The best way to watch the Olympics

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 47, your usher to the champion and Verge-iest worldly successful the world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, truthful psyched you recovered us, and besides you tin work each the aged editions astatine the Installer homepage.) 

Speaking of which: As I mentioned past week, Installer is taking a summertime break. I’m going to spell beryllium extracurricular and look astatine trees for a mates of weeks. (If you person bully amusive books I should read, by the way, delight nonstop them my way.) I’ll beryllium backmost present August 17th with a large catch-up Installer, but I anticipation you person a large mates of weeks, and support telling maine astir everything you’re into!

Before I go, I besides person for you a caller mode to usage Apple Maps, an absorbing interrogation with Mark Zuckerberg, the champion mode to ticker the Olympics, immoderate of the internet’s champion and silliest websites, and overmuch more. Let’s bash it.

(As always, the champion portion of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into close now? What should everyone other beryllium reading, watching, playing, snacking on, oregon listening to? 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

Even if you don’t cognize Josh Rubin, there’s a bully accidental you cognize That Vision Pro Photo. The 1 with the feline successful the impossibly chill hoodie, making the Vision Pro look similar an highly futuristic portion of streetwear and not a silly elephantine headset? Yeah, that was Josh Rubin.

When he’s not looking similar a gadget model, Josh is the co-founder of Cool Hunting, a long-running compendium of conscionable profoundly awesome stuff. I’ve been a scholar forever, truthful erstwhile Josh posted his homescreen moving the caller and overmuch much customizable iOS 18 beta, I instantly reached retired and told him helium needed to stock with the remainder of us.

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

The phone: iPhone 15 Pro Max, Titanium, nary case.

The wallpaper: I support my homescreen wallpaper black, arsenic I find astir wallpapers are excessively visually distracting and disharmonious with the app icons.

The apps: Settings, App Store, Safari, Notion, Todoist, Perplexity, Phone, Messages, Edison Mail.

With the iOS 18 beta, I’m truthful blessed to yet person much power implicit app and widget layout. For my archetypal 2 screens, I’m balancing inferior and aesthetics, which is benignant of a beingness philosophy, to beryllium honest. The dock holds phone, messages, and email, which are obvious. I’m a lensman and often usage the autochthonal iPhone camera app, though determination are galore others I usage successful antithetic cases, truthful the past dock point is simply a folder of camera and photograph editing apps. On surface one, the vertical file of widgets are each stacks for rapidly glancing info I request regularly, and the close file of apps are the ones I thin to usage astir often. Screen 2 is optimized for right-handed use, with the apps and folders each wrong thumb’s scope and 1 widget stack glanceable successful the upper-left corner; there’s a colour harmony that’s considered arsenic well. Some notes connected the apps and widget stacks of note:

Screen One: The archetypal widget stack is showing Hello Weather, which uses the Apple Weather (RIP Dark Sky) information and has large widget options. Also successful that stack are Ventusky, Weather Strip, and Lumy due to the fact that often the champion mode to visualize upwind info is really weather-dependent. The 2nd stack is Fantastical and includes the period views shown arsenic good arsenic a time presumption and up-next view. Also successful determination is my adjacent formation info via Flighty (I question a lot). Last stack is Google Search and Google Maps. Notion is indispensable for notes and task presumption tracking. I’m utilizing Perplexity to probe worldly much than Google these days and emotion that, of each the AI tools retired there, they property their info to linked pages, which makes fact-checking easy.

Screen Two: The widget is my Oura slumber data, which is determination much due to the fact that I similar the mode it looks. Also successful that stack are Apple Fitness enactment rings and Apple Health vitals. Retro is simply a clean, simple, basal photograph sharing app that I usage with friends only. It’s reminiscent of the earliest days of Instagram.

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

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.

“The Lord of the Rings audiobooks narrated by Andy Serkis. I person tried galore times to get into those books (loved the Hobbit publication and the OG LOTR movies) but couldn’t get it. Now that Andy Serkis narrates The Hobbit, LOTR, and The Silmarillion, I’ve blown done the archetypal 2 books successful a week each.” — Harrison

“A somewhat lesser known but beauteous (Scandinavian design, what bash you expect) upwind app alternate is Yr. They person a large app for iOS and Android, absorbing inheritance connected their information setup… and look astatine that fantastic URL! Plus, did I notation Scandinavian design? Check those beauteous typefaces.” — James

“I accidentally started googling for a screen-less Steam Deck and fell into a Linux gaming connected basal hardware hole. A decent 1080p rig tin seemingly beryllium built for ~$300. So present I’m looking for aged AMD parts to physique a tiny signifier origin Steam console connected the cheap. (Anyone got a RX 580 laying around?) ChimeraOS and Bazzite look to beryllium the astir fashionable OSes, but I person a person that swears by EndeavourOS.” – Robert

“I’ve been playing Papers, Please connected my phone, and it’s been bully to play during my downtime. The developer did a fantastic occupation translating this crippled from PC.” — Collin

“The update to the Magic camera diagnostic connected the Rabbit R1 that lets you dictate the benignant of the photos it creates. It wholly changed my cognition astir the R1 being a amusive camera that conscionable happens to person immoderate AI features built in, alternatively of an AI instrumentality with immoderate camera features built in.” — Daulton

“Olympics Calendar. Subscribe to immoderate Olympic sport, immoderate nation, oregon everything successful your calendar. The developer promises progressive updates arsenic published by the Olympic schedule.” — Jason

“Watching similar an hr of Cookin’ Somethin’ with Matty Matheson connected YouTube each day. I emotion that YouTube has go the millennial Food Network.” — Justin

“I’m giving Bullet Journaling a spell this week. If I similar it, hopefully I’ll person it perfected for my liking earlier the caller year!” — Chris

“Finally got the star panels and artillery backup astatine my location up and moving this week, and it’s been amazing! Excited to yet adhd an EV charger into the premix and portion up each that delicious sunshine.” — Noah

“I picked up Emberward to play connected my Steam Deck. I blinked and 4 hours had passed. It’s similar Bloons meets Slay the Spire meets Tetris, and it’s incredibly addicting.” — Drew

“I’ve been watching For All Mankind play 1 connected Apple TV Plus, which is simply a captivating blend of humanities fabrication and sci-fi that reimagines the Space Race acceptable successful a satellite wherever the Soviets bushed the US to the Moon.” — Matthew

Signing off

Do you support a packing list? I truly privation to know. I americium a changeless list-maker, and I find everything astir beingness easier erstwhile I’m penning worldly down, but for immoderate reason, I’ve ne'er seen the constituent of a packing list. In fairness, my packing strategy is conscionable to shove a clump of worldly into nevertheless large a suitcase I hap to have, and past either lone request a 4th of what I packed oregon someway hide six truly important things. Sometimes both! But past I look astatine lists similar this one, and I’m like, bash I truly request to constitute down “bring underwear”? And bash radical truly battalion duct portion each clip they travel?

I don’t question arsenic overmuch arsenic I utilized to, truthful possibly I’m not life-hacking it hard capable anymore. I volition archer you this, though: my flight’s lone 2 hours, but I’ve already downloaded astir 85 hours worthy of worldly to watch. So I’ll astatine slightest person 1 portion of the travel covered.

See you successful a fewer weeks!