Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 106, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, Happy Thanksgiving Week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer<\/em> homepage<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, I\u2019ve been reading about prediction markets<\/strong><\/a> and Hilary Duff<\/strong><\/a> and Matt Belloni<\/strong><\/a> and yeast<\/strong><\/a>, clearing space for a Steam Machine<\/strong><\/a>, playing News Tower<\/em><\/strong><\/a> thanks to Stephen Totilo\u2019s recommendation<\/strong><\/a>, checking to make sure I remember all the Wicked <\/em>lyrics (I do, don\u2019t worry) before seeing For Good<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,<\/em><\/strong> giving up on my fantasy football team, and recording season two of Version History<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. <\/em>It\u2019s a fun one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a new way to use your Windows computer, Google\u2019s new LLM, a documentary that\u2019ll take up your whole weekend in the best way, and much more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n (As always, the best part of Installer<\/em> is your ideas and tips. What are you reading \/ watching \/ playing \/ building \/ snacking on this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com<\/a>. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer<\/em>, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At this point, my most-used device other than my phone is my Boox Palma. If you\u2019ve been reading this newsletter, or my other work, for a while, this will not surprise you<\/a>. As a result, over the last couple of years I have become a lot of people\u2019s Palma guide \u2014 turns out I\u2019m not the only person sold on the idea of a more focused, minimalist device that fits in my pocket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I just reviewed the new Palma 2 Pro<\/strong><\/a> (which I was excited about and super disappointed by), so I had occasion to rethink my Palma usage. I like where my new homescreen ended up, and ported it back to the Palma 2<\/strong><\/a> I still like. I figured I\u2019d share. Here it is:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n (Funny thing about that screenshot: It doesn\u2019t look like that on my device! It\u2019s black and white on the Palma\u2019s E Ink screen. Looks much better that way.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper: <\/strong>It\u2019s called \u201cTree,\u201d and it\u2019s one of the built-in wallpapers. I had it blank for a while, but this one feels better to me for some reason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps: <\/strong>Claude, NYT Games, MyMind, Libby, Roku, Kindle, Readwise Reader, Workflowy, Spotify, Pocket Casts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s pretty straightforward, really. Kindle and Libby for reading books, Reader for articles. Spotify for listening to music, Pocket Casts for podcasts. (I hate <\/em>Spotify as a podcast app.) Workflowy for taking quick notes (it\u2019s a very sparse app, which is perfect on the E Ink screen), MyMind for saving quotes, screenshots, and other snippets of stuff I come across. NYT Games because that\u2019s what I do in bed and this thing mostly lives by my bed. Claude in case I need to look something up \u2014 I\u2019ll do anything to avoid lots of typing on the Palma. And Roku as a backup TV remote in a pinch, which has come in handy more than once.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The only other app I\u2019ve installed on the Palma is 1Password, but that doesn\u2019t need to be on the homescreen. This setup does everything I need and precisely nothing else. Which is exactly what I\u2019m looking for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s what the <\/em>Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you\u2019re into right now as well! Email <\/em>installer@theverge.com<\/em><\/a> or message me on Signal \u2014 @davidpierce.11 \u2014 with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we\u2019ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to <\/em>this post on Threads<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>this post on Bluesky<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cJust replaced the battery in a 10 year old PS Vita with an iFixit kit<\/strong><\/a> and it took me like 20 minutes and was actually super fun.\u201d \u2014 Jonathan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAfter years of ignoring well-meant advice about this new and somehow unusual way to learn a language, I finally gave in and listened to a few short Language Transfer<\/strong><\/a> lessons. I\u2019ve never been so completely captivated by a teaching method: seemingly nothing special, yet in reality a true game changer. By explaining how a language works through short conversations, you really grasp and learn it. I even adjusted my own language lessons (I teach in secondary education). Language Transfer is that good. And it\u2019s free.\u201d \u2014 Pieter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cCurrently reading this awesome coffee table book<\/strong><\/a> all about the Jordan Brand. It\u2019s about the advertising, his brand, the photography, etc., instead of his career as a player. The first chapter is about 40 years of his shoe evolution..\u201d \u2014 Boukou<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cRewatching Stranger Things<\/em><\/strong><\/a> season 1-4 before the last season drops next week.\u201d \u2014 Alex<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019ve gotten into physical pocket notebooks again. I bought a Space Pen<\/strong><\/a> because it\u2019s nice and small, and now keep a Field Notes<\/strong><\/a> notebook with me at all times and use it for everything: to-do lists, ideas, journaling, etc. It\u2019s quite addictive and I highly recommend it.\u201d \u2014 Josh<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTrying out a new animated wallpaper app for Mac called Backdrop<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s the only one I\u2019ve seen that unifies an animated wallpaper between your desktop and lock screen.\u201d \u2014 Russ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cJust started reading Beyond a Boundary<\/em><\/strong><\/a> by CLR James. It is billed as THE GREATEST SPORTS BOOK EVER WRITTEN, but mostly got it because I enjoyed The Black Jacobins<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. Also the cover is easily top 5 all time (first place is forever the Penguin Galaxy version of The Left Hand of Darkness<\/em><\/strong><\/a>).\u201d \u2014 Rich<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMy recommendation is for Cyberspace.online<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s social media, but text based; like when the internet was good. I haven\u2019t had this much fun online since 2007 with the original Tumblr!\u201d \u2013 Jordan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWriting to recommend the Rock Planner<\/strong><\/a> app for iPad. It\u2019s buggy, it\u2019s primitive, BUT \u2014 and I hope you\u2019re ready for this \u2014 you can annotate your calendar entries! It displays your calendar then allows you to write on it with the pencil. Even has a to-do section next to it. It was made by the people who created the Rock paper and pencil tip<\/strong><\/a> (highly recommended btw).\u201d \u2014 Mario<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We live in weird times, where it\u2019s often hard to know what\u2019s real and what isn\u2019t. When I first saw a photo of a skydiver in front of the sun, I just filed it under \u201cAI\u201d and went about my day. But I was wrong! What it is instead is one of the most remarkable photos I\u2019ve ever seen<\/strong><\/a>: a shot with remarkable detail that required an astonishing amount of planning<\/a> and very human creativity. And the photographer, Andrew McCarthy \u2014 who you might know as @cosmic_background<\/a> on Instagram \u2014 has a portfolio full of similarly awe-inspiring work. My favorite follow in a while.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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