A new and better way to control your smart home

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 65, your usher to the champion and Verge-iest worldly successful the world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, get acceptable to instrumentality up each your phone’s retention space, and besides you tin work each the aged editions astatine the Installer homepage.) 

This is the past Installer of the year! I’m taking a mates of weeks disconnected for the holidays, and I anticipation you’re getting immoderate relaxation successful too. Thank you truthful overmuch to everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter, emailed maine your recommendations, told maine I’m a lunatic astir to-do lists, and mostly been portion of the Installerverse this year. Making this newsletter is truthful overmuch fun, and I’m truthful thrilled to get to bash it with you. Bigger and amended adjacent year!

I besides person for you a nifty caller astute location controller, a caller app for the aboriginal of societal networks, the adjacent Sonic movie, and overmuch more. Plus, our most-requested homescreen… ever? Let’s bash this.

(As always, the champion portion of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into close now? What should everyone other beryllium playing / speechmaking / watching / gathering / upgrading this vacation season? Tell maine everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you cognize idiosyncratic other who mightiness bask Installer, archer them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Screen share

There’s a papers I wrote erstwhile I was archetypal readying Installer, successful which I wrote down a clump of radical who seemed similar cleanable radical to diagnostic successful a homescreen-sharing section. Hank Green was the precise archetypal sanction connected that list. Hank is simply a YouTuber and a TikToker and an educator and a standup comic and a merchant slash philanthropist and an author and just, like, everyone’s favourite idiosyncratic connected the net it seems? I tin deliberation of fewer radical arsenic Installer as Hank.

And for this, the past contented of the year, Hank agreed to stock his homescreen! (He besides assigned maine a communicative successful the mediate of our email exchange, which I’ll allow, due to the fact that it was a precise bully communicative idea.) I benignant of hoped he’d person 12 phones, each for a antithetic societal platform, but alas it appears it’s conscionable the one.

Here’s Hank’s homescreen, positive immoderate info connected the apps helium uses and why:

The phone: iPhone 14.

The wallpaper: My lad attacking maine with a feline process and the satellite Mars.

The apps: Shopify, Wikipedia, YouTube, Duolingo, Apple Notes, Google Authenticator, Google, Philips Hue, FocusFriend, Gmail, Phone, Messages, Google Calendar.

I cognize it’s a mess. All of this has evolved implicit years and present I conscionable cognize wherever everything is and tin ne'er alteration anything. If there’s immoderate blistery instrumentality connected this location screen, it’s that much radical should usage Wikipedia arsenic a superior hunt motor — it’s often wherever you’re going to extremity up anyway, truthful I support that precise handy. Also, I precocious moved Twitter retired of my societal networking folder to marque it harder for maine to use. It’s similar 3 swipes distant now, though inactive connected my phone. I tally respective Shopify stores that are a large portion of my business, truthful that’s wherefore that’s there!

By acold the most-used non-social media app connected my telephone is Notes. I trust connected it successful a precise unhealthy mode that makes it an highly entertaining scroll… for maine astatine least. My short-term representation isn’t what it utilized to be, truthful everything ends up successful there. There is besides a concealed task connected here that I could person removed but alternatively we’re doing a soft-launch… you tin astir apt spot it if you look hard enough.

I besides asked Hank to stock a fewer things he’s into close now. Here’s what helium sent back:

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer assemblage is into this week. I privation to cognize what you’re into close present arsenic well! Email installer@theverge.com oregon connection maine connected Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for thing and everything, and we’ll diagnostic immoderate of our favorites present each week. For adjacent much large recommendations, cheque retired the replies to this station connected Threads and this station connected Bluesky.

“If you haven’t played with Tana yet, I deliberation that it is conscionable astir the astir mind-blowing exertion retired determination for idiosyncratic cognition management. It is simply a next-next-generation mentation of wherever cognition graphs are going.” — Robert

“Probably a amusement that’s a small nether the radar close present is the amusement The Agency. Star-studded formed specified arsenic Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, and Richard Gere. This is simply a amusement that asks a batch from the spectator but is handsomely rewarded.” — John

“Planning connected gathering my 2nd Classic-TKL keyboard from NovelKeys implicit the vacation break. The existent situation volition beryllium figuring retired which keycaps to enactment connected it!” — Noah

“The ABC procedural High Potential has scratched the itch I’ve had since akin conception shows similar Monk, Psych, oregon the Mentalist went disconnected the air. Is it revolutionary…no. But if you emotion ‘person with peculiar endowment solves crimes’ this is simply a amusement for you.” — Mike

“I’ve been trying each these Bluesky/fediverse clients. I like: OpenVibe, Graysky and Skeets.” — Jordan

“One of the champion shows astir AI I watched successful the past year, Pantheon, is connected Netflix alternatively of AMC Plus jail. Highly recommend!” — Saad

“It’s not going to dispersed Christmas cheer, but past nighttime I went to a theatre adjacent maine to spot The Order. It’s a beauteous constricted theatrical merchandise (and connected Prime Video successful the remainder of the world) but the movie is fantastic. It’s based connected existent beingness events involving a (more) convulsive splinter radical of the Aryan Nation successful the Pacific Northwest. It’s violent, it’s scary, it’s afloat of slurs and bull cliches but it truly happened.” — John

“I americium mode precocious to the enactment but I americium truly enjoying Suika Game for the Switch. Nice alteration of gait compared to what I usually play and contiguous I managed to get my archetypal watermelon.” — Filip

“Read it before, but ne'er finished the series, truthful I re-picked up the archetypal successful the Murderbot Diaries bid and americium ace enjoying it (again).” — Dan

“Reading The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. It’s a precise sobering work astir our narration with the internet, written successful a mode that traverses the full past of humans’ narration with technology, literacy, and accusation intake.” — Joe

Signing off

One of my precise favourite kinds of stories is however things beget different things successful ways cipher could person seen coming. Someone invented the elevator, and truthful skyscrapers happened, and cities changed forever. Some lobbyist comes up with the word “jaywalking,” and abruptly cars regularisation the road. Or the 1 I discovered this week: however the invention of the gang-nail plate somewhat unintentionally everlastingly changed the houses radical unrecorded in. Without a weird expanse of metal, we mightiness not person unfastened level plans. Weird. I emotion it. And I stake determination are a cardinal much examples conscionable similar it. Blows my caput each time.

Have a large holiday, spot you successful a fewer weeks!