Hello friends! welcome to Installer No. 150, your guide to the best and Edge-The most important things in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy Halloween, and you can also read all the old editions in the Installer main page.)
This week I was in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee for a family vacation. It was a delight (and the reason why this week Installer It’s a little short). I have also been reading about job search and 30 rock and crypto detectivestesting the pathopathoir browser after many of you told me to add it to the list, seeing the adorable new pixar shorts over and over again, getting caught in vision questplaying with my new Pebble Index 01 Now that it’s finally here, listening to music on my new, modern CMF S Speakerand eating a worrying amount of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.
I also have for you some new gear from Apple and Amazon, a better way to read books on your phone, a resurrected note-taking app, an absurdly expensive robovac, and much more. Let’s do it.
(As always, the best part of Installer They are your ideas and advice. What are you watching/reading/listening to/playing/giving to trick-or-treaters this week? Tell me everything: [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy InstallerForward them and tell them to subscribe here).
- The new iPad Mini. With apologies to the iMac with touch screenThis is the most intriguing new Apple product of the week. I’m also bothered that there’s no ProMotion display, but I’m excited that it’s thinner and lighter, and I’m very I’m excited about the idea of a functionally water and dust resistant tablet.
- The Alexa Photo Frame. He Echo Show 16 It’s a fantastic smart home hub, but $500 is too much for me. But a $200 digital photo frame that is also, sometimes, just when you need it, a smart home hub and timer? That will end up in my living room. And that of my parents. And my in-laws.
- nvAlt. One of the best note-taking apps of all time has received its first update in a long time and can now run on modern Macs. (The developer is also working on nvUltra, which is in beta and is even better.) If you’re a plain text annotator, you’ll want to come back to this app.
- chromatograph. Director Rian Johnson (yes, that one) worked with his favorite cinematographer to make it possible to process iPhone photos the way they like. An extremely opinionated camera app from people who have earned those opinions. I love it.
- “I love the iPod. ruined everything.” This Mic The Snare video is both a very good history of the iPod and a surprisingly convincing theory that the iPod is to blame for some of the worst things in modern life. I still miss my gold iPod Mini.
- reading books. A really attractive and powerful app to buy, read and keep track of your books. Right now it’s a little bit “better Kindle” and a lot “better Goodreads.” So far I mainly use social media to get recommendations from strangers, which is very good for me. This went straight to the Boox Palma home screen.
- Zero Ghost Blade. This one is currently burning up the Steam charts. People love the martial arts-inspired combat system and the overall aesthetic of the game, and I even hear good things about the music.
- no man’s sky. This is definitely one of the biggest and most ambitious games to ever come to iOS (and all it took was a decade!). It also works on almost all recent iPhones and iPads. Don’t be fooled by the Free sign at the top; the game costs $20. But it’s worth it.
- The Serene Matic. Two things here. One, $1,700 is an absolutely ridiculous price for a robot vacuum cleaner, no matter how good it is. Two, “we made it quieter” is perhaps the quickest way to get me in particular to want your robot vacuum cleaner. Please friends don’t let me buy this.
This is what Installer the community is in this week. I want to know what you’re up to now too! Email [email protected] or message me on Signal, @davidpierce.11, with your recommendations for anything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here each week. For even more great recommendations, check out the answers to this post in Threads and this post on Bluesky.
“Currently viewing: vision quest. It’s pretty good! James Spader has really stolen the show, but I’m a little biased as a big Blacklist admirer.” —Spencer
“I am using Call me to coordinate when my friends and I call each other. You can tap “I’m free for the next 15/30/60 minutes” and your friends will receive a notification. When you are both free, you can call each other (outside the app). Facilitates reconnection.” — Jordan
“I’ve spent the last few days working on my Top 10 for WXPN’s annual edition. 885 best. This year it’s the ‘Top 885 Songs from Movies and TV’ and it’s especially challenging.” —Ben
“The only game I play religiously is Sam’s CluesA daily logic puzzle game where the goal is speed and accuracy. Since everyone starts at the same place, your time is your score and it’s a lot of fun to compete with friends every day. Puzzles range from easy (~2 minutes) on Mondays to brutal (up to ~15 minutes) on Sundays. I would 100% recommend adding it to your daily rotation.” – Adam
“Maybe a niche, but steam frame and try older 3D media that failed or became obsolete. “3DS stereoscopic games and 3D movies run better than ever on original hardware, on devices with a dedicated individual screen for each eye.” – Mango
“I’m so into it vivaldi Browser now, with the appearance and all the customizations. 😍” — Oscar
“Spend more time learning about the AT protocol for a class project. Technology is great. Fell down the rabbit hole mental poker crypto.” – Jaime
“The YouTube channel Digging the big ones by Brandon Shaw is fantastic for music lovers like me. Take an in-depth look at albums and songs in full-length videos, from Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ to Kendrick Lamar. To pimp a butterfly. I also recently finished two of a four-part video series: one where I just listened to music on an iPod for a month and another where I explored the history of cassettes and mixtapes. I highly recommend checking out his channel if you love music! —Josh
“He dark matter The end is this week.” —Steve
“I used Firefox for a long time, but I really don’t like their stance on AI and all the crap they keep adding (VPN, for example). So I went to free wolfwhich is a fork of Firefox that removes all telemetry and AI and also preconfigures a lot of boosting. I have not encountered any problems with any website or streaming content.” — Nicolas
Back in the day, before I was working in the basement and leaving the house occasionally, I had a real soft spot for laptop bags. Even now, I don’t need a new one at all, but after seeing it Video by Byron Seven As for designing a laptop sleeve, desk organizer, or backpack, I desperately want the one he made. Even if you don’t want the product, watch the video – it’s an interesting look at the product design and just a fabulously made video about a bag.
