Chill games for a chill weekend

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 60, your usher to the champion and Verge-iest worldly successful the world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, it’s a batch of gaming worldly this week, and besides you tin work each the aged editions astatine the Installer homepage.) 

This week, I’ve been… doomscrolling astir the election, if I’m honest. But let’s not speech astir that. I’ve besides been speechmaking astir shipwrecks and in-flight magazines and baseball bat influencers, making a clump of lists successful Listy, dusting disconnected my Bluesky relationship arsenic Threads becomes progressively worse, logging a astonishing fig of hours successful VR with Batman: Arkham Shadow, playing with tasks and notes successful the Craft beta, seeing if I tin regenerate Gmail with Thunderbird for Android, and trying really, truly hard to person myself I don’t request a caller Mac Mini. 

I besides person for you a mates of caller games to play this weekend, immoderate amusive worldly to watch, a nifty caller mode for Mac users to instrumentality notes, and more. And I person immoderate ideas for everyone looking for a spot to enactment each their articles, newsletters, and different online stuff. 

Oh, housekeeping note: Installer’s disconnected adjacent week. We person immoderate readying meetings going on, and also, honestly, this is 1 of the driest times of the twelvemonth erstwhile it comes to caller stuff. I’ll beryllium backmost with a large contented successful 2 weeks up of Thanksgiving, and past we person immoderate amusive plans done the remainder of the year.

All right, it’s a batch of games this week. Which feels right. Let’s go.

(As always, the champion portion of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you comfortableness watching this week? What person you been playing / speechmaking / downloading / baking that everyone other should cognize about, too? Tell maine everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you cognize idiosyncratic other who mightiness bask Installer, archer them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Group project

Last week, a batch of you reached retired saying you were bummed to spot that Omnivore, a truly large app for speechmaking articles, newsletters, and different stuff, was shutting down. I was bummed, too! I’ve recommended Omnivore to a batch of radical and truly liked the app. (PSA, by the way: if you’re inactive utilizing Omnivore, you lone person a fewer much weeks to get your worldly out.) 

Now, a clump of america are stuck trying to fig retired wherever to go. So I asked you each to stock what you request astir successful an app similar this — and tons of you did! Thanks, arsenic always, to everyone who reached retired with thoughts and recommendations. I deliberation I person a beauteous bully consciousness of what we’re each looking for, truthful fto maine effort and urge a fewer things. 

The champion reply for astir people, I think, is to usage an RSS scholar similar Feedbin to compile each your incoming worldly and past a read-later app similar Instapaper to spell done your speechmaking list. Readwise Reader is the closest happening I’ve recovered to Omnivore’s all-in-one capability, and it’s decidedly the 1 I’d urge to radical looking for a one-to-one replacement, but you’ll wage beauteous handsomely for it. Maybe Omnivore was excessively bully to beryllium existent this full time.

Screen share

I’ve been listening to Brian McCullough speech for a really long time. I deliberation I archetypal encountered his enactment connected the Internet History Podcast, which is similar a treasure trove of aboriginal Silicon Valley stories. He besides hosts the Techmeme Ride Home podcast, which is an awesome mode to get regular tech news. And much recently, I’ve been listening to his newest show, RAD! 80s90s History. (I mightiness adjacent beryllium connected that amusement successful a fewer weeks… enactment tuned.) And successful summation to each that, McCullough is simply a wide spouse astatine the Ride Home Fund, investing successful tech companies. Busy guy, that Brian.

I asked Brian to stock his homescreen to spot if we mightiness larn however helium manages it all. Here it is, positive immoderate info connected the apps helium uses and why:

The phone: An iPhone 16 Pro. For the archetypal clip successful my beingness of utilizing iPhones, I person a lawsuit connected it,  due to the fact that my lad dropped my erstwhile 1 doubly and shattered the beforehand and backmost glass. I wouldn’t person upgraded this twelvemonth but for that. So, acquisition learned. Kids.

The wallpaper: The wallpaper is simply a representation I took immoderate nighttime connected Prospect Park West years ago. The lockscreen is evidently an aged iPod interface, my favourite mentation of the iPod. I bought it from immoderate postulation of wallpapers astir a twelvemonth ago. Can’t retrieve wherever from, though.

The apps: Phone, Fantastical, Apple Maps, Settings, Slack, Microsoft Word, Shopify, Citi Bike, Audible, Microsoft OneNote, Carrot Weather, Amazon, Jersey Mike’s, Wallet, Tovala, Threads, X, York, Claude, Messages, Overcast, Safari, Superhuman.

I’m reasonably basal with the apps, arsenic you tin see. Apps to get quality from, similar Threads and Twitter. Slack for work. Superhuman for email. 

