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Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 107, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope you’re having a lovely and long weekend, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about Faker and Chinese EVs and art thieves, shopping for cool acoustic tiles for my new home office, using a night-light app to surprisingly useful effect, testing the Pebble 2 Duo, devouring the Colossus series from Search Engine, finally starting to watch Pluribus, wrestling with the dumb app for my dumb new thermostat, moving some of my browsing habits to Kagi’s Orion, and finally reconnecting all my smart home gear to an Echo Dot Max. And, as much as possible, I’ve been trying to disconnect and hang out with my family. Or at least sit near them and look at my phone, which totally counts.
I also have for you the biggest thing to hit Netflix this year, a rad-looking new comic series, the latest and greatest version of Claude, and much more. Short week, big stuff to get to! Let’s do it.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you playing / reading / watching / shopping for / baking at 400 degrees this week? 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.)
- Stranger Things season 5. Stranger Things occupies such a strange place in my brain. It has never been my favorite thing on TV, but I have devoured every season of it, and I can’t wait for the new season to start. Be prepared, though: it’s eight episodes, but it’s… a lot more than eight hours.
- Alton Brown Cooks Food. One of the all-time great TV cooking hosts is back, and doing it big on YouTube. The first episode, about cooking turkey, feels somehow both like a TV show and like a perfect YouTube video. He’s still got it.
- The Beatles Anthology 2025. The original version of this series, from 30 years ago — which includes music, a documentary, and a book — was one of the things that made me love The Beatles in the first place. This version has been remastered, includes even more stuff, and is required consumption for any music fan anywhere.
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Rian Johnson, Daniel Craig, and the rest of the Knives Out gang just don’t seem to miss. This one’s headed to theaters for a couple of weeks before hitting Netflix December 12th, and if I can I plan to see it in both places. I love a good whodunit, and these keep being good whodunits.
- Galactic. I’ve seen this new comic series compared to Star Wars, True Romance, Tarantino movies, and a dozen other things. It’s violent, it’s sci-fi, it’s romance, it sounds pretty awesome.
- Amazon Leo Ultra. Amazon’s Starlink competitor is finally shaping up to be a real thing, and a good thing at that: this new antenna doesn’t have a price yet but does promise up to 1Gbps of download speeds. If you’re shopping for satellite internet anytime soon, this could be a winner.
- “Do You Feel Guilty about Bad Reviews?” Two top-notch creators, Michael Fisher and Marques Brownlee, talking about AI and politics and the creator economy and life after platforms. So much to learn in this for anyone interested in tech, or life as a creator.
- Xbox Crocs. Listen, I like a silly brand integration as much as the next guy, but this? This is next level. It’s Crocs! With buttons! And joysticks! If I can get my hands on a pair these will become my official Gaming Footwear.
- Claude Opus 4.5. Claude is consistently one of the best all-around LLMs, but generally what I hear is that it is at its best when it’s coding. And Opus 4.5 appears to be a big step up in what Claude Code can do. Time to finally finish vibe-coding my perfect productivity app, maybe?
I love a gift guide, at any time of year. Most of my favorites (other than The Verge’s, of course, which is the all-time great and I will hear no other opinions) tend to be just a single person saying, “here’s some stuff I like!” Robin Sloan does great gift guides. So does Helen Rosner. Max Read, too. I’ve found so many things I love because people I like say they’re good.
In that spirit, I come to you with a gift guide that is not remotely scientific or representative of anything, but is instead just a bunch of stuff I like. This is all stuff I’ve paid for with my own money, not just tested with a loaner device from a company. It’s all stuff I like and recommend wholeheartedly. And for the most part, it’s all pretty affordable. So here’s my gift guide for 2025:
- The Nintendo Switch 2. Hands down the best gadget I bought this year. If this thing only played Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Kirby Air Riders, I’d probably still be happy with it. But the library is huge! And getting huger! I’m gaming every day in a way I haven’t in a long time.
