Toy Story 5 has the appropriate tackle tech

Hi, associates! Welcome to Installer No. 133, your information to the most effective and Verge-iest stuff on the planet. (If you’re new right here, welcome, blissful belated Juneteenth, and likewise you possibly can learn all of the previous editions on the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been studying about Sam Bankman-Fried and PE Guy and admin nights (which we must always completely all do collectively certainly one of lately), listening to Paul McCartney on Song Exploder, trudging via the bugs of the iOS 27 beta so as to use the nice new Siri, as soon as once more attempting and failing to change to YouTube Music, free trial-hopping my approach via the World Cup, lastly upgrading my digital camera setup with the Elgato Prompter, and seeing if this strange, cheap headband may also help me go to sleep quicker. So far… inconclusive.

I even have for you the brand new Pixar film price your time, a greater option to maintain your cellphone, a pleasant improve for Android customers, a beautiful new Windows laptop computer, and far more. Let’s do that.

(As at all times, the most effective a part of Installer is your concepts and ideas. What are you watching / studying / enjoying / listening to / doing throughout commercials this week? Tell me all the things: installer@theverge.com. And if another person who may take pleasure in Installer, ahead it to them and inform them to subscribe right here.)

Josh Cajas simply joined The Verge this week as a producer on The Vergecast. (Which is now publishing every single day, and has cool merch, do you know??) Before he joined us, Josh had many lives: He labored within the US House of Representatives, he was in an especially cool and good band, he has made many cool issues and can make many extra with us. He’s additionally simply good folks.

I wish to have new Verge of us share their homescreen with us early of their tenure to see who they really are earlier than they’re dropped right into a crew filled with mechanical keyboard weirdos and to-do listing app maniacs. So right here’s Josh’s homescreen, plus some data on the apps he makes use of and why:

The cellphone: I’ve a Google Pixel 10.

The wallpaper: A photograph I took final 12 months throughout a visit to Japan of the Kiyomizu-dera shrine at sundown (shot on my Pixel 9 Pro XL). Kyoto is extremely picturesque, particularly at the moment of day, and I used to be fortunate sufficient to catch it throughout cherry blossom season.

The apps: Settings, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Keep, Phone, Messages, Edge, Camera, Play Store, Photos, Translate, TrainTime, ChatGPT, Focus Friend, Snipd.

I take advantage of the Microsoft Launcher to ditch the At a Glance widget and search bar, and to let me use icon theme packs. I’ve largely used Flight Pack, Retro Mode – Neon, and Viral to offer my apps extra of a cohesive look. KWGT has additionally been nice for constructing a customized Apple Music widget and utility bar on my homescreen. I additionally love the Google Photos widget biking all through the day, and my canine Butters makes an look in my screenshot!

My first web page covers my necessities (work apps, socials, streaming companies) and a favorites folder for procuring, banking, and meals. Since it’s baseball season, my MLB app sometimes will get lots of use. Not a lot this 12 months, although, with the way in which the Mets are enjoying.

My second web page is for health and productiveness. I’m a giant Pixel Watch man, so my Google Health widget is entrance and heart, alongside my MyFitnessPal widget for every day calorie monitoring. My favourite productiveness app has been Focus Friend by Hank Green that’s equal elements Tamagotchi pet and focus timer. You earn beans each time you activate it and keep off your cellphone, which you’ll then spend on objects in your Bean Friend’s setting. And for podcasts, I’ve used Snipd because it first launched and by no means left it. Its rising listing of AI options like transcriptions, summaries, clips, and insights make it simple for jotting down concepts and catching up on my favourite reveals.

I additionally requested Josh to share a number of issues he’s into proper now. Here’s what he despatched again:

Here’s what the Installer neighborhood is into this week. I wish to know what you’re into proper now as effectively! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — together 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.

“I just watched Cunk on Life. It’s a BBC comedy/documentary on the topic of “life” from an absurdist’s perspective. It’s by Charlie Brooker of Black Mirror. I laughed so exhausting, I gave myself hiccups.” — Kelly

“Really enjoying Young Sherlock on Amazon Prime. It’s Guy Ritchie at his (almost) best: stylish, British, fast talking, crime-ridden, with a dash of humor and a healthy dose of fun.” — Logan

“I’ve been using Wildbirds since closed beta and it’s everything birders want from Instagram, but better.” — Michiel

“Playing Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition — Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and really hoping that these titles change at some point.” — Connor

“I’m studying for a technical exam and put all the materials into Claude. I had it break down the material into daily, 30-minute study chunks to be emailed to me over the next two weeks. Each email has a prompt to do a short quiz at the end. A little wonky to start but it’s working well so far.” — Ian

“I’ve been using the Dirty Little Zine website to make pocket-sized photography zines. Cheap, fun, and easy way to get your photos out of the digital wasteland and into the real world.” — Mark

“Finished reading the series of Silo books in advance of the next season coming in July.” — Chris

“I’m currently going through Craig Alanson’s Expeditionary Force sci-fi novels, they’re kinetic and silly and a bit rough around the edges at the same time, I’m having a blast.” — Carlo

“I’ve gotten back into playing PowerWash Simulator after work. I’m actually kind of excited about Star Wars again after watching The Mandalorian and Grogu a couple of weeks ago so now I am looking forward to the PWS2 Star Wars DLC next month.” — Salt Palace

There was some sneakily huge, Installerverse-adjacent information this week: Google Calendar now has more colors! Instead of simply Google’s dangerous concepts about inexperienced and blue, now you can color-code your calendar with 200 customized colours. The function is rolling out now, and may genuinely change how I plan my days. I’ve been toying with the concept of simply ditching a to-do listing fully and residing my life out of my calendar — I proceed to aspire to be a one-text-file type of particular person — and now I can lastly make my calendar look the way in which I would like it to. I’m combating the urge to get approach too detailed with the color-coding, although I assume that’ll occur. For now I’m simply again to timeblocking like a madman. Feeling highly effective.