Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Hello, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 129, your guide to the best is On the edge– things in the world. (If you’re new here, you’re welcome, come on you GunnersYou can also read all the previous posts at Installer landing page.)
This week, I’ve been sick most of the time, which has meant getting back on track Parks and Recreation I alternate between sleeping and feeling sorry for myself. But I have also been reading about Nick Fuentes and magicianslistening to old episodes of A Brief History Ofan attempt at NextSense Smartbuds while I was sleeping, writing in Foreign affairs Markdown app beta, looking forward to the upcoming features Flipper One.
Today’s story is almost out, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging. Plus, it’s a great weekend, including my new favorite browser for years, a new one Star Wars video, two new technology books, the best headphones, and more. Let’s do it.
(As always, the best part of Installer and your thoughts and advice. What are you reading/watching/listening/playing/streaming in the hot spot from the beach this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone who would be interested Installergive it to them and tell them to do it register here.)
- Vivaldi 8.0. For the first time in five years or more, I have a new browser installed on all my devices. (RIP Arc.) I’ve loved Vivaldi for a long time – it’s very fast, surprisingly customizable, and full of smart gadgets – but I’ve always just found them to be a little too ugly to look at. The new design is so much cleaner out of the box, that I’m happy to use it all the time. You need to budget a long time to use it to customize Vivaldi to your liking, but this browser is a winner.
- Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. Reviews of this are few and far between, as they always are Star Wars things, but I’m straight up happy that these crazy adventures are back on the big screen. Give me all the things Grogu as big as I can, as much as I can, please and thank you.
- Steve Jobs in Exile. It is so very much hard to find new stories about Steve Jobs, but from what I’ve read so far, Geoff Cain’s new book is full of them. This book is the story of NEXT, Pixar, Jobs’ profound changes, and how the man who almost destroyed Apple came back to save it. Also a very interesting read.
- How to Rule the World. Two top books this week! This one comes from a Stanford graduate, digging deep into his world and his amazing and complex connections to the tech industry. Stanford and Silicon Valley have it all the time they were tied together; this is a very good look at what it means.
- The Anker Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro. I can’t say that I expected to enjoy the Anker earphones that are almost the same price as the AirPods, but my friend John Higgins says it’s the best audio for phone calls he’s ever used. How should I not buy them now!
- The Listening Age: The Inside Story of Podcasting. A great history lesson from the people at Twenty thousand Hertzfeaturing great stories from famous musicians. Connected to recent articles of the same name that I have now very much eager to find a way to see.
- Forza Horizon 6. Beautiful, high-quality cars that you can watch and drive endlessly on the beautiful, scenic Japanese landscape. Yes, it may be a very fast game, but I’m still here to see Go ahead almost… sweet. Sometimes you just have to drive on Sunday, you know?
- MacStories Shortcuts Playground. Federico Viticci and the gang at MacStories they are true experts of Apple Shortcuts, and they will he made a very good thing: a way to use the Claude Code or Codex to simply specify the Shortcut you want, and make it magically appear. (They released it again a large group of Shortcuts have made, many of which are excellent.) This is how Shortcuts SHOULD work!
This is what it is Installer community is in this week. I want to know what you are doing right now! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal – @davidpierce.11 - with your thoughts on anything and everything, and we’ll have our favorites here every week. For more good information, see the answers to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.
“I have Oculus Go in a retail store for $10. Most apps don’t exist except on YouTube, and that’s amazing… right? I wonder if the AI clothes of the future will be useful in the long run; Apple devices seem to be the only category that is still in use even after half a century. ” — Allen
“My mother gave my son a Stickers his 9th birthday. My kids and friends spent hours together making stickers for everything and everyone. I like that it combines simplicity while creating a toy with AI and a screen. Good thing there are no subscriptions! ” — Matt
“Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin is one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in a long time. I don’t usually run to books anymore, but I continued my run listening to the Apollo 11 moon landing episode.” —James
“I’m going to try this week with a few Google Docs options – Author and Enough – and use the password to switch from Gmail (I’ve had my account since you needed an invite).” – Wintersong
“I bought new headphones this month: the Sony WH-1000XM5. It’s amazing, and his voice sounds professional. ” — Seb
“You made a cable last week, and it inspired me to tell you about it Allroundo Eco cable from Vonmahlen; a short, compact USB-C to USB-C cable. But what makes it special is the inclusion of USB-A, microUSB and Lightning adapters in the case. I don’t know how fast this cable is in terms of power or data, but it’s the best package I’ve used over the years so it’s hard for me! — Mitch
“It’s almost finished The Bright Bringer (Red Rising book 6) on me Xteink X4!” — Tynan
“You’ve been messing around Record ClubEuropean indie selling itself as Letterboxd of music. I wish they had a section for your vinyl/CD/cassette collection, but it’s a great site and the new photos shared by people are very touching. – comicallytinyhat
“Watching it again Scavengers Rule because it comes out on Netflix at the end of the month! ” – Quickly
“After a few years of playing a lot of sports, we try for six weeks and then stop, me and my brothers have time on Monday evenings. Diablo IV date, which has been replaced with a new one Lord of Enmity increase. ” — Luis
This was Stephen Colbert’s last week The End Show (also the end of The End Showpolitics, midnight TV is dying, but still, moving forward), and for my money the silver lining in the whole saga was that Strike Force Five the rebels returned together. If you don’t remember: Strike Force Five was a podcast launched by those who spent five nights during the author’s writing in 2023, and produced one episode (Beat the Power of Women!) which made me laugh so hard that I stopped listening for a while.
However, the boys got back together for another session celebrating Colbert’s run (incl long time on the Colbert show), and it’s fun – and it made me think I should wear a suit for everyone Vergecast part. It would be amazing to do in my basement studio, though. A lot to think about.
Follow topics and authors from this article to see more like this on your home page and to receive email updates.