- The POP Phone. Hands down the silliest gadget I bought this year, that nevertheless brings me tremendous joy. It plugs into a USB-C port (presumably on your phone) and gives you that old-school landline feel. Way more comfortable than pressing my phone to my ear, and sounds good too.
- Baseus USB cables. I’m still carrying around two of these retractable beasts as my only two charging cables, and it’s still working great. Though I confess, I am tempted by the model that also has the charging brick built in.
- The Hoto Electric Screwdriver. I swear, this is the Black Friday deal of the year every year, and I completely get why. It’s powerful enough for most simple tasks, charges via USB-C, lasts forever — it’s my most-used tool by a mile. (You can spend more to get one with a screen, but… why.)
- The Doorman. The most un-put-down-able book I read this year. It unfolds in the most unusual way, and almost seems like it can’t possibly all come together in a satisfying way. But oh, boy, does it ever.
- The Logitech UE Wonderboom. There are a million Bluetooth speakers out there, but nothing beats this squat little dude when it comes to battery life, durability, waterproofing, and sound quality. I have one in the bathroom, one in my travel bag, and one… somewhere else. I lost it. It’ll turn up.
- Acquire. I rediscovered this decades-old board game this year, and was reminded of how much I love it! It’s a simple premise — you’re building and merging hotel chains, one building at a time — but it requires exactly the right amount of thinking and strategy.
- Wits & Wagers. My family randomly encountered this game at a winery one weekend, and it was a huge hit. It’s sort of a trivia game, sort of a betting game, sort of Apples to Apples-ish. I can’t remember a game that went over this well with my entire family.
- Google’s Pixel Buds 2a. I don’t know what it is about these headphones. I have so many other headphones! But I keep picking these. They’re small and light, sound good, feel good in my ears, and if I’m honest, I really do love the purple.
- The Away Overnight Bag. If I’m traveling for between 12 hours and four days, this is the bag I take. It has a few pockets and a laptop sleeve, and a surprisingly roomy spot for all my clothes.
- Philips Hue Essential bulbs. I bought a bunch of these just recently, at my colleague Jen Tuohy’s recommendation, and they’re exactly what I need: relatively affordable, easy to set up, compatible with everything. I don’t want to think at all about my lightbulbs, you know? I don’t think about these anymore.
- The Brick. For some reason, this thing just works for me: I have a Brick in my office and another in the kitchen, and just by tapping my phone on the little cube I’m able to turn my phone to a more minimalist mode. I should use it more, but I use it a lot.
- The M4 Mac Mini. This is obviously a bigger purchase, but it is also the computer I recommend to almost everyone looking to upgrade their desktop. This combination of price and power is absolutely ridiculous — I have one as my daily driver and I couldn’t be happier.
One other note on shopping this weekend: there are obviously lots of good sales running, for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and whatever we call this shopping season that now lasts approximately four weeks. But I’d argue the best thing you can buy right now is streaming services. They’re all constantly raising prices, but almost all offer a terrific deal on an annual subscription right about now. The deeply confusing future of television is a lot more palatable at half price.
Now it’s your turn: send me the stuff you’re buying for others and hoping they buy for you! Next week’s Installer is going to be even more gift-y.
I first met Naveen Gavini a couple of years ago, when he was Pinterest’s chief product officer. I don’t remember what he wanted to talk about the first time we spoke, but I do remember that he showed me an app on his phone, and his homescreen included a bunch of apps I’d never heard of. That doesn’t happen very often!
Now, Naveen is the CEO of a new company called BuildForever, which just launched its first product: an email app called Extra that aims to totally rethink your relationship with your inbox. (I’ve seen an early demo, and it is fascinating. It also looks nothing like any email app I’ve ever seen — and I’m not sure yet how I feel about that.)
I asked Naveen to share his homescreen with us, to see if there were any other secrets I might be able to learn. Here it is, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:
The phone: iPhone 17 Pro.
