Apple’s new Airtags are a pleasant improve to a easy gadget

Hi, mates! Welcome to Installer No. 114, your information to the very best and Verge-iest stuff on this planet. (If you’re new right here, welcome, ship Arc Raiders ideas, and likewise you may learn all of the outdated editions on the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been studying about wind turbines and phishing scams and oboes, protecting organized with the ultra-minimal Attn app, testing the stunning Aeronaut Bluesky consumer, spending an excessive amount of time researching electric snow shovels, lastly upgrading my trusty podcast headphones to a new Beyerdynamic pair, beginning my umpteenth rewatch of Superstore, and debating whether or not to swap my iPhone 16 for an iPhone 17 or a Pixel 10. I believe I’m going Pixel.

I even have for you a pleasant improve to an Apple gadget, an awesome new AI search instrument, a few glorious new issues to observe, new Sonos gear, and way more.

And I’ve a query: What’s your favourite non-Big Tech piece of tech? I’m listening to from lots of people who, for quite a lot of causes, need to ditch units and companies from Google or Apple or Amazon or Microsoft or any variety of different corporations. If you may have, and also you’ve had an awesome expertise, inform me about it! I’m [email protected] and @davidpierce.11 on Signal, and I need to hear all the pieces you want. For now, tons to do, let’s go.

(As all the time, the very best a part of Installer is your concepts and ideas. What are you studying / watching / listening to / taking part in / constructing out of snow this week? Tell me all the pieces: [email protected]. And if you understand another person who may take pleasure in Installer, ahead it to them and inform them to subscribe right here.)

He in all probability doesn’t know this, however Christopher Mims (who I consider I’ve by no means known as something apart from “Mims”) gave me among the greatest writing recommendation I’ve ever gotten. Back after we used to work collectively at The Wall Street Journal, where he is a tech columnist, he taught me a ton about methods to be crisp and clear, and most of all methods to simply say the factor you imply proper up prime.

Case in level: Mims’ new guide, How to AI, which simply got here out this week. I’m many of the means by it, and to date it’s glorious; easy, thorough, comprehensible, neither devoted to explaining why AI is a god that may save us or to attempting to tear it to shreds. It is precisely what the title suggests. It’s nice.

I requested Mims to share his homescreen, and a few stuff he’s into, simply to see if he’d actually gone full AI or not. I’ve excellent news:

The cellphone: I needed to test the settings. I do know. It’s an iPhone 15. I’m a “work gave me this phone” man. It actually doesn’t matter as of late, I can’t consider anybody cares whether or not their cellphone is newer than, say, 2-3 generations in the past, until they’re utilizing it consistently for pictures or capturing movies.

The wallpaper: Apple’s generic “here’s Earth from space right now.” I wish to be reminded we’re, as Carl Sagan mentioned, a mote of mud suspended in a sunbeam.

The apps: Google Keep, Google Tasks, Chrome, Hark, Google Maps, Spotify, Overcast, BitCam, Camera, Phone, Messages.

In the lower-left nook is BitCam. If you may have an attachment to the unique black-and-white dithering algorithm, and like the best way high-contrast photographs look in it, it’s for you. On the proper facet is Hark, which I really like as a result of it’s the one podcast clipper / aggregator I do know of and their editorial judgment is beautiful.

I additionally requested Mims 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 effectively! Email [email protected] or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — along with your suggestions for something and all the pieces, 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 post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“I’ve been obsessing over The Roottrees are Dead, a game where you play an investigator in 1998 attempting to put together a family tree. You do this using era-appropriate internet search engines and a corkboard with string. Also the soundtrack that plays is the perfect vibe.” — Jonathan

“I use Apple’s Home app to control all the smart stuff in the house. I installed Wemo light switches six-ish years ago. They never worked consistently. Recently swapped them out for these Matter-enabled Tapo ones. Whether it’s Matter or six-years-newer technology, they haven’t lost connection with the Home app once. Highly recommended.” — Ryan

“The Mecha Comet is a modular Linux handheld and I’ve fallen in love with it!” — @trainsandinternet

“I’m playing through Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and lamenting over how badly Microsoft dropped the ball with this iconic IP. (You had Cortana, that could’ve been your cool AI assistant, but you killed it?! And the Halo TV series! And the latest Halo games!)” — Anshuman

“Watching Send Help, aka the third gory horror movie I’ve seen in the cinemas this month.” — Kev

“I recently discovered FocusFlight, and it has become the app I turn to when I need to dive into focused work. It’s a really cool mix of ideas, and as an aviation nut, it’s a great app for me to use while I’m trying to stay focused on work or any other activity. It does need to cut back on the number of taps needed to start a session, but it’s a really solid idea that recently added a mode where you can watch the clouds fly by your airplane window while you focus.” — Adam

“My Fiio Snowsky Disc DAP AliExpress order came in last weekend, and I’ve been having lots of fun with it this week. It’s modeled to call back to an earlier generation of music players, this time a minidisc unit. Extremely tiny (palm-sized unit), can slap a sizable microSD card in it, and has great sound quality and power output.” — Brian

“The newest Pokémon TCG Pocket update just dropped this week, so I’ll be ripping packs and building some fun new decks. Excited about Stadium cards finally in the game!” — Bob

“I wanted to recommend Blood on the Clocktower 🙂 It’s a social deduction game, similar to Mafia, Werewolf, or Among Us, but it has the added advantage of making every role useful and players can participate even after their death. It’s really having a moment, thanks to No Rolls Barred and Good Time Society featuring a lot of the Dropout cast in their recent games. I love watching all the showcases of how games can be run, and I hope to find a group to play it with one day!” — Jack

I’ve written about this earlier than right here, however I’ve change into completely enamored with the idea of local-first software program. The thought is simple: that software program shouldn’t be designed on the idea that it’s accessing a bunch of your knowledge within the cloud, however that all the pieces it wants is already in your gadget. It ought to nonetheless have all of the options you need, be obtainable in all places, and be completely collaborative, but it surely ought to include all of the pace and safety of a bunch of information in your laptop. Loading screens are the enemy.

The staff at Ink & Switch wrote a great essay about local-first software program some time again, and this week I discovered CultRepo’s 10-minute YouTube doc that digs in on the idea much more. The entire factor simply makes sense to me, and the local-first tenets are already altering how I search for and use software program. Files for the win.