One of the best apps and techniques for monitoring films, music, books, and extra

Hello, mates! Welcome to Installer No. 10, your information to the perfect and Verge-iest stuff on this planet. (In the event you’re new right here, hooray! I’m so completely happy you’re right here, and in addition, you possibly can make amends for all of the outdated editions at the Installer homepage.) We made it via 10 weeks! It’s been so enjoyable to make this each week and to speak to you all concerning the cool stuff you’re into. Thanks for being a part of the Installerverse (we’re gonna make {that a} factor, it’s gonna occur), and as at all times, inform me every little thing you suppose we are able to do to make it higher!

This week, I’ve been studying about Marvel’s plan to repair its TV reveals and all the wild testimony from the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, making a lot of deranged artwork in the improved Bing Chat, watching the David Beckham documentary and debating many new hairstyles, asking all the kids in the event that they truly love LinkedIn, and blocking out my weekend to see the Eras Tour film as many instances as potential. 

This week, I even have for you a brand new flip telephone, a giant Roblox launch, a brand new messaging app, some sneaky browser hacks, and oh so some ways to maintain monitor of all of your media. And a deal on some really rad Verge merch!

As at all times, the perfect a part of Installer is your concepts and suggestions. What do you need to know extra about? What superior tips have you learnt that everybody else ought to? What app ought to everybody be utilizing? Inform me every little thing: installer@theverge.com. And if you wish to get each version in your inbox a day early, you possibly can subscribe right here.

This week’s a extremely enjoyable one. Let’s get into it.

• Omnivore. The most effective (and free and open-source) read-later apps obtained a bunch of updates this week — higher highlighting, higher text-to-speech — however I’m actually into the upgraded browser extension, which makes organizing a lot simpler. I have a tendency to avoid wasting a billion issues after which by no means discover them once more, so tags system is a game-changer.
• The Verge’s dbrand collab. Sure, that is brazen self-promotion, however I simply obtained the pores and skin I ordered, and actually, it appears superior. We labored with dbrand on telephone circumstances, skins, chargers, and extra. And only for this weekend, only for us within the Installerverse (I advised you we’re making this occur), should you use the code INSTALLER, you’ll get 15 p.c off every little thing dbrand sells.
• How Do We Repair It? “The Polarization Collection.” I’m new to this podcast however have been having fun with the three-episode arc on the present damaged state of American politics, how we obtained right here, and the place we go subsequent. I took a very giant variety of notes on the episode about whether or not social media is responsible.
• Area OS. The concept is tremendous compelling: a private, non-public pc within the cloud that’s fully yours and never topic to the whims of app suppliers and social platforms. The truth of “a non-public factor within the cloud” is far more difficult, however the staff behind Area OS has some actually attention-grabbing concepts about the way it ought to all work.
• Huge Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul. A 3-episode dive into the spectacular rise and brutal fall of the most important identify in e-cigs. You’ll be able to see bits of every little thing from Juicero to Theranos and WeWork on this story, and the doc tells it nicely. (Truthful warning: I used to be interviewed for this, and I’m in it a bit, however you possibly can simply fast-forward previous these bits.)
• The Motorola Razr. I feel flip telephones are the way forward for telephones. I actually do. And so I’m psyched to see Motorola exhibiting up with a flip telephone designed to handle your relationship along with your telephone, and most significantly, it’s $699.99 — rather a lot cheaper than different flip telephones we’ve seen. (I’m even seeing it on sale for $599.99 proper now.) Yeah, I want it had an even bigger outer display screen, nevertheless it’s good to have choices. 
• Roblox for PlayStation. A protracted-overdue launch, should you ask me, however nonetheless a giant deal, particularly as Roblox tries to turn into a platform for all ages and all makes use of. Neglect what Meta’s constructing; Roblox is the corporate most making an attempt to make the metaverse occur.
• The Fall of the Home of Usher. Mike Flanagan’s horror reveals have been a Netflix staple in recent times, and his newest (and possibly final) feels like a becoming finale: really bonkers however finally plenty of enjoyable. And bonus: loads of critiques of contemporary tech-forward life.
• ActivityPub for WordPress. This can be a enormous deal: it means anybody with a web site on WordPress.com, which is an terrible lot of individuals, can now routinely syndicate their stuff to Mastodon, Pixelfed, and the remainder of the fediverse. I’m all in on the open net way forward for social, and this can be a large step in that course.
• Lightroom Extremely HDR. That is the great type of HDR, the sort that truly makes your photographs crisper and extra lifelike, and now Lightroom’s Android app can work with it natively in your telephone. For now, Extremely HDR is only for Pixel telephones, however generally, Lightroom is a superb app and an awesome step up out of your typical smartphone modifying app. (Additionally, take a look at all of the wild AI stuff Adobe confirmed off at Max this week. I do know we discuss an excessive amount of about “what is a photograph,” however critically. The whole lot’s totally different now.)

