The right way to use widgets and wallpapers to revamp your cellphone

Hello, mates! Welcome to Installer No. 6, your information to one of the best and Verge-iest stuff on the earth. (For those who’re new right here, to start with, hello, hi there, welcome, and second of all, you possibly can learn all of the previous editions on the Installer homepage.) 

This week, I’ve been watching the wacky sci-fi sequence Command Z from Steven Soderbergh, updating all my browsers to repair a scary safety difficulty, studying and listening to Cory Doctorow rage towards Large Tech, cackling at this video concerning the state of the Hyperloop, attempting the Endel app as work music as an alternative of my all-day film soundtracks playlist, and slowly cleansing up my digital camera roll with some assist from Swipewipe.

Additionally this week, I’ve for you a bunch of recent Apple gear (stunning, I do know), two books price studying, an app for preserving your loved ones on schedule, some enjoyable AI, and Graham MacAree’s severely minimalist homescreen.

(As at all times, one of the best a part of Installer is your concepts and suggestions. What do you need to know extra about? What superior tips are you aware that everybody else ought to? What app ought to everybody be utilizing? Inform me all the pieces: installer@theverge.com. And if you wish to get each difficulty of Installer a day early in your e-mail inbox you possibly can subscribe right here.)

• The iPhones 15. It’s been a couple of days for the reason that Apple occasion, and I’m nonetheless unsure whether or not I’m excited concerning the iPhone 15 and 15 Professional. I just like the titanium on the Professional, the digital camera, and that it’s lighter! And yay, USB-C! However that’s… kinda it. I feel my 14 will do me simply high-quality for an additional 12 months, however in the event you do improve, know that I’ll be a minimum of barely jealous.
• Apple’s USB-C EarPods. Now these, I’m unequivocally into. I’ve spent years telling everybody to simply purchase a pair of EarPods and maintain them in your bag — they’re $19, their sound high quality is meh, however their mic high quality is unbelievable, and so they’re tremendous helpful for cellphone calls / voice dictation / every time your wi-fi headphones’ battery dies. The brand new ones will work together with your cellphone, laptop computer, work laptop, and mainly all the pieces else. I already purchased two pairs.
• A Million Miles Away. Amazon’s newest unique film is predicated on the story of José Hernández, a migrant farmworker who turned a NASA flight engineer and went to the Worldwide House Station. (He was additionally apparently the primary particular person to tweet in Spanish from house, which is a really cool and really particular factor to trace.) A feel-good film for the weekend if that’s what you’re searching for.
• The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Girls Astronauts. Talking of nice house tales, Bloomberg reporter (and Verge alum!) Loren Grush wrote an awesome guide concerning the six ladies who helped develop and alter the American house program and the large quantity of sexism and pushback they obtained within the course of. Grush was additionally on our Decoder podcast this week, too — it’s a very good hear.
• Elon Musk. Large week for tech books, apparently! I confess I’ve not but cracked Walter Isaacson’s 688-page tome, however I’ve been devouring excerpts and opinions, lots of which say the identical factor: Elon Musk is a deeply sophisticated particular person, undoubtedly a wise particular person, possibly not an excellent particular person, and it’s undoubtedly price asking laborious questions on our current and future.
• Spotify’s Daylist. Probably the most fascinating query within the music enterprise proper now could be this: how do you differentiate your self when all people has all the identical content material? The factor Spotify does greatest is ultra-personalized playlists, and Daylist is an ever-changing, AI-curated one which supposedly matches your temper all day and night time. Thus far, mine have been deeply bizarre — I awakened the opposite day to “mountain music indie people thursday morning,” which, positive — however I actually dig the thought.
• Secure Audio. I’m presently deep down the rabbit gap of AI music-making instruments (for a Vergecast episode coming Monday!), and Secure Audio is likely one of the extra spectacular instruments I’ve seen. It comes from Stability AI, which additionally makes the image-generating Secure Diffusion, and works mainly the identical means: describe the music you need to hear, and some seconds later, it seems. Nothing I’ve made thus far goes to high charts anytime quickly, however it’s an extremely enjoyable factor to play with.
• Monster Hunter Now. That is undoubtedly not a full-on Monster Hunter sport on your cellphone. And The Verge’s Andrew Webster discovered it slightly missing in depth and technique. However what it’s — a real-world sport like Pokemon Go wherein you combat monsters and gather gear when you wait in line on the grocery retailer — continues to be fairly compelling.
• Artifact Hyperlinks. A vital style of app to me is the Puttering App, the one I can simply open and scroll by means of for a couple of minutes at a time within the hopes of discovering one thing enjoyable / fascinating / helpful. Twitter was kinda that, Instagram and Reddit are nonetheless kinda that, and Artifact desires to be precisely that. The news-reading app now enables you to publish any URL on the net, and already, I’m discovering tons of fine stuff following a couple of good folks.

