Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 145, your guide to the best and Edge-the most thing in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, I’m glad to be done traveling a bit, and you can also read all the old editions on the Installer home page.)
This week I flew to San Francisco to try out Meta’s new hardware, including the awesome Meta VR glasses. Along the way, I listened to Joanna Stern’s interview with Mark Zuckerberg, watched this interview with new Apple CEO John Ternus, revisited Steve Jobs’ “Antennagate” press conference, played games on my Steam Deck using the Xreal One Pro glasses, and read Sarah Wynn-Williams’s. Carefree people when I have free time.
I also want to know more about Meta’s glasses, Remedy’s Control sequel, Microsoft’s updated Surface Mouse, and more.
(As always, the best part of Installer these are your ideas and advice. What apps do you like right now? What are your favorite things you’ve watched/seen/listened to recently? 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.)
- Google Books from Google. Google has finally revealed a ton of details about its Googlebook laptops, and they appear to be particularly useful for people looking for a laptop to pair with their Android phone. Google promises that they will get 10 years of updates, which hopefully shows a real commitment from the company to making the platform work. The top five come from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo.
- Ray-Ban Meta Audio. Meta launches camera-less smart glasses. The glasses still have microphones and speakers, so you can still listen to music and talk with the AI. Battery life is longer and there are new styles too. I’m not going to lie, I really like the Clubmaster style.
- Resonant control. Remedy Control The sequel leaves the breathtaking Oldest House and travels to Manhattan and strange new locations. I beat it, and while I prefer the more contained setting of the original, I really like the direction the story is taking. If you are a Remedy fan, don’t miss this one.
- Silent Hill: Fall of the City. Reviews of Konami’s next big horror game, set in a town in Scotland, make it another worthy addition to the franchise. This should be a good idea to check out to get ready for Halloween.
- Peloton Flexible Tread. Peloton has made a foldable treadmill. (Folding is all the rage these days.) It seems like a smart idea, especially for Peloton loyalists who have smaller living spaces. It’s also Peloton’s “most affordable” treadmill, although it still costs $2,195.
- Microsoft Surface Mouse. The second-generation version of the Surface Mouse has haptic feedback, an action button, and can be paired with three devices. It’s a little pricey at $79.99, but it seems like a very solid option if you just want a good mouse. The Surface Pro and laptop have also been refreshed.
- Logitech G Yeti 2. The successor to the Blue Yeti, one of the most recognizable microphones of all time, features an LED display and can track your voice with an audio proximity sensor. I just I bought my own cheap mic in a Whoop sale, but maybe if this one isn’t enough I’ll end up buying a Yeti 2.
Today I present The edgeIt is Brad Bourque. Brad joined our sales team for a few months to help cover our offerings and delved deeper into gaming technology. He’s also a fellow Portlander, so I had to introduce him as one of our small but mighty Portland contingent.
I asked Brad to share his home screen, apps, and things he cares about. Here it is, along with some information about which apps it uses and why:
Images: Brad Bourque / The Verge
The telephone: Pixel 9 Pro XL
The wallpaper: My home screen wallpaper is just a Pixel included wallpaper of plants in soft green tones. My lock screen is made by a fan Tekken Tag Tournament poster featuring Armor King and Modelo. It doesn’t need to make sense if the vibrations are good.
- Right at the top you’ll find two of my favorite mobile games. The first is Idle Obelisk Miner, an idle game that I recently started playing and found compelling and generous given the genre’s normal conditions. I’ve been playing for a little over a month and a half and I’m only at 3.16%, so I know I have a long road ahead of me.
- The other is Nubby’s Number Factory, a strange roguelike that I spent dozens of hours on Steam. The game has a funky style and charm that reminds me of old Adobe Flash browser games, but with modern sensibilities and huge replayability.
- Other than that, there’s not much exciting to discuss. I like to keep the calendar and weather widgets prominently displayed on my first screen, mainly because I have trouble remembering what to expect on any given day and Portland is known for its surprise rainstorms.
- The main screen is mostly the boring stuff I use every day, with apps like Messaging, SMS, and YouTube having priority positions for easy access. My dark secret is that if you swipe a page to the right, it’s all just a disorganized mess of apps, with no sorting or folders. If I’m looking for a specific app, I swipe up and search for it.
I also asked Brad to share a few things he’s interested in right now. This is what he returned:
- Since the major final Destiny 2 update, I polished up some of the expansions I missed and completed some old collections. With the recent announcement of old saved content returning, I plan to continue dedicating time to one of my favorite games.
- The other game I’ve been playing a lot over the last few months is Old-School RuneScape. I didn’t play in its heyday, so I don’t really have any nostalgia for the game, but I was really sucked in by how different it was from other MMOs I’ve been playing for years, like World of Warcraft. I also appreciate that direct user feedback plays such an important role in modernizing and updating the game, which I think has helped foster an active and social community in the game.
- We are at the end of Game changerthe last season. It’s Dropout TV’s revolutionary game show where the rules change every time, so I watch it religiously on Monday nights. The most recent season has been one of the strongest yet and constantly makes me laugh and sometimes cry because of its sweet and incredibly creative episodes.
- For music, I’ve been getting a really chill kick lately, with Janelle Monáe The era of pleasure and that of Tom Misch Full circle headlining much of my morning writing and deal-hunting sessions. I’ve been listening to a lot of vinyl recently, which I find gives a nice rhythm and ritual to my day in a way that just turning on Spotify and hitting shuffle doesn’t.
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 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 post on The edge.
“I really enjoyed a new application for my self-hosted media server. NostalgiaTV uses your media library to set up TV channels similar to traditional cable. You turn it on and it shows the “live” TV guide/program and you can surf channels to choose what you want to watch instead of scrolling through your media library. Totally unnecessary and also way more fun than I thought it would be. They automatically set up a few channels for you, but you can also get started with setting up custom channels and programs. — Vikraël
“I am currently playing: Fire Emblem: The Weave of Fortuneonly on nights when my son falls asleep. By reading: The IliadI try to read it in chunks whenever I can in the early evening during the week. I read more on weekend mornings. — basicalexguy
“As a fan of the Planet Money podcast, I was surprised to come across their new book at my local library. After a few chapters, I’m pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it is to read (especially if you enjoy the podcast). The title is Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life.” -YG_400
“I am currently reading The god of the woods by Liz Moore which will soon be adapted into a Netflix show. The book is so good and hard to put down that the mystery draws you in and you hope for answers with every turn of the page. — Sabertooth
“In the final act of Star Wars Zero Company. This is VERY good. -BV
“I recently got back into photography after years of shooting with my iPhone and trying to tweak the results. Wow, I missed my Ricoh GRIII And Olympus XA2. Although the Ricoh gives me the instant gratification of capturing a moment exactly as I imagined it, it has been great fun shooting rolls of film (kept in the freezer of course) and having to patiently wait for the results to come back! -Ricky
Well, after my big tip in this section last week about eating at familiar restaurants while traveling, I couldn’t do anything while traveling for Meta, and I felt he. Boy, was I tired and hungry. It came down to a few different things, like a busier schedule and being mostly on the Meta campus, where dining options were limited. I did being able to devour protein bars, which are a guilty pleasure for me. But I really wanted Chipotle.
Gn tech
