Some news: The Vergecast is now a daily podcast! Starting today, we’ll be posting every weekday, with even more gadgets and rankings and conversations and feelings and podcasts-within-podcasts. We’re excited for all the ways this new schedule lets us tell new kinds of stories, experiment with new tech and new formats, and involve you even more in the show.

(The other immediate change to know about: We’ll be publishing the show in the afternoons going forward, so we can include the day’s biggest news in our 90 Seconds on The Verge segment. The goal is to always be live before 4PM ET. Often well before.)

As we’ve been preparing for our new daily schedule, we’ve discovered that posting daily is… a lot of posting. So we sought some advice from a legend of the genre. Casey Neistat posted a video on his YouTube channel for more than 800 days in a row, starting in 2015, and learned a lot along the way. He understands YouTube, and the current creator ecosystem, as well as anyone, so we asked him to share all his thoughts and tips for how to post every day without losing your mind or running out of ideas. (Here’s the video he said took him nine months to get done.)

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In addition to the new episodes, we also have new merch! We’ve been working on some cool shirts, mugs, and other stuff for all our shows — if you want to rep Decoder, Version History, or The Vergecast, or you’re just very eager to remind everyone how you feel about Brendan Carr, head to The Verge Shop now. And keep that page bookmarked, because we have a lot of cool stuff coming.

If you have thoughts, feedback, or ideas about how we can make this new iteration of The Vergecast even better, we’d love to hear them! Call The Vergecast Hotline at 866-VERGE11 and tell us everything, or send us an email at vergecast@theverge.com. We’re going to do another one of these tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and we’re excited to get to do it with you.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 130, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, don’t forget to hydrate, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) 

This week, I’ve been reading about Victor Wembanyama and mahjong and Merlin Mann’s pearls of wisdom, watching more of the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals than I expected, watching way too many videos about lighting a home studio, spending too many hours tweaking the settings in Vivaldi, belatedly cleaning up my Google Photos library, and finally — finally — getting my home office organized. Ish.

I also have for you the best new Bond game in years, an important update to a popular smart ring, a new entry in the Spider-Verse, and much more. Let’s do this.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / playing / downloading / cutting into pretty shapes this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

• 007 First Light. I have played a lot of James Bond games over the years, and been disappointed by most of them. (At least since Goldeneye, one of the best games of all time.) By virtually all accounts, this is the Bond game we’ve all been waiting for. I have no idea how I’m going to wait for the Switch 2 version to come out.
• The Oura Ring 5. My main gripe with the Oura Ring has always been its size — it’s just big enough that it seems to bonk into everything when I’m wearing it, and I never quite get used to it. The new one has some clever new features, but is also substantially lighter and smaller. That’s a big win all by itself.
• Spider-Noir. The Spider-Verse movies remain some of the coolest and most inventive superhero flicks I’ve seen in years. This new show sounds like it’s just as stylish, but maybe skimps a little on the substance… I’ll still be watching, though.
• Halide Mark III. Halide is still the gold standard for third-party camera apps, and the new update brings a very useful feature: You can now take RAW photos with other cameras and use Halide to process them with Halide’s cool new set of filters and presets. Halide is a much better photo editor than I am, I’ll tell you that. 
• The Sennheiser Momentum 5. Sennheiser probably deserves more shine in the headphone world. I know a lot of people who love the Momentum 4s, and the new model comes with more battery life, better noise cancellation, and a user-upgradeable battery. Very curious to try these when they ship next month, especially to see if the ANC can really hang with Sony and Bose.
• Mina the Hollower. According to, uh, everyone, this might be the best game of the year so far. It comes from the developer behind Shovel Knight, and people are comparing it to some of the great games of all time. It’s a fairly simple-looking game that hides something huge and ambitious, and I can’t wait to dig in.
• Backrooms. I don’t know whether you should watch Kane Parsons’ incredibly cool, inventive YouTube series before you watch the movie he turned those videos into, or if you should go into the movie completely in the dark about what’s coming. Either way, this is a cool YouTube-Hollywood story, and a horror movie not to be missed.
• Spotify Articles. A bunch of curated, narrated, long-form journalism, and Premium users can listen to a handful of them free every month. There are some odd article choices in here, but also some true classics, including the great cocaine treasure hunt.
• Star City. For All Mankind is a long-standing favorite show here in the Installerverse, so this spinoff show focused on the Soviet Union might already be on your to-watch list. From what I hear, it’s not quite up to FAM’s standard, but the cool space stuff keeps coming, and I’m here for all of it.
• The Ferrari Luce. This has to be the most expensive thing in the history of Installer, right? I really don’t care for the look of Ferrari’s first EV (and it seems neither does anyone else), but there are some genuinely brilliant things going on inside of it. If you want to give me a ride in yours, I won’t complain.

