Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 60, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, it\u2019s a lot of gaming stuff this week, 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\u2026 doomscrolling about the election, if I\u2019m honest. But let\u2019s not talk about that. I\u2019ve also been reading about shipwrecks<\/strong><\/a> and in-flight magazines<\/strong><\/a> and baseball bat influencers<\/strong><\/a>, making a bunch of lists in Listy<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>dusting off my Bluesky<\/strong><\/a> account as Threads becomes increasingly worse, <\/strong>logging a surprising number of hours in VR with Batman: Arkham Shadow<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, playing with tasks and notes in the Craft<\/strong><\/a> beta, seeing if I can replace Gmail with Thunderbird for Android<\/strong><\/a>, and trying really, really hard to convince myself I don\u2019t need a new Mac Mini<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a couple of new games to play this weekend, some fun stuff to watch, a nifty new way for Mac users to take notes, and more. And I have some ideas for everyone looking for a place to put all their articles, newsletters, and other online stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Oh, housekeeping note: Installer<\/em>\u2019s off next week<\/strong>. We have some planning meetings going on, and also, honestly, this is one of the driest times of the year when it comes to new stuff. I\u2019ll be back with a big issue in two weeks ahead of Thanksgiving, and then we have some fun plans through the rest of the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All right, it\u2019s a lot of games this week. Which feels right. Let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n (As always, the best part of Installer<\/em> is your ideas and tips. What are you comfort watching this week? What have you been playing \/ reading \/ downloading \/ baking that everyone else should know about, too? 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 Last week, a lot of you reached out saying you were bummed to see that Omnivore<\/strong><\/a>, a really great app for reading articles, newsletters, and other stuff, was shutting down<\/a>. I was bummed, too! I\u2019ve recommended Omnivore to a lot of people and really liked the app. (PSA, by the way: if you\u2019re still using Omnivore, you only have a few more weeks to get your stuff out.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now, a bunch of us are stuck trying to figure out where to go. So I asked you all to share what you need most in an app like this \u2014\u00a0and lots of you did! Thanks, as always, to everyone who reached out with thoughts and recommendations. I think I have a pretty good sense of what we\u2019re all looking for, so let me try and recommend a few things.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The best answer for most people, I think, is to use an RSS reader like Feedbin to compile all your incoming stuff and then a read-later app like Instapaper to go through your reading list. Readwise Reader is the closest thing I\u2019ve found to Omnivore\u2019s all-in-one capability, and it\u2019s definitely the one I\u2019d recommend to people looking for a one-to-one replacement, but you\u2019ll pay pretty handsomely for it. Maybe Omnivore was too good to be true this whole time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019ve been listening to Brian McCullough talk for a really <\/em>long time. I think I first encountered his work on the Internet History Podcast<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, which is like a treasure trove of early Silicon Valley stories. He also hosts the Techmeme Ride Home<\/strong><\/em><\/a> podcast, which is an awesome way to get daily tech news. And more recently, I\u2019ve been listening to his newest show, RAD! 80s90s History<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. <\/em>(I might even be on that show in a few weeks\u2026 stay tuned.) And in addition to all that, McCullough is a general partner at the Ride Home Fund<\/strong><\/a>, investing in tech companies. Busy guy, that Brian.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I asked Brian to share his homescreen to see if we might learn how he manages it all. Here it is, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The phone: <\/strong>An iPhone 16 Pro. For the first time in my life of using iPhones, I have a case on it,\u00a0 because my son dropped my previous one twice and shattered the front and back glass. I wouldn\u2019t have upgraded this year except for that. So, lesson learned. Kids<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper: <\/strong>The wallpaper is a picture I took some night on Prospect Park West years ago. The lockscreen is obviously an old iPod interface, my favorite version of the iPod. I bought it from some collection of wallpapers about a year ago. Can\u2019t remember where from, though.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps: <\/strong>Phone, Fantastical, Apple Maps, Settings, Slack, Microsoft Word, Shopify, Citi Bike, Audible, Microsoft OneNote, Carrot Weather, Amazon, Jersey Mike\u2019s, Wallet, Tovala, Threads, X, York, Claude, Messages, Overcast, Safari, Superhuman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019m fairly basic with the apps, as you can see. Apps to get news from, like Threads and Twitter. Slack for work. Superhuman for email.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019ve totally moved over to Claude<\/strong><\/a> in the last few months thanks to Alex Kantrowitz<\/strong><\/a> evangelizing it to me constantly. So much so that I\u2019ve canceled my OpenAI subscription. Tovala<\/strong><\/a> is a smart oven \/ meal plan company that I\u2019ve been using religiously since the pandemic. Basically my lunch every single day is a Tovala meal. Jersey Mike\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> finally came to Park Slope and so that\u2019s also a meal go-to. I use Citi Bike<\/strong><\/a> once or twice a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The app that says \u201cYork\u201d is interesting. That\u2019s my subway stop for my office in Dumbo. This random dude made this thing that you can get at Nextstop.nyc<\/strong><\/a>. Basically, it gives you real-time train times for whatever subway stops you use all the time, and then you put an icon for that on your phone. IT. IS. AMAZING. It is insane that, 20 years into my living in NYC, it took this long for someone to do this right. \u201cI\u2019m about to leave the office, when is the next train? Should I leave now or wait five minutes?\u201d Amazing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also asked Brian to share a few things he\u2019s into right now. Here\u2019s what he sent back:<\/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>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSuperfan<\/strong><\/a>. A beautiful app to keep tabs on ongoing sports events and matches.\u201d \u2013 Karan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been using this little-known news app called Adarga Panoptic<\/strong><\/a>. Has this interesting take on the news where it\u2019s provided through the lens of a person\u2019s perspective rather than just headlines. Content is a bit limited, but with some added customization options, this could be a really cool way to see the news differently.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Alen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cScribe Notes<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s like Whisper Memos but has more features. Sort of like Cleft but cheaper. I\u2019ve been using it for a few weeks now and I love it. Helps me get my scrambled thoughts and to-dos out of my head and into a place where I can make sense of them all.\u201d \u2013\u00a0David<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cCheck out the Mobapad M6 HD<\/strong><\/a> for the Nintendo Switch! It\u2019s a Joy-Con alternative that has ergonomic grips, Hall effect joysticks, and gyro and HD rumble. It essentially has every feature of the Joy-Cons, but they\u2019re actually comfy to hold. The buttons are a little clicky, and the travel case is almost as bulky as my Steam Deck, but it\u2019s definitely the most comfortable and feature-packed Joy-Con alternative I\u2019ve found. I picked one up on a recent trip to Hong Kong, and it completely changed my Switch playing experience.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Kevin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been keeping an eye on an app called Openvibe<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s able to aggregate your Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon (and Nostr, too, if you\u2019re into that kind of thing) feeds into a single feed you can scroll. The home feed algorithm is hit or miss, but the trending feed is great, especially because it\u2019s not something Mastodon or Bluesky have natively. Also, it lets you cross-post to all four networks for free!\u201d \u2013\u00a0Drake<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe Drop<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Group project<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Screen share<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Crowdsourced<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n