Curved and curved phones are becoming more and more popular

Hello, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 137, your guide to the best is On the edge– Earthly things. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy phone season, and you can read all past posts at Installer landing page.)

This week, I have been reading about Google Zero and armored cars for rich peoplefocus That’s a Bad Idea videos now that YouTube knows my love for Curry Barker, try 2Do a new update for my works, looking this good doc of the famous designer Susan Kare, she just looks at every sound The Jauffre’s Sounds TikTokand send myself closing and new posts Mononote app, I’m trying to put the vibe-code on the archive of everything that’s ever been there Installer. I think we need more signs.

I also have for you a few interesting ideas about mobile phones, a small e-reader you may like, an interesting way of the world of Linux, and much more. Let’s do this.

(As always, the best part of Installer and your thoughts and advice. What are you watching/reading/playing/listening to/plugging 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.)

I have been following Kuwala Foni’s journey since the beginning. A Bright Turnwhich the company announced this week, seems to be its best idea and its best product yet. It’s a cute, $299 block for a compact cell phone, designed not to replace your phone but to encourage you to leave it at home every now and then. It won’t ship until early next year, but I’m starting to order as soon as possible. I think Light can have it he finally nailed it.

To preview the launch, I asked Kai Tang, Light’s CEO and cofounder, to share his home screen with us. I told him that I knew he was hiding his smartphone somewhere, and I wanted to see it. He swears he’s not, he’s in the Light Phone life, and he sent his home screen in the smallest file I’ve ever received. Here it is, along with more information about Kai’s device setup:

Phone: Bright Phone III.

Above: There is no wallpaper or background on the Light Phone III. So it’s either matte black or gray. I have the black ones. I love my silent phone.

Applications: Phone, Alarm, Weather, Navigation, Music, Language.

Most of the tools on my phone are pretty straightforward: phone call and text, directions/maps, music, etc. The “Language” tool is a tool we created for Dave Free and Kendrick Lamar. pLanga back in 2023. Few of the Smartphones with this device pre-installed were sold out in the first few hours, which was very exciting. We are also big fans of their music. This weapon is actually an Eight Ball weapon but called “Language.” You can shake the phone to give a random answer, for example, “ask again, but less,” “not too sure,” or “I don’t want to say.”

It’s not publicly available, but it really touched me because of this deal three years ago, so I saved it to my screen.

I also asked Kai to share a few things he has going on right now. Here’s what he posted:

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.

“Event at the Galley House it was released last week and i finished it yesterday. It’s a classic, visually remastered version of last year. Type Helpone of the best cash withdrawal games I’ve ever played.” – Andy

“The Hawk on Netflix. Will Ferrell is like embracing the comfort of a millennial 😂 ” – Tyler

“The New Guys The audiobook is an author’s fun-reading book about the Shuttle astronaut crew. I can’t recommend it enough as a follow-up Man on the Moon.” —James

“My wife and I have been playing Immovable on Edit Online with her sister and her husband… it’s like Overcooked but much is yet to come.” — Dan

“Governments It’s a great show with an older cast and it’s great to see a hip, science-appropriate show led by an older cast, dealing with really important topics. It’s fun so far. ” — Shane

“The App Store has great apps for video cameras, but these apps on Android are garbage that take bad pictures. Candela camerabut! It takes full advantage of the Android camera API with high-quality movies, built-in and imported LUTs, and it’s only $5 for a lifetime license! — Evancito

“Reading Dead Hand Rule and Max Gladstone. Necromantic judges, magic capitalism, and real vibe. Not everyone drinks tea, but I have enjoyed every book he has written.” – The nature of Ham

“Open Minis. After reading The story of Federico ViticciI quickly installed it and connected it to Claude. Watching it do random things ON MY PHONE is fun. I’m a first-time iOS guy, and being able to describe the Home Assistant’s complex system, from my phone, and see that it’s seeing the APIs, that’s the next step. ” – Burning

“Recently I started playing video games again. I used to take the Game Boy. Backbone Pro and immediately he changed his mind. The experience is excellent and it’s a great way to turn any phone into a high-end gamer. ” – Tanner

Last week, when we talked about setting up a newsletter, I ended up asking you for tips about newsletters. I have a group, but most of them were like: “I just get them in my email and deal with them.” Well done! Like, honestly. But there is one instrument that I heard more than once. It is called Kill this letter. It gives you an email address that you can subscribe to, and dumps everything sent to that address into a feed that you can read anywhere. Do what feeds into your RSS reader, show it to your favorite AI chatbot, do whatever you want with it! If I were to start a letter writing habit now, this is what I would start with. Let me know if you use it, or have other great tips for stories!