The app for taking better photos — with no AI

1 month ago 13

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 48, your usher to the champion and Verge-iest worldly successful the world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, get acceptable for a batch of books this week, and besides you tin work each the aged editions astatine the Installer homepage.)

I’m backmost aft a mates of weeks disconnected — acknowledgment to everyone who wished maine a bully abrogation and sent implicit publication recommendations! I coiled up speechmaking Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, She Rides Shotgun, and The Wager and highly urge each three. Mostly, I spent 2 weeks chasing a toddler astir assorted restaurants and playgrounds, and it was a bully time, but I americium ohio truthful precise gladsome to beryllium backmost hanging with each of you. And it turns retired I missed a batch of bully stuff!

This week, I’ve been speechmaking astir Worldcoin and Conan O’Brien, watching Bad Monkey and rewatching The Night Manager, tweaking my look for a maple syrup Old Fashioned, listening to 99 Percent Invisible’s excellent bid connected The Power Broker, rebooting each my phantasy shot leagues, and trying my damndest to power from Spotify to YouTube Music.

I besides person for you a caller mode to instrumentality smartphone photos, a new-ish HBO smash, a caller podcast app, a clever usage of AI for your notes, and overmuch more. Let’s get into it.

(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 / buying / 3D printing? Tell maine everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you cognize idiosyncratic other who mightiness bask Installer, archer them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Halide’s Process Zero. Halide was already 1 of the champion camera apps for iPhone and iPad, but this diagnostic — which strips retired each the processing your telephone does and gives you arsenic earthy an representation arsenic imaginable — is conscionable truthful overmuch amusive to play with. Give it a whirl this weekend. (A lot of you besides sent this successful — acknowledgment to everyone who did!)
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. The sanction is bad. The telephone looks awesome. Google seems to person gotten the foldable telephone plan beauteous close this time, and utilizing Gemini broadside by broadside with an app is really a large lawsuit for a larger screen. There are tons of caller Pixel devices this week, but I’m astir excited astir the Fold.
Gemini Live. Big week for chatty dependable assistants! OpenAI rolled retired Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT, which is some chill and creepy. And Google showed disconnected Gemini Live, which, well, same. I’m funny to spot if either of these tin spell from nifty novelty to really utile feature.
Alien: Romulus. I honestly don’t attraction if this movie’s immoderate good. (And the reviews truthful acold are… beauteous mixed.) I’m thrilled to person a crushed to get backmost into the Alien universe, and you amended judge I’ll beryllium seeing this successful the biggest, loudest theatre I tin find.
“First Look Inside Blue Origin’s New Glenn Factory w/ Jeff Bezos!” I’m embarrassed to accidental I hadn’t watched immoderate Everyday Astronaut videos earlier this 1 crossed my recommendations. I learned a ton from this long, deep, genuinely chaotic mill tour. Insta-subscribe.
Meta Quest HDMI Link. If we’ve learned thing from the Vision Pro this year, it’s that VR headsets are conscionable really, truly large televisions. Meta’s caller app means you tin plug astir thing successful and usage your headset arsenic the large surface it’s meant to be.
Unread for Mac. This one’s similar 2 weeks old, but I was connected vacation, truthful I conscionable saw it: my favourite RSS scholar for iOS is present connected the Mac, and it’s great. Fast, simple, bully to look at, works with everything, instantly portion of my day-to-day workflow.
Industry play 3. It took a portion for this HBO amusement to get its flowers, but it wholly deserves the belated love. It has immoderate of the aforesaid chaotic vigor arsenic Succession, lots of the wealth and atrocious behavior, and plentifulness of good-looking radical doing hateable stuff. Takes a mates of episodes to truly get going, but it’s large erstwhile it does.
Neuecast. I really similar the caller Overcast design, but evidently, not everyone’s a fan. And if, for immoderate reason, you’re looking for a caller podcast app, this is simply a gorgeous, elemental 1 that’s remarkably full-featured for being truthful new. I’ve been investigating it for months, and it’s been bully fundamentally the full time.

