Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 38, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and you can also read all the old editions at the Installer<\/em> homepage<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, I\u2019ve been writing about iPads<\/strong><\/a> and the future of Google<\/strong><\/a>, watching American Fiction<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/em>and Bodkin<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, <\/em>rewatching Her<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/em>because of\u2026 reasons, endlessly replaying the songs of Windows95man<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>learning how to make better sandwiches<\/strong><\/a>, testing Claude<\/strong><\/a> for AI stuff, and listening to the new-old Childish Gambino album<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a new AI model, literally thousands of new Lego pieces, a new way to Google, the fanciest mop you\u2019ve ever seen in your life, more emulators for iOS, and much more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And I have a question: What\u2019s your favorite mini-game on the internet? <\/strong>I\u2019m thinking about things like Wordle<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, The Wikipedia Game<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, Sudoku<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, Really Bad Chess<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, Name Drop<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, <\/em>and a million others \u2014\u00a0the kinds of things you might play every morning with your coffee. I want to compile a huge list of everybody\u2019s favorites, the sillier the better! I\u2019d love to hear everything in your rotation. Reply to this email, email me at installer@theverge.com<\/a>, or message me on Signal \u2014 @davidpierce.11 \u2014 and tell me all your faves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All right, lots to do this week. So much AI! Let\u2019s go.<\/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 know someone else who might enjoy Installer<\/em>, and tell them to subscribe here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n My favorite new iPhone app this week is definitely Bebop<\/strong><\/a>, which is a really clever thing: it\u2019s an app for taking notes, but it\u2019s designed specifically<\/a> to be used as a quick way to write something down for people who use tools like Obsidian, which is great but heavy and not good for short capture. Bebop just pipes stuff into a folder of text files, which you can read with any other app you want. I\u2019m already using it a dozen times a day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bebop was created by Jack Cheng, who you might know as the author of books like The Many Masks of Andy Zhou<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/em>and the very fun newsletter Sunday Letter<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. <\/em>I\u2019ve been a fan of Jack\u2019s work for a while and figured his app launch was a good time to get him in Installer<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s Jack\u2019s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper: <\/strong>My partner, Julia, taken at one of my favorite places: Kresge Court inside the Detroit Institute of Arts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps: <\/strong>Photos, Gmail, Arc, Phone, Messages, Bebop, Blackmagic Camera.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lock screen widgets: Fantastical<\/a>, Weather, and Lightroom<\/a>\u2019s camera widget. I usually include a photo when I send out my Sunday newsletter<\/a>, and I loathe the way newer-generation iPhones over-process everything. So I use this when I want a RAW image for later editing (and don\u2019t have my Ricoh GR III<\/a> on me).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Homescreen: A Widgetsmith<\/a> photo widget that shows my workweek in index cards. I\u2019m doing my first 12-Week Year<\/a> and also experimenting with the cards for time-blocking. I plan out my week on Monday morning, then the cards stay on the table next to my desk. I refer to them when I journal, too. Both the 12-Week Year and card system I first saw in Dan Catt\u2019s oddly therapeutic Weeknotes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dock: Third from the left is my own file-based notes app, Bebop<\/a>! I built it after frustrations with over-bloated notes apps that deprioritized capture<\/a>. Bebop\u2019s my first iOS app, and it felt so good to be able to give it that prime dock spot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When Apple announced Final Cut Camera, I wondered if there was something similar for DaVinci Resolve, and it turned out there was: Blackmagic Camera<\/a>. I\u2019d love to do some short video updates for my YouTube channel<\/a> (which currently just has older videos of me reading from one of my children\u2019s novels). But that\u2019s a big project, for a future 12-week stretch. In the meantime, I\u2019m accumulating little clips and figuring out a good workflow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I have two other iOS screens: One for reading and audio apps (the only screen visible in Sleep Focus mode) and another for messaging and social media. Everything else is in the App Library. I use search a lot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also asked Jack to share a few things he\u2019s into right now. Here\u2019s what he shared:<\/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 @davidpierce.11 \u2014 with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we\u2019ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For more recommendations than I could fit here, check out the replies to <\/em>this post on Threads<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSo every once in a while, I manage to get a hard drive full to the rim and need to clean up. That\u2019s when I fall back on a really old piece of software from the Dutch University of Eindhoven called SequoiaView<\/strong><\/a>. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s been updated since November 2002, but I still find it the best way to quickly and visually localize big files. I wonder: does anybody else have such an old piece of software that still performs its task for them?\u201d \u2014 Jasper<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m very late to Balatro<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and been playing that (and failing \u2014 how are people already completing the game and I can\u2019t even get past the basic stakes for some of these decks lol) and trying to finish the new Vampire Survivors <\/em>DLC<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d \u2014 Melody<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI just re-downloaded the original StarCraft<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and can\u2019t stop watching TikTok live videos of people playing some weird Russian Roulette PC game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cDownloaded Delta<\/strong><\/a> when it officially launched and realized how much I missed playing \u2018simpler\u2019 games. Amongst a few others, I was really enjoying Pok\u00e9mon Fire Red<\/em>. Fast forward a few days\u2026 and the Analogue Pocket<\/strong><\/a> had a very timely restock. Nothing to take away from Delta \u2014 it\u2019s amazing and massive credits to the developer. I think I just want something a bit more tactile to go all in on some OG games.\u201d \u2014 Omesh<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWalkabout Mini Golf<\/strong><\/em><\/a> on the Meta Quest 3 is pretty awesome.\u201d \u2014 Matt<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019ve found that my screen time can sometimes rocket from using apps like Instagram and Twitter. To solve that, I found Ascent<\/strong><\/a>, which adds a sliding distraction screen whenever you try to open the app. You can get Premium for free by Instagramming about them, and it\u2019s worth it because it\u2019s so customizable!\u201d \u2014 Leo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOne of Twitch\u2019s \/ YT\u2019s biggest creators Critical Role<\/strong><\/a> just launched their own direct support \/ streaming service, Beacon<\/strong><\/a>, but in contrast to the huge miss that was Watcher doing something similar last month, they aren\u2019t paywalling any existing content. Super interesting move to skip established platforms like Patreon and DIY it. The new content on the platform is really cool for megafans!\u201d \u2013\u00a0Zach<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe Drop<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
\n
Screen share<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
\n
Crowdsourced<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n