Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 65, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, get ready to take up all your phone\u2019s storage space, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer<\/em> homepage<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This is the last Installer<\/em> of the year! I\u2019m taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays, and I hope you\u2019re getting some relaxation in too. Thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter, emailed me your recommendations, told me I\u2019m a lunatic about to-do lists, and generally been part of the Installerverse this year. Making this newsletter is so much fun, and I\u2019m so thrilled to get to do it with you. Bigger and better next year!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, I\u2019ve been reading about Spotify\u2019s ghost artists<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>and Formula 1<\/strong><\/a> and Mufasa<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and the deeply silly New York Jets<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>watching Hot Frosty<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/em>(you can judge me, it\u2019s fine) and re-watching 30 Rock<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, <\/em>beating Balatro<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/em>for the very first time, and trying to convince my toddler that it\u2019s actually not fun and cool and great to wake up at 4am every day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a nifty new smart home controller, a new app for the future of social networks, the next Sonic movie, and much more. Plus, our most-requested homescreen\u2026 ever? Let\u2019s do this.<\/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 playing \/ reading \/ watching \/ building \/ upgrading this holiday season? 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 There\u2019s a document I wrote when I was first planning Installer, in which I wrote down a bunch of people who seemed like perfect people to feature in a homescreen-sharing section. Hank Green<\/strong><\/a> was the very first name on that list. Hank is a YouTuber<\/strong><\/a> and a TikToker<\/strong><\/a> and an educator<\/strong><\/a> and a standup comic<\/strong><\/a> and a merchant slash philanthropist<\/strong><\/a> and an author<\/strong><\/a> and just, like, everyone\u2019s favorite person on the internet it seems? I can think of few people as Installer <\/em>as Hank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And for this, the last issue of the year, Hank agreed to share his homescreen! (He also assigned me a story in the middle of our email exchange, which I\u2019ll allow, because it was a very good story idea.) I sort of hoped he\u2019d have 12 phones, each for a different social platform, but alas it appears it\u2019s just the one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s Hank\u2019s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper: <\/strong>My son attacking me with a cat tail and the planet Mars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps: <\/strong>Shopify, Wikipedia, YouTube, Duolingo, Apple Notes, Google Authenticator, Google, Philips Hue, FocusFriend, Gmail, Phone, Messages, Google Calendar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I know it\u2019s a mess. All of this has evolved over years and now I just know where everything is and can never change anything. If there\u2019s any hot take on this home screen, it\u2019s that more people should use Wikipedia as a primary search engine \u2014 it\u2019s often where you\u2019re going to end up anyway, so I keep that very handy. Also, I recently moved Twitter out of my social networking folder to make it harder for me to use. It\u2019s like three swipes away now, though still on my phone. I run several Shopify stores that are a big part of my business, so that\u2019s why that\u2019s there!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n By far the most-used non-social media app on my phone is Notes. I rely on it in a very unhealthy way that makes it an extremely entertaining scroll\u2026 for me at least. My short-term memory isn\u2019t what it used to be, so everything ends up in there. There is also a secret project on here<\/strong><\/a> that I could have removed but instead we\u2019re doing a soft-launch\u2026 you can probably spot it if you look hard enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also asked Hank 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> and <\/em>this post on Bluesky<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIf you haven\u2019t played with Tana<\/strong><\/a> yet, I think that it is just about the most mind-blowing technology out there for personal knowledge management. It is a next-next-generation version of where knowledge graphs are going.\u201d \u2014 Robert<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cProbably a show that\u2019s a little under the radar right now is the show The Agency<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Star-studded cast such as Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, and Richard Gere. This is a show that asks a lot from the viewer but is handsomely rewarded.\u201d \u2014 John<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPlanning on building my second Classic-TKL<\/strong><\/a> keyboard from NovelKeys over the holiday break. The real challenge will be figuring out which keycaps to put on it!\u201d \u2014\u00a0Noah<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe ABC procedural High Potential<\/strong><\/em><\/a> has scratched the itch I\u2019ve had since similar concept shows like Monk, Psych, or the Mentalist went off the air. Is it revolutionary\u2026no. But if you love \u2018person with special talent solves crimes\u2019 this is a show for you.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Mike<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been trying all these Bluesky\/fediverse clients. I like: OpenVibe<\/strong><\/a>, Graysky<\/strong><\/a> and Skeets<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Jordan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOne of the best shows about AI I watched in the past year, Pantheon<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, is on Netflix instead of AMC Plus jail. Highly recommend!\u201d \u2014\u00a0Saad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not going to spread Christmas cheer, but last night I went to a theatre near me to see The Order<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s a pretty limited theatrical release (and on Prime Video in the rest of the world) but the movie is fantastic. It\u2019s based on real life events involving a (more) violent splinter group of the Aryan Nation in the Pacific Northwest. It\u2019s violent, it\u2019s scary, it\u2019s full of slurs and cop cliches but it really happened.\u201d \u2014\u00a0John<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI am way late to the party but I am really enjoying Suika Game<\/strong><\/em><\/a> for the Switch. Nice change of pace compared to what I usually play and today I managed to get my first watermelon.\u201d \u2014 Filip<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cRead it before, but never finished the series, so I re-picked up the first in the Murderbot Diaries<\/strong><\/a> series and am super enjoying it (again).\u201d \u2014\u00a0Dan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cReading The Shallows<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Nicholas Carr. It\u2019s a very sobering read about our relationship with the internet, written in a manner that traverses the entire history of humans\u2019 relationship with technology, literacy, and information intake.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Joe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThat new Superman<\/em> trailer!<\/strong><\/a>\u201d \u2014\u00a0Nacho<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One of my very favorite kinds of stories is how things beget other things in ways nobody could have seen coming. Someone invented the elevator<\/strong><\/a>, and so skyscrapers happened, and cities changed forever. Some lobbyist comes up with the term \u201cjaywalking<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d and suddenly cars rule the road. Or the one I discovered this week: how the invention of the gang-nail plate<\/strong><\/a> somewhat unintentionally forever changed the houses people live in. Without a weird sheet of metal, we might not have open floor plans. Weird. I love it. And I bet there are a million more examples just like it. Blows my mind every time.<\/p>\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