Sadly, they have gotten rid of the single Wi-Fi button, but I read on this great website <\/a>that it\u2019s coming back in iOS 18.1.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The phone: <\/strong>iPhone 16 Pro Max.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper: <\/strong>This is my dog Browser. It isn\u2019t the best shot of him, but the framing is nice for putting him in the middle of the screen. My lockscreen wallpaper is this awesome retro iPod made by a designer named Shane Levine. I bought it through this site<\/a> last year after featuring it in my newsletter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps: <\/strong>WSJ, ChatGPT, Apple Notes, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Instagram, YouTube, Clock, Threads, Signal, Photos, Slack, Spotify, Phone, Safari, Messages, Gmail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n My apps are so basic and make me feel so basic. I work (Slack, Gmail). I message (Messages, Signal). I listen and watch things (YouTube, Spotify). I social media (Threads, Instagram). I work more (Google Docs, WSJ). If it isn\u2019t on this main homescreen, I usually just search for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Before iOS 18, I had a widget stack on the homescreen with weather and time zone widgets, but I moved it off to another screen. I might move it back. I might not. Got to live a little.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also asked Joanna to share a few things she\u2019s into right now. Here\u2019s what she 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. And for even more great recommendations, check out the replies to <\/em>this post on Threads<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSliding Seas<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s a match-three (or four!) game but also so much more: there\u2019s real strategy required behind your moves to beat levels at the higher end, but it\u2019s never unfair, and while there are in-app purchases and power-ups you can buy to make a level easier, you crucially never need to. It is the most compelling and well-suited-to-mobile game I\u2019ve ever found and a gem I recommend without reservation.\u201d \u2013 Jamie<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cGisnep<\/strong><\/em><\/a> is another daily puzzle game, this time by David Friedman of Ironic Sans<\/em>. It appears as a crossword-esque grid, but the words only go across and wrap around. The goal is to reveal both a quote and the source by filling in letters from vertical columns. I\u2019ve gotten a number of my friends hooked already.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Kyle<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSatisfactory<\/strong><\/em><\/a> 1.0 launched a week ago or so. A great group of devs have effectively made a game that feels like work but is fun. If you love conveyor belts and staying up all night, this might be for you.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Matt<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cCan\u2019t believe you haven\u2019t mentioned switching to OmniFocus<\/strong><\/a>! As a fellow perennial \u2018task manager switcher,\u2019 this app is a staple in my rotation.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Pedro<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI previously recommended App in the Air<\/strong><\/a> as a great travel companion, but unfortunately, it\u2019s shutting down<\/a>. If you\u2019re looking for an alternative, Flighty<\/strong><\/a> is excellent, especially for travel stats, and they\u2019re building an importer for App in the Air users.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Vivian<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been watching English Teacher<\/strong><\/em><\/a> on FX. Constant laughs and, so far, each episode has been better than the last. Easily one of the funniest shows on TV right now.\u201d \u2013 Danial<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI was gifted the <\/strong>Humanscale FR300 Ergonomic Foot Rocker<\/strong><\/a>, which is a very tech-sounding name for a very manual \/ mechanical rocking footrest. It\u2019s very pleasant to use. I\u2019ve also been standing on it sometimes… which I\u2019m not sure is safe but sure is fun!\u201d \u2013 Wisdom<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cRepeatedly putting in my Amazon cart the Black Milanese Loop<\/strong><\/a> for the Apple Watch Ultra 2. I was so close to buying it like three times. Now it\u2019s out of stock. Even Apple says early November for shipping.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Scott<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBeen playing with different LLMs using LM Studio<\/strong><\/a>. Integrated it into my Obsidian<\/strong><\/a> vault to help summarize and organize things into specific formats. It\u2019s been extremely cool!\u201d \u2013 Cody<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019ve had back-to-back-to-back-to-back trips over the last two weeks, and I would just like to quickly shout out my new No. 1 travel hack: a wall charger that doubles as a big-ass portable battery. I have this Anker model<\/strong><\/a>, which is $55, charges a USB-C and a USB-A device simultaneously, and also charges itself so I can get 10,000mAh of power when there\u2019s no outlet nearby. (There\u2019s also a newer one<\/strong><\/a> with two USB-C ports and even faster charging but less battery capacity.) It\u2019s huge and heavy, but this thing and a long cable are now the only charging gear I travel with, and they\u2019re the only reasons my gadgets have survived trains and plane rides. Here at Installer<\/em>, we love a sensible charging strategy, and this is as sensible as it gets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Drop<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Screen share<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Crowdsourced<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Signing off<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n