Hello friends! Welcome installer No.41, the best guide VergeThe most interesting thing in the world. (Welcome if you’re new here. Also, if you like game consoles and funny spy movies, you can read all the old editions here. installer Please visit our homepage.
This week, Tough times at Humane and how Suicide Squad We’re screwed,Looking TikTok Dance Cult Documentary and Furiosa, I replaced my terrible Roku with a slightly better Apple TV and got a lot of Wikihole, Mix up new mocktail recipes, Fanpy An app for all things Fediverse.
We’ve also got new Raspberry Pi accessories, some very popular movies to watch this weekend, some fun tech books, some gaming gear, and much more.
(As usual, installer Your ideas and tips. What are you obsessed with right now? What should other people be obsessed with as much as you are? Tell us all: email us at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you. Follow Find me on Threads or on Signal @davidpierce.11 and if you know anyone who I think would enjoy installertell them to register here.
drop
- Raspberry Pi AI Kit. This is the AI PC I want. It’s a very simple $70 piece of kit that runs on a Raspberry Pi 5 and has an amazing amount of power to perform simple processing tasks. I don’t even know what I’m going to use it for, but I’m going to buy one anyway.
- Hitman. Very smart people are saying this comedy action thriller Netflix movie is one of the best movies of the year. How could you not say that? Directed by Richard Linklater and starring Glen Powell, All-time record for magazine articlesI can’t wait to see it.
- Dark Wire. This is the best premise for a book I’ve ever seen: the story of the FBI’s secret tech startup designed to track the world’s most sophisticated criminals. Some locations have Published excerptsand I already can’t put this book down.
- Building a SimCity. Two books arrived this week that I highly recommend you check out. This one tells the story of SimCity, but also the history of computer simulation, and is full of photos and diagrams. Definitely a book to have on your coffee table.
- New Rivian R1. It looks the same, the headlight design is the same, the interior of the car is completely new, and while a lot of what Rivian is doing here is clearly to keep costs down, this remains the EV I most want.
- Acolyte. It’s a very different kind of Star Wars story, set in a very different time and place and told from a very different perspective, all of which I think is definitely a good thing. The reviews so far seem mixed, but I’m looking forward to giving it a try.
- Sequel 2.3. A very cool update to Installerverse’s favorite media tracking app for Apple devices. The new feature is called Magic Lookup, and it lets you submit a URL to the app, which automatically parses it and dumps it into a list. Perfect for saving those ubiquitous “20 shows coming to Netflix this month” lists.
- ModRetro Chromatic. Retro gaming hardware is booming right now, and this is a $199 Game Boy homage made by Palmer Luckey and his team. wonderful. It won’t ship until the end of the year, but you can preorder it now.
- Asus ROG Ally X. Speaking of portable consoles! It’s a lot bigger, a lot more expensive, and a lot more ambitious than Chromatic, but it also sounds a lot better. This might be the first Windows handheld that can really stand up to Steam Deck.
- A cozy place to stay. A fun new podcast from the MacStories crew. It has a twist that I really like: every week, the three hosts basically do a “Tech Show and Tell,” giving out tech-related challenges to complete before the next episode. (MacStories also has another new podcast going.) Non-PCeverything about portable gaming.
- “How does ‘Wall-E’ reveal our changing feelings about technology?” I am extremely jealous of this series of events. off-line Podcasts, how movies she and Social Network It has impacted the way we think about and build technology. This is the final episode of the miniseries and it’s worth listening to in its entirety.
Screen sharing
Dear friends, it took me 41 issues but it’s finally here! I had planned to do a screen share this week but I couldn’t make it in time. So I’m going to do something a little different. Recently, Niagara Launcher It’s for Android and is, in theory, optimized for one-handed phone use, but it’s also a better, quieter way to organize your home screen. I’ve probably redone the settings eight times in the last 10 days, which is a lot.
