The Boox Palma simply received an enormous replace

Hi, buddies! Welcome to Installer No. 103, your information to one of the best and Verge-iest stuff on this planet. (If you’re new right here, welcome, sorry all the things’s so costly this week, and in addition you may learn all of the previous editions on the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been studying about gooning and Costco and protein bars and the Jonas Brothers, bingeing Nobody Wants This season two, making an attempt to determine tips on how to save $4,500 for the brand new Rivian e-bike, telling anybody who will pay attention that T-Pain’s still got it, studying all the things I can in regards to the Louvre heist, enjoying a shocking quantity of Fortnite on my iPad, and purchasing for Yoto Players after a few dozen of you instructed me I ought to. Thanks for that.

I even have for you a nifty new e-reader, a brand new AI browser, a brand new model of a favourite previous sport, and far more.

Also, maintain sending me your favourite endlessly rewatchable issues! I’ve gotten so many responses already that I feel subsequent week’s difficulty may be completely dedicated to the topic… maintain sending the reveals, motion pictures, TikToks, creators, all of the stuff you come again to time and again and over!

(As at all times, one of the best a part of Installer is your concepts and suggestions. What are you studying / watching / enjoying / printing / patching up with duct tape this week? Tell me all the things: installer@theverge.com. And if you understand another person who may get pleasure from Installer, ahead it to them and inform them to subscribe right here.)

John Higgins has forgotten extra about TVs than I’ll ever know. He’s a few weeks into his tenure right here as a senior reviewer for TVs and audio, and is already blowing my thoughts along with his data and his credentials — together with the truth that he’s a licensed TV calibrator, which is now instantly my new life aim.

Anyway, you’ll be seeing John throughout The Verge protecting audio and video gear of all kinds. I requested him to share his homescreen, each as a result of I wish to function new folks and to see if possibly he sucked at telephones and I might really feel one tiny shred of superiority over him. Alas, no cube.

Here’s John’s homescreen, plus some data on the apps he makes use of and why:

The cellphone: I’m on an iPhone 15 Pro Max in the mean time, however contemplating upgrading to a 17.

The wallpaper: It’s an image of a redwood from after I took a drive up the west coast from Los Angeles to a little bit north of Seattle in 2023. I camped for just a few days amongst the redwoods, went mountaineering, and was simply completely amazed to be surrounded by the character of Endor… I imply, Northern California.

The apps: Wallet, Settings, Camera, Apple Maps, FaceTime, Reminders, Apple Notes, Chrome, Safari, Weather, Find My, Photos, SoCal Sound, Phone, Messages, Mail, Calendar.

I’m kinda horrible at organizing my apps (though I used this chance to wash them up a bit). I usually simply obtain them and have them present up on the finish of my record. I’ve six screens of apps in the mean time, together with a mess of AV apps for every producer.

My major display screen contains the issues I entry most frequently: e mail, totally different social networking (like Instagram, Signal, WhatsApp, LinkedIn), my Home app for machine management, a load of streaming apps, and naturally the video games I play most, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes (which I’ve been enjoying since simply after it launched nearly 10 years in the past) and Marvel Strike Force.

I additionally requested John to share just a few issues he’s into proper now. Here’s what he despatched again:

Here’s what the Installer group is into this week. I need to know what you’re into proper now as nicely! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — along with your suggestions for something and all the things, and we’ll function a few of our favorites right here each week. For much more nice suggestions, take a look at the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“After setting up my NAS a few weeks ago, I moved from Google Photos to Immich, a self-hosted dupe which is nearly identical. The process of moving the photos over was painful, but now I own my own image server. I’ve started working on setting up Home Assistant, and my journey of self hosting (as much as I can) is well and truly underway.” — Craig

“Finished Task on HBO today. Incredibly well done, totally devastating in parts and uplifting in others.” — Óli

“I recently discovered a use case that, in my opinion, fully justifies its existence: loading board game instructions into NotebookLM and utilizing it as both a guide and, more importantly, a judge during arguments.” — Jakub

“Just finished reading Enshittification by Cory Doctorow this morning. Was an excellent read, and I would highly recommend.” — Nathaniel

“Just got this RayCue charger dock to add some functionalities to my Mac Mini M4. Waiting for NVMe SSD to add storage to my Mac.” — ‪Jean-François

“Been enjoying MD Vinyl. It’s just a great looking app that focuses on albums. These apps tend to be a dime a dozen, but this one has my phone on standby more often.” — Matthew

“Ball x Pit has taken over my life just like Balatro did once upon a time.” — Ronak

“Zen Browser recently got a great update that makes a lot of quality of life improvements, and generally over the last few months it has become fully capable of being my daily browser.” — Janego

“I really enjoy little cars racing down some serious tracks. 3DBotmaker is a YouTube channel where they do some awesome racing, and they’re in the middle of the DRC-X right now. It’s beautifully filmed, some great commentary, and it’s all about the big air, baby.” — Jasper

I’m in an everlasting battle with what I name “the scrolling apps” on my cellphone. I’ll delete Reddit and Threads and Bluesky and Instagram and all the things else, then discover myself caught in line at Costco and all of the sudden poof, all of them reappear. Reading’s good, positive, and I like doing the crossword, however generally I need to take a look at my cellphone for 10 minutes, you understand?

The smartest thing I’ve discovered, considerably surprisingly, is Dropout. (I wrote this earlier than John instructed me he additionally loves Dropout, I swear.) I solely lately turned a subscriber, and its large library of good-vibes comedy video games seems to be the proper factor to look at a couple of minutes at a time. (Sam Reich, should you’re studying this: give me a vertical video feed of all of your social clips, within the app!) Loading up a Make Some Noise episode leaves me in a vastly higher temper than doomscrolling does, and like the remainder of the web, I’m quickly turning right into a Brennan Lee Mulligan superfan. Highly really useful on all counts.