Screen share

Earlier this summer, I mentioned however overmuch I‘d been enjoying the Niagara Launcher, a minimalist Android launcher that reinvents your homescreen into thing overmuch much manageable and straightforward. And I heard from truthful galore of you that you similar it, too!

I besides happened to tally into Peter Huber, the creator and developer down Niagara, lone a fewer days later. I figured it had to beryllium fate, truthful I asked Peter to stock his homescreen with us, figuring we mightiness get a Niagara pro extremity oregon two.

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

The phone(s): Pixel 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 3. Since we request respective phones to cheque if Niagara Launcher works decently connected the immense Android landscape, I person the luxury of being capable to usage 2 phones. The Pixel is my regular driver, and I usage my Fold 3 with its wide surface to unbend and upwind down successful the evenings.

The wallpaper: The archetypal 1 is based connected a photograph from Annie Spratt, and the 2nd is simply a blurred mentation of a wallpaper I did portion tinkering with the fantastic 3D modeling bundle Blender. You tin find the wallpapers successful Niagara Launcher oregon on my Google Drive.

The launcher: I was tempted to station an iPhone setup present to spot the reaction, but I’m utilizing and investigating Niagara Launcher. I similar a elemental setup, and everything you spot — the icon packs, weather, calendar, and media widgets — comes with Niagara Launcher. The lone objection is the Caprasimo font connected the Fold. I tried a fewer extravagant fonts for upcoming homescreen setup presets. I noticed the prima supra the alphabet is excessively bladed with this font, truthful I’ve kept it arsenic a reminder to code this issue, and present the font has grown connected me.

The apps: Gmail, Todoist, Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Firefox, YouTube, Harmonic.

Todoist: Almost each thought I privation to constitute down lands present first. It’s fast, feels native, and syncs seamlessly with Google Calendar. The developers person enactment a batch of thought and attraction into it.
Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack — if you connection maine connected immoderate of these, expect to brushwood a just stock of “Hide the Pain Harold” stickers oregon reactions.
Firefox: In the greeting and connected breaks, I usage it to cheque the quality connected The Verge and Reddit, but I privation to trim my Reddit use. Lately, I often browse ArtStation oregon Stash earlier going to sleep; looking astatine beauteous creation has immoderate soothing character.
Harmonic is a fantastic Hacker News client.
While not an app, DebugAction is my useful developer shortcut for Niagara Launcher that lets maine execute actions to fine-tune a feature, similar refreshing each app icons erstwhile designing a caller icon pack.

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

YouTube videos I urge watching: a video astir phantom islands by Map Men, a British duo teaching geography successful the funniest mode possible; a treatment from a fittingness forum turned into an Ace Attorney case (warning: profane language); and Captain Disillusion’s latest debunk video, packed with his accustomed meticulous details and wit — highly recommended if you privation to larn much astir peculiar effects.
While I’m not precisely “into”: penning a Master’s thesis. It’s the happening I person invested a batch of clip into precocious (or astatine slightest I should — possibly promising to enactment connected it much present volition motivate me). However, I person nary close to kick due to the fact that I was allowed to take the taxable I’m passionate about. My extremity is to analyse reducing unwanted telephone usage similar procrastination connected YouTube, alternatively of, let’s say, penning a Master’s thesis. Unfortunately, determination is nary technological statement connected however to measure unwanted telephone usage (heck, it’s adjacent debatable if smartphones tin beryllium addictive, astatine slightest successful the pathological sense). The communal proposal is to get other hardware similar a 2nd telephone oregon a dumb phone, which tin assistance but is costly and often inconvenient if you request your telephone to beryllium smart. I privation to fig retired a solution that is accessible to much people.
I’m playing Wario Land 4, a abbreviated and quirky Game Boy Advance platformer with truthful overmuch character! Another abbreviated crippled I privation to play again aft beating Wario Land is the rooftop runner crippled Mirror’s Edge. The archetypal clip I missed a leap and fell, it gave maine goosebumps. Also, however could an astir 16-year-old crippled execute specified large lighting? Its stylized metropolis looks adjacent amended than its successor’s! I besides had a fewer bully Super Smash Bros. Ultimate rounds with my squad aft the past sprint meeting. We person the unhealthy contented that the past lucifer has to extremity with a peculiar onslaught called a “spike.” Otherwise, it’s not the past match.