Screen share

I love talking shop with Danielle Steussy. Danielle is a product manager for The Verge, which means she spends her days thinking about and working on ways to make our experience, and the whole experience of journalism and storytelling on the web, better. (There’s also a non-zero chance you’ve met Danielle, now that I think about it — she spends a lot of time talking to people in the Verge community about how we can serve them better.) Danielle drove a lot of the work behind our new homepage, and has a bunch of extremely cool new features up her sleeve too. Including one, coming soon, that I know is going to make a lot of us very happy.

Anyway, I asked Danielle to share her homescreen with us, curious whether all Verge nerds are the same or whether, as a product person, she might have a totally different conception of her phone. Little of both, it turns out! Here’s Danielle’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:

The phone: iPhone 14 Pro in Deep Purple. I’m due for an upgrade, but I’ll ride this one out a little longer. Fun fact: I bought it while living in Australia when the 14 Pro first came out, so I ended up with the UK version that has one eSIM and one physical SIM. Moving back to the US with both of my phone numbers was a nightmare.

The wallpaper: Photo shuffle of my son!

The apps: Settings, Google Maps, Photos, Camera, ChatGPT, Google, Chrome, Brave, Calendar, Apple Notes, Find My, CareConnect, Phone, Messages, Spotify, Mail.

I’m attempting to spend less time on my phone by making it almost entirely utilitarian and boring.

I use Spotify for podcasts and music. I’ve been a diehard fan of Spotify for ages. I taught fitness for a decade and Spotify was my co-teacher. Definitely not a fan of the 20th anniversary icon though…

I LOVE the Hatch sound machine for my toddler. The app is pretty decent. I like curating ambiance for my kid’s bedtime routine.

I also asked Danielle to share a few things she’s into right now. Here’s what she sent back:

• Death by Lightning. Just finished. LOVED.
• ChatPRD. An AI tool for product managers, created by Claire Vo, who has been such an interesting person to also follow in the PM/AI space. I mostly use it for rubber ducking and processing my product thoughts.
• The Techno Sapiens newsletter. Evidence-based guidance for parenting in the digital age. This is such an accessible newsletter by Jacqueline Nesi, a clinical psychologist and professor at Brown University. Makes me feel… better about raising a kid around this much technology.
• Tomato gardening. Luckily, I live on the Central Coast of California, where tomatoes practically grow themselves. I’ve got 13 plants this year: last season’s survivors, volunteers, and a few additions purchased from our local university Ag department. I’m growing Tasmanian Chocolates, Bodacious, Beauty King, and others, all meticulously tracked in a very serious Google Sheets planting matrix.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“Finally getting around to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PS5. Such a fun adventure game, very well performed and puzzles with just the right amount of challenge. Scratches that Uncharted itch. Really digging it.” — Colin

“With the prices of storage still insanely high, I’m rediscovering burning files / photos onto CDs and DCDs using the ImgBurn software.” — Allen

“Thinking about seeing Obsession in a cinema again after being floored by it (complimentary) on first watch.” — Kev

“I am currently obsessed with playing Huntdown: Overtime in early access on Steam. It’s an absolute blast. A retro themed, dystopian, Blade Runner-esque side scroller / shooter / platformer and it is SO addictive.” — Kent

“With the death of Allbirds, I’ve been rocking Oofos tennis shoes, which are a fantastic recovery shoe for the beach, the office, and definitely after the long run at the end of the week.” — Jimmy

“I just finished Kurt Vonnegut’s debut novel from 1952, Player Piano, about a near-future dystopia where automation has displaced all labor and engineers and management live lives of luxury despite not actually doing anything. Nothing of relevance there!!” — Andy

“I bought a Kobo Clara BW in January in an effort to read more and scroll less. I’ve largely succeeded in that goal thus far, but I’d like to recommend the Red Rising book series by Pierce Brown. I’m on the third book, Morning Star, and it’s fantastic so far. It has sci-fi, romance, and societal commentary, it’s an excellent series with an escalating plot! I’m really enjoying it so far, and reading it on my Kobo has been a delight.” — James

