How to watch Summer Games Done Quick 2024
Photo by Ivan “Porkchop44” for Games Done Quick
It’s summer, which means it’s time for sun and speedruns. The 2024 edition of Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ), the annual speedrunning marathon for charity, kicks off on Sunday and runs until July 6th. This year’s lineup is once again packed with runs for some of my favorite games, including Balatro, Alan Wake 2, Elden Ring, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1, 2, 3, and 4 (all in one run), a glitchless Baldur’s Gate 3 Honour Mode run, and a shipless Outer Wilds run (how???).
But my most anticipated run is a live speedrun from Peanut Butter, the shiba inu who performed a remote run of the NES game Gyromite at Awesome Games Done Quick in January. At SGDQ, Peanut Butter will be live at the event playing Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball for the Super NES. Peanut Butter’s goal is to win a game in 30 minutes. The run is scheduled for July 4th at 8:43PM ET.
SGDQ’s first run, Yoshi’s Story, happens today at 1PM ET. You can stream the entire event from the Games Done Quick Twitch channel, and Games Done Quick typically posts runs after they happen on its YouTube channel. The event, which will be streamed from Minneapolis, is raising money for Doctors Without Borders.
Robots Get a Fleshy Face (and a Smile) in New Research Researchers at the University of Tokyo published findings on a method of attaching artificial skin to robot faces to protect machinery and mimic human expressiveness.
The portable speakers you need this summer
Image: David Pierce / The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 44, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
I also have for you a couple of great new Bluetooth speakers, the new season of Hulu’s best show, an app for turning everything into audio, and much more.
Also, quick housekeeping news: no Installer next week. It’s a holiday here in the US (and also my birthday), so I’ll be outside grilling things and getting sunburned. But keep sending recommendations, and we’ll be back with a big one right after.
Okay, let’s dive in.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)
The Drop
The UE Wonderboom 4. A few weeks ago, I said the best speaker advice I can give you was to buy a UE Wonderboom. I stand by this, especially now that there’s a new one that charges with USB-C! The new Everboom, with a built-in carabiner and some extra sound oomph, is very tempting, but you can’t beat this for $100.
The Beats Pill. More new speakers! I have a weakness for a nice-looking portable sound system, and the new Pill looks pretty great. Chris Welch likes how it sounds, and I love that it does wired audio and charges other gadgets through the USB-C port. Beats did well here, even if I’m still Wonderboomin’.
Vergeapparel. I really try not to shill for Verge stuff too much here, but I’m genuinely psyched about the new stuff we’ve been working on. I’m into the hoodie in particular, and the (finally properly sized) mug. Retooling our store has been a fun project, and I hope you like the stuff, too!
“Death of the Follower & the Future of Creativity on the Web.” I always like hearing Jack Conte talk about the internet and stumbled on this SXSW talk in which he basically explains how “follow” and “subscribe” changed the world — and how we need to change it again.
ElevenLabs Reader. ElevenLabs does AI voices better than any product I’ve ever seen and built this iPhone app (with Android coming soon, apparently) in a really clever way. You just share any article or book or PDF to the app, pick a voice, and it’ll read it aloud.
Blackmagic Camera for Android. There is a truly annoying lack of great third-party camera apps for Android, but this is a good one, with lots of manual controls and instant feedback. It’s only on a few phones for now, but I’ll take what I can get.
Notion Sites. This is a small but very clever thing: build a Notion page and, with one click, publish it to the web. If you want, like, a one-page personal website or a quick and easy event page. This is way easier than just about anything else out there.
The Bear season 3. I agree with everyone who’s annoyed that Hulu dropped this season all at once instead of a week at a time — drag it out, give us time to obsess over it! That said, I will be watching every second of it this weekend. And then rewatching all three seasons as soon as I’m done.
Figma Slides. Figma got some really big updates across the board this week: a redesign, a bunch of AI stuff, and more. But Slides is particularly cool. It’s a mix of design tool and presentation tool, and it looks a whole lot more fun to play with than PowerPoint.
Screen share
I think the first Sara Dietschy video I ever saw was the one where she perfectly explained How To Casey Neistat a Vlog. (That title, by the way, is like a perfect 2016 time capsule, and I still miss that era of YouTube.) Since then, she’s become one of my favorite creators, talking about everything from cameras to creativity to cars to just… life. And more recently, as a new parent myself, it’s been really cool to watch her go through so much of the same stuff as is happening in my house.
I asked Sara to share her homescreen with us, curious to see how she was balancing life stuff with creator stuff. Both are really demanding, and we’ve all only got one homescreen, you know? Turns out, there’s a bit of both in there — but mostly life stuff.
Here’s Sara’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:
The phone: iPhone 15 Pro.
The wallpaper: My wallpaper is always a rotation of cute baby pics. She is my entire life right now. I mean, look at her… right? I love widgets so I always have stonks I’m watching and the weather front and center.
The apps: Phone, Clock, Settings, Camera, Photos, Drive, Amazon, Blackmagic Camera, YouTube, Tesla, DoorDash, Apple Notes, Google Authenticator, Vivint, WhatsApp, Nanit, Messages, Hatch Baby, Safari, Gmail.
My homescreen is reserved for the apps I use multiple times every single day.
The to-do widget is from the Things app — where all of my to-dos go to die :) But at least they’re super organized.
I also asked Sara to share a few things she’s into right now. Here’s what she sent back:
Blackmagic Camera. An AMAZING camera app that allows you to shoot Apple Log at a reasonable file size. (Shooting Log in Apple’s camera will leave you with massive ProRes HQ files.)
Apple Notes. I recently scaled down my team and have been obsessed with the speed and simplicity of Notes over Notion, which I used to religiously use. Now, Notion is only used for projects I’m working on that require other people.
Nanit. The best baby monitor of all time. The feature-heavy app makes the overpriced hardware worth it. The PiP works perfectly, and you can monitor the baby monitor audio in the background while you’re listening to a podcast or music.
I am so into 3D printing right now. It has led me to a lot of “maker” YouTube channels. I am currently binge-watching Adam Savage’s Tested channel.
Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Emailinstaller@theverge.comor message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. And for more great recommendations than I could fit here, check out the replies tothis post on Threads.