It’s the time of 12 months when immediately I discover myself hating my cellphone. There are new telephones popping out, new variations of Android and iOS available, cool new options and apps and simply a lot new stuff to play with! However this 12 months, slightly than purchase a brand new cellphone to satiate that urge, I’m going to strive giving my cellphone a makeover. 

For recommendation, I turned to Isaac Mosna, who you would possibly know higher as Canoopsy on YouTube and across the net. He makes nice tech movies but additionally creates wallpapers, icons, and extra cool cellphone stuff. I requested him to share a couple of tips about learn how to higher customise your cellphone in order that mine would possibly look as cool as his does:

• Begin contemporary. “Take all the pieces off your homescreen, put it within the app library, after which begin dragging issues over. It’s a good way to start out contemporary with out actually beginning contemporary in the event you’ve had the identical cellphone for some time.”
• Have only one solution to do issues. “Attempt going with a really minimal setup. Don’t have your digital camera within the dock since you should utilize the Management Heart. Android and iOS each could make your cellphone easier, simpler to make use of, and extra satisfying. Nobody likes to see 1,000 issues once they flip their cellphone on.”
• Preserve it altering. “Discover methods to cycle by means of completely different wallpapers, like by setting an album as an alternative of a single image. Whether or not it’s one thing that modifications each hour or each time you flip your cellphone on, it’s a good way to have a brand new cellphone each time.”
• Embrace house. “On Android, it’s very easy to depart empty spots on the display screen. On iOS, you should utilize issues like Clear Areas to have clean areas or put all the pieces on one aspect of your cellphone the place your hand naturally rests.”
• Cover your widgets. “With Clear Areas, you too can make widget stacks the place you will have the clean widget in your homescreen after which swipe to one thing else — it’s like a hidden drawer of widgets. It’s fairly enjoyable.”
• One homescreen. One. “I can’t assume with a number of homescreens. Both put all the pieces else within the app library or drawer or categorize issues into folders in your homescreen.”

Final week, once I requested Jennifer Pattison Tuohy to share her homescreen, it sparked a complete dialogue within the Verge newsroom about what number of apps all of us had. Most individuals, not surprisingly, had so much!

Graham MacAree, a senior storytelling engineer right here at The Verge, didn’t have so much. He had 22. And even that, he determined, was too many. So I figured, in a time of recent telephones and new software program and basic technological maximalism, I’d see what life was like alllllll the best way on the opposite aspect. 

Right here’s Graham’s homescreen, plus some data on the apps he makes use of and why:

The Telephone: An iPhone 13 Professional. That is the primary cellphone I’ve owned that I truly get pleasure from utilizing … ish.

The Apps: Everybody’s on WhatsApp in England, so I solely really want one chat app. Gmail, Messages, and Authenticator are all pretty normal. I’ve discovered Citymapper to be higher than Maps at serving to me navigate London’s numerous transit outages, and I reluctantly use Uber when mentioned outages inconvenience me an excessive amount of.

Monzo is a British financial institution, and it’s on my cellphone as a result of it’s app-only. My Roomba helps maintain my home “free” of canine hair, after which Pokémon House lets me proceed my extraordinarily low-key quest for a dwelling Pokédex. MLB is for when the Seattle Mariners are enjoying whereas I’m out and about (reside sports activities are mainly the one issues I’ll watch on a cellphone display screen). Spotify will get used so much, as does Chrome. Having stop Twitter and Fb, I don’t have any social media apps in the meanwhile, however I’m typically briefly tempted by Bluesky.

Normally, I’m precisely the appropriate age to have realized to do all the pieces on my laptop as an alternative of my cellphone, and I’ve by no means up to date my habits in mild of the truth that I reside within the twenty first century. If I take advantage of one thing greater than as soon as a month or so, it lives on the homescreen.

The Wallpaper: Usually, this may be {a photograph} of my youngsters, however I’d slightly they not be on-line. I quickly switched my wallpaper to a cool image of Sharpless 132, which is about 10,000 light-years away. It’s mainly an infinite fuel cloud, which hides some extremely large/vivid stars. Additionally, my dad took the {photograph}, in order that’s neat, too.