“Watched Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu movie yesterday. It could have just been two episodes in the show but it was good.” — Justin

“I downloaded Poppy but find it too verbose and sometimes incorrect.  Some months ago I came across Extra, an AI-first app for emails and calendar.  It’s finally out of Beta and I’m really liking it. “ — Jay

Signing off

Spotify’s Page Match feature is my favorite new(ish) tech thing in forever. You use it by taking a picture of your book, on paper or on an e-reader, and Spotify figures out where you are in the book and immediately picks up the audiobook in the right spot. It can also do the reverse, guiding you back to the right page in your book. It rules. 

I have Spotify Premium, so I get a bunch of hours of audiobooks for free every month, and being able to flip so easily between reading and listening has helped me get through books so much faster. Read in bed; listen while I walk the dog; read on the couch; listen while I fold laundry. Can’t recommend it enough.

Also: Listening to audiobooks is reading. I will not be taking questions. Yay audiobooks! See you next week!

Most people will never own, drive, or even sit inside a Ferrari Luce. (If you can, or do… hit us up.) There’s still no question that Ferrari’s first electric vehicle is one of the most interesting, surprising cars of the year. With a decidedly un-Ferrari look, and lots of new technology and designs courtesy of Sir Jony Ive, the Luce is a lot of big ideas in a single swoopy package. A lot of people really hate it.

Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Vergecast wherever you get your podcasts. Head here. Not a subscriber? You can sign up here.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk a lot about the Luce. David and Nilay discuss whether Jony Ive’s design ideas got out of hand, why Ferrari seemed so desperate to run away from its legacy, and whether some of the interface and technology ideas here could trickle down to more affordable cars. And they discuss the question increasingly facing carmakers all over the US: Do people actually want electric cars?

After that, the hosts talk through some AI news and all the ways in which consumers continue to show their distaste for all things AI. As Google gets deeper into AI Mode, its competitors are growing simply by staying away. As YouTube gives creators more AI tools to play with, it’s also labeling AI content more clearly so audiences can stay away. Pope Leo has been reminding the world that actually, yes, humans are important even in an AI age. AI is increasingly pervasive and increasingly unpopular — which side will give first?

Finally, in the lightning round, it’s time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, Meta’s new subscription tiers, Sony’s exciting new TV tech, and an update on the incredible rising price of everything. Everything’s too expensive, and it’s not getting better anytime soon.

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If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:

• Ferrari reveals its first EV, with design help from Jony Ive 
• Jony Ive’s Ferrari looks nothing like a Ferrari 
• This Ferrari should have been a Volkswagen
• People sure do hate Google’s AI Search updates.
• YouTube is putting AI labels where you’ll actually see them
• Pope Leo warns of the risks of AI in major papal document
• Uber president says AI spending is getting ‘harder to justify’ 
• Facebook launches a ‘Plus’ subscription that gives you extra features
• Sony’s first RGB TV is a statement piece 
• Valve raises Steam Deck prices by more than $200
• The golden age of handheld gaming is already over

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 129, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, come on you Gunners, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) 

This week, I’ve mostly been sick, which has meant nearly a full rewatch of Parks and Recreation while alternately napping and feeling bad for myself. But I’ve also been reading about Nick Fuentes and clowns, listening to old episodes of Short History Of, testing the NextSense Smartbuds while I sleep, writing in the Outerline Markdown app beta, and eagerly looking for things to do with the upcoming Flipper One.   

Today’s issue is a little short since I’ve been out, but I didn’t want to leave you completely hanging. Plus, it’s a good week, including my favorite new browser in years, a new Star Wars movie, two great new tech books, a surprisingly great set of earbuds, and more. Let’s do it.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you reading / watching / listening to / playing / streaming over a hotspot from the beach this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

