Hello! Welcome to Installer No. 89, your information to the perfect and Verge-iest stuff on this planet. My identify is Jay Peters, and I shall be taking good care of Installer whereas David is on parental go away. All of us right here at The Verge are very excited for him and his household, and he’ll be again later this 12 months.
It’s an enormous honor to be penning this. I stay up for Installer each week to see what superior issues David is obsessive about and what you all are into. (Because of everybody who despatched over their favourite non-famous apps to get me began. Preserve studying for a few of these!) I’m actually excited to maintain the get together going. (For those who’re new right here, welcome, and likewise you may learn all of the previous editions on the Installer homepage.)
This week, as I’m at round this time yearly, I’ve been obsessive about the annual Summer Games Done Quick speedrunning marathon. For those who’ve by no means watched, the occasion is an annual, weeklong, always-on livestream of individuals enjoying video video games at a particularly excessive degree to boost cash for charity. All through the week, I’ll tune in when I’ve a second after which discover myself watching any individual obliterate a beloved traditional or a sport that I’ve by no means heard of.
The present, which you’ll watch totally free on Twitch, sometimes ends very early within the morning on Sunday, and you’ll watch replays on the Games Done Quick YouTube channel. My two favourite runs up to now have been a Beat Saber showcase and a nail-biter Cuphead race. (When you have any advised runs I ought to watch, let me know — perhaps I’ll characteristic them in a future Installer!)
Anyway, let’s dive in. This week, I’ve for you some new Samsung foldable telephones, a check-in with the developer of one of many nice Reddit apps, and extra.
(As all the time, the perfect a part of Installer is your concepts and suggestions. What do you wish to know extra about? What superior methods are you aware that everybody else ought to? What app ought to everybody be utilizing? Inform me the whole lot: installer@theverge.com. And if you recognize another person who would possibly get pleasure from Installer, inform them to subscribe right here. It’s free, and also you get it a full day early!)
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Foldables have by no means actually me, however even I’m extraordinarily impressed by simply how skinny the Z Fold 7 appears to be like. However then I have a look at the value: $1,999, a $100 enhance from the Z Fold 6! Too wealthy for my blood. The Z Flip 7, with its edge-to-edge cowl show, additionally looks as if improve.
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 8: As Victoria Tune stated, “the squircle has taken over”: Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Traditional now have circle faces set in rounded sq. our bodies. The change means the watches can sit flatter in your wrist, which seems like factor to me; I’ll all the time take a thinner watch over a bulkier one.
- Nothing Phone 3: This was technically introduced final week, however Installer took the week off for the July 4th vacation within the US, so I’m together with it now. Nothing is touting this cellphone as its “first true flagship” — although maybe essentially the most noticeable factor about it’s its uncommon digital camera structure.
- Nothing Headphone 1: Nothing introduced its first pair of over-ear headphones final week, too, and so they seem to be a good pair of cans. The translucent design isn’t my cup of tea, however props to Nothing for attempting one thing funky and new.
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4: This sport places remakes of two classics into one bundle, and it’s superior. I’ve been enjoying on my Change 2 — the place it runs fairly effectively! — and have had a blast reliving my youth. Seems that I’m fairly rusty now, however fortunately, the sport has some helpful settings to make issues simpler for the much less expert amongst us.
- HBO Max: Max is HBO Max once more, prefer it in all probability all the time ought to have been, though HBO Max isn’t an awesome identify, both.
- Perplexity’s Comet browser: The AI “reply” engine’s new browser naturally makes use of Perplexity as its principal search engine but additionally has an AI assistant inbuilt. Browsers might be the following huge turf struggle for AI firms, and Perplexity is thrashing OpenAI to the punch. There’s a catch, although: proper now, it’s solely out there to subscribers of Perplexity’s $200-per-month subscription.
- Anker’s Nano Wireless Car Charger: This new automobile charger with a protracted, versatile arm appears to be like like a brilliant helpful and malleable technique to mount your cellphone inside your automobile. I don’t even personal a automobile and I would like this.
- Superman: I don’t have any sturdy emotions about Superman or DC Comics, but it surely looks as if James Gunn’s new
DC cinematic universe Hail Marymovie is definitely fairly good. The Unbelievable 4: First Steps appears to be like nice, too — 2025 is shaping as much as be an enormous superhero summer season.
For those who adopted the Reddit protests in 2023, then you definitely in all probability acknowledge the identify Christian Selig. He was the developer of the beloved Apollo for Reddit iOS app, however he grew to become a central determine of the protests as a result of Reddit’s API modifications have been going to be so cost-prohibitive that they compelled him to close Apollo down.
I’ve gotten to know Selig, and these days, he works on an app referred to as Pixel Pals, is an advisor to the new Digg, and not too long ago posted a great PC build video that has greater than 2.5 million views. (Sure, he does poke enjoyable at one other, let’s say, notorious PC construct video.) I bought to meet up with him to find out about his homescreen and what he’s into.
Picture: Christian Selig
The cellphone: iPhone 15 Professional Blue Titanium 128 GB
The wallpaper: I’m fairly certain it’s simply one thing random somebody posted on Twitter ages in the past that I saved. However I really like how easy it’s, and I really like the way it appears to be like on the house display screen with the default iOS blur utilized.