I’ve wholly moved implicit to Claude successful the past fewer months acknowledgment to Alex Kantrowitz evangelizing it to maine constantly. So overmuch truthful that I’ve canceled my OpenAI subscription. Tovala is simply a astute oven / repast program institution that I’ve been utilizing religiously since the pandemic. Basically my luncheon each azygous time is simply a Tovala meal. Jersey Mike’s yet came to Park Slope and truthful that’s besides a repast go-to. I usage Citi Bike erstwhile oregon doubly a day. 

The app that says “York” is interesting. That’s my subway halt for my bureau successful Dumbo. This random dude made this happening that you tin get astatine Nextstop.nyc. Basically, it gives you real-time bid times for immoderate subway stops you usage each the time, and past you enactment an icon for that connected your phone. IT. IS. AMAZING. It is insane that, 20 years into my surviving successful NYC, it took this agelong for idiosyncratic to bash this right. “I’m astir to permission the office, erstwhile is the adjacent train? Should I permission present oregon hold 5 minutes?” Amazing.

I besides asked Brian 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.

“Superfan. A beauteous app to support tabs connected ongoing sports events and matches.” – Karan

“I’ve been utilizing this little-known quality app called Adarga Panoptic. Has this absorbing instrumentality connected the quality wherever it’s provided done the lens of a person’s position alternatively than conscionable headlines. Content is simply a spot limited, but with immoderate added customization options, this could beryllium a truly chill mode to spot the quality differently.” – Alen

“Scribe Notes. It’s similar Whisper Memos but has much features. Sort of similar Cleft but cheaper. I’ve been utilizing it for a fewer weeks present and I emotion it. Helps maine get my scrambled thoughts and to-dos retired of my caput and into a spot wherever I tin marque consciousness of them all.” – David

“Check retired the Mobapad M6 HD for the Nintendo Switch! It’s a Joy-Con alternate that has ergonomic grips, Hall effect joysticks, and gyro and HD rumble. It fundamentally has each diagnostic of the Joy-Cons, but they’re really comfy to hold. The buttons are a small clicky, and the question lawsuit is astir arsenic bulky arsenic my Steam Deck, but it’s decidedly the astir comfy and feature-packed Joy-Con alternate I’ve found. I picked 1 up connected a caller travel to Hong Kong, and it wholly changed my Switch playing experience.” – Kevin

“I’ve been keeping an oculus connected an app called Openvibe. It’s capable to aggregate your Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon (and Nostr, too, if you’re into that benignant of thing) feeds into a azygous provender you tin scroll. The location provender algorithm is deed oregon miss, but the trending provender is great, particularly due to the fact that it’s not thing Mastodon oregon Bluesky person natively. Also, it lets you cross-post to each 4 networks for free!” – Drake

“Winter is looming, truthful I got myself a Zwift Ride astute motorcycle for days erstwhile moving extracurricular conscionable isn’t a large idea. Great hardware. The app feels older than it is, but the gamification kinda works. More amusive than staring astatine the wall!” – Robert

“With *gestures astir wildly* going on, I’m pouring little of my clip into societal media and much into a idiosyncratic blog utilizing a large work called Pika. It’s dormant elemental to acceptable up and I emotion however barebones it is.” – Kaleb

“Started collecting sports cards, chiefly NFL. It’s not thing I’ve thought astir since I was 14, but it has been a amusive distraction. These are 2 large YouTube channels to get into: Market Movers and Sports Card Investor. And getting successful connected “breaks” connected Whatnot, wherever you bargain into a unrecorded container opening, is immoderate amusive entertainment.” – Travis

“I’ve been speechmaking Richard II, which feels of a portion with the moment, and owed to which I discovered however overmuch much analyzable sideloading a Gutenberg ebook to a Kindle is than it should be. The close format wasn’t the 1 labeled for Kindles!” – Jeanne

“I’ve been playing a batch of Maestro lately connected my Quest 2. It’s specified an astonishing and immersive experience. If you ever wanted to consciousness similar an orchestra conductor, this is arsenic adjacent arsenic you tin get (unless you’re an existent orchestra conductor, successful which case, congrats, specified a chill job!).” – Gonzalo

Signing off

So I person this Apple Watch. It’s fine, I similar it, whatever, but I’d alternatively deterioration different watch. So I went down a YouTube rabbit hole: tin you crook an Apple Watch into a standalone, pocketable instrumentality that works adjacent erstwhile it’s not connected your wrist? Turns out, you can! There are a batch of bully ideas retired there, but I’m fundamentally conscionable pursuing the ideas successful this video from Jose Briones. (I’m besides intrigued by the TinyPod, but that 1 doesn’t seem to beryllium precise good.) I’m turning my Watch into fundamentally a teeny-tiny iPod and backup communications instrumentality that I transportation astir similar a pouch watch. It’s silly, but it’s fun. And it works! 

See you successful 2 weeks!