A better all-in-one AI app is finally here

A better all-in-one AI app is finally here

Image: William Joel / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 20, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, hello, welcome, hi, what’s up, how are you, welcome to the gang, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

It’s our first issue of 2024, a number that still feels deeply strange to type — hope you had a good holiday and a nice break! I spent most of mine sick and then caring for a sick kid, which meant a lot of Elmo and The Office and trying as ever to beat my high score in Holedown.

This week, I’ve also been reading about crypto farms and AI influencers and Tara Reid, breaking in my new Instant Pot air fryer (send me recipes!), poring over Matt Mullenweg’s annual “What’s in My Bag” post, playing an upsetting amount of EA Sports FC 24, immersing myself in the r/KeyboardLayouts subreddit, discovering new tunes through a massive mashup of songs that turn 40 this year, and finally getting around to cleaning up my desk.

I also have for you some new AI apps, a new Wordle-like game, some fun stuff to watch, and some games and shows worth revisiting. Some of this stuff isn’t from this week, so consider this more of a while-you-were-holidaying catch-up issue.

(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 want to get Installer in your inbox a day before it publishes here, subscribe here.)

---

The Drop

• Microsoft Copilot. This is Microsoft’s all-encompassing AI app, basically a ChatGPT competitor but much nicer to look at. I like it so far! Just how big a deal is Copilot to Microsoft? It’s adding a Copilot key to Windows keyboards — the first new key in three decades.
• Clicks Creator Keyboard. It’s 2012 all over again, y’all! It’s been a long time since I got excited about an iPhone accessory, but this physical keyboard attachment looks delightful. I wonder if my fingers even remember how to type on a phone keyboard.
• Bitconned. Another in the increasingly large canon of delightful documentaries about crypto antiheroes. This Netflix one is a little different, though: it’s basically just a crime story told by the criminal at the heart of it. I wouldn’t take it as, you know, Gospel Truth, but it’s a fun story.
• iA Presenter. If you’re a person who occasionally needs to make really nice slide decks but kind of hates making slide decks, this app is a godsend. Simple, straightforward, kind of impossible to screw up. The app has been out on Mac for a while, but it’s now in beta for the iPad and iPhone, and it looks great.
• Trivial Pursuit Infinite. Not exactly the most innovative or surprising Wordle-type game — it’s just, you know, a bunch of trivia questions every day. But it’s fun! And the AI mode is neat, too: pick a topic, any topic, and it’ll generate (in my experience, sometimes very weird) questions for as long as you feel like answering.
• The First Time Somebody Has Ever “Beat” Tetris. I don’t even really know how to explain this: it’s just 40 minutes of some lightning-fast Tetris playing that becomes more and more dramatic and ends in both a deeply boring and totally thrilling way. It’s a feat of athleticism, playing this way! Also, here’s a good explainer video about why this is such a big deal.
• The StoryGraph. This app has had kind of a moment — like, a “the servers broke we’re too popular” moment — over the last week or so, largely because it’s such a great place for readers. It got some new stuff, too, like barcode scanning for book tracking and a really great recommendations section. I’m going to use this and Letterboxd both a lot more this year.
• The Hollywood Reporter’s Full Songwriters Roundtable. I could watch this group of hugely accomplished songwriters — Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, Cynthia Erivo, Julia Michaels, and Jon Batiste — talk about making music, microphones, MP3 players, and how to stay creative and open pretty much forever. Bonus: the new Actress Roundtable is also fantastic.
• Public Domain Day 2024. Mickey Mouse is the biggest new name in the public domain this year, but there are a lot of cool movies, music recordings, and stories that are now available for anyone to publish and play with. Thanks to AI, we’re about to spend all of 2024 talking about copyright law, so let’s celebrate the wins when we get them!
• Tesla Cybertruck Full Tour! We. Have. Wiper answers. Courtesy of Out of Spec Reviews, this nearly two-hour video is as comprehensive a look at the Cybertruck as you’re ever going to find. Some cool stuff, some terrible ideas, and a very, very floppy wiper.

