Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 12, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome. I\u2019m 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 testing the Superlist<\/strong><\/a> tasks app, reading about the <\/strong>high-stakes race to crack crypto wallets<\/strong><\/a>, rehearsing my case for buying an e-bike<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>taking voice notes like a boss with Whisper Memos<\/strong><\/a>, and avoiding all my problems by watching Between Two Ferns <\/em>bloopers<\/strong><\/a> on YouTube.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a new pair of AR glasses, a Netflix thriller, all the great sci-fi you could ever need, a great parenting app, a super-deep interview about Windows, a new puzzling platform, and a bunch more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As always, of course, the best part of Installer<\/em> is your ideas and tips. What app should everyone be using? What movie \/ show \/ podcast \/ book \/ spaghetti recipe does everyone need to know about? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com<\/a>. And if you want to get Installer in your inbox and a day early every week, subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0So much good stuff this week \u2014 let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A couple of weeks ago, a lot of you told me you like the app Sequel<\/strong><\/a> for tracking all the movies, books, TV shows, and everything else you want to get to. Romain Lefebvre, the app\u2019s developer, just launched Sequel 2.1 \u2014 which integrates with the discovery and scrobbling app Trakt<\/strong><\/a>, has a bunch more cast and crew info, and adds spoiler-avoidance features. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n I asked Romain to give us some tips on how to use Sequel and, in general, how to make the most of a stuff-tracker app like his. Here\u2019s what he said:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Be intentional with your choices. <\/strong>\u201cYour tracker is a valuable tool to guide your media consumption. Avoid jumping into the first recommendation from a streaming service. Instead, take the time to browse your tracker and choose something that you really care about. This can also help you curb impulsive purchases by checking what games or books you already own before buying the latest bestseller.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex Cranz, The Verge<\/em>\u2019s managing editor, loves terrible TV. Like, earnestly loves bad shows in a way that almost makes you forget that they\u2019re bad \u2014 even though they\u2019re definitely for sure bad. That is just one of many delightful things about Alex Cranz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In addition to covering the streaming biz and spending an alarming amount of time defending The Morning Show <\/em>to haters everywhere, Alex also keeps a lot of The Verge<\/em> running in the right direction and on time. So I\u2019ve always been curious how she manages the many things going on, seems to have always watched and played everything, and keeps it all straight. So I asked her to share with the class!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s Alex\u2019s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper: <\/strong>Remember those photos that went viral<\/a> after a woman found them on an old roll of film? I thought they looked neat, so I made them my wallpaper. Turns out they were rejected images for an advertisement shoot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps: <\/strong>I love flicking between pages on my phone, so my most used apps don\u2019t necessarily mean the ones on the front page. Slack is where the work and group chats live, Outlook is where the email and calendars live, Carrot is where the weather lives, and Ulysses is there to remind me I should write more. I try to keep everything else in folders, which means I forget to open other texting and social media apps unless the notification pops when I\u2019m looking at my phone. The only other apps I keep at the ready are Parcel, a great package tracking app; Storygraph, which is like if Goodreads was actually good; Wikipanion, because I like browsing Wikipedia articles when I\u2019m bored; and Google Authenticator, because work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As always, I also asked Alex to share a few things she\u2019s into right now \u2014\u00a0bad TV shows ideally not included. Here\u2019s what she came back with:<\/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 \u201cThe Quiche<\/strong> Browser<\/strong><\/a> is really great! You can rearrange the whole search bar area to your liking and also add \/ remove buttons to \/ from the search bar area in the settings and change the layout of all the buttons, too. You can also add a \u2018reading time\u2019 to the search bar area, which shows approximately how much time it would take you to read the page. You can edit every pop-up menu in the settings. You can customize the color of the search bar area. It\u2019s a really great browser!\u201d \u2014 Harun<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cNot a new feature but one I just remembered and utilized: sometimes I use the iPad as a white noise machine for the kids when we\u2019re traveling, but I was using a free app that would cut off after eight hours and wake them up early. I just remembered iOS 15 introduced \u2018Background Sounds<\/strong><\/a>,\u2019 so now I use that as a built-in white noise machine!\u201d \u2014\u00a0Thaddaeus<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBodies<\/strong><\/em><\/a> on Netflix so far has been rather interesting.\u201d \u2014\u00a0James<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI decided to move away from the native Google keyboard (GBoard), seeking something new and refreshing. I remembered SwiftKey<\/strong><\/a>, the pioneer in gesture \/ flow input before Microsoft acquired it. Recently, Microsoft added Bing Chat to it, which was a pleasant surprise! It\u2019s now effortless to modify tone and compose messages with various parameters like format and length without \u2018leaving\u2019 the keyboard. It feels revitalized, and I\u2019ve adopted it as my main keyboard, much like a decade ago.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Andriy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI just recently learned about the TP-Link AV-2000 Powerline Adapter<\/strong><\/a>, and I think it\u2019s exactly what I need to get a wired internet connection from my horribly placed router to my home entertainment center!\u201d \u2014 Charles<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWorth a watch: a three-hour interview with Dave Cutler, \u2018The Mind Behind Windows<\/strong><\/a>.\u2019\u201d \u2013\u00a0Michael<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe app that helped us through those first few months of parenthood was Nara Baby<\/strong><\/a>. Great design, highly customizable to choose what you want to track, and you can use it like a power user or more casual one. I still use it to keep track of my daughter\u2019s height and weight and sometimes to track medicine use when she is sick.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Jasper<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cApple\u2019s Reminders app<\/strong><\/a>: now with columns! I just switched from paper to-do lists to this, and it\u2019s kind of blowing my mind. I can add things from any device! I can mark them off anywhere. This is not an absurdly techie thing, but it\u2019s made things easier for me.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Will<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m absolutely loving Pikmin 4<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. During a crowded time for games, I keep going back to it over others. It\u2019s great for newcomers and series fans alike. It\u2019s gorgeous and has very chill vibes. A lot of time pressure from previous games has been removed and allows the player more freedom to complete levels and challenges.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Bobby<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Y\u2019all. A new Taylor Swift album<\/strong><\/a> came out this week. CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT? I\u2019ve spent the last 24-ish hours mostly streaming \u201cSay Don\u2019t Go\u201d on repeat while also continuing to read and watch everything I can about what a phenomenon Swift has become. Bloomberg <\/em>has a great data visual thing<\/strong><\/a> about her new billionaire status, The Wall Street Journal<\/em> has a good look at what you might call the Taylor Swift Industrial Complex<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>The Eras Tour <\/em>is still one of the biggest movies on the planet, TikTok is melting down<\/strong><\/a> trying to figure out who all the new songs are about, and honestly, no one on the planet makes a lyric video better than Taylor Swift.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You may not like her music (though you should), but there\u2019s no denying that Taylor Swift is on pretty rare celebrity and artist ground here. And also, I mean, any excuse to listen to \u201cBlank Space\u201d 4,500 more times is fine by me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Drop<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Pro tips<\/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