• Vivaldi 8.0. For the first time in five years or so, I have a new default browser on all my devices. (RIP Arc.) I’ve liked Vivaldi for a long time — it is very fast, incredibly customizable, and full of clever organizational tools — but I’ve always just found it irredeemably ugly to look at. The new design is much cleaner out of the box, to the point I’m fully happy using it all the time. You should budget a long time to spend in settings getting Vivaldi tweaked to your liking, but this browser’s a winner.
• Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. The reviews for this are a bit all over the place, as they always seem to be for Star Wars stuff, but I am straight-up thrilled for these silly space adventures to be back on the big screen. Give me all things Grogu as big as possible, as long as possible, please and thank you.
• Steve Jobs in Exile. It is very hard to find new stories to tell 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’ deep personal changes, and how the guy who almost destroyed Apple came back to save it. Also just a very fun read.
• How to Rule the World. Two great tech books this week! This one is from a Stanford student, digging deep into his own world and its bizarre and problematic and outrageously successful connection to the tech industry. Stanford and Silicon Valley have always been tied together; this is an excellent look into what that really means.
• The Anker Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro. I cannot say I expected to be super excited about a pair of Anker earbuds that are roughly the same price as AirPods, but my colleague John Higgins says they are the best phone-call earbuds he’s ever used. How I am supposed to not buy them now!
• Age of Audio: The Inside Story of Podcasting. A terrific history lesson from the folks at Twenty Thousand Hertz, with some great stories from a bunch of legendary podcasters. Connected to a recent documentary of the same name that I am now very eager to find a way to see.
• Forza Horizon 6. Gorgeous, ultra-realistic cars, which you can tinker with and drive endlessly over gorgeous, ultra-realistic Japanese landscapes. Yeah, it can be a super-intense racing game, but I’ve also come to see Forza as almost… cozy. Sometimes you just need a Sunday drive, you know?
• The MacStories Shortcuts Playground. Federico Viticci and the gang at MacStories are true connoisseurs of Apple Shortcuts, and they’ve made something really cool: a way to use Claude Code or Codex to just describe the Shortcut you want, and have it magically appear. (They also released a huge set of Shortcuts they’ve made, many of which are extremely cool.) This is how Shortcuts is SUPPOSED to work!

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“Got an Oculus Go at a thrift store for $10. Most of the apps are nonexistent except for YouTube, and it’s surprisingly… fine? I wonder if the future AI wearables will be useful for a long time; Apple devices seem to be the only group that are still usable even after half a decade.” — Allen

“My mom gave my son a Stickerbox for his 9th birthday. My kids and their friends have spent many hours collectively making stickers for everything and everyone. I love that it embraces simplicity while still making a toy with AI and a screen. Also great that there’s no subscription!” — Matt

“A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve listened to in a long time. I don’t often run to books anymore, but I maintained my race cadence listening to the Apollo 11 moon landing section.” — James

“I’m going to be experimenting this weekend with a couple of Google Docs alternatives — Writer and Ellipsus — and working on the slog to transition away from Gmail (I’ve had my account since you needed an invite).” — Wintersong

“I bought a new pair of headphones this month: the Sony WH-1000XM5. They’re amazing, and the sound quality feels incredibly professional.” — Seb

“​​You recommended a cable last week, and it inspired me to tell you about the Allroundo Eco cable from Vonmahlen; a short, coiled USB-C to USB-C cable in a little case. But what makes it special is it also includes USB-A, microUSB and Lightning adaptors in the case. I don’t know what the rated speed of this cable is for power or data delivery, but it’s such a brilliant package that I’ve used for years now that it’s a moot point to me!” — Mitch

“Almost done with Light Bringer (Red Rising book 6) on my Xteink X4!” — Tynan

“Been messing about on Record Club, a European indie selling themselves as the Letterboxd of music. I wish they had a section for your vinyl / CD / cassette collections, but it’s a really nice site and the new social-sharing images are a lovely touch.” — comicallytinyhat

“Rewatching Scavengers Reign because it’s coming off Netflix at the end of the month!” – Fry

“After a few years of bouncing between multiplayer games we’d try for like six weeks and then drop, me and the homies have a standing Monday-evening Diablo IV date, which has been amped up by the new Lord of Hatred expansion.” — Luis

Signing off

This was the last week of Stephen Colbert’s run on The Late Show (and also the end of The Late Show, politics politics, late night TV is dying, anyway, moving on), and for my money the brightest silver lining of the whole saga was that the Strike Force Five gang got back together. If you don’t remember: Strike Force Five was a podcast started by five late-night hosts during the writers strike in 2023, and produced at least one episode (Strike Force Wives!) that made me laugh so hard I had to stop listening for a while. 

Anyway, the guys got back together for one more episode to celebrate Colbert’s run (plus a long hang on Colbert’s show), and it is predictably delightful — and made me think I should start wearing a suit for every Vergecast episode. Might be weird to do in my basement studio, though. Lots to think about.