---

Screen share

Every once in a while, The Verge’s Richard Lawler tries to use a Mac. He’s mostly a Windows guy, but he’s also our news editor and, in general, a guy who tries to stay up to date on everything, so he’s always switching around. And I always know when he’s trying a Mac again because he starts complaining about how bad the Mac’s window management tools are and how you have to download a separate app just to do basic OS-level stuff. (All fair points!)

Richard’s also not generally the “try everything new just because” type, so when I asked him to share his homescreen, I figured he’d show us a system that is simple and optimized and exactly what he needs. I was pretty much right.

Here’s Richard’s homescreen, plus some information on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: Pixel 8 Pro.

The wallpaper: This photo on the lock screen, and “Icelandic Aurora” from Google’s wallpapers.

The apps: Google Home, Google Wallet, Camera, IoCare, Google Keep, Nest, Clock, Google Chat, Google Photos, TikTok, Google Recorder, HondaLink, Google Play, Phone, Messages, Chrome, Gmail, Overdrop.

Overdrop is my weather app. I have a constant love / hate relationship with it because it seems like every 18 months or so it has a battery drain issue and I have to reinstall it for a while, but I always come back because it’s the best one for answering the question of “did enough snow come down last night that I need to get out of bed early and clean the car off?” At least without getting out of bed and looking out of the window.

The most important app on my homescreen (other than Google Keep for as long as that remains alive) is the homescreen. I’ve used Action Launcher for as long as I can remember, along with Voxel’s themed icons. Other than a consistent look, the customizable shortcuts via swipe or long press make it easy to get directly where I need to go.

I also asked Richard to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he said:

• I’m still playing Apex Legends and Overwatch just as poorly as I ever have, mostly as a companion to podcast listening.
• Season 4 of Open Mike Eagle’s What Had Happened Was just wrapped up, and it’s been my must-listen. It’s ostensibly a series of interviews with Questlove about The Roots’ history / discography through Things Fall Apart, but it’s also a time capsule of the entire late ’90s rap era told by someone who was there, covering The Notorious B.I.G., J Dilla, the Fugees, etc.
• Otherwise, it’s all NBA podcasts. My most recent addition is State of the League by JokicJoestar, and the TikTok I can’t stop watching is this channel that only posts old car ads like this one for the Chrysler Laser.

---

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. And for even more recommendations than we can fit here, check out this Threads conversation and this one on Mastodon.

“Perplexity AI. I started checking it out today, and I really feel like they are onto something. The UI and presentation is all super slick, and the way it presents the sources of the information it is summarizing is a nice addition.” – Matt

“Wrestle Kingdom 18. New Japan Pro-Wrestling just relaunched their streaming service, and $12 gets you an incredible show with production values American companies just can’t match. It’s thrilling enough just for the camera zooms and excellent English commentary.” – Sawyer

“Spaces for Mac. It’s solved a lot of my issues with window management on Mac, and Workspaces is kind of genius. Workspaces declutter your screen and launch all the apps you need for a specific workspace *in the screen space you want them.* The window management system also appears when you hover near the webcam. There’s also a dedicated drop space. And the whole thing integrates with Raycast!” – Mario

“I wanted to take a moment to recommend the iSH app. As a software engineer, discovering a Linux virtualization environment running smoothly on iOS was a pleasant surprise. It might sound a bit out there, but it actually works seamlessly on your iPhone or iPad. Quite an unexpected find for anyone in the tech world!” – Andres

“Equinox. I have been really leaning into a distinct wallpaper for light mode and dark mode on my Mac. This app makes it super easy to make custom ones beyond those that Apple bundles in!” – Kevin

“I fell in love again with the Mastodon client IceCubes. Was using Mona for a while, but IceCubes got some serious updates these last few weeks. It’s gorgeous, feature-rich, and open source! Best Mastodon client out there.” – Daniel

