The CES 2026 stuff I’d really purchase

Hi, mates! Welcome to Installer No. 111, your information to the very best and Verge-iest stuff on the planet. (If you’re new right here, welcome, hope you had a beautiful vacation season, and in addition you may learn all of the previous editions on the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been studying about gerrymandering and watch conventions and John Ternus, watching F1 and Roofman and half the Mission: Impossible sequence on aircraft rides, beginning after which instantly failing a each day journaling behavior, getting tremendous into the Debt Heads podcast, studying fun facts about mail processing, shopping for a bunch of previous devices on eBay to refill my video name background, and barely escaping the CES flu. So far.

I even have for you a bunch of the very best stuff out of this 12 months’s CES! Our entire workforce does an unimaginable job of protecting all of the information, and try to be certain and try our awards for the present’s finest stuff. For our functions right here, I attempted to simply seize a bunch of the very best and most fascinating stuff that truly feels actual. (I’m linking right here largely to our protection as an alternative of regular product pages, as a result of in lots of circumstances, there aren’t any but.) Real within the sense that (a) it’s going to really ship and work and (b) it’d really be price your cash. A tough process the week of CES!

Oh, and earlier than I neglect, tiny housekeeping factor: this article will now be stay on our web site the identical time it hits your inbox. Since it’s all for subscribers, no good purpose to attend a day anymore! Read it in e-mail, learn it on the positioning, learn it in RSS — it’ll be there each Saturday morning beginning now. Let me know in case you run into any points! Now let’s get into it.

(As at all times, the very best a part of Installer is your concepts and ideas. What are you watching / studying / listening to / bedazzling / nonetheless organising from the vacations this week? Tell me every thing: installer@theverge.com. And if you already know another person who may get pleasure from Installer, ahead it to them and inform them to subscribe right here.)

At some level within the very close to future, I’m going to spend too many 1000’s of {dollars} on an e-bike. This will likely be nearly fully Andy Hawkins’ fault. In addition to being The Verge’s transportation editor, he’s additionally our foremost proponent of ditching your automotive and going full-on cargo bike. Yes, in case you ask, he’ll lead your bike bus.

I requested Andy to share his homescreen this week, since there’s at all times a lot fascinating future-of-transit stuff taking place at CES. (Side word: I test-drove an Infinite Machine Olto whereas in Vegas, it was fabulous.) Andy didn’t go to Vegas this 12 months, presumably as a result of he couldn’t bike that far, however he did conform to share with us.

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

The cellphone: iPhone 16. I used to be content material to run my iPhone 11 into the bottom, however my mom insisted I be part of her household plan, so all of us acquired upgrades final 12 months. It’s a bit skinnier than my iPhone 11, which is ok however took some getting used to. Per week after I acquired it, my child touched the display with a sparkler, and now it has a bizarre everlasting burn within the decrease left hand nook, sort of just like the Eye of Sauron. So that’s cool.

The wallpaper: Typically a photograph of my youngsters. I not too long ago chosen the choice in settings for a brand new wallpaper photograph each hour, and I’ve been delighting within the previous child pics and occasional random sundown or cityscape photograph.

The apps: Camera, YouTube, Weather, Bluesky, Google Maps, Slack, Photos, TikTok, Phone, Instagram, The Verge, Spotify, Gmail, Messages, Chrome, Telegram.

The high half of my homescreen is dedicated to folders for issues like streaming music and TV, information, navigation, social media, banking, and so forth. The backside half is for my most-used apps: Instagram, Spotify, Google Maps, Photos, Camera, and, in fact, The Verge. Those can change typically. For instance, I’ll transfer Instagram and TikTok out (or delete them fully), if I’m within the thoughts to cut back my doomscrolling. The dock is reserved for nonnegotiables: Gmail, iMessage, Telegram, and Chrome. My spouse is the alternative. Her cellphone is only a chaos of random apps unfold throughout a number of screens. Couldn’t be me.

I additionally requested Andy to share a number of 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 every thing, and we’ll function a few of our favorites right here each week. For much more nice suggestions, try the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“Slow Gods, by Claire North. It’s a banger!” — Eliot

“Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries was the sassy, perfect romp I needed this holiday season. (I haven’t yet watched the TV show.) I’m currently pairing that with Margaret Atwood’s memoir (a little highbrow balance) and the ultimate cozy setup: espresso from my Profitec 600 machine that’s kept warm by the real MVP, an Ember Mug 2.” — Lauren

“I’m relistening to old Retronauts pods. The more Bob Mackey in my life, the better.” — Brad

“An app I started using because Instagram has decided that authentic content was meaningless has been Retro. I got a free year of the premium subscription and am basically just using it as a personal photo journal rather than a social network.” — Ryan

“This glorious video, ‘Durrr ChatGPT.’ It’s mind-boggling when I see people use it for practically everything these days. This video perfectly captures my mood and I keep going back to it. It is made with pure rage and you can feel it.” — Yagya

“Just got myself a Pixel Buds 2a after realising that I don’t, in fact, need some expensive Ultra or Pro earbuds. Love these things and how light they are. They just work! (And have no settings I need to dig deep for!) Bonus points for acting as a temporary Find My tracker. All this at $99.” — Anshuman

“This deep dive into why the ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV rollout and deployment has been such a fiasco is fascinating and slightly infuriating!” — Eric

“I recommend the Espro portable coffee maker. I travel to Italy for work regularly and the country has a coffee volume problem for Americans. No, that one-ounce espresso isn’t going to wake me up. I tried an Aeropress previously but it has a lot more pieces and cleanup. The Espro gives me a decent volume with easy cleaning and storage.” — Sean

“I’ve been meaning to recommend Mr. Owen Cutts on TikTok. He does something called Old Music Friday, and it’s awesome! He plays classic soul, R&B songs, and goes through what makes them great. But that’s not the best part — he gets so into the music he dances….. it’s just gotta be seen to enjoy.” — Brian

“I recently started using ChatGPT to play a solo RPG. (Solo RPGs are games where you receive random events by rolling dice/drawing cards and then journaling what happens.) Rather than writing a few simple sentences of what happened, I have ChatGPT take my plot points and write a paragraph. Then, I use ElevenLabs to narrate the scene to me. It is honestly really fun.” — Albert

One of my New Year’s resolutions this 12 months is to scroll much less and sport extra. I’m not making an attempt to not waste time on my cellphone, I simply need to waste that point in a method that makes me really feel good and never unhealthy. So which means a lot of limits on social apps, and complete free rein on the NYT Games app, Puzzmo, Balatro, and the remainder of the locations I can pour hours and hours of free time.

This shift has, considerably unexpectedly, made me completely love Apple Arcade. For $6.99 a month, I get a bunch of unique video games and, extra importantly, a number of video games with out advertisements or in-app buy shenanigans. As a outcome, I’m taking part in extra video games — and making an attempt extra new ones — than ever. I’ve even began taking part in Asphalt 8 once more, which is far more enjoyable when it’s not begging you for cash on a regular basis. Now I simply have to recollect the right way to cease crashing a lot.