See you next week!

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 128, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, sorry this one’s so Mac-heavy, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) 

This week, I’ve been reading about David Attenborough and screenwriters-turned-AI-trainers and the Subway Takes guy, listening to a lot of Productivity FM’s mixes while I work, finally writing my vibe-coding opus, testing the Poppy AI assistant (and giving it more of my data than I frankly should have), tracking my pathetic step counts with the new Fitbit Air, buying more of The Atlantic’s summer reading list than I will ever plausibly read, watching a lot of Maxinomics videos after the one on quartz went viral, drowning in the nostalgia of my all-time Spotify Wrapped playlist, and switching browsers for the first time in forever. More on that next week. 

I also have for you a couple of really useful Mac utilities, a new book in the Installerverse’s favorite series, a new tool for managing the fediverse, and much more. Let’s get into it.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you reading / watching / playing / listening to / cutting into nifty shapes this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

• Mole. I’ve been following this Mac app’s development for a while, and I’m a big fan. It does a great job of hunting down huge files, un-needed apps, memory-hungry processes, and other things mucking up your computer, without being overzealous about it (or constantly trying to upcharge you). For $9, I can’t recommend it enough.
• A Parade of Horribles. Dungeon Crawler Carl is back! I’m still catching up on the series, but I’m confident the eighth book in the story brings even more chaos to Carl and Donut. DCC is maybe the most-recommended thing in the history of Installer, so this book is huge news. I can’t wait.
• The Twelve South PowerClip. I am a big proponent of always carrying a giant backup battery, but I’m oddly charmed by this tiny $40 dongle that isn’t designed to fully charge your phone but rather to keep it from dying. Clever that it can also act as a USB-C cable, too. 
• Bartender Pro. Bartender has always been a classic power-user Mac app for cleaning up your menu bar. For $15 a year, Bartender Pro does way more: It adds a bunch of small utilities, like audio controls and your calendar, to the notch in your Mac’s screen. (Or just the middle of your menu bar.) My favorite? Zero-click AirDrop from my computer to my phone, just by dragging a file.
• Subnautica 2. This underwater adventure game became one of the biggest titles on Steam literally overnight, which is very funny given how many reviews say the game (which is, in fairness, in early access!) is full of bugs and weirdness. Doesn’t seem to be stopping anybody.
• Indigo. A Bluesky app, and a Mastodon app, combined into a single timeline in a way that looks and feels great. (The same developers also make a lovely app called Croissant for posting to both services.) Apps like this are the reason I’m still so excited about the fediverse.
• “We aren’t ready for Meta glasses.” Terrific Christophe video about the cultural state of smart glasses — which my colleague Vee Song has also covered a lot — and why these devices are genuinely both thrilling and horrifying. And maybe here to stay either way.
• Snapseed 4.0. Google just did something I never thought it would again: It made an extremely cool app. It’s exactly the kind of photo editing app that’s hard to find these days: It has a lot of features but a simple, straightforward set of controls. The new look definitely won’t be for everyone, but I dig it.
• The Punisher: One Last Kill. Yeah, this Disney Plus special has gone viral for bad reasons, like a confusing VFX shot and some audio issues, but I’m always here for a gritty superhero story, and this one seems to execute the genre really well.

Screen share

Today, Joanna Stern gets the most important professional accomplishment of her life. No, not the Emmy she won, or her fabulous book, I Am Not a Robot, that just came out this week and you 100 percent need to buy and read several times. Not even New Things, her new media company / newsletter / YouTube channel. None of that. Today, Joanna Stern becomes the first-ever repeat guest in Installer history. Huge day for her, honestly.

Joanna spent the last year of her life trying to use AI for absolutely everything, in an effort to figure out where AI might actually be useful. (If you want to hear some of her stories, in addition to reading the book, you can find her on, like, every podcast on planet Earth over the last two weeks.) After all the experimenting, I asked Joanna to share some of the things she’s found that truly work. Here’s what she shared:

What’s your day-to-day AI setup like? I’m a Claude person and a ChatGPT person. I use Claude Code and Claude Cowork for a lot of multi-step work and for integrating with my Google tools. I use ChatGPT more for editing and talking things through, mostly because the voice and live video mode are superior.

