A supercheap Android phone with looks to spare

2 months ago 17

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 45, your usher to the champion and Verge-iest worldly successful the world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, atrocious I emotion productivity apps truthful much, and besides you tin work each the aged editions astatine the Installer homepage.)

I’m backmost from a fewer days off, feeling rested and sunburned and acceptable to rumble. Thanks to everyone who sent day wishes! This week, I’ve been speechmaking Made for Love and stories astir AI gamers and AI musicians and Ferrari EVs, watching Turning Point, replacing my upwind app with Lazy Weather, raging astatine Ira Glass for listening to podcasts astatine 2x speed, and spilling each my feelings to the Dot AI bot.

I besides person for you a caller phone, a caller astute ring, a caller / aged podcast reunion, a sci-fi amusement everyone seems to love, a bully update to a large look app, and a chaotic caller AI pod to cheque out. A batch going connected for the mediate of July! Let’s excavation in.

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

The Drop

The CMF Phone 1. A nice-looking, long-lasting Android telephone for $200? With an OLED surface and interchangeable backplates and a clump of truly chill accessories, 1 of which is simply a kickstand? Yes. Please. In orange, of course.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring. I’m inactive a instrumentality of Samsung’s Fold and Flip phones, adjacent though the caller models are very same-y and adjacent much expensive. But I’m astir excited astir the Galaxy Ring, which seems to person beauteous overmuch nailed the astute ringing hardware — and adjacent has immoderate absorbing ideas astir motion control.
“The Diggnation Reunion Part 1.” If you’re a tech person of a definite age, there’s a beardown accidental you grew up watching Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht portion and marque jokes astir tech portion sitting connected a couch. Watching the guys get backmost unneurotic was a delightful blast from the past. And there’s a portion two, too!
Delta 1.6. Delta’s crippled emulation is connected the iPad! I’m really not definite however overmuch I’ll usage this fixed however overmuch of my retro gaming is connected an iPhone with a Backbone controller. But this update, with a bigger surface and enactment for aggregate games astatine once, does dependable beauteous great.
Amazon’s caller Echo Spot. To me, this is the exact close equilibrium of things for an Alexa speaker. It’s small, it’s $45 (for now), it has a touchscreen but nary camera, and it’s the close size for a nightstand. I support promising to permission my telephone retired of my bedroom, and possibly this’ll regenerate it.
Sunny. A pistillate loses her hubby but gets a robot from his tech institution to assistance her done it. Strangeness ensues. Such a bully premise! And by each accounts, this amusement continues Apple TV Plus’ tally of large sci-fi stuff. I’ll decidedly drawback up earlier occurrence 3 drops connected Wednesday.
Openvibe. Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, and Nostr, each successful 1 timeline successful 1 app. This is fundamentally a clever hack, not the interconnected societal beingness of my dreams, but it’s a beauteous bully hack! And I similar that it fundamentally hides which web radical are using; it’s conscionable people, successful a timeline.
Pestle. I emotion a bully look app. I mostly usage Crouton and Mela, but Pestle’s caller quality to import recipes from Instagram Reels is beauteous awesome. Just driblet successful the link, springiness it a name, and it’ll crook a video into a clump of ingredients and steps.

Screen share

A cardinal years ago, I was an intern astatine Wired, and 1 of the stories I got to assistance enactment connected was this chaotic happening wherever a writer had decided to wholly vanish and spot if the net could find him. The communicative turned retired awesome, and the writer was Evan Ratliff, who has been 1 of my favourite journalists ever since. He cofounded The Atavist Magazine and did a ton of large enactment there, created the terrific Persona podcast, and until recently, was 1 of the cohosts of Longform, the journalism podcast I ever dreamed I mightiness 1 time get invited on. Alas.

Now Evan has a caller podcast out, called Shell Game, in which helium uses an AI clone of his dependable to origin each kinds of chaos successful his ain life. The archetypal occurrence is awesome, and I’m precise excited for what’s next. I asked Evan to stock his homescreen with america to spot if helium had immoderate podcasting tricks I mightiness bargain from him and to spot however AI-ified his beingness had become.

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

The phone: iPhone 13 Mini.

The wallpaper: The 1 I’ve sent present is my feline Henry, an 18-year-old icon who was erstwhile a mini-celebrity connected Vine and is the sweetest carnal connected earth. (Normally it’s my kids, but I don’t let photos of them connected the unfastened internet.)

The apps: Google Maps, Photos, Apple Notes, Slack, Settings, Clock, Phone, WhatsApp, Signal, Freedom, Google Translate, CloudBeats, Scrivener, Instapaper, Spotify, TuneIn, Libby, Gmail, Google Calendar, Messages, Brave.