“Seeing chess in Installer made me think of another great chess game! Really Bad Chess by Zach Gage is apparently really good for my brain. It’s available on iOS and Android with an in-app purchase, and it’s free if you pay for Apple Arcade!” – Harvey
“I’m sad that more people don’t know about “17776” and “20020,” stories from the far future about football and sapient satellites.” – Lego
“I just finished Temptation of the Force by Tessa Gratton. It’s the latest novel in the Star Wars: The High Republic storyline, and these continue to be some of my favorite books of the last 10 years, definitely in the Star Wars universe. They’re set a few hundred years before the movies, and I’d recommend them to any fan.” – Justin
“Starting to cure a pancetta and capicola using Umai Dry vacuum bags. I don’t have a great place to cure and dry meats in our city home, so it’s nice to be able to do it in the fridge. Bonus: I get to use the new vacuum sealer my family got me for Father’s Day!” – Timothy
“Anil Dash wrote up two posts on what a board of directors does, and it’s fascinating! Required reading if you’re into how corporate governance works.” – Richard
“I’ve been getting into sideloading. It’s amazing what you can get with a developer ID and the cracked iPhone apps that are out there.” – Dawit
“I cannot stop playing Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor on PC. In this roguelike, you’re a dwarf mining precious minerals and battling hordes of bugs on an alien planet. It’s ridiculously fun, easy to pick up, and the weapon and skill systems are thoroughly satisfying to navigate.” – Abhimanyu
“A while back, I went through the same journey you seem to be on: ‘I want a Light Phone, but… what if I just turned my iPhone into a Light Phone?’ The option I like most is building my own with Widgy Widgets. It’s a very powerful app that allows you to build your own widgets. It’s not intuitive and it has way more power than I’d ever need, but it’s amazing to build your own Light Phone.” – Tom
“I’m about halfway through Adrian Tchaikovsky’s new sci-fi book, Service Model, and it’s a great story about AI and our reliance on technology. Can’t put it down!” – Sighjinks
Signing off
Before we go to bed, my wife and I sit down almost every night to watch something together. Sometimes we talk through the whole thing, sometimes we watch the show, sometimes we sit and stare at our phones the whole time. It’s nice all three ways! I suspect a lot of people have their wind-down shows, but allow me to tell you about ours: The Great Food Truck Race on Food Network. (Well, now Max, but you know what I mean.) It’s like a cooking show meets The Amazing Race, there are 16 seasons — and season 17 starts this weekend! — and it’s all silly and fantastic. My wife and I have developed several hundred food truck ideas while watching the show, too, which is also very fun.
If you’re in need of a new show to watch forever without working your brain too hard, check out the food trucks. (And if you have other shows like this I should watch, please let me know. We’re caught up on food trucks, and it’s a problem.)
Have a great holiday to all those celebrating. See you in two weeks!
The biggest trailers of the week: June 23rd to June 29th
Willem Dafoe in Nosferatu. | Screenshot: YouTube
I’m stuck in a weird spot when it comes to movies and TV, these days. On one hand, the constant churn of remakes, reboots, franchise movies, and sequels often feels like it comes at the expense of original storytelling. But on the other, I am unabashedly looking forward to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, I’m really enjoying The Acolyte, and I’m sorry, but I’m the reason Nintendojustkeepsremakinggames, and I will continue to be. (Also, I feel I must apologize to my friends and family in advance for my absence when Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is released.)
Thankfully, the trailers that showed up this week look as promising as any of the best of those.
Deadpool & Wolverine
It’s another Deadpool & Wolverine trailer; what am I going to do, not watch it five times and then tell you about it? This one almost doesn’t have anything we haven’t had before. Almost, that is, until it reveals that Tyler Mane will reprise his role as Sabretooth from the first X-Men film. We’ve got just under a month to go before the movie’s July 26th release.
Actor Hamish Linklater’s Batman voice was shown off in a teaser earlier this month, clearly nodding at the late Kevin Conroy’s portrayal of the character. In it, he listed the show’s stellar cast, which includes Christina Ricci, Jamie Chung, Diedrich Bader, John DiMaggio, Minnie Driver, and Mckenna Grace.
Nosferatu
Nosferatu’s first teaser trailer offers only a dim look at the vampire known as Count Orlok, once played by Max Schreck in the 1922 silent horror film the movie is remaking. But it does a great job setting the mood for the grim remake of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, itself an unofficial retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Starring Willem Dafoe, Lily Rose-Depp, and Bill Skarsgård, the Robert Eggers movie is due to hit theaters, merrily, on December 25th.
Heretic
It feels like Hugh Grant’s been having a moment lately. His turn as the Mr. Reed, a man who traps two young Mormon missionaries come to spread the gospel to him, seems just as compellingly off-brand as his portrayals of Lofty the Oompa Loompa in Wonka and the con artist Forge Fitzwilliam in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Heretic also bucks the retread trend of the other trailers from this week by being its own story. It’s written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the team behind A Quiet Place.
Redbox’s owner files for bankruptcy after repeatedly missing payments and payroll
A Redbox machine from 2015.
Redbox’s owner, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, filed for bankruptcy protection overnight. This comes at the tail end of a month in which the DVD rental company defaulted on loans, saw an order for its cars to be repossessed, and missed payroll for employees.
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment informed employees of the filing late Friday, writing in an email seen by The Verge that it had filed for a debtor-in-possession loan — a way for companies that are reorganizing after filing for bankruptcy to secure additional working capital to meet payroll.
It’s a pressing matter for the company, as employees have been waiting for paychecks since June 21st. The company also promised to reinstate health insurance for his employees, which had lapsed in May.
However, it’s not certain that the company will be able to secure such a loan. Chicken Soup’s bankruptcy filing shows that the company owes money to a number of retailers including Walmart and Walgreens, as well as major Hollywood studios like Universal, Sony, Lionsgate and Warner Bros.
Other creditors include smaller studios, streaming platforms, and smart TV manufacturers, with the list of names including the BBC, Vizio, and Plex; Redbox and Chicken Soup-owned Crackle have been operating their own free, ad-supported streaming services on a variety of platforms. The company also owes money to its landlords, the vendor it rents its car fleet from, and others.
Chicken Soup took on $325 million in debt when it acquired Redbox in 2022 and has since been sued over a dozen times over unpaid bills. The company recently settled one of those lawsuits with NBCUniversal but promptly missed the first agreed-upon payment, leading to a court order to pay the entire $16.7 million balance. Altogether, Chicken Soup has $970 million in debt, according to the bankruptcy filing.
How to manage deleted files on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
Most of the time when you delete a file, it’s actually not wiped from existence immediately — as recently discovered by a man whose wife came across illicit texts he’d been sending (and which he thought he had got rid of on his iPhone). The man is now suing Apple.
Marital infidelity aside, the safety net that’s put in place for deleted files can help you recover data you’ve erased in error — however, it can also leave your data exposed to other people (if you’re selling a device, for example). It’s important to know where your deleted files are and how to get them back or erase them permanently.
Checking sync status
Screenshot: Apple
Before you try to delete any files, you should check your iCloud syncing status.
By default, all of the Apple devices you’re signed in to with your Apple ID should be syncing files through iCloud, but it’s worth double-checking — otherwise, you can be leaving files you thought you’d deleted.