Final week, I assumed I’d attempt one thing I’ve been eager to do for some time: see if we, as the entire Installerverse (it’s HAPPENING), might all work collectively to determine the identical factor. So I requested, what do you employ to trace all of the stuff you need to learn, watch, and hearken to?

Oh, boy, did you all come via. Thanks a lot to everybody who emailed and texted and DMed! I obtained plenty of nice app suggestions, a bunch of really wild hacky techniques, some critically elaborate spreadsheeting, and far more. So right here, as greatest as I can summarize it multi function place, is how the entire Installer group does its media monitoring.

• The general favourite. Sequel was by far the most-recommended app in my inbox this week. It’s sadly just for Apple gadgets, however people love its design, the truth that it may possibly monitor principally every kind of media, its notifications for brand new stuff, the additional information it provides, and extra. Oh, and excellent news: Romain Lefebvre, who makes Sequel, tells me model 2.1 is coming quickly with much more stuff, and you may get within the TestFlight beta proper now.
• The all-in-one apps. Couch was in all probability the second hottest advice. Everyone additionally appears to like the design of Trakt, Play is a nifty up-and-comer, and Cronica has some followers, too.
• The media-specific apps. For films, a lot of individuals advisable Reelgood and JustWatch, and there was plenty of love for Letterboxd as nicely. For TV reveals, Hobi appears to be a favourite, and SeriesGuide and TV Membership each got here up a couple of instances, too. For e book consumption, Goodreads appears to be the go-to, however StoryGraph obtained some love as nicely. For monitoring music, MusicHarbor and MusicBox appeared to be the alternatives, although there are some Final.fm diehards on the market, too. For video video games, GameTrack was actually the one one I heard about!
• Drop them in a hyperlink bucket. I heard from a couple of individuals who use bookmarking instruments like Raindrop, into which you’ll simply drop IMDb or YouTube or Amazon hyperlinks. Others used Instapaper and Pocket for saving hyperlinks.
• Make them duties. A bunch of you’re repurposing to-do listing apps like Issues, Todoist, and Microsoft To Do as methods to trace these items — some have it in a giant “Stuff to Devour” listing; others have it separated by media kind. One upside of that is that it may be collaborative: share an inventory with a accomplice or roommate, and everyone can add to it simply.
• Go to the supply. I heard from people who maintain their to-watch listing in IMDb, their buying listing of their Amazon account, their podcast suggestions in Overcast, and their music queue of their Spotify library. The objective, it appears, is simply to dump every little thing the place it’ll find yourself anyway.
• Simply maintain an inventory. Notion; Apple Notes; Evernote; Anytype; Bear; Obsidian; Capacities; Google Maintain; OneNote; tons and many others. So a lot of you stated the perfect factor to do is simply write every little thing down someplace — ideally, someplace you’ll discover it once more — and be completed with it.

A couple of different particular apps that folks actually favored: Mela for monitoring recipes; Copilot for monitoring funds; Discogs for managing bodily music; Habitica for monitoring habits.

And a particular shoutout to probably the most spectacular system I heard about this week, from somebody who requested to be recognized solely as Stealth1248, which I’m simply going to cite in its entirety:

“I’ve appeared into a number of the collector apps, however they’re costly and appear to be plenty of work. The enjoyment of an Excel spreadsheet is that it’s tremendous simple to switch to include no matter type of info I need. I can kind issues, categorize them, maintain monitor of if I already personal them or not, and so on.

“I additionally arrange a pair Microsoft Kinds so as to add issues to them. The rationale for that’s 2-fold. 1: Excel on cell (whereas potential) is basically exhausting to work with. Kinds regulate much better to a small vertical display screen. You’ll be able to arrange free fill solutions, multi choose questions, fields that require dates/instances/numbers, and make sure questions obligatory (so I don’t overlook to fill out a sure area of knowledge) 2: You’ll be able to export the outcomes from Kinds as rows in an Excel doc, so this makes it simple so as to add them to the principle spreadsheet when I’ve time to sit down down on an actual (aka giant with a horizontal display screen) pc. Every query turns into a column of the spreadsheet and every full survey response turns into a row.”

