Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 11, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome to the Installer<\/em>verse, which is officially a thing now \u2014 we did it, everybody \u2014 and you can read all the old editions at the Installer<\/em> homepage<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019m traveling this week, so I\u2019ve got a slightly abbreviated issue for you. But there\u2019s just way too much good stuff not to share.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, I\u2019m spending all my free time playing Subpar Pool<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, testing Twine<\/strong><\/a> as my new go-to Android RSS reader, watching Zane Lowe talk music with Blink-182<\/strong><\/a>, learning about the incredible work of the masters of film set design<\/strong><\/a>, reading Cory Doctorow\u2019s new book, The Internet Con<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, finally for real canceling some too-expensive streaming services<\/strong><\/a>, and preparing for my kid\u2019s first flight by downloading every Sesame Street<\/em> episode<\/strong><\/a> I can find.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a new Mario<\/em> game, an old tech magazine, overlooked TV shows, AI image makers, and much more.<\/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: if you\u2019re getting this in your inbox, just reply to this email and tell me everything. Otherwise, you can always hit up installer@theverge.com<\/a>. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer<\/em>, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alright, Mario has waited long enough. Let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Remember a few weeks ago when everyone on Threads was sharing their homescreens? There were a lot of cool ones, but I was taken with one in particular: it had an amazing wallpaper, this super-clean set of icons, and a really nice widget. The vibes, as they say, were immaculate. I messaged its owner, hoping they\u2019d tell me more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That person turned out to be Bart Claeys<\/a>, a designer at Meta. I needed Bart to tell me everything, and he did!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s Bart\u2019s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The phone: <\/strong>A Pixel 7 \u2014\u00a0I may switch to Pixel 8 (Pro) using my $400 Google Fi credit (but I\u2019ve got until January 2024 for this, so waiting things out until there are more Pixel 8 reviews).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper:<\/strong> \u201cMountastic\u201d by Kxnt from the Backdrops<\/strong><\/a> app. I picked this particular image because it strikes a great balance between being inspirational, matches the Cascade and Olympic mountains where I live, and has areas allowing for icons and widgets. Additionally, it matches my phone case<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The launcher:<\/strong> I am a loyal user of Nova Launcher<\/strong><\/a>, allowing me to customize a lot of parts of the user interface, among which is setting a custom grid, removing app labels, and changing each icon individually. I\u2019ve got two areas for icons: a 4 x 4 grid featuring my most-used apps \u2014 all using the Whicons icon pack \u2014 located at the lower half of the phone, optimized for single-hand usage. Then, you have smaller icons on the bottom from the Min icon pack. Removing colors from icons allows me to be more intentional about which app to use without being lured in by color. And finally, I have two additional mini clock widgets from the regular Google Clock app.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps:<\/strong> Facebook, Threads, Hue Lights, Starbucks, Messages, Chrome, Google Maps, WhatsApp, Calendar, Google News, Google Photos, Google Keep, Google Tasks, Instagram, YouTube Music, Authy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also asked Bart to share a few things he\u2019s into right now. Here\u2019s what he 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 \u201cChecking out Halloween Horror Nights<\/strong><\/a> tomorrow! And you can bet I\u2019ll be streaming The Exorcist<\/strong><\/em><\/a> tonight, then browsing the horror catalog of Peacock<\/strong><\/a> afterward.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Christian<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWith the mention of Roblox<\/em> last week, I\u2019d be remiss not to send in People Make Games\u2019 two-part video series, \u2018How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers<\/strong><\/a>.\u2019\u201d \u2013\u00a0Michael<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think of Remix<\/strong><\/a> as Instagram meets AI. I\u2019ve had a lot of fun with it, as my prompting skill improves the more I use it. There\u2019s also the concept of \u2018remixing,\u2019 which creates threads of related posts. Quite fun!\u201d \u2013\u00a0Jason<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAs a Canadian, we often are introduced to the pros (and cons) of culture from both the United States and the English Commonwealth. These two series \u2014\u00a0Gangs of London<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and Mr Inbetween<\/strong><\/em><\/a> \u2014\u00a0are sorely overlooked in the US, one from the UK and the other from Australia. Among my group of friends, these two are among our favorite shows, and both top my top five shows of the last decade.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Don<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAs a Simpsons<\/em> fan, this book<\/strong><\/a> just hit preorder stages, and I\u2019m very excited to eventually get into it. It\u2019s basically a collection of various memorabilia and merchandise throughout the course of the lifetime of the show.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Joseph<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cKillers of the Flower Moon<\/strong><\/em><\/a> opens this weekend.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Junbo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cCatchup<\/strong><\/a> is a simple but polished utility for keeping track of when you last talked to people close to you. You set how frequently you want to be in touch with each person (weekly, monthly, etc.) and see who\u2019s due for a call. Catchup helping me FaceTime friends more regularly makes me more of the person I want to be, especially while living abroad right now, so it\u2019s central on my iPhone homescreen as a push toward one of the most rewarding uses of my iPhone.\u201d \u2013 Lachlan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cJust finished Cocoon<\/strong><\/em><\/a> on PS5. Brilliant puzzle adventure game where you\u2019re carrying orbs that house different realms and traversing between them. It\u2019s also by one of the minds behind Inside<\/em> and Limbo<\/em>. Short, sweet, and a perfect precursor to Spider-Man 2<\/em>.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Jackson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOffsuit<\/strong><\/a>, AI offline poker app. Really clean interface, leaderboards, etc.\u201d \u2013 Jonathan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPutting all my social apps in a folder on my homescreen has completely prevented the weird, \u2018automatic opening\u2019 I used to do. That single layer of not having the app within one click has completely tanked my random clicking of apps, and my screen time has gone down a bit. Still monitoring to see if it stays down long term, but it\u2019s been very noticeable so far!\u201d \u2013\u00a0Nicholas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019ve spent the last couple of weeks deep down the self-hosting rabbit hole working on some Vergecast<\/em> stuff coming soon. I have this idea that I might be able to replace a lot of the (increasingly unreliable) cloud services I use with some self-hosted ones. So far, I have mostly failed. But I did buy a mini PC and turn it into a Plex server and a Nextcloud file-storage system, so I\u2019m already feeling like a capital-h Hacker over here. But the best thing I\u2019ve found so far is Derek Sivers\u2019 step-by-step guide to \u201cTech Independence\u201d<\/strong><\/a>: it\u2019s a super-detailed manual for setting up your own domain, moving all your services to systems you own, and ditching the tech giants for good. I didn\u2019t do everything Sivers recommended \u2014 I\u2019m good with Gmail, honestly \u2014\u00a0but if you\u2019re looking for a fun and empowering weekend project, this is an excellent one.<\/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