An early contender for movie of the year
Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 120, your guide to the best and Edge-the most thing in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for Pen Opinions, and you can also read all the back editions on the Installer home page.)
This week I read something about Banksy And music apps And agents of influencewhile watching Netflix documents on the manosphere And The Red Hot Chili Peppersamazed Ed Sheeran and Benny Blanco write songsenjoying Young Sherlock more than I expected, by instantly subscribing to Joanna Stern’s new technology channelusing the Sleep with me podcast to fall asleep, and make lots of brownies with the unbeatable Costco mix.
I also have a must-see movie for the weekend, some fun new ways to play with AI, a deliciously inventive piece of furniture, and much more. Let’s do this? Let’s do this.
(As always, the best part of Installer these are your ideas and advice. What are you watching/reading/listening to/playing/sticking to the wall with thumbtacks this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know anyone else who might enjoy it Installerforward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)
- Hail Mary Project. According to pretty much everyone I know and read, you need to see this movie. In a theater. As soon as humanly possible. I admit that I didn’t like the book as much as The Martian – I loved this book and this movie – but I’m still getting tickets for this one this weekend.
- AirPods Max 2. Honestly? It’s outrageous that Apple updated these earbuds without making them lighter or fixing that stupid charging case. But, in the sense that they’re “only better AirPods Max,” they’re better in a lot of really useful ways. Just, I mean, the case. Come on.
- Jury duty season two. The first season was one of the sneaky delights of my recent television history, to the point where I still believe it was too good to be true. And apparently, they did it again! This time the installation is a corporate retreat, and I’m so ready for it.
- Netlify.New. I only recently discovered Netlify, which is a surprisingly simple way to deploy web applications. The platform’s latest feature – integrating AI agents so you can also create an app with a prompt – works surprisingly well and is a fun way to play with actually working mood-coded software.
- The Boox Go 10.3 Gen II. A nice update for a great old e-reader. You get a new(er) version of Android, a nice front light (if you buy the Lumi model, which you should), and, as always, all the Android apps you can stomach on an E Ink display.
- The laundry chair. Nobody does it like Simone Giertz. This project is extremely fun and a little retro, and Also incredibly practical! I’m always guilty of throwing my clothes on a chair, and the idea of organizing some of that chaos without having to clean up is very appealing. (Technically this is from last week, but I missed it so I thought I’d share.)
- Distribution Claude Cowork. Another day, another OpenClaw but less dangerous. I’m fascinated by the extent to which messaging apps are becoming the interface to these AI agents, and the power of the things people are willing to do from their phones.
- Creation of Google AI Studio. A big swing from Claude Code, done in the style of Gemini. I’ve heard good things about what people are building (and I also hear good things about Pointthe company’s new AI design system). Looks like we’re heading into a really interesting three-way battle to become your AI Everything app.
When I asked you for recommendations on pens and notebooks, I didn’t expect that amazing number of recommendations I would receive! (Obviously I should have done that; the lesson, as always, is to never underestimate the Installerverse.) Since my screen sharing manager failed during the week and I had so many good things, let’s do an impromptu group project.
As I suspected, everyone has their favorite notebook and pen, and there are a million good options. (Thanks to Tim, who showed me the Japanese stationery pricesan absolute goldmine of cool organization and productivity stuff, and to Omar for sending me Peter McKinnon’s very inspiring setup.) But there are a few products and brands that have come up in my inbox a lot this week:
- Light Tower 1917. The big winner in my inbox this week was this German company, whose Classic notebooks seem to be universally loved. They come in many sizes and colors, but I’ve heard the most love for the A5 size. I bought a few.
- Field notes. No particular surprise here: no one makes small, durable, well-designed notebooks like Field Notes does. A few of you mentioned using them as more disposable companions to larger, more permanent notebooks, and I really like that idea.
- Baronfig. Many of you like the Confidant notebook, which is also one that I have used and enjoyed in the past. I got a few votes for the Squire a pen too, which costs $65, but you swear it’s worth it.
- Traveler’s Company. This is a completely new brand to me, but it not only offers popular laptops, but an entire ecosystem of accessories, charms, stands, and clips, so you can completely over-engineer your laptop setup. That’s definitely my kind of thing.
The pens were, on the contrary, even more varied. Here are a bunch of recommendations I received that intrigued me, most of them much cheaper than I expected! It turns out that you can just go to the store and buy a really good pen. I don’t know Nothing about pens, so here are some recommendations I received:
- THE Safari LAMYand upgrade CP1.
- THE Fisher Space Pen.
- THE Le Pen Le Pen.
- THE Fine Uni-Ball Eye And JetStream.
- THE Precise Driver V5. (No one has written about this, but my colleague Liz would kill me if I didn’t mention her favorite pen in the whole world.)
You’ve also shared many great tips and tricks, a few of which have already taken me to heart. Thicker paper is better paper; dot-grid notebooks are a great catch-all; don’t try to build a whole nice system at the start; do not use a full fountain pen until you are ready to use a full fountain pen. I appreciate everyone who took the time to share systems and recommendations, and when my packages get here, I think I’ll try to go…well, not complete analog, but at least a little more analog. I’m very excited about it.
Here is what Installer the community is active this week. I also want to know what you are doing at the moment! E-mail installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here each week. For even more great recommendations, check out the answers to this article on discussions And this post on Bluesky.
“I just finished the first part of 13 of Fela Kuti: Fear no manwhich had completely escaped my attention until I saw it on both The New Yorker‘sand The guardianEnd of year podcast lists. -Richard
“Unfortunately, I became a little obsessed with Wikipedia Gachathe new Wikipedia card collecting game. — Yoinks
“I play with a 10 year old child Olympus Lite E-PL8 Penretrieved from Map Camera, Tokyo. Small enough to carry around every day, but large enough (with a Micro Four Thirds sensor) to take much better photos than an iPhone. And with the old silver lens, it’s much cooler! -Brian
“I just discovered the Revive site, which adds a host of tools/games/utilities to your Kindle via the browser in an E Ink-enabled web page! —André
“I look The fall and rise of Reggie Dinkins (basically 30 Rock) And Scrubs (literally Scrubs) so I’m desperately trying to trick my brain into thinking it’s 2008.” -Zach
“As 1Password increased the price, I tried Safe and it’s even more pleasant. — Sergei
“After what seemed like a street blitz last Friday, I resumed Esoteric reflux on Steam and spent most of the weekend playing it! I didn’t play Disco Elysée for now, but I heard it’s really in that vein of games. I highly recommend jumping into the Cleric’s boots to find out what happened to the teahouse, as well as who to vote for. -Adam
“I recently discovered the daily illustration that accompanies each New York Times Relationships puzzle, accessed by tapping the light bulb icon above the puzzle. He gives one or two little clues to the solution in a very creative way. Even though I don’t need to use it for help, I enjoy looking at it every day and find it strangely calming! -Tom
I wore an Apple Watch for years. Then I got one new Pebble 2 Duoswhich I like! Except I don’t like what it looks like. I also want a little less technology on my body at all times, which is why I’m back in the market for a watch that’s relatively unsophisticated but also not ugly to wear. Surprisingly hard to find!
The best part of my trip so far has been going down the rabbit hole of Casio modders: watchmakers taking these simple digital watches apart and improving them in all sorts of ways. Sometimes they get new features, sometimes they are torn down and completely rebuilt from scratch. I looked this modified A700 all week, and I’m in love with Adam Savage’s Casio Royale watch. The modding community is so fun and so full of great ideas that I have a feeling I’m going to own too many watches eventually. Not fancy, though.
