Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 8, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, first of all, hi, hello, welcome, and second of all, you can read all the old editions at the Installer<\/em> homepage<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, I\u2019ve spent an alarming amount of my free time playing EA Sports FC 24<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the new soccer game that just released in full on Friday. I\u2019ve also been reading about Apple\u2019s plans to change the sports TV world<\/strong><\/a>, the truly unhinged Survivor<\/em> casting process<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>and Sam Altman\u2019s plan to either save the world or end it<\/strong><\/a>. I\u2019ve been watching Special Ops: Lioness<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, listening to NSYNC\u2019s new song<\/strong><\/a> on repeat, and taking copious notes on Kashmir Hill\u2019s excellent Longform<\/em> interview<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a new VR \/ AR \/ MR headset, a browser you should download everywhere, an awesome Android launcher, some Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em> fanfiction, and much more. (Also, Linda Yaccarino, I have a lot of questions about your homescreen<\/a>, so if you want to be in next week\u2019s issue, get at me. Mail and <\/em>Gmail? Really?)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As always, the best part of Installer<\/em> is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com<\/a>. And if you want to get every issue of Installer a day early in your email inbox you can\u00a0subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One thing I\u2019ve struggled with in Installer<\/em> so far is how to talk about things that aren\u2019t new but not everybody knows about. I don\u2019t want to bore you with stuff like, \u201cHave you heard of the iPhone, it\u2019s neat!\u201d but I also do see more stuff than your average internet person, you know? So I figure, let\u2019s try this: when I come across something cool that\u2019s new to me (and reasonably likely to be new to most people), I\u2019m going to share a bit about it and why it\u2019s worth checking out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n First up, and the reason I\u2019ve been thinking about this section at all: I\u2019ve become a total convert to the Kagi search engine<\/strong><\/a>. I wrote a big story about Neeva and search<\/a> a few months ago, and a bunch of people were like, \u201cTry Kagi! It\u2019s awesome!\u201d It is, in fact, awesome. Here\u2019s what I like about it:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ten bucks for search, when Google exists and is great and is free, is a tough ask. But Kagi CEO Vladimir Prelovac tells me the company\u2019s doing well and growing quickly and says he knows he\u2019s not going to reach Google scale with Kagi but also says he doesn\u2019t need to. \u201cI have all the respect for Google and their people and technology,\u201d he says, \u201cI just don\u2019t like their business model.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So far, I\u2019m sold just because I can make the search engine work the way I want it to. That\u2019s worth the price to me, at least for now. But I also want to know: do you use a non-Google search engine? What would make you switch? Does anyone even care about search as long as you find what you\u2019re looking for? Let me know; I\u2019m all ears.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ash Parrish always seems to be playing 35 games at once. As The Verge<\/em>\u2019s gaming reporter, she\u2019s covering everything from the nooks and crannies of Hyrule to the huge businesses of Epic and Unity \u2014 and all the chaos and culture in between. And I\u2019ve learned that every time she gets excited about a game, either on The Verge <\/em>or just in Slack, I should write it down and play it ASAP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That\u2019s part of why I asked Ash to share her homescreen with us this week, along with some things she\u2019s into. Because if Ash is into it, it tends to rule. So here\u2019s what\u2019s on Ash\u2019s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Phone:<\/strong> A Samsung Galaxy S21 that\u2019s had its life saved many times by a cheapo Amazon phone case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Apps:<\/strong> My homescreen is a mixture of priority work and communication apps along with the fun stuff. I\u2019ve got Slack, X \/ Twitter, Gmail, and Facebook Messenger (which, oddly, is the primary way I communicate with my husband). Beyond that, I\u2019ve got Google Maps, DoorDash, and a neat photo app called BeautyCam that takes the best selfies. I have the Overwatch League app so I can keep track of my teams, schedules, and standings because the Grand Finals (which will most likely be the last Grand Finals ever<\/a>) is going on right now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Finally, I am neatly, firmly, and happily in Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/strong><\/em> hell. I eat, sleep, and breathe this game, and my mind is so ravenous for content that I\u2019ve adopted habits I haven\u2019t had since my younger years as a fixture in the Dragon Age<\/em> fandom. I\u2019ve downloaded (or redownloaded) so many apps that I hope will deliver me the fan content I crave. Tumblr\u2019s for fan art, Archive Reader is the unofficial Archive of Our Own app that I use to read fanfiction. And because my chosen Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em> pairing isn\u2019t the most popular, I downloaded Wattpad in hopes of finding more fanfiction that feeds my needs. (I have not. Wattpad\u2026 doesn\u2019t have the greatest content.