The wallpaper: I have a folder on iOS that I save a bunch of nice wallpapers to. It rotates daily — this one is a rainforest that looks great with the iOS 26 depth effect.
The apps: Camera, Photos, Calendar, Notes, Figma, Slack, Oura, Google Maps, Retro, Tangle, Super Me, Tesla, Phone, Messages, Safari, Extra.
As you know, I test a lot of apps, but a few things to call out:
- I love the Pinterest widget, which I use for motivational quotes for daily inspiration.
- I love to post on Retro at least weekly to keep a photo journal of my year and the most important memories, feels like social done right
- Tangle, a new app by Pinterest cofounder Evan Sharp, allows you to be intentional with your time, taking control of your calendar and setting intentions for things you want to achieve. It’s helped me plan to be a more intentional parent and plan fun things with my kids.
- SuperMe: I’m building a startup, and sometimes I have a question about how to do something and want to hear from an expert. It’s an easy way to ask experts and get human answers versus something like a general LLM, which will give you average answers.
- Extra: my new email app. I quickly know what’s important in my day, never miss anything important, can easily take action and filter the noise. I can also ask my inbox anything, it’s awesome!
I also asked Naveen to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:
- Marcusveltri: I spent way too long watching how awesome he is and how he brings joy to people.
- Doloresaurous: Ran into him the other day walking around the streets as a dinosaur, bringing joy to kids and families.
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] or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — 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 Threads and this post on Bluesky.
“I’ve been playing the daily games from Spark. They’ve been great and I’ve been learning things along the way. I love the daily learning habit it’s creating for me.” — Carter
“All about world immersion for me this week. Been reading the first Dungeon Crawler Carl. Super fun and like reading a video game. Accidentally fell down a Kingdom Come Deliverance rabbit hole. Got the new one on sale and decided it was so good that I had to get the first one and play that instead.” — Manny
“Come on, it’s the 4K Criterion release of Eyes Wide Shut, obviously!” — Naught
“Really considering getting a Viwoods AIPaper Reader. Like a Boox Palma, but Carta 1300, Android 16, etc. Waiting on battery tests though.” — Scott
“The Division 2, the video game. Yes, it’s about seven years old now, but it’s still got a huge user base and the dev team is rolling out new stuff all the time. In like a month’s time the game is getting a total redesign to add some things the users have been asking for. It should be pretty exciting!” — Jack
“The Great Work, the debut novel from Sheldon Costa, was my most recent fantastic read.” — Bill
“Home Assistant because, apparently, home automation is my new hobby and I like the idea of local control. Shouldn’t be too long before I’ve locked myself inside my house.” — Lee
“Catching up with Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End before Season 2 hits. It’s an anime that starts where most end: the 10-year quest is over and we see where the party members go from there. It might be the show with the most heart airing right now, and it’s beautiful to look at.” — Yoinks
“I just started In Stars And Time, a black and white RPG with the best character writing I’ve seen in years. Even the annoying character is adorable by the end of the first hour.” — Jordan
I mentioned above that Stranger Things is back this week. I’m excited! It’s also been roughly 648 years since the last season debuted. Luckily, YouTube exists, so rather than try to plow through every episode again I’ve been watching a bunch of series recaps. Turns out this is a whole genre of YouTube I didn’t know about! Here’s the whole series in 24 minutes, and the whole series in 27 minutes, and the whole series also in 24 minutes.
The channel doing this idea the most, at least as far as I can tell, is Man of Recaps, which offers a truly astounding number of single-season and even full-series recaps of shows and movies. (Why you’d want to know everything that happens in Breaking Bad, beginning to end, in 21 minutes is beyond me, but five million views say I’m the silly one here.) Anyway, as ever, YouTube to the rescue. Now I’m very ready for season 5.
Have a great holiday, if you’re celebrating, and see you next week!
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