On an iPhone or iPad:
Open Settings, then tap your name at the top and then iCloud.
Under Saved to iCloud, you should see entries for Photos, iCloud Drive, iCloud Mail, and the other apps that make use of iCloud (which is probably most of the ones you’ve got installed).
Select See All for a list of all of your apps and whether they are synced.
To make sure files are deleted across the board, keep sync switched on.
On a macOS device:
Open System Settings via the Apple menu, then your name > iCloud.
As on mobile, the Photos and iCloud Drive entries should be switched on. You can find other apps (like Messages, Contacts, Calendar, and Safari) by clicking Show More Apps or Show All (depending on your version of macOS).
Tap the iCloud Drive entry to see if you’re syncing your desktop and documents folders, and to see which apps iCloud is and isn’t syncing from your Mac.
Deleting files on iOS and iPadOS
Screenshot: Apple
The Photos app has its own Recently Deleted folder (under Utilities).
Screenshot: Apple
Photos and videos can be recovered or permanently erased.
Any file you delete from your iPhone or iPad goes to the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before being permanently wiped. To find the folder, open up the Files app, then tap Browse and Recently Deleted.
Tap and hold on any item to bring up the options for Delete Now (erase it forever) and Recover (restore it to its previous place).
To select multiple files, tap the three dots (top right), then Select. As you make your choice, Recover and Delete options show up below.
If you’ve deleted a photo or video through the Photos app, it has its own Recently Deleted folder that’s separate, though the same 30-day window applies.
Open Photos on your iPhone or iPad, then scroll down to and tap Utilities > Recently Deleted (iOS) or just Recently Deleted from the left-hand navigation pane (iPadOS).
Tap on any photo or video to bring up options to Recover the file (put it back where it was) or Delete the file (permanently erase it).
To select multiple items, tap the Select button (top right), then tap the three dots on the lower right corner to bring up the Recover and Delete options.
If you are syncing everything through iCloud, all of these changes will be applied on your other devices, too, including permanent deletions and file recoveries.
Deleting files on macOS
Screenshot: Apple
You can opt to have the macOS Trash auto-empty after 30 days.
When you delete a file on your Mac, it goes to the Trash folder.
You can open Trash from the dock or from Finder (choose Go > Go to Folder, then search for “trash”).
If you’d rather permanently delete a file the first time around, highlight the file or files in the Finder, use the Option+Cmd+Delete keyboard shortcut, and confirm your choice when the dialog box pops up.
Files usually stay in the Trash until you manually empty them.
To delete one or more files in Finder, Ctrl+click on them and pick Delete Immediately.
To empty everything out of the Trash at once, click Empty (top right).
You can also click and hold (or right-click) on the Trash icon in the dock, and then pick Empty Trash.
If you prefer, you can have macOS automatically clean up files after they’ve been in the Trash for a month.
Open the Finder menu and select Settings.
Under Advanced, check the Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.
As on iPhones and iPads, the Photos app has its own Trash folder, called Recently Deleted. Deleted photos and videos stay here for 30 days before being fully erased.
From the macOS Photos app, click Recently Deleted on the left. (Note: if you don’t have any recently deleted photos, you won’t see the folder.)
Choose Delete All to permanently wipe everything in the folder.
To bring back or wipe individual files, select them as needed, and the Recover and Delete buttons will become active in the top-right corner.
Again, all of these changes will be synced to other devices via iCloud, if you’ve enabled it. The only exceptions would be file changes in folders on your Mac that iCloud doesn’t cover (head back to the instructions in the first section to check).
Finding deleted files and apps in iCloud
Screenshot: Apple
iCloud on the web gives you another place to find deleted files.
If you go to iCloud on the web, you won’t find anything different from what you can already see on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac in terms of deleted files. However, you might find it easier to check up on them from here.
Click Drive > Recently Deleted to see files that have been recently deleted across your devices, as well as how long is left before they’re permanently erased. Use the Recover and Delete buttons underneath to restore or wipe them.
Click Photos and then Recently Deleted to see photos and videos that have been deleted in the last 30 days. Here, the Recover and Delete buttons are in the top right corner.
Finally, bear in mind that other apps across the Apple ecosystem have their own folders of recently deleted items, usually with the same 30-day time limit. Apple Mail and Apple Notes, for example, have their own trash folders where you can view deleted items, restore them, or erase them forever.
Facial Recognition Led to Wrongful Arrests. So Detroit Is Making Changes. The Detroit Police Department arrested three people after bad facial recognition matches, a national record. But it’s adopting new policies that even the A.C.L.U. endorses.
The best ebook reader to buy right now
Image: Will Joel / The Verge
From reading in the bath to scribbling notes in the margins, from diving into the Amazon ecosystem to avoiding it outright, there’s an e-reader for everyone.
Any ebook reader will let you cram a Beauty and the Beast-sized library’s worth of books in your pocket, but so will your phone. An ebook reader offers a more book-like reading experience, with fewer distractions and less eye strain, and many include extra features, like adjustable frontlighting. Some really are pocketable. Others are waterproof or offer physical page-turning buttons, while a few even let you take notes.
I’ve been using ebook readers for nearly a decade, and I’ve gone hands-on with dozens, from the Kindle Paperwhite to lesser-known rivals like the Pocketbook Era. Whether you want something your kid can throw against the wall or a waterproof, warm-glow Kindle that won’t ruin your spa ambiance, these are the best ebook readers for everyone.
The best Kindle
Dimensions:6.9 x 4.9 x .32 inches/Weight:205 grams /Screen area and resolution: 6.8-inch screen, 300ppi resolution /Storage:16GB /Other features:IPX8 waterproofing, Bluetooth audio support
If you mostly buy ebooks from Amazon, you’ll want a Kindle, and the 11th-gen Kindle Paperwhite is the best choice for most people. Starting at $139.99, it’s cheaper than the Kobo Libra Colour — my top non-Amazon ebook reader, which I’ll dive into later — for many of the same features. Those include a large 300pi display and an adjustable warm white frontlight, which make for a clear and enjoyable reading experience. The latter also conveniently improves sleep by cutting down on blue light that interrupts melatonin production.
That warm white frontlighting is an advantage over the cool white of the $99.99 base-model Kindle, and unlike the base Kindle, the Paperwhite has IPX8 water resistance. The $189.99 Signature Edition Paperwhite also has an auto-adjusting frontlight and no lockscreen ads. It also has wireless charging, which is a rare feature to find in an e-reader.
Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
The Kindle Paperwhite comes with an adjustable warm white frontlight.
Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, and it dominates the US ebook market, so Kindle owners have access to advantages owners of other ebook readers don’t. Much of Amazon’s hardware strategy depends on offering cut-rate discounts to pull you into its content ecosystem. If you have Prime and buy a lot of Kindle ebooks, the Paperwhite is the best choice because Amazon makes it incredibly easy to buy and read its stuff. Its ebooks and audiobooks are often on sale, and Prime members get more free content through Prime Reading. Rivals like Kobo offer sales, too, but it’s hard for them to offer discounts as steep as Amazon does.
There are downsides, though. The Paperwhite has lockscreen ads unless you pay $20 extra to get rid of them. It’s also too big to hold comfortably with one hand. Perhaps the Kindle Paperwhite’s biggest flaw, though — which it shares with all Kindles aside from Fire tablets — is that it’s not easy to read books purchased outside of Amazon’s store. Kindle ebook formats are proprietary and only work on Kindle. Unlike Kobo and other ebook readers, Kindles don’t support EPUB files, an open file format used by pretty much everyone except Amazon. So, for example, if you often shop from Kobo’s bookstore (or Barnes & Noble or Google Play Books or many other ebook stores), you can’t easily read those books on a Kindle without using a workaround. There are ways to convert and transfer file formats so you can read on the Kindle and vice versa, but it’ll take a couple of extra steps.
However, if you don’t buy your books elsewhere or you don’t mind shopping from Amazon, you’ll be more than happy with the Kindle Paperwhite.
Dimensions:5.69 x 6.34 x 0.33 inches /Weight:199.5 grams /Screen area and resolution:7-inch screen, 300ppi (black-and-white), 150ppi (color) /Storage:32GB /Other features:Physical page-turning buttons, waterproofing, Kobo Stylus 2 support, Bluetooth audio support
The Kobo Libra Colour is an excellent alternative to Amazon’s ebook readers, especially for readers outside the US or anyone who doesn’t want to tap into Amazon’s ecosystem. Kobo’s latest slate offers many of the standout features found on the 11th-gen Kindle Paperwhite — including waterproofing, USB-C support, and a 300ppi display — along with a few perks that make it more helpful and enjoyable to use.
The color display is the most obvious. The Libra Colour uses E Ink’s latest Kaledio color screen technology, which provides soothing, pastel-like hues that still pop in direct sunlight. It’s not as sharp as reading in monochrome — the resolution drops to 150ppi when viewing content in color — but it’s a nice touch that makes viewing a wider range of content more pleasant. Book covers and comics, while still muted, have an added layer of depth, even if the colors are nowhere near as vivid as that of a traditional LED tablet.
Photo by Sheena Vasani / The Verge
Thanks to its physical page-turning buttons and color display, the Kobo Libra Colour is an impressive e-reader.
Additionally, the Libra Colour works with the Kobo Stylus 2 (sold separately), which means you can highlight text with various colors or take notes using Kobo’s integrated notebooks. You can also take advantage of some of the more advanced capabilities found in the Kobo Elipsa 2E, allowing you to solve math equations, convert handwriting into typed text, and insert diagrams. This lets the Libra Colour function as a mini notebook of sorts, though I wouldn’t use it as a primary note-taking device since the seven-inch display can feel cramped to write on.
The color display is only part of the appeal, though. The Libra Colour also lacks lockscreen ads — unlike the base Paperwhite — and packs physical page-turning buttons, which feel more intuitive to use than tapping either side of the display. The speedy e-reader also supports more file formats, including EPUB files, and makes it much easier to borrow books from the Overdrive library system. Native support for Pocket, meanwhile, means you can read your articles offline if you’re someone who uses the long-standing bookmarking app.
Image: Kobo
Kobo’s lightweight Libra Colour makes for a great ebook reader, even if it’s not the cheapest model.
However, at $219.99, the Libra Colour costs $70 more than the entry-level Paperwhite — and that’s without Kobo’s $69.99 stylus, which is required for performing certain tasks. That gap widens further when the Paperwhite is on sale, which it regularly is. There’s also the fact that the Kobo can’t easily tap into Amazon’s vast library of ebooks, which can be frustrating if you’ve amassed a collection of Kindle titles over the years. It can be done, but you have to convert file formats using third-party apps, which is tricky and can take time.
But if those things don’t matter or apply to you, the Kobo Libra Colour will give you the best digital reading experience of all the e-readers on our list. It’s my personal favorite, if nothing else.
The best cheap ebook reader
Dimensions:6.2 x 4.3 x 0.32 inches/Weight:158 grams /Screen area and resolution: 6-inch screen, 300ppi resolution /Storage:16GB /Other features:USB-C support, Bluetooth audio support
The base-model Kindle ($99.99 with ads) is the best cheap ebook reader. Its 300ppi resolution makes text clearer and easier to read than the lower-resolution screens on other ebook readers in its price range. Plus, it even has USB-C for relatively fast charging.
Reading on its six-inch screen feels a little more cramped than it does on the larger displays of the Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Libra Colour. However, the flip side is that its small size makes it pocketable, light, and easy for small hands to hold. Combined with its relatively affordable price, the Kindle is also the best ebook reader for kids — especially in the kids version Amazon sells for $20 more. It shares the same exact specs but is ad-free with parental controls, a two-year extended replacement guarantee, and a case. It also comes with one year of Amazon Kids Plus, which grants kids access to thousands of kids books and audiobooks for free. After that, though, you’ll have to pay $79 per year.
Image: Kindle Kids
The kid-friendly version of the Kindle comes with colorful cases.
The base Kindle doesn’t have extra conveniences like the physical page-turning buttons found on Barnes & Noble’s entry-level e-reader, the Nook GlowLight 4e. However, you do get something more important: snappier responses. On most of the other entry-level ebook readers I tested, including the GlowLight 4e, I had to wait a few seconds after tapping the screen for the page to turn. The Kindle, in comparison, offered no perceptive lag.
There are other tradeoffs. There’s no water resistance, unlike the Paperwhite, and battery life is good, but it’ll last you three weeks tops — not months, like the Paperwhite. And because it’s an Amazon ebook reader, you’re also locked into the Amazon ecosystem and have to pay extra to get rid of ads. But if you can do without all of that, the Kindle delivers the essentials for under $100.
Dimensions:7.6 x 8.94 x 0.30 inches /Weight:390 grams /Screen area and resolution: 10.3-inches, 227ppi resolution /Storage:32GB /Other features:Handwriting to text conversion, magnetic stylus, Bluetooth audio support
Of all the large ebook readers I tested, the Kobo Elipsa 2E stood out the most because of its excellent note-taking abilities. You can directly write on pages, and the notes will not disappear, which makes for a more intuitive note-taking experience than the Kindle Scribe, which only supports on-page notes on select Kindle titles. Otherwise, you’re limited to making annotations on cards that are like disappearing sticky notes.