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper:<\/strong> I got married last year, and this is one of my favorite pictures that was taken. That\u2019s me and my husband cutting our cake in our sunroom. Look at that man! In\u2019 he cute!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also asked Ash to share a few other things she\u2019s into. Here\u2019s what she said:<\/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> with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we\u2019ll feature some of our favorites here every week.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEnergiza Pro<\/strong><\/a>, an app for better battery life in the long term. I bought it a few weeks ago. I\u2019m finding it very useful.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Dennis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cRadio Paradise<\/strong><\/a> plays an electric mix of music, ad-free, totally free, and has multiple \u2018Mixes\u2019 you can listen to (Rock, Mellow, Main, Global). They play a great mix of music I wouldn\u2019t usually listen to, and you can skip the song if you don\u2019t like it. They even let you customize the stream quality from Low to FLAC quality. They just updated the app to a new interface and are fully listener-supported, and I give when I can.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Jonathan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBombas socks<\/strong><\/a> and Kizik shoes<\/strong><\/a>. Both the socks and shoes are so comfortable, and the shoes are easy to put on \/ slip on and off.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Marty<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cNot sure if this is a new feature, but I just noticed when you\u2019re viewing all tabs in mobile Safari, you can long-press the button that shows how many tabs you have, and it will pop up an option to copy all the links to your clipboard! I\u2019m a pretty obsessive iPhone tips reader and haven\u2019t seen this one before.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Andrew<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cRecently, I\u2019ve been sucked back into Thumper<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, one of my favorite games of all time. This playthrough on iOS!\u201d \u2013\u00a0Arden<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMy favorite launcher of all time is the Z launcher by Nokia<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s been unsupported for a while now and was eventually taken off the app store (breaking my heart). My second favorite launcher, and the one I\u2019m currently using, is Niagara Launcher<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s clean (making your wallpaper visible), can adjust pinned apps automatically by usage, and most importantly, can find any app on your phone one-handed. I love the app scrollbar (reminiscent of the One UI app settings scrollbar) since you can accurately get to any app on your phone in a fraction of a second.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Samuel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cRaycast<\/strong><\/a>!<\/strong> It\u2019s this powerful and modern Spotlight replacement for Mac that\u2019s similar to Alfred<\/strong><\/a> but way better and more modern. I use it all day, every day, and it just keeps getting better. Part of it is due to software updates and new features but most of all because I dig deeper into all the amazing and powerful community-made extensions for it!\u201d \u2013\u00a0Edvard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m really liking Death Glitch<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Tamara Kneese about how the social platforms and internet culture handle user death. And obvs, I hear really great things about Kashmir Hill\u2019s new book<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Joe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, the folks at the Dropout streaming service announced that, five years after launch, they\u2019re fully getting rid of<\/a> the name they had before \u2014 CollegeHumor. Dropout is great, love Dropout, go watch Dropout, but the official end of CH sent me down the deepest YouTube rabbit hole this week. Have you watched Pete Holmes as Badman<\/a>? Trust me, watch it again. Then, go watch all of \u201cTroopers<\/a>,\u201d the fantastic Star Wars<\/em> parody. \u201cIf Google Was a Guy<\/a>\u201d is still one of the funniest tech-related things ever. I still say \u201cno brandcuffs<\/a>\u201d out loud probably five times a week. There were a lot of stinkers on CH over the years, but that team also did some of the funniest stuff ever on the web. And 14 years later, \u201cIf All Movies Had Cell Phones<\/a>\u201d still rings in my ears every time I watch somebody who could absolutely solve all their problems with one text message.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Drop<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
\n
Spotlight<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
\n
Screen share<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
\n
Crowdsourced<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Signing off<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n