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. And for adjacent much recommendations than I could acceptable here, cheque retired the replies to this station connected Threads.

“I followed Jeff Cable’s photography blog during the Olympics. There are technical, logistical, and emotional articles. Working successful post-production, I wondered however galore cameras were being utilized during the Olympics. Found this blog station about Olympic Broadcasting Services.” — Sinan

“Denim has been my favourite inferior to make great-looking customized covers for playlists connected Apple Music.” — Krishna

“A Psalm for the Wild-Built. It’s acceptable successful a aboriginal wherever humans and robots person gone their abstracted ways and truly paints a representation of a satellite wherever I deliberation galore of america would similar to live. Becky Chambers’ enactment has been called ‘comfort sci-fi,’ and honestly, I can’t deliberation of thing much cleanable for a reprieve. Reading this is similar drinking a lukewarm cupful of tea. You’ll emotion it.” — Nolan

“Really into this achromatic and achromatic E Ink smartphone I was brainsick capable to preorder from China. Think ‘slightly little costly Boox Palma,’ and also, you could enactment a SIM paper successful it if you truly wanted, but the bands it supports truly bounds what bearer you could usage and what benignant of speeds you’ll get successful the US” — Christopher

“I’m enjoying Quick Journal, a elemental text-only journaling app for iOS.” — Joe

“I relistened to ‘The Case of the Missing Hit’ from Reply All and forgot however overmuch I loved it. It got maine reasoning of podcasts I’ve listened to that had maine connected the borderline of my seat, and I remembered Dr. Death. It has aggregate seasons now, but the archetypal 1 is connected Christopher Duntsch, a spinal surgeon gone incorrect and however the laws of malpractice and infirmary occurrence and prosecute practices volition capable you with rage!” — David

“GuestCast. I’ve been utilizing this tract to travel my tech reporters and politicians erstwhile they spell connected random podcasts.” — Ben

“Match Land. It hasn’t been updated successful a ace agelong clip but inactive works. I person yet to find a lucifer RPG crippled that tin regenerate it. For me, it has the cleanable crippled physics arsenic acold arsenic velocity and moving tiles, and thing other I’ve tried is arsenic satisfying.” — Justin

“Based connected your wide involvement successful note-taking apps, I presume you’ve already work How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens. If you haven’t, cheque it retired — you mightiness similar it. It’s short, to the point, and absorbing for radical who instrumentality a batch of notes for aboriginal articles / books / papers.” — Robert

“The caller time calendar presumption successful Todoist is perfectly astonishing and makes it ace elemental to program tasks astir meetings.“ — Glenn

Signing off

I don’t retrieve however I discovered The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, but I’m truly gladsome I did. Every occurrence is simply a dissection of 1 of the Lonely Island’s SNL integer shorts, a shocking fig of which ended up being benignant of culturally iconic. I wouldn’t binge the amusement since a fewer of the episodes are a small same-y – “we made it past minute, it was huge, wasn’t that neat!” — but there’s a batch of absorbing behind-the-scenes worldly throughout. And I volition ne'er tyre of the information that “Lazy Sunday” is some an all-time large SNL sketch and a sneakily important portion of net history. (And not conscionable due to the fact that there’s a MapQuest shoutout!) That episode was peculiarly great, but I’ve truly enjoyed the full amusement truthful far.

See you adjacent week!

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