You can also sync your notes with Dropbox or view them online, and Kobo can even convert handwriting to typed text. Amazon rolled out a similar capability for the Kindle Scribe, but it can only convert handwriting to typed text when you export notebooks and not as accurately. By contrast, Kobo lets you convert your handwriting not just while exporting but also from within a notebook itself.
The Elipsa 2E also offers other helpful note-taking tools. Like the Kobo Libra Colour, it’s capable, for example, of solving math equations for you. You can also insert diagrams and drawings, and it’ll automatically snap them into something that looks cleaner and nicer. There’s also a great selection of pen types and ink shades.
True, the Kindle Scribe starts at $60 less, but the Kobo Elipsa 2E comes with twice the storage. You can step up to the 32GB Kindle Scribe if you want the same storage capacity, but that puts it at essentially the same price as the Kobo. I recommend just forking out the money on the Elipsa 2E instead.
I also recommend the Elipsa 2E over the Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus, even though it, too, offers much better writing tools than the Kindle Scribe. That’s because it costs a whopping $449 and also isn’t as readily available in the US market. The Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus also comes with too many distracting extras, like an easy-to-access music player and the Google Play app store preinstalled so you can download multiple reading apps, including both the Kindle and Kobo apps. However, Kindle and Kobo notes didn’t show up on the Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus — and you can’t annotate their books anywhere as easily as you can on their respective devices.
Note-taking capabilities aside, the Kobo Elipsa 2E is also a good e-reader, but it comes with the same strengths and weaknesses as other Kobo e-readers. There’s support for a wide range of file formats, but you can’t easily read Kindle books without converting them first. Its 227ppi display is also slightly less sharp than the 300ppi screen found on the Kindle Scribe and the Kobo Libra Colour. However, the 10.3-inch screen does balance things out a bit and makes text easier to read, so it’s not really a noticeable drawback.
Other ebook readers that didn’t make the cut
There are some other ebook readers I tested that I didn’t feature above but are still worth highlighting. Here are the most notable:
If you’re looking for a non-Amazon alternative that’s more affordable than the Kobo Libra Colour, the new Kobo Clara Colour — the successor to the Kobo Clara 2E — is worth a look. At $149.99, the ad-free e-reader costs more than the Kobo Clara 2E (which you can still buy), but I think it’s worth the extra $10. It continues to offer the same six-inch display and IPX8 waterproof design, but the e-reader now offers color. Plus, it’s noticeably faster — something I was happy to see, considering the occasional lag on the Clara 2E sometimes got on my nerves. You don’t get the Clara Colour’s physical buttons or stylus support, but that’s a fair tradeoff at this price point.
In 2023, Barnes and Noble released the new Nook Glowlight 4 Plus. If you own a lot of digital books from Barnes and Noble, this could be a good Kindle alternative. Otherwise, I’d still recommend the Kobo Libra Colour to everybody else. The $199.99 Nook Glowlight 4 Plus is a good e-reader with a lot to offer, including a lovely 300ppi screen, waterproofing, physical page-turning buttons, and even a headphone jack. However, it’s just not as snappy, which makes setting it up, buying books from the device itself, and navigating the interface a slow ordeal. It didn’t help that the screen sometimes froze, too, which meant I had to restart the device while in the middle of a book.
Finally, I didn’t mention the Kindle Oasis, which has physical page-turning buttons, a larger screen, and was considered a high-end device when it launched in 2019. Amazon no longer lists the aging e-reader in its official Kindle lineup, however, and it lacks some features even the base model offers, including USB-C. That makes it less appealing at $249.99 — that is, assuming you can even find it in stock. If you’re willing to pay that much for a high-end reader, I’d take a look at the Kobo Libra Colour instead.
Update, June 28th:Updated to include the Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour, as well as to remove the Kobo Sage.
Uber and Lyft Agree to Give Massachusetts Drivers Minimum Pay The deal, which includes a $175 million settlement with the state, keeps the drivers classified as independent contractors, not employees.
However, plagiarism and paywall problems have made Perplexity a lightning rod for media industry frustrations as it attempts to overtake Google for the future of search on the internet.
YouTube is trying to make AI music deals with major record labels
YouTube is expecting to launch new AI tools later this year that are trained off the back of these deals. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
After debuting a generative AI feature last year that produces music in the style of famous artists like Charli XCX, John Legend, and T-Pain, YouTube is now asking major record labels to allow it to clone more musicians. According to the Financial Times, the Google-owned video platform is offering to pay Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Records “lump sums of cash” in exchange for licensing their songs to legally train its AI music tools.
YouTube told the Financial Times that it’s not looking to expand Dream Track — which was supported by just ten artists during its test phase — but confirmed it was “in conversations with labels about other experiments.” The platform is aiming to license music from “dozens” of artists according to the report, which will instead be used to train new AI tools that YouTube is planning to launch later this year. The fee that YouTube is willing to pay for these licenses hasn’t been disclosed, but the report says these will likely be one-off payments rather than royalty-based arrangements.
Regardless, both artists and the labels that represent them will likely take some convincing. Sony Music has extensively warned AI companies against “unauthorized use” of its content, and UMG was willing to temporarily pull its entire music catalog from TikTok after inadequate protections against AI-generated music caused licensing negotiations to fall apart. Back in January, over 200 artists — including Billie Eilish, Pearl Jam, and Katy Perry — also called for tech companies to cease using AI to “infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.”
News of these discussions comes just days after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing record labels like Sony, Warner, and Universal, filed separate copyright infringement lawsuits against two of the top companies in generative AI music. The labels allege that outputs from Suno and Udio were produced using “unlicensed copying of sound recordings on a massive scale,” with the RIAA seeking damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.
Uber will pay you $1,000 to ditch your car for five weeks
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Traffic got you down? If the idea of locking your car keys in a drawer and using alternate means of transportation sounds intriguing, Uber has the challenge for you. Today, the ridehailing company announced the One Less Car trial, in which 175 people in the US and Canada will be selected to ditch their cars for five weeks in exchange for cash and credits to be put toward other travel modes.
Call it a gimmick or a PR stunt, Uber says the aim is to highlight the high costs of personal car ownership, as well as all the external effects on our health and the cities where we live. Uber has long advocated for fewer cars on the road — even as studieshaveshown that the app-based ridehailing industry has intensified traffic congestion in cities.
The trial is modeled on a similar experiment conducted by Uber and the Behavioral Insights Team in Australia in 2023, in which dozens of residents were challenged to give up their cars for four weeks.
Now, Uber is bringing its experiment to North America. Car owners in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, Miami, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver interested in participating can sign up online for the five-week trial, which will take place July 22nd–August 25th. Uber will then select 30 people from each city to give up their cars during those five weeks.