The apps: I attempt to hold issues easy and positioned in an easy-to-reach space. I don’t hold social media apps on my cellphone in an try and be more healthy, so it’s largely issues which might be helpful: automobile apps (nonetheless a bit chilly in Canada, so gotta love having the ability to preheat your automobile), with Overcast for podcasts, Microsoft To Do (née Wunderlist) for my to-dos, ChatGPT as a result of it’s 2025, YouTube as a result of I spend method an excessive amount of time there, Pixel Pals as a result of it’s an app I construct so I wish to have it good and helpful, the Chess.com app for passing a while, and the alpha for Digg, which has been a ton of enjoyable to make use of.
I additionally requested Christian to share a number of issues he’s into proper now:
- I’ve gotten into chess recently, and that’s been a ton of enjoyable to mess around with and study as a complete noob.
- I’ve been digitizing previous VHS and Hi8 tapes from my childhood and that has been such a large rabbit gap to go down, however so, so cool and satisfying to see the outcomes of.
- I’m tremendous into all issues photo voltaic and battery expertise. I’ve a really newbie setup at my residence with our very restricted house, however my associate and I purchased land not too long ago and are excited to go down the photo voltaic route and hopefully achieve some power independence.
And about his position at Digg:
- What an advisor means on this case is mainly simply being brutally sincere with the staff on what I take into consideration their cellular app (what’s nice, what sucks, what might be improved) in addition to advising on their developer technique as they get into that sooner or later. No bullshit, they’ve been phenomenally receptive and humble in getting suggestions.
- As for why I bought on board, I’ve simply sort of been unhappy concerning the trendy state of neighborhood in social networks. Even exterior of the Reddit API stuff, Reddit itself simply feels increasingly more recently like a company shell of its former enjoyable, vibrant community-based self. Kevin Rose appeared so jazzed about the opportunity of imagining a neighborhood for the individuals of the longer term, and that actually spoke to me as one thing that I additionally needed to see exist on this planet.
- As you may think about, numerous people have pitched me on “Reddit however higher!” pie-in-the-sky concepts over time. Kevin was the primary one to return to me with concrete plans for a contemporary, community-based platform that felt prefer it had precise wooden behind the arrow. And having now talked to the oldsters that make up the staff at “New Digg,” I really feel that much more so. They’ve bought some actually vibrant individuals.
Right here’s what the Installer neighborhood is into this week. I wish to know what you’re into proper now as effectively! E mail installer@theverge.com along with your suggestions for something and the whole lot, and we’ll characteristic a few of our favorites right here each week. For much more nice suggestions, take a look at the replies to this publish on The Verge, this post on Threads, and this post on Bluesky.
This week’s part is a mixture of everybody’s favourite non-famous apps and a few extra typical suggestions.
“I wish to give a shoutout to my favourite cellular sport designer who’s primarily based right here in Germany: Arnold Rauers and his little studio Tiny Touchtales develop some lovely, addictive mild technique video games. My favorites are Card Thief, Geo Gods, and Miracle Merchant.” — Nick
“I take advantage of Panic’s Nova to make web sites and actually find it irresistible. Most likely my favourite app. Mimestream can also be incredible! Can’t look ahead to the iPhone model.” — Jeanne
“My favourite non-famous app is Live Soccer TV. Reveals you the whole worldwide soccer schedule, and the listing of broadcast networks/platforms in every county airing the sport. Been on my dwelling display screen for ages now. It merely does what it says it does. No fluff and for five {dollars} a 12 months, I pay for the advert free improve. Good app. Hope it by no means modifications.” — Dustin
“I’m continually shocked at any time when suggestions come up for recipe apps that Crouton shouldn’t be talked about. To me, if Apple have been to have made a recipe app themselves, this might be it. Even higher, it’s low cost — solely $14.99/yr and has some extremely cool options like ‘arms free’ mode that means that you can merely blink your eyes to maneuver to the following step of a recipe for these occasions when you may have hen juice throughout your fingers.” — Justin
“All of Claire North’s books are incredible! Her stuff is tremendous authentic: sci-fi-ish however extra about huge concepts like time, reminiscence, and id. She does a extremely good job of bringing out the nuances and real-life emotions and penalties of the roles her characters have. It’s good and emotional with out being heavy, and her characters all the time stick to me. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August or Touch are nice locations to begin.” — Dave
“I do know it’s been out for some time, however my entire household is hooked on Marvel Snap. The brand new season with The Unbelievable 4 is absolutely enjoyable up to now and this provides my children issues that assist them tickle their mind with logic. Additionally, all of the completely different variants for the playing cards are actually cool to see.” — WALL-E
“Been utilizing Folio as my Pocket alternative and have been fairly completely satisfied.” — Carter
“All 4 The Trip films are streaming on Criterion Channel. Very humorous, very imply comedies — and the longer BBC episodic cuts are additionally out there too, in order for you the prolonged play model (which you’ll).” — Kevin
“Regardless of my backlog, I’m testing A Solitaire Mystery, as I’ve no alternative however to play something from the Baba Is You developer.” — Tristan
“Simply made the swap to the Pixel line from iOS, and I’m actually digging attempting a brand new OS. Exterior of that, I’ve been taking a slight tech break and going again to bodily portray, studying paperbacks, and being current.” — EmpireStrikesBacktotheFuture
All week, I’ve been mourning the current finish of the most recent collection of Taskmaster, a British comedy present the place 5 comedians should all full absurd duties and be graded on them by the present’s mercurial host. This batch of episodes, series 19, was my favourite set but: the forged of comedians (the primary to characteristic an American, Jason Mantzoukas) have been all hilarious, and the duties have been ridiculous.
For those who’re in search of one thing new and humorous to look at, I can’t advocate collection 19 sufficient. Better of all, you may watch each collection of the present for free on YouTube. Your time begins now.