As at all times, I additionally requested Graham to share a couple of issues he’s into proper now. Right here’s what he shared:

• Dancing! I’ve begun choreography for an Argentine Tango recital in November, in order that’ll occupy various my life over the close to future. I’ve been dancing severely for nearly three years now and do performances about twice a 12 months. It’s nerve-wracking however enjoyable.
• Portray movies. I’m enjoying round with the thought of getting again into Warhammer 40,000 as a result of portray tiny folks / monsters / tanks appears doubtlessly stress-free. Proper now, that concept manifests itself as watching different folks paint tiny folks / monsters / tanks, which is certainly stress-free. Will I ever progress to doing this myself? Who can say.

Right here’s what the Installer group is into this week. I need to know what you’re into proper now as nicely! E-mail installer@theverge.com together with your suggestions for something and all the pieces, and we’ll characteristic a few of our favorites right here each week. 

“A variety of my life, on-line and offline, is captured on Futureland — a journal / routine organizer / tracker hybrid that may be slightly laborious to clarify however feels splendidly natural in apply. One of many few quiet, satisfying locations on the web, and the one app on my cellphone that persistently will get me trying up from the display screen and shifting towards what I need to be doing.” — Min-Taec

“At the moment hooked on enjoying Finity on Apple Arcade.” — Scott

“Calculator apps are boring and haven’t seen any innovation, till Numbr! It’s a notepad combined with a calculator, and I’ve used it solely as my calculator for a number of years. It’s primarily an online app, however there’s additionally a helpful Chrome extension, and all of the syntax is defined on their Github.” — Ross

“I’ve been OBSESSED with Usagi Shima, slightly bunny-collecting chill island sport with vibes paying homage to Neko Atsume and a little bit of Animal Crossing rest.” — Evelyn

“Subscribed to Tessie. Permits my Apple Watch for use as a Tesla key much like my cellphone. Undecided learn how to really feel about it, however it’s been tremendous handy!” — Chris

“My spouse discovered the app FamilyWall — it’s our widespread app for recipes, meal planning, contacts, budgets, and bucket lists. What I like is that the app connects issues: once I enter a recipe, I can plan the meal for a selected day and add the substances to the grocery record. I may join the calendar with different Outlook calendars so I’ve personal and work calendars in sight. Moreover, we will share notes and photos and make particular person timetables.” — Chris

“One Sec. This app primarily lets you arrange a delay (known as an intervention) when opening specified apps. For instance, I’ve a 20-second respiratory train intervention setup when opening up social media apps on my cellphone, and it received’t let me entry the app till that train is full. I’ve discovered it very helpful in getting my consideration once I mindlessly open up social apps in the course of the day or throughout small ready durations like ready for a espresso. It’s a subscription app for iOS and Android (Android is a beta), however it’s fairly low cost, and so they have a one-time license in the event you don’t need the fixed subscription.” – Andrew

“The brand new Digicam app from Blackmagic, plus their cloud integration in order that a number of cameras can all add to Davinci on the identical time.” — Iestyn

“As an alternative of counting on Rotten Tomatoes for questionable film scores, use Letterboxd. As a bonus, a number of the opinions for the actually unhealthy films are tremendous enjoyable. The Flash, with 2.7 stars out of 5: ‘the cgi on this film makes superman’s mustache removing appear like a murals.’ Honesty and humor. Cooks kiss. ” — Brandon

“Flight Radar 24 is great. Need to know the place that jet overhead is headed? Pop open the app and activate AR for a reside overlay. I even have all emergency alerts as silent notifications. Often, you get navy jets or huge flight diversions. This week, I discovered the SIN-JFK longest flight on the earth goes over my mum or dad’s home.” — Sean

“I’m actively listening and altering my ringtone and notification sounds with those launched by iOS 17. They’re so good!” — Gabriel

I’m obsessive about scooters. Scooters you purchase, scooters you hire, scooters you pay for by the minute after which throw into the river if you’re finished — I really like all of them. And I can’t keep in mind the final time I fell for a scooter like the brand new Honda Motocompacto. It’s totally impractical in each means — solely 12 miles of vary, weighs over 40 kilos, appears like an enormous floppy disk on two wheels, prices $995 — however I need to toodle round my neighborhood on this factor in a means you wouldn’t consider. Extra bizarre scooter design, please!