Each participant will receive $1,000 — based on the average monthly cost for vehicle ownership in the US — to use on (what else) Uber rides, bike- and scooter-share, car rental and carshare, and public transportation. Here’s how the stipend actually breaks down:
$500 in “Uber Cash” redeemable in the Uber app for car trips, or Lime bike and scooter share.
$200 voucher redeemable for car rental or carshare.
$300 across other transportation modes, such as public transit.
Uber will also throw in a one-month free Uber One membership, in which subscribers can earn 6 percent Uber Cash on eligible rides and $0 delivery fees on eligible food, groceries, and more.
There are a few requirements before signing up. You must be 18 or older, have a driver’s license, a vehicle that you use more than three times per week, a bank card, and be comfortable documenting your experience. The first week will be considered the “control period,” where each participant will be expected to document their mobility habits.
“Many Uber riders tell us they want to live a more car-light lifestyle with a variety of ways to ride, including public transit, shared bikes and scooters, walking, and rideshare,” Adam Gromis, global head of sustainability policy at Uber, said in a statement. “This research is critical to help us figure out how to make car-light living possible for more people who want to save money, emissions and time in traffic.”
Uber isn’t the first company to come up with this idea for a car-free trial. It’s not even the first ridehail company to try it. In 2018, Lyft launched its “Ditch with Lyft” trial, in which hundreds of participants in dozens of cities were given $550 in Lyft credits, bikeshare, and other tender to give up their cars for a month. The challenge then morphed into an offer of free Lyft trips to people who sold their cars on Carvana.
Uber says it was inspired to tackle its own trial after seeing encouraging results in Australia, in which participants reported increased walking, biking, and public transit usage during the challenge. Uber concluded that people need access to at least four other modes of transportation in order to successfully ditch their cars. Still, few of the participants said they’d be willing to go so far as to sell their cars and rely only on alternative modes — only three of the 58 said they planned to do this “in the near future.”
It will be interesting to track the response to the challenge in these various cities, with various levels of transit, bike infrastructure, and density, to see how well Uber’s theory about personal car ownership plays out. And it will be equally interesting to see if Uber takes any lessons away about its own contributions to car traffic.
Google Translate is getting support for more than 110 new languages
Illustration: The Verge
Google is adding support for 110 new languages to Google Translate, the company announced on Thursday. Before now, Google Translate supported 133 languages, so this expansion — which the company says is its biggest ever — marks a significant jump.
Google’s PaLM 2 AI language model helped Translate learn these new languages. It was especially good at learning ones that were related to one another, such as languages “close to Hindi, like Awadhi and Marwadi, and French creoles like Seychellois Creole and Mauritian Creole,” Google’s Isaac Caswell says in a blog post.
The list of newly-supported languages in Translate includes Cantonese, which “has long been one of the most requested languages for Google Translate,” Caswell says. “Because Cantonese often overlaps with Mandarin in writing, it is tricky to find data and train models.” Caswell also says that “about a quarter of the new languages come from Africa.”
Most of the new languages are spoken by at least one million people, Caswell tells The Verge in an interview, while “several” are spoken by hundreds of millions of people.
Bots Tied to China Are Harassing a Dissident’s Teenage Daughter A covert campaign to target a writer critical of the country’s Communist Party has extended to sexually suggestive threats against his 16-year-old daughter.
Meta tests Vision Pro-like freeform virtual screen placement for Quest headsets
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
Meta is testing a feature for its Quest headsets that allows you to place windows freely, similar to the Apple Vision Pro. Multitasking with multiple windows has been part of Meta Horizon OS (formerly Meta Quest OS) for a few years now, but currently, it only supports three virtual windows docked in a side-by-side layout.
It brings the Quest 3, in particular, a step closer to Apple’s spatial computing when used in mixed reality mode, but from the video, it doesn’t seem to work quite the same way. You can freely move up to three windows from 2D apps — such as the browser or OS windows like your library and settings — around your space and keep another three docked.
Other demos suggest that the windows will only remember their placement within a limited distance and return to their default positions should you switch orientation or reset the view. We haven’t tested it yet ourselves to know the full limitations here, but it looks promising.
The update also allows you to switch between curved and flat windows, as well as a dimmer that lowers the brightness of virtual environments while using 2D apps. (The latter doesn’t yet work for passthrough mode.)
The Apple Vision Pro allows you to move windows around whichever space you’re in and keep them locked in place even while you move around and after you take the headset off. That way, you can have a window sitting next to your refrigerator and another positioned alongside the TV in your living room, and then walk to and from the windows as if they’re actual objects.
I’ve seen more ads lately that highlight the Quest 3’s productivity potential instead of just the gaming-centric ones. While Meta’s headset might not handle that with the same pizzazz as the Vision Pro just yet, considering it costs $3,000 less, it really doesn’t have to.
Samsung just announced a date for its next Unpacked
In case you were wondering, yes, there will be lots of AI. | Image: Samsung
Samsung’s next Unpacked summer launch event will take place on July 10th in Paris, France, the company announced on Tuesday. The animation accompanying the invitation hints at foldables, and the invite itself removes all doubt: “Prepare to discover the power of Galaxy AI, now infused into the latest Galaxy Z series and the entire Galaxy ecosystem.” But we’re also on the lookout for something of a different shape: the Galaxy Ring.
Rumors indicate that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 will be fairly minor upgrades, with the Z Flip 6 getting a slightly bigger battery and the Z Fold 6 looking a little boxier. Not the most exciting stuff, but that’s been the story with the past few generations of Samsung’s folding phones.
Instead, the more exciting announcement might not be a phone at all — rumors point to an official launch for the Galaxy Ring, first announced at the other Unpacked earlier this year. We got a little hands-on time with a prototype version at Mobile World Congress not long after that, and a few rumored details have trickled out here and there. We’ve yet to hear official pricing or confirmation of the health sensors it will carry, but that might be changing soon enough.
One thing we will surely hear about? Galaxy AI, of course. Samsung’s first Unpacked this year was all about it. Since then, it’s been the theme of every developer conference — first at I/O, then Microsoft Build and WWDC. ‘Tis the season.
Unpacked will be streamed live on Samsung.com starting at 9AM ET on Wednesday, July 10th. You can “reserve” a device and get a $50 credit when you preorder one through Samsung.
Now, OpenAI says it will “need one more month to reach our bar to launch” an alpha version of the new voice mode to a small group of ChatGPT Plus subscribers, with plans to allow access for all Plus customers in the fall. One specific area that OpenAI says it’s improving is the ability to “detect and refuse certain content.”
As for the new video and screen sharing capabilities that we saw during the event, OpenAI writes that it will “keep you posted” on a timeline. OpenAI had said it would deliver the new capabilities in “the coming weeks.” Now, the company writes that “Exact timelines depend on meeting our high safety and reliability bar.”
