Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 95, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, new gadget season is starting, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
I also have for you Pixel’s next foldable, new Samsung earbuds, a chill indie game, and more.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Tell me everything: [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)
- Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Google’s newest foldable has an IP68 ingress rating, meaning that it should be significantly more resistant to dust than other foldables. The company made it happen with a new gearless hinge design. When you’re paying nearly $2,000 for your phone, having some extra confidence in its durability goes a long way.
- Pixel Watch 4. The newest Pixel Watch has screws on its chassis that you can remove to more easily repair and replace the screen and the battery. Previous Pixel Watches haven’t been repairable, so this is a major step up for Google.
- Shutter Declutter. Every day, this excellent new iOS app nudges you to look through all of the photos you’ve taken on that date — across all years where you’ve snapped a photo on that date — and swipe left or right to delete or keep them. I’ve been testing it for a few days, and it makes chipping away at my photo library feel much more digestible. Plus, it’s surfaced photos from years ago that I forgot I had.
- Galaxy Buds 3 FE. Samsung’s newest earbuds adopt an AirPods-like stemmed design and have 6 hours of battery life with ANC on and 8.5 with ANC off. And at $149.99, their starting price is $100 cheaper than the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.
- Nanoleaf 4D V2. Nanoleaf has a new version of its immersive TV lighting kit that adds a color-matched glow behind your screen. I’ve always wanted to try one of these — they seem like a fun way to add a little more pop to what you’re watching.
- Insta360’s Go Ultra. Insta360’s new compact action camera has a bigger sensor than the Go 3S and can capture footage at 4K / 60fps. It comes in a square shape instead of a pill, but that change means it can include a larger 500mAh battery.
- Sony InZone Mouse-A. As part of a suite of new InZone gaming peripherals, Sony launched a wireless mouse that weighs just 48 grams. At $149.99, it’s a bit of an investment, but it seems like a decent option if you’re looking for a superlight gaming mouse.
- Herdling. In Herdling, you guide a flock of adorable sheep / woolly mammoth-like creatures through scenic landscapes backed by beautiful music. It’s kind of like Journey, if you played as a shepherd. It’s a slow, chill game that I’ve loved winding down with at the end of the day, and it only takes a few hours to finish.
Today I’m featuring Jane Manchun Wong, who has scooped many, many updates and features coming to tech products and apps over the years (like an early version of then-Twitter’s edit button) and was part of the launch team behind Meta’s Threads. Jane seems to be inside every app, so I wanted to see which ones actually live on her phone. Turns out she has a lot of apps, and they actually seem pretty well organized!
Image: Jane Manchun Wong
The phone: iPhone 16 Pro! It’s a perfect size for me! I used to have the iPhone 15 Pro Max for the 5x optical zoom, but it got clumsy to operate with one hand. Now that the iPhone 16 Pro has the 5x optical zoom, too, I went back to the regular size right away.
The wallpaper: It’s an aerial view taken from my flight to Seattle! I like taking photos and using them as my own wallpaper — in fact, that photo is part of the Photo Shuttle collections on my phone, showcasing my other “Nature” photos in rotation!
The apps: Before you say anything about the grid of folders on my Home Screen, I know I know… even though App Library is a thing now, I’d rather organize them by myself, using the categories that are meaningful to me (like “Outside” for getting around when I’m outside, which includes Waymo, Maps, SF311, ridesharing apps, etc.). Besides, a number of the apps I use are TestFlight builds, which the App Library would lump into the “TestFlight” category anyway.
Also, I have the Kalkyl app up there because it’s really handy for making quick calculations.
I also asked Jane to share a few things she’s into right now. Here’s what she said:
- I’m still monitoring various apps and websites for their upcoming features! As expected, many companies are adapting similar AI-related features in hope to stay relevant (similar to when they adapted social audio and NFT features). It still gives me the spark of joy when companies begin to explore product features that are unique and meaningful to users, not just another button in some text field that opens a chatbot.
- There’s also a few leads about some new hardware that’s being worked on — will share when there’re more signal about it.
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email [email protected] with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on The Verge, this post on Threads, and this post on Bluesky.
“I’ve moved my task management process from Amazing Marvin (which, don’t get me wrong, is a great product) to TickTick. I’ve been writing Apple Shortcuts to try and automate archiving over to Obsidian because I have the data hoarding illness.” — @feather.town
“Lately I’ve gotten a lot of joy out of grabbing PDFs of crossword puzzles and putting them on my Remarkable 2 E Ink writing tablet. Finishing the crossword in the morning beats doomscrolling.” — jontomato
“New Digg, baby!” — dome_node
“I have been newly-enjoying two website resources: Retro Catalog and Retro Handhelds. I am also quite a huge fan of Russ from Retro Game Corps on YouTube, who does some very lovely discussions about this wonderful world of retro handhelds.” — verge_user_m498isna
“Boys Go to Jupiter is a brilliantly weird animated film about a teen trying to raise $5,000 as a delivery driver in surreal Florida. It has a unique video game-inspired animation style, sublime lofi music, and unapologetically bizarre humor that creates one of the most original moviegoing experiences in years!” — Daniel
“I suspect most Verge readers know about Beeper, but it has a hidden use case that they probably haven’t thought about: accessing DMs without risking getting sucked into an app. Struggling to break your debilitating reels addiction or checking Discord servers any time you get an Instagram or Discord DM? You can use Beeper to separate the DMs from the attention vortex part of those apps. Maybe you can even uninstall the main app and just keep DMs!” — boblin
“I just finished Aisling Rawle’s The Compound. If you’re a fan of Love Island but wished there was more dystopia and violence, boy do I have the book for you. On the comics front, Absolute Martian Manhunter is the best showcase for the medium we’ve had in a minute. Also, I’ve been slowly re-watching Mr. Robot for the first time and it is incredible (also, slightly depressing) how well this show still holds up.” — SocialJerm
For those of you who watched the Made by Google event this week, how did you feel about the live, Jimmy Fallon-hosted format? It was certainly a big departure from the usual Big Tech keynote vibe. I personally prefer a more traditional news- and spec-filled show, but I get the sense myself and Verge / Installer readers aren’t who the event was meant for. But you tell me! And I do respect Google for trying something different.
Also, a quick programming note: I’m on vacation next week, so there won’t be a new issue of Installer until September 6th. See you next month!
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