What are some surprising things you’ve found that really worked for you? I love Projects in ChatGPT and Claude. They saved me a ton of time while book making. And yes, “book making” sounds like “baby making.” To be clear, I wrote the whole book myself. I used AI for organization, reporting, and research help, which I talk about a lot in the book, so you’ll have to buy it to find out more. 

Back to Projects: I used the tools to create my “BookBots.” I uploaded research notes, academic papers, transcripts, deadlines, editor notes and more. Those BookBots kept me on track and made it easy to find things when I was writing. If I had questions about deadlines, what I should be working on, or which companies / experts my research suggested were worth talking to, I asked the BookBots. 

Have you vibe-coded anything cool recently? Only the greatest website ever: joannastern.com. But seriously, I was running a pin promotion for a while, where people who pre-ordered the book could get a free pin. I vibe-coded the whole thing: an order form on the site, and a backend workflow where every submission with an uploaded receipt and address automatically added the person to a spreadsheet and emailed both me and the publisher a confirmation.

After a year of AI experiments, what’s stuck with you? I talk to ChatGPT in the car a lot via voice mode. Also Meta AI in my Meta Ray-Bans. So yeah, I talk to AI a lot. Mostly because you don’t pick up my calls. 

I also asked Joanna to share a few things she’s into right now. She… did not do so. Joanna never does what I tell her to. She shared this instead:

Well, David, when you write and release a book, you will discover there is absolutely no time for anything else. I look forward to that day for you and to supporting you through it. There’s no time for other books, movies, podcasts or even recipes for how to make food. So instead, here are six podcasts I recommend because I’m on all of them and that is, in fact, what I’ve been doing with my time lately.

Also, apologies to all tech podcast listeners whose feeds I have completely taken over this week. If you buy the book, I hear they will automatically be removed from your feed. Love you all.

• Decoder with Nilay Patel 
• Fresh Air with Terry Gross 
• Hard Fork with Casey Newton and Kevin Roose
• Pioneers of AI 
• Stratechery with Ben Thompson 
• The Journal

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“Like Lego and robots? Play Mars First Logistics. Build rovers to deliver increasingly complex objects across the Mars terrain. The tinkering is rewarding, and surprisingly funny when your creation spectacularly fails and it’s back to the drawing board.” — astanush

“We recently discovered Trash Truck on Netflix and it’s one of those rare pieces of kids entertainment that is funny to both me and a four year old. It’s very sweet and low key but with enough hijinks that Lennox wants to keep watching. 10/10.” — Allison

“I am documenting all of our weekly D&D adventures of the last five years, and adding adventures from the same party from before I joined this group. I am keeping these notes in a Google Doc and adding them to NotebookLM so the entire group can ask questions about past characters, past places we have visited, maps, important organizations in the world, etc. NotebookLM is absolutely perfect for this, but going through old notes is… exhausting.” — Michiel

“Really enjoying Devil May Cry 5, and the new season of the series on Netflix.” — Aron

“I recently learned about Blento, the website maker. It’s an AT Protocol alternative for Bento (RIP) and pulls in information from the apps in the ATmosphere.” — Oscar

“Reading Mason & Dixon. And it will continue to be Mason & Dixon for a very very long time” — Scott

“I’m not much of a horror viewer but I made an exception to the show Widow’s Bay on Apple TV. It blends comedy with horror extremely well and supplants horror expectations. I normally cover my eyes with my hand when I expect a jumpscare to happen but not for this show.” — John

“Graveyard Keeper was free a few weeks back on Steam and I am obsessed. Stardew Valley if you also made sandwiches and zombies out of dead bodies.” — Rob

“I’m listening to the audiobook, Apple: The First 50 Years by David Pogue on Everand. Great book, great audiobook, great alternative to Audible.” — Ryan

Signing off

I took a sort of half-vacation this week, which mostly meant I didn’t go to any meetings (and took a week off of podcasting) but was still around for urgent things as they came up. I spent a lot of my free-ish time organizing my home office, which had turned into a bit of a disaster zone. I added two things that solved a lot of problems: an Anker power strip that clamps to my desk and is the best mix of minimalism and accessibility I’ve found yet; and a couple of 10-foot USB-C cables, which make it so much easier to set up a charging and power system without stretching everything to its limits. I bought mine from Anker, but you can get good long cables from anywhere — and I’m already wondering if I should upgrade to the Native Union Pop Cable, which is coiled and stretchy and won’t tangle as easily. It’s probably good for my wallet that it’s back to work on Monday. 

See you next week!