Right here’s what the ensuing spreadsheet appears like:

I like it. I’d by no means handle to maintain it updated, however I like it. Thanks once more to everybody who wrote in with suggestions and concepts, we’ll do one thing like this once more actually quickly!

Each from time to time, I wish to textual content Casey Newton simply to see which note-taking app he’s utilizing — as a result of he appears to alter his thoughts virtually as usually as I do and is simply as prepared to throw his life and hopes and goals into something which may assist him do some extra slightly extra simply. And actually, identical. Casey will get it.

However alternatively, Casey can be one of the considerate web customers I do know. In the event you’ve learn his wonderful Platformer publication or heard the pleasant Onerous Fork podcast, you already know he’s deeply educated about how and why tech influences us. So I used to be curious to see what apps he makes use of, the place they stay, and the way he thinks about his telephone’s job in his life.

Right here’s Casey’s homescreen (two of them, truly!), plus some information on the apps he makes use of and why:

The telephone: iPhone 15 Professional.

The wallpaper: “The system wallpaper that reveals you the place on earth you’re. I don’t suppose it has a reputation.”

The apps: Todoist, Barry’s (allows you to e book Barry’s lessons on the go, or much more importantly, cancel them while you’re hungover), Clock, Cron (truly the extra I have a look at Cron, the extra I miss Fantastical. What am I doing to myself right here?), Stripe, Pocket, Messenger, Google, Google Maps, App Retailer, Settings, Overcast, Spotify, Telephone, 1Password, Threads (Threads has felt far more energetic over the previous week, and I principally suppose it’s three or 4 large releases away from reaching escape velocity), ChatGPT, Messages, Gmail, Bear, Safari, Chrome, Darkish Sky (I’ll by no means delete this app icon as a result of it jogs my memory of what we misplaced. Valar morghulis), Day One, Holedown (it’s 400 years outdated, isn’t up to date, and may fill completely any period of time between 10 seconds and 90 minutes), Grindr, Mem, Ivory, Artifact, Poe, Bluesky, Lutron, Amie, Capacities (my new favourite note-taking app, and should you’re available in the market for a spot to do your private data administration, it is best to completely test it out), Epik, and Bonk.

I additionally requested Casey to share a couple of issues he’s into proper now. Right here’s what he stated:

• Artifact. This little AI newsreading app from the Instagram co-founders is delivery new options sooner than any product on the buyer web. I more and more uncover information there that I put in Platformer, and I at all times discover one thing attention-grabbing that I haven’t seen earlier than. I’m not completely certain the place it’s going, however I do know Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have enormous plans for it, and I’m having fun with being alongside for the journey. One cool characteristic is that should you’re a author, they ship you push notifications when different individuals hyperlink to your tales. Which is at all times enjoyable to see. 
• Bonk. Bonk is the perfect new social community. You add mates after which “bonk” them, and each time you bonk, they get a separate notification telling them. So you possibly can rapidly take over somebody’s complete telephone along with your horrible notifications, and each time you bonk, you get haptic suggestions, and the Bonk app itself is taken over by the phrase Bonk. One of the best characteristic (other than each different characteristic) is that there’s a leaderboard that tells you which ones of your pals has bonked probably the most over the previous few days. The funniest characteristic is that the app, which remains to be in beta, requires iOS 17 for causes identified solely to the developer and to God. It additionally has the perfect URL for an app I’ve personally ever seen: bonkbonkbonk.app.
• ChatGPT. A mistake I made this yr as a tech reporter was not instantly subscribing to ChatGPT Plus when GPT-4 grew to become out there. It seems that should you’re solely utilizing 3.5, you actually don’t know what’s about to occur to all of us. GPT-4 makes many fewer errors and is healthier in each means at serving to you suppose via topics or analyze textual content than its predecessor. I assigned the voice-operated model of it to the Motion Button on my new iPhone 15 Professional, so now I can discuss to ChatGPT on the press of a button. It looks like getting a glimpse of the long run.

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 along with your suggestions for something and every little thing, and we’ll characteristic a few of our favorites right here each week. And for far more nice suggestions than I might embody right here, take a look at this Threads thread.