The assistant features bearing a troublesome resemblance to Johansson’s virtual character in the movie Her were part of OpenAI’s demo, showing how the GPT-4o-powered bot could observe the world around the user and respond to it in real time. It could also maintain a conversation far more naturally and tolerate interruptions with what CEO Sam Altman called “human-level response times and expressiveness.”
Image: OpenAI
The desktop app, however, launched today for users on macOS. With the Mac app installed, pressing Option and Space together can open ChatGPT from anywhere, allowing it to chat about whatever’s on your screen at the time. A Windows app is set to arrive later this year.
EcoFlow’s new solar generator is a portable powerhouse
You can even charge your EV in a pinch. | Image: EcoFlow
EcoFlow just released its new Delta Pro 3 portable solar generator that can scale to power your entire home during a blackout, a van or RV’s electrical system, or a party at the beach. It can even add a few extra miles to your EV in a pinch.
The Delta Pro 3 improves upon the very capable Delta Pro I reviewed in 2022 with even more storage capacity, more powerful inputs and outputs, reduced noise, and a wider wheelbase that should make moving this 115 pound (52Kg) battery a little bit easier.
As a home backup solution, a single Delta Pro 3 (DP3) battery can scale from 4kWh of LFP capacity to 12kWh when stacking two 4kWh expansion batteries. Notably, it can power both 120V and 240V appliances with up to 4000W of output (8000W peak). That’s enough to power just about any appliance in the house, including induction ovens, cooling and heating systems, well pumps, and refrigerators.
You can also link the DP3 units together for even more power and capacity. Three maxed-out DP3 units connected to an EcoFlow Smart Home Panel 2 can provide a whopping 12kW of output and 48kWh of storage. That’s enough capacity to power the average US home for about a day and half, or much longer if you’re only powering critical devices.
It can also replace noisy (but much less expensive) diesel generators by plugging directly into your home’s circuit via an inlet box or manual transfer switch. The DP3 has an IP65 rating, so it should be protected when caught in the rain.
Image: EcoFlow
Off-grid power.
The DP3 battery can be charged in several different ways, including 1000W and 1600W solar inputs, an AC wall charger at either 1800W (120V) or 3000W (240V), a Level 2 EV charger (with adapter) at 4000W, or EcoFlow’s own Dual Fuel Generator. It can also be charged in a van, pickup, or RV when paired with EcoFlow’s Alternator Charger (800W) or very slowly from a 12V cigarette socket. It also supports multi-charging by combining a few inputs together for up to 7000W of fast charging.
Outside the home, the Delta Pro 3 can also be used to power RVs and vans. It has a TT-30R outlet, which provides 120V / 30A to power a vehicle’s entire electrical system, including heavy loads like an air conditioner and microwave. The DP3 also has a 12V / 30A Anderson port to power a rig’s low-voltage DC devices like lights, USB sockets, and portable fridge. That makes this all-in-one solution an attractive alternative to complicated multi-component van build-outs.
Image: EcoFlow
Boondock for longer without a noisy generator.
Importantly, the DP3 is very quiet, which is critical for use in small living spaces. EcoFlow claims it operates at less than 30dB when operating under 2000W thanks to improved thermal management brought over from its even higher capacity Delta Pro Ultra series. That means it should be whisper quiet when keeping your fridge, MaxxFan, and lights powered alongside your Starlink internet system.
The Delta Pro 3 is priced at $3,699 per unit, which is discounted to $3,199 today through July 23rd. The price jumps to $6,298 (or $5,498 through July 23rd) when combining a DP3 with one expansion battery. It’ll be available in Europe and the UK later in September.
Gmail’s Gemini AI sidebar and email summaries are rolling out now
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Gmail is getting more AI features that could make it easier to stay on top of your email.
On the web, Google is beginning to roll out a new Gemini side panel that can do things like summarize email threads and draft new emails. The tool will offer “proactive prompts” but you can also ask “freeform questions,” Google writes in a blog post, and it’s “built to leverage Google’s most capable models,” such as Gemini 1.5 Pro. In the Gmail mobile apps, Google will also give you the ability to have Gemini summarize threads.
These improvements could be useful, but they’ll only be available to paid Gemini users: you’ll need to be a Google Workspace customer with a Gemini Business or Enterprise add-on, a Gemini Education or Education Premium add-on, or a Google One AI Premium subscriber. I’d also caution against fully relying on these tools for work; given that AI sometimes hallucinates things, make sure you’re double-checking an important email Gemini helps with before you send it.
Google is also rolling out Gemini features to the side panel in Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive. Google promised last month at I/O that these features were on the way. And there are still some announced AI features to come for Gmail, including “Contextual Smart Reply.”
How Netflix’s Corporate Culture Has Changed The company’s latest internal memo about its corporate culture is more about how it expects employees to behave than what it wants to become.
Japan and South Korea Are Fighting Over an App at a Tense Time SoftBank and Naver helped bridge geopolitical relations with a joint venture to own the operator of the messaging app Line, but now the partnership is fraying.
The new and improved Windows PCs are finally here
Image: The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 43, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about memexes and telepathy and John Lennon’s wristwatch, watching Presumed Innocent and Ren Faire, testing Genspark for AI search stuff, redoing my homescreen with Dumbify, and experimenting with overnight oats in an attempt to make mornings less chaotic. (Turns out, peanut butter makes pretty much everything 20 percent better.)
I also have for you a new tech podcast, a couple of handy new gadgets, a new calendar app, the game that will take over your weekend, and much more. Let’s get into it.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What great apps / books / podcasts / shows / games / recipes / whatever else have you discovered and loved recently? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)
The Drop
The Asus VivoBook S 15. Copilot Plus PCs cometh. It’s been a weird rollout, what with all the Recall complications, but we’re starting to get a sense of just what this new era of Qualcomm-powered Windows devices can do. So far, I’m pretty optimistic, but I’m still waiting to see how the new Surfaces pan out.
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. The overall vibe of this huge new DLC is basically “it’s Elden Ring, only somehow even more so.” Given how deep and big this game already was, and how many hours we’ve all spent in it already, that’s pretty much all you can ask for.
Pissing out Cancer. If all the Dropout Presents stand-up specials are as much fun as this one from Hank Green, we’re about to have a heck of a run of new comedy. Green here is funny and goofy as ever and extremely Hank Green-y. It’s an hour you won’t regret.
The Xreal Beam Pro. Such a fun and different idea about how smart glasses should work: instead of trying to bake everything into the glasses themselves, Xreal is pulling all the smarts and software into a separate fairly cheap smartphone-style device. I’m excited to test this one out.