“Recently finished Severance on Apple TV, and I’m obsessed. Awesome stuff if you’re a fan of Black Mirror. Can’t wait for the second season.” – Zook

“I’ve recently rekindled my interest in Marvel Snap. It’s an engaging, fast-paced card game perfect for brief gaming sessions. Just the other day, I enjoyed playing a few rounds right before my movie started at the cinema. It’s ideal for those short sessions!” – Wade

“I just tore through The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard. It’s 700-some pages but read very quickly. A middle-aged man is great at his job, but his family doesn’t understand what it is at all. He sees the loneliness of his boss and helps him encounter the world more normally.” – DLS

“I am absolutely loving the Plex and Tidal integration for listening to music and Pano Scrobbler for scrobbling to Last.fm. I’ve also been playing with the ChatGPT integration in Plexamp to make playlists with text prompts, and it’s been fun!” – J

---

Signing off

I am forever in search of games I can play in tiny bits. For years, I’d play Mario Tennis on the Nintendo Switch as a way to take a break between meetings or kill a few minutes waiting for water to boil. But not many games are so easy to pick up and put down.

My new go-to is one I did not expect: Golf Plus on the Meta Quest. It’s a surprisingly realistic golf game, which you can play at a variety of difficulty levels and on lots of different courses from around the world. It’s a very chill game and fun enough that I’ve recently been searching things like “Can you attach a Quest controller to a real golf club” and am almost certainly about to drop $30 on this club-like Sanlaki accessory. I’ll play a hole, have a meeting, play three holes, more work. I’m that guy now! How did this happen? Time to buy some Dockers and a vest, I guess. Wish me luck.

See you next week!

Apple is sending out checks for ‘batterygate’ class action claims

Apple is sending out checks for ‘batterygate’ class action claims

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Checks are apparently hitting the bank accounts of people affected by Apple’s decision to slow down iPhones with older batteries back in 2017. MacRumors reported that readers of its site said they’d seen checks deposited to their accounts amounting to $92.17, later updating the story with an embedded post from one of the readers. Indeed, the website set up for the settlement was updated in December to say the payments were expected to go out this month.

So ends the batterygate saga. It began in 2017 when a developer showed that certain iOS 10 updates throttled performance for older phones like the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7. The company wasn’t upfront about the purpose of the slowdown before this, but later said the goal was to keep phones from randomly shutting down once the battery degrades beyond a certain point. Multiple class action lawsuits cropped up, claiming the company’s actions drove people to upgrade early, rather than simply paying to have their phones’ battery replaced.

The company agreed to the settlement in 2020, and in August last year, one of the law firms representing customers in the lawsuit said a judge had cleared the last obstacle — a legal appeal — holding up the payouts, and that money would be sent soon. The phones affected were the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and the original iPhone SE. At the time, the firm said that payments would be around $65, so if you filed an approved claim by October 6th, 2020, you may have a little more money than you expected coming your way soon.

Jackery’s rooftop tent is also a powerful solar generator

Jackery’s rooftop tent is also a powerful solar generator

The retractable panels help generate up to 4.96kWh per day in the western US, according to Jackery. | Image: Jackery

Jackery has converted the humble rooftop tent into a powerful solar generator that lets any car escape the grid for a weekend or longer. Although it’s just a concept on show at CES right now, Jackery says it will put the tent into production sometime near the end of 2024.

The retractable solar panels are said to produce up to 1000W when the car is parked and the tent is open and facing south. That’s enough to generate 4.96kWh per day in the western US, or 4kWh as you move east, according to Jackery’s estimates. There’s no mention of its resilience to wind, but that’s hardly a concern for a concept parked on ugly carpet inside the Las Vegas convention center.

Image: Jackery

A closer look at the system with a portable battery that is not the Jackery E1000 Plus power station being shown at CES.