“Dex. It’s a ‘private rolodex’ app: it allows you to take notes about individuals in your life, set reminders to observe up, maintain monitor of birthdays, and sync with Gmail / LinkedIn. For a freelancer, my reminiscence abilities go away a lot to be desired. It helps me keep in mind particulars about conversations with individuals the following time we discuss — each professionally and socially.” – Ryan

“Two latest wonderful collection, each on Apple TV Plus: Silo and Basis.” – Dennis

“I take advantage of a number of browsers for various issues, then I take advantage of BrowserFairy to routinely route apps and websites to particular browsers. For my newsletters and associated issues to learn, I’ve BrowserFairy open Microsoft Edge. In Edge, I sync between gadgets, group tabs, and all the traditional built-in-browser issues Edge brings, particularly vertical tabs (which is like Safari reader, simply so a lot better).” – Brent

“Making a sensible lamp utilizing a Shelly RGBW and a customized firmware mod to get it to work with Apple Dwelling. In all probability an enormous residence community safety threat, nevertheless it works. Additionally, an excessive amount of Stardew Valley on Apple Arcade.” – Timothy

“After years of making an attempt to heat as much as GTD apps, with little success, I lastly tried Agenda, and it actually works for me. I’m not utilizing it for note-taking (I’ve Apple Notes, Google Maintain, and Obsidian for that). However the best way it handles triaging to-dos and integrates along with your calendar and Apple Reminders is basically slick. It’s loaded with options, appears stunning, is continually being up to date, and has a novel paid tier you can get through subscription or a one-time cost. However the free model is so good, most individuals won’t ever have to pay. Lastly, I’m GTD!” – David

“Simply obtained Patrick Stewart’s new memoir, and I’m tremendous excited to learn it! I additionally obtained to see him throughout his e book tour, which was wonderful.” – Aaron

“Oh my god, I simply obtained a Nitro Deck from CKRD, and it’s completely my new favourite online game gadget. It’s a deck for the Swap, with Corridor-effect joysticks, programmable rear bumpers, and a pleasant vast grip for big-handed people like me that discover the Pleasure-Cons cramped. I ordered the unit in GameCube purple and may verify it’s as righteous in individual because it appears on the shop.” – Nick

“The best factor I’ve seen lately, I don’t know easy methods to share with anybody. It’s a film known as Whats up Dankness that seamlessly cuts collectively every little thing from Napoleon Dynamite and Wayne’s World to Pen15 and RoboCop to create weird cross-world interactions and make a satirical commentary on the absurdity of the post-Trump political panorama. However as a result of it’s principally a pirated work, I feel you possibly can solely see it at movie festivals and particular screenings. Oh, and it has a bonkers trailer.” – Thomas

“I used iTunes solely till about 2018, and although it was unhealthy software program by the tip, it did supply a music nerd plenty of issues that Spotify and a number of the others don’t. There may be an iOS app known as Marvis, which has a professional model that gives a lot of these options. The rub is that it solely works with Apple Music, however I’ve discovered that, for outdated iTunes holdouts, this isn’t a lot of an issue.” – John

A couple of days in the past, on The Vergecast, I discussed that top-of-the-line telephone equipment I’ve ever purchased is a extremely lengthy — mine is 10 ft — charging cable. I’ve one subsequent to my sofa and one other subsequent to my mattress, and y’all, the freedom that comes from not having to lean over to be nearer to my retailers!

However then, I obtained an e-mail from Eric telling me how flawed I used to be. Right here’s what Eric stated: “I used to work at Apple retail, and when individuals would are available on the lookout for longer charging cables, they’d balk on the value — longer Lightning (on the time) cables have been (are?) costly! — and I might at all times suggest going to Goal and taking a look at common extension cables. Far more choices (colours, lengths, thicknesses, wire types, and so on…) and sometimes means cheaper. Can’t inform you what number of people got here again in simply to say thanks for the thought, simply saved them $25. All this to say: David! Don’t purchase a 10-foot Apple USB cable, purchase an superior 12-foot extension cable as an alternative.”

I’ve completed some wanting, and Eric’s not flawed. There are some pretty, cheap extension cables on the market (I searched “braided extension cable” and located a lot of good ones), they usually’re far more multifaceted than simply having one lengthy USB charger. Apparently, I’m going to redo all my charging stations once more.