My homescreen rules are nary societal media, nary news. I’m a certified quality junkie, but I astatine slightest privation it a small retired of view. And nary Twitter app connected the phone, ever. As for immoderate apps:

Kids [group]: A happening they don’t archer you astir parenting successful the 2020s is however galore school, camp, and autobus apps you are forced to get and check.
Ships / planes: The lone AR apps I’ve ever used. I consciousness similar a wizard conscionable pointing Flightradar24 astatine the entity oregon MarineTraffic astatine the oversea to spot wherever ships and planes are coming from and going to. My begetter studies logistics and instilled successful maine a curiosity astir however things get from spot to place.
CloudBeats: Essential for listening to podcast drafts portion moving and walking around; with Shell Game successful production, I’m connected this happening for hours a time sometimes.
Libby: Any New Yorker who doesn’t person it is missing out. You tin drawback ebooks and audiobooks from the room and perceive to them close here!
Instapaper: Anyone other inactive utilizing Instapaper retired there? I don’t adjacent cognize who owns this happening anymore. But it’s inactive however I work longform worldly I’ve saved.

I besides asked Evan to stock a fewer things he’s into close now. Here’s what helium shared:

Moss. Made a moss plot this twelvemonth and I’m into each things moss-related. Websites connected however to support it and its unthinkable properties, moss gurus (e.g., Mossin’ Annie). Moss!
The caller Charley Crockett album. Just a genius songwriter and singer, with an unthinkable story. Perfect perceive portion walking connected your moss (which you must).
Currently revisiting The Braindead Megaphone, George Saunders’ effort collection, parts of which consciousness precise Shell Game-relevant to me.
My sister-in-law, who is 50x much culturally alert than I, turned america connected to this British comic crippled show, Taskmaster. The cleanable decompression aft a time moving alongside your AI doppelganger.

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.

“I conscionable wanted to stock an app that (and it is simply a daze for me) nary 1 knows about. It’s called Slick Inbox. The thought is precise simple: it allows you to make your ain inbox lone for newsletters. I hatred speechmaking newsletters successful my idiosyncratic Gmail box, and this is simply a precise convenient solution to my problem.” – Denis

“I conscionable binged each six episodes of Netflix’s Supacell. It’s similar Heroes but grimier, acceptable successful South London, with an astir wholly Black formed and made by Rapman. It’s 1 of the champion things I’ve seen this twelvemonth and specified a caller amusement successful a genre that is fundamentally monopolized by Marvel.” – Guilherme

“Currently speechmaking The Singularity is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil. We are fortunate to spot quality improvement successful existent time.” – Matthew

“Best Ball drafts connected Underdog Fantasy. What was erstwhile a niche mentation of phantasy shot is present an (absurdly?) fashionable sports betting format wherever players draught an full squad wrong an hr oregon little and past vie against strangers. It’s benignant of similar trying to triumph a March Madness bracket but you draught a phantasy shot roster.” – Noah

“Using the VR Exercise Tracker app created by the VR Health Institute. They usage science-backed measurement of VR enactment to assistance you measurement your VR workouts. Connects with Apple Watch and different Bluetooth fittingness devices.” – Dan

“As a caller dad, Dungeons & Daddies resonates with maine successful a peculiar way. This (self-described non-BDSM) podcast puts a hilarious twist connected D&D, pursuing 4 dads navigating a fantastical realm to rescue their mislaid sons. It’s made maine laughter harder than I person successful a agelong clip and made maine outcry much than once. I’ve binged the archetypal play 3 times already (that’s much than 180 hours of listening) and americium relistening to the 2nd play now.” – Mark

“Just bought a Boox Go 10.3 E Ink tablet and americium truly enjoying it. Very slim, nicely designed, nary beforehand light, and reasonably large to constitute connected erstwhile needed. It’s meant much arsenic a rival to the Remarkable 2 (i.e., a note-taking device), but I’m enjoying it for speechmaking articles via Omnivore.” – Patrick

“I’ve precocious started speechmaking a publication called Deep Work by Cal Newport connected the merits of dedicating clip to absorption connected a task with minimal distractions. My attraction span, on with galore others successful caller years, has been obliterated, hence maine picking up this publication to effort and rectify my quality to absorption deeply.” – Dave

“Apple PenLite: The iPad Before the iPad.” I person been watching Colin Holter’s transmission for a fewer years present and truly emotion his stuff, but this video is truly thing antithetic for him. He interviewed respective erstwhile Apple employees, and I thought it was truly good done. I was truly young during the clip play this is about, truthful I don’t retrieve immoderate quality astir this stuff, but it was truthful absorbing to get this benignant of position from the engineers and merchandise managers moving astatine Apple astatine the time.” – Ian

Signing off

I sincerely judge that “Every Frame a Painting” is the champion YouTube bid of each time. If you haven’t watched them, ticker each of them. (If you lone ticker one, ticker this 1 connected Edgar Wright. Or this 1 connected David Fincher. Or this 1 connected the dependable of Marvel movies. Just ticker them all!) So erstwhile the transmission dropped its archetypal video successful 7 years — a abbreviated trailer for a caller constricted bid and abbreviated movie — I instantly started refreshing the leafage each 10 minutes and rewatching each azygous happening connected the transmission each implicit again. It’s similar going to movie schoolhouse astatine warp speed, and I can’t urge it highly enough. Chairs, y’all! Chairs!

See you adjacent week!

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