Niagara is really smart! It turns your apps into customizable lists, it pops up widgets and notifications in just the right places, and it lets you do a surprising amount of things without even opening an app. This is exactly how a phone should work. (If you want to understand how it works, check this out.) Good thorough video To see.
Niagara has also received a big update, especially if you pay for the $10 per year or $30 for lifetime Pro subscription, with improved search, cool new icons, and a few other smaller improvements.
While tinkering with my own home screen, I’ve gathered a few Niagara settings that I like, so I thought I’d share a few. There’s a lot you can do with this launcher.
Awesome, right? There are rumors and reports that iOS has a ton of new customization possibilities, so I expect this year to be full of chaotic home screen reorganizations. By the way, if you use Niagara or any other great Android launcher, I’d love to see your awesome home screen setups. Send them to me. We’ll be back to regular Screen Share next week!
Crowdsourcing
This is installer Let us know what the community is obsessed with this week. We want to know what you’re obsessed with! Email [email protected] Or, send us a message on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with any recommendations you’d like to share, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here each week.
“New version Vibescape Apple Vision Pro has been released, a new meditation environment inspired by the Oregon Coast. This combined with the Forest Ledge environment makes for an entirely new experience that really pushes the boundaries of what’s possible outside of Apple’s own environments.” – Gregory
“I Beeper I use it a lot on my Pixel 8 Pro and MacBook Pro. I installed it in early April when the acquisition was announced, but only really started using it in the past month. It’s really convenient to have all my work and personal messages in one app.” – Josh
“Patrick Willems There’s a new video this week What’s next for superhero movies? So after a while I came back to his channel.” – Mike
“A friend told me Guild Wars 2 I bought this game a few months ago. As someone who loves the concept of MMOs but has always been disappointed by the execution, I can confidently say that it’s one of the most underrated games ever made. A fun, free-to-play MMORPG with a healthy community and no microtransactions sounds hard to believe, but it’s not. Plus, with the recent announcement of the next expansion, there’s more reason to play than ever before.” – Darin
“I heard about the Microsoft recall, but I was so tired and bored. So I paved Windows last weekend, Budget I installed a Linux distribution on my gaming PC and play all my Steam and Epic games that way. It’s surprisingly much better than the last time I tried Linux on my desktop. I’ve had mixed results, but everything worked with roughly the same tweaks that were required on Windows.” – Les
” Lord of the Ring The movie is finally Return to the theatreThe Extended Edition is the only version I will ever watch. I’m so excited to watch it with my friends. It’s like reliving high school all over again.” – Colin
“Looking Who killed WCW? from ViceIt’s a three-part miniseries that interviews wrestlers like Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Konnan, Booker T and others about the inevitable decline of WCW. Everyone has their own idea of who to blame – that Turner executives hate wrestling, that Bischoff doesn’t know what he’s doing, that the wrestlers only think about themselves. Only one episode has been released so far, but it’s good. – Brian
“New show Thousandaire From Dropout Trolley Problem Both of 2nd Try’s shows, which premiered this week, are entertaining and great examples of the trend of modern media companies building their own streaming platforms.” – Zack
“Watching anime. Highly recommended. Delicious in the dungeon“Very enjoyable to watch. The characters have great comedic timing. This anime is very funny while keeping the storyline tense.” – John
end
I’ve been thinking a lot this week Blog Post Andrew Bosworth, CTO at Meta, recently wrote an article where he talks about a system called “Inbox Ten,” which basically means not trying to get each day done. there is nothing Instead of being overwhelmed by work, I just try to find a more manageable flow of information in my life. Boz has a system for managing my inbox specifically that I really like. I used to be an Inbox Zero believer and would get stressed out over having email in there, but I like his slightly more subdued approach. And every time I get an email this week, this sentence comes to mind: “Don’t let email sit in your inbox or talk yourself into a task that you think is a bad use of your time.” It’s a guiding principle in life.