Backfired: The Vaping Wars. The Juul story might forever be one of the strangest things to ever happen in Silicon Valley. This podcast goes deep on that story, along with the confusing societal debate about vaping, the government’s scramble to keep up, and where things go from here.
Arc for iPad. Still my favorite browser, finally available on almost all my devices. (Android when, Arc people!?!) The app isn’t exactly iPad-optimized — it’s missing some keyboard shortcuts and is really just a blown-up version of the iPhone app — but it syncs and works well and I will absolutely take it.
Amie for Windows. Big week for cross-platform apps! Amie is one of my favorite calendar / to-do apps and has gotten a lot more polished over the last few months. If you’re the all-in-one productivity type and appreciate some delightful design, give this one a whirl.
The Logitech Keys-to-Go 2. I’ve had the original Keys-To-Go in my bag for a few years as a super light and handy way to get some stuff done with my phone or iPad. This looks like a huge upgrade: still light, still small, but with a more proper set of keys. $80 is a lot, but I suspect I’ll end up buying one.
A Sense of Rebellion. An amazingly well-produced and deeply reported podcast on some decades-old ideas about AI and how we might use and live with technology. The story here, about hippies and capitalists and the government and big business, is kind of the story of technology all wrapped up in 10 episodes. Loving this so far.
Clipbud. Clipboard history is helpful and good, but having a place with all the text you type a lot – your shipping address, stock email responses, important links, all of that — is a life-changer. The built-in text replacement and personal dictionary features (on iOS and Android, respectively) do a lot of that, and apps like Snippety are mega-powerful, but this new one is pretty delightful to use.
Screen share
I think Nick Quah has introduced me to more great podcasts than any other person on earth. Whether in the early days of Hot Pod or in his 1.5x Speed newsletter over at Vulture (The Verge’s sister site here at Vox Media), he seems to have listened to all the shows all the time. Just this week, actually, he wrote a fun story about how chat podcasts have taken over and named some of the biggest names in New Radio.
I asked Nick to share his homescreen because a) I was curious what podcast app he used and b) I was hoping he might recommend a new show or two. I got my wish on both counts! Here’s Nick’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:
The phone: Recently upgraded from my trusty ol’ iPhone 12 to an iPhone 15. Seems to be doing fine so far; I’m no longer stressed about losing juice on long flights.
The wallpaper: My sweet, sweet baby boy Siobhan (aka Shooby).
The apps: Calendar, Photos, Clock, Weather, Google Maps, To Do, Google Calendar, Gmail, Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, Steam, Delta, Strava, Discord, Slack, Stocks, LastPass, Messages, Phone, Firefox, Pocket Casts.
Yeah, well, as you can see, I’m pretty vanilla for the most part. All the immediately accessible apps are stuff I hit up with some frequency on any given day. Google Maps for navigation (and snooping). To Do to get my brain in order. TikTok and Instagram for something to do in the bathroom. I’ve been gaming a lot more these days, so I’m constantly trawling Steam for deals. Strava, ‘cuz I’ve somehow become a big runner. I’ve also been hitting up Delta quite a bit, working through a backlog of old JRPGs. And of course, Pocket Casts, which is my go-to for podcast listening.
I also asked Nick to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:
I’m a big rewatcher / replayer of things, and for whatever reason, the summertime is usually when I pick up my annual revisits. Right now, I’m working my way through Halt and Catch Fire for the sixth time. Gosh, that show is so lovely. It’s the 10-year anniversary, you know?
Like the rest of the universe at this point in time, seemingly, I’m digging Chappell Roan. “Red Wine Supernova,” very good.
Catching up on episodes of My Perfect Console, Simon Parkin’s great “Desert Island Discs, but for Video Games” interview show that’s really doubling as a fun historical record for the medium.
Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Emailinstaller@theverge.comor 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 recommendations than fit here, check out the replies tothis post on Threads.
“This little camera. I’ve been going over ways in my mind to justify it because it’s so cute but also the photos are surprisingly decent.” – Daulton
“Check out Ditto. It is a Nostr server that exposes Mastodon API to its clients. So the promise is that you would be able to use your very nice Mastodon app (Ivory, Ice Cubes) and add Nostr connection right into it. It would be like an additional server in the same app where your main Mastodon account is.” – Adnan
“I’ve been slowly getting back into following Pokemón trading cards and have been hooked watching TheBulbaStore on YouTube. It’s super interesting seeing a vendor’s point of view and the prices some cards go for now!” – Peter
“The Hawthorne & Horowitz mysteries by Anthony Horowitz. He recently released the fifth in the series, Close to Death. They all have tortured puns as titles (in this case, “close” being a British word for enclosed area). On top of that, the books are metafiction in which Horowitz himself is the main character, talking about how he is writing the series of murder mysteries that you are reading. Yet, they are some of the best contemporary murder mysteries I’ve read and do a wonderful job paying homage to Agatha Christie, all while playing with the genre.” – Kendrick
“I’m playing and watching chess! Chess is cool now! Lots of great ways to play, but Chess.com is probably the best for beginners. And there’s great YouTube content out there on chess from Eric Rosen, Irina Krush, Levy Rozman, and Hikaru Nakamura. Getting good so I can teach my three-year-old niece to be a master someday.” – Ryan
“I am really enjoying “Jet Lag: The Game” on YouTube. Imagine The Amazing Race, but actually good and not scripted. The hosts are likable and the game has some decent complexity behind it. They are about to wrap up their Australia season, and it has been a nail-biter.” – Dev
“I’m currently reading Hell Divers II: Ghosts by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. Postapocalyptic sci-fi about halo jumpers who dive into radioactive wastelands to scavenge supplies from mutant monsters, and yes, it is as good as it sounds.” – Jesse
“I’ve been obsessed with my new Klydoclock, a digital take on the classic analog clock. It features changing, artist-curated faces and can even tick and chime on the hour if you want it to. Best of all: it has no other functions and isn’t attached to an app or your phone. Minimalism and elegance at its finest.” – Jonathan
“I really believe that a home server or NAS is useful and easily accessible for more people than currently have one. More people should have their own Plex server, Pi-hole, self-hosted cloud storage, Minecraftserver, or self-hosted VPN. An old PC is all you need if you want to keep it simple. And if you don’t mind learning how to work with Linux, you could even use an old Android phone or cheap Raspberry Pi clone.” – Voltaire
Signing off
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I absolutely cannot get enough of watching / listening to / reading about how people who are great at their thing do their thing. (The musician Kygo has a series of making-of videos that is always the first example I think of in this genre.) One of my favorite recent ones is this video, with Zane Lowe interviewing Finneas and Billie Eilish about the making of Eilish’s latest album. They talk about process, fear, microphones, editing, and so much more. I will almost certainly never make an album, or shoot a movie, or make it in the NBA, but listening to people talk about how they do it never gets old.
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