Rooftop tents can already be fitted with solar panels made by any number of companies, including Jackery. But those tend to be lightweight flexible panels so as to not overwhelm the tent’s folding mechanism, and they rarely cover the entire surface area due to mismatched dimensions. That results in relatively poor solar conversion efficiency for the available surface area. Jackery’s rooftop tent maximizes power generation by filling the entire roof with solar cells, and then extending them outward, while also neatly integrating the wiring required to feed the Jackery power station.

The CES concept tent feeds a separate 1.26kWh E1000 Plus power station, capable of 2000W of AC output. That’s enough to run a 1150W portable air conditioner for about one hour, a 60W car fridge for about 45 hours, or a 900W electric cooker for an hour — longer if you add LFP expansion batteries for up to 5kWh of total energy storage. The E1000 Plus can also be charged from the car while driving (7 hours to full) or wall jack (1.7 hours).

Image: Jackery

That insulation had better be good.

It’s unclear who Jackery is partnering with on the tent production. Nevertheless, the concept is fitted with a memory foam mattress, insulation, dimmable lighting with color control, and waterproof fabric with blackout windows. Jackery says that the production version will come “complete with an onboard charging module” (whatever that means) with details to follow sometime in Q4.

It’s too early to call it a trend, but I’m happy to see solar generator specialists like Jackery and Ecoflow (via its partnership with Winnebago) embrace the community of overlanders, vanlifers, and weekend warriors with fully integrated solutions that make it easy to take modern work/life comforts off the grid.

After all, if you’re part of the new hybrid workforce, why work from your crummy urban apartment when you can work from places that inspire you, instead?

Switching to a Flip Phone Helped Me Cut Down on My Smartphone Addiction

Switching to a Flip Phone Helped Me Cut Down on My Smartphone Addiction Was it inconvenient? Yes. Did T9 texting drive me crazy? Definitely. Was it worth doing? Absolutely.

Apple revives old fight with Hey after rejecting new calendar app

Apple revives old fight with Hey after rejecting new calendar app

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The new year was supposed to begin with a brand spanking new calendar app. But roughly 72 hours after the premium email service Hey announced its latest feature — an integrated calendar — co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson received some unwelcome news from Apple: it was rejecting a standalone iOS app for Hey Calendar, because non-paying users couldn’t do anything when they opened the app up.

New users can’t sign up for Hey Calendar directly on the app — Basecamp, which makes Hey, makes users first sign up through a browser. Apple’s App Store rules require most paid services to offer users the ability to pay and sign up through the app, ensuring the company gets up to a 30 percent cut. The controversial rule has a ton of gray areas and carve-outs (i.e. reader apps like Spotify and Kindle get an exception) and is the subject of antitrust fights in multiple countries.

But as Hansson detailed on X and in a subsequent blog post, he found Apple’s rejection insulting for another reason. Close to four years ago, the company rejected Hey’s original iOS app for its email service for the exact same reason. “Apple just called to let us know they’re rejecting the HEY Calendar app from the App Store (in current form). Same bullying tactics as last time: Push delicate rejections to a call with a first-name-only person who’ll softly inform you it’s your wallet or your kneecaps,” wrote Hansson in a post on X.

The outcome of the 2020 fight actually worked out in Hey’s favor. After days of back and forth between Apple’s App Store Review Board and Basecamp, the Hey team agreed to a rather creative solution suggested by Apple exec Phil Schiller. Hey would offer a free option for the iOS app, allowing new users to sign up directly. But the company had a slight twist — users who signed up via the iOS app got a free, temporary randomized email address that worked for 14 days — after which they had to pay to upgrade. Currently, Hey email users can only pay for an account through the browser.

Following the saga with Hey, Apple made a carve-out to its App Store rules that stated that free companion apps to certain types of paid web services were not required to have an in-app payment mechanism. But, as Hansson mentions on X, a calendar app wasn’t mentioned in the list of services that Apple now makes an exception for, which includes VOIP, cloud storage, web hosting — and of course — email.

Since it's clear we're never going to pay them the extortionate 30% ransom, they're back to the bullshit about "the app doesn't do anything when you download it". Despite the fact that after last time, they specifically carved out HEY in App Store Review Guidelines 3.1.3 (f)! pic.twitter.com/GfqBCMgvSw

— DHH (@dhh) January 5, 2024

“After spending 19 days to review our submission, causing us to miss a long-planned January 2nd launch date, Apple rejected our stand-alone free companion app ‘because it doesn’t do anything’. That is because users are required to login with an existing account to use the functionality,” wrote Hansson in the blog post.

As Hansson details in an X post, Hey plans to fight Apple’s decision — though he didn’t specify what route they will be taking. The Verge has reached out to both Hey and Apple for comment.

Max’s live sports add-on will be free for a few more months

Max’s live sports add-on will be free for a few more months

Image: The Verge

Warner Bros. Discovery’s add-on sports tier for Max is going to remain free for a little longer than originally planned, as reported by Deadline. The Bleacher Report Sports add-on was added last October, and while it’s been available at no cost to subscribers so far, it was set to become a paid add-on on February 29th, 2024. However, the switch to a $9.99 monthly fee has been pushed out a few months as Warner Bros. Discovery works out some tech issues.

“The B/R Sports Add-On will continue to be made available to Max subscribers on us for a few more months as we finalize some tech integrations that will ensure a more seamless customer experience with our platform partners,” Max spokesperson Jeff Cusson said in a statement to The Verge.

The B/R Sports tier, which launched on October 5th, includes live games from a bunch of sports leagues, including the MLB (baseball), NBA (basketball), NHL (hockey), and NCAA (college sports). Other streaming services are working on live sports, too. Netflix hosted a live golf tournament in November and is planning to air a live tennis match in March. And Amazon began hosting its streaming-exclusive Thursday Night Football broadcasts this year.

How to configure and use hot corners on macOS

How to configure and use hot corners on macOS

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

There’s a lot to explore in macOS — from file sharing to keyboard remapping — so you’d be forgiven for not having discovered every single feature that Apple’s desktop operating system has to offer. One of the most useful and yet less well known features is something Apple calls hot corners.

Like keyboard shortcuts, hot corners can help you do more in less time on your Mac. The idea is that certain actions are triggered when you move the pointer into one of the corners of the display. Better yet, you’re able to configure these actions so that they correspond to the jobs you’re doing most often on macOS.

You can, for example, quickly create a new note in Apple Notes, or launch the system screen saver, or open up Mission Control. You don’t have to enable all four corners at the same time, either — you can pick and choose which ones are active at any time.

Configuring hot corners

To pick a function for each corner of the display or to disable particular hot corners:

• Open the Apple menu and pick System Settings.
• Open up the Desktop & Dock panel and scroll down to the bottom.
• Click Hot Corners (bottom right) to see the current configuration.
• Select any shortcut from the four drop-down menus.
• Click Done to apply the changes.

You can add any modifier key (Command, Shift, Option, or Control) or modifier key combination to a hot corner. The modifier key options make hot corners a bit more of a deliberate action and reduce the chance of you accidentally activating a hot corner just because the pointer is in a corner of the display.

• Hold down the desired key or key combination while selecting a hot corner function.
• Click Done to apply the changes.

You can choose shortcuts for hot corners in System Settings.

You get 11 options for each hot corner:

• Mission Control
• Application Windows
• Desktop
• Notification Center
• Launchpad
• Quick Note
• Start Screen Saver
• Disable Screen Saver (so it never appears)
• Put Display to Sleep
• Lock Screen
• Or no action at all

Perhaps the two most useful options, from a productivity standpoint, are Mission Control and Launchpad. The former takes you to an overview of the apps that are currently running and all the desktop spaces that you’ve set up, while the latter takes you to the macOS equivalent of the Start menu, where all your apps are accessible.

Using hot corners

One thing you can use a hot corner for is to turn off the screen saver.

Making use of a hot corner is as simple as moving the pointer to the relevant corner of the screen. Sometimes, as is the case with creating a quick note in Notes, an additional click is required to launch the shortcut. If you’ve set up a modifier key, you’ll of course need to have this pressed as well.

So, for example, if you have the top-right corner of your display set to Application Windows, moving the pointer up to that corner will show all the open windows for the current app, making it a little easier to switch between them.

You can drag files between apps using hot corners, too. Say one of your hot corners is set to Launchpad: try dragging an image from a Finder window to the Launchpad hot corner and then on top of the Notes app shortcut. A new note will be created with the image in it. Set a hot corner to Desktop, and you can drag files there, too.

That’s one example of how hot corners can be useful, and there are lots of others. Personally, I find the Lock Screen one most helpful — when I’m stepping away from my desk, a quick swipe of the trackpad locks my MacBook, with no need to press any keys or click through any menus.

Using multiple displays

If you’re using two displays and want the hot corners to only work on the four outer corners, you need to align the displays.

Hot corners can be a little quirky when you’re using multiple displays. Essentially, the four corners will work independently on each screen — which may be fine with you, unless you want them to act as if you were using a single screen. In that case, your displays have to be precisely aligned in System Settings.

To change the alignment of multiple displays:

• Open the Apple menu.
• Select System Settings > Displays.
• Click Arrange, then click and drag the displays to align them. On any adjacent displays that are “snapped” together and exactly aligned, hot corners will be disabled.
• Select Done to confirm.

While hot corners don’t do anything you can’t already do in macOS with a few clicks or button presses, they are really convenient and can make a significant difference in how quickly you can get around the operating system and its features.

SpaceX is suing to bust up federal union protections

SpaceX is suing to bust up federal union protections

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

SpaceX is suing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after the agency accused the Elon Musk-owned company of illegally firing employees. In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday, SpaceX claims the NLRB’s actions are unconstitutional.

On Wednesday, the NLRB filed a complaint alleging SpaceX illegally fired a group of employees for drafting an open letter that criticized Musk’s behavior. The NLRB also claims SpaceX interrogated employees about their involvement with the letter and encouraged employees to quit if they participated in organized activities.

Now, SpaceX is responding with a lawsuit that says the open letter was a “distraction to SpaceX employees around the country.” It claims the NLRB’s proceedings, which involve a hearing in front of an NLRB administrative law judge (ALJ), violate SpaceX’s “constitutional right to trial by jury.” The company also accuses NLRB of violating the Constitution’s rules on the separation of powers, stating the agency’s structure “is miles away from the traditional understanding” of the concept. The NLRB declined to comment.

SpaceX is asking the court to deem the provisions restricting the removal of NLRB members and ALJs unconstitutional, as well as declare that the NLRB’s proceedings deprive SpaceX of its right to trial. It’s also asking the court to pause the current proceedings. A hearing is scheduled in front of an NLRB ALJ on March 5th, 2024, but there’s an option to appeal the decision to the board and then a federal appeals court.

Microsoft’s new Copilot key is the first big change to Windows keyboards in 30 years

Microsoft’s new Copilot key is the first big change to Windows keyboards in 30 years

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft wants 2024 to be “the year of the AI PC,” and it’s kicking things off with a significant change to the keyboard on new laptops and PCs. A new Copilot key will ship on a variety of new PCs and laptops from Microsoft’s partners, providing quick access to Microsoft’s AI-powered Windows Copilot experience straight from a keyboard button press.

The Copilot key is the first big change to the Windows PC keyboard layout in nearly three decades. “Nearly 30 years ago, we introduced the Windows key to the PC keyboard that enabled people all over the world to interact with Windows,” says Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft. “We see this as another transformative moment in our journey with Windows where Copilot will be the entry point into the world of AI on the PC.”

Image: Microsoft

The new Copilot key sits next to the right-hand alt key on Windows keyboards.

This new Copilot key will replace the menu key (application key) that was introduced alongside the Windows key decades ago. It will be placed next to the right-hand alt key on most keyboards, with the placement varying by OEM and across different markets. It’s in the same spot where Microsoft added a dedicated Office key to its own keyboards in 2019. The Copilot key simply launches the Windows Copilot that’s built into Windows 11, offering up a ChatGPT-like chatbot that can answer queries or even take actions inside Windows.

If Windows Copilot isn’t available in your country just yet, the Copilot key will launch Windows Search instead. While the existing Windows key can open the Start menu or be combined with a variety of other keys for shortcuts to Windows features and functions, the Copilot key is just a launch key for now. It’s not clear if Microsoft plans to let you use the Copilot key in combination with other keys in the future.

Microsoft isn’t discussing which OEMs will add the Copilot key, leaving the announcements for next week’s Consumer Electronics Show and beyond. Mehdi says we’ll “start to see the Copilot key unveiled on new Windows 11 PCs from our ecosystem partners, with availability beginning later this month through Spring, including on upcoming Surface devices.”

Microsoft is rumored to be launching new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 models in the spring, and the dedicated Copilot key on Surface devices was a rumor that’s now been confirmed.

Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge

The Copilot key will launch Microsoft’s built-in Windows Copilot experience.

It feels like Microsoft has been building Copilot into everything throughout 2023, and this new Copilot key is part of bigger AI-powered changes that are planned for Windows throughout 2024. “In this new year, we will be ushering in a significant shift toward a more personal and intelligent computing future where AI will be seamlessly woven into Windows from the system, to the silicon, to the hardware,” says Mehdi. “This will not only simplify people’s computing experience but also amplify it, making 2024 the year of the AI PC.”

Microsoft is working on a Windows “refresh” that will be focused on new AI features, alongside adding AI to more and more parts of its software and services. Microsoft has even started the year by branding Microsoft Edge as the “AI browser,” signaling that Microsoft’s AI push is far from over.

LG just made the fastest OLED gaming display yet

LG just made the fastest OLED gaming display yet

Image: LG

LG Display, a manufacturer that makes and sells displays to other companies, is showing off a new OLED display that could soon appear in high-end gaming monitors. At 27 inches, this 1440p panel pairs a speedy 0.03ms response time with a 480Hz refresh rate — making it the fastest in OLED displays so far.

LG’s new screen is even better than the one in the 32-inch OLED “Dual-Hz” gaming monitor (32GS95UE) it announced in December. While this monitor similarly offers a refresh rate of up to 480Hz, you have to toggle the display down to 1080p to take advantage of that speed.

It also puts LG Display on track to compete with the panel recently announced by Samsung’s display arm, which offers a slightly lower 360Hz refresh rate and a 1440p resolution. Samsung has already adopted the panel for its new 27-inch Odyssey OLED G6 gaming monitor, and it looks like MSI and Dell may be using it in forthcoming monitors as well.

LG Display says the panel comes with the company’s “META Technology,” a feature that’s supposed to offer better brightness and wider viewing angles. The company also claims it emits the “lowest level of blue light in the industry.” It’s still too early to know whether any gaming companies will adopt LG Display’s new panel. LG Display plans on releasing its 27-inch OLED 480Hz panel during the first half of this year and will show off “its full lineup” of OLED gaming displays during CES 2024, which range from 27 to 45 inches.

With two of the biggest display makers developing OLED panels that prioritize high refresh rates, it’s a sign we’re going to see a lot more gaming monitors using the technology soon.

Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

The entry-level Apple Watch SE is a gateway smartwatch if there ever was one. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Editor’s note: Apple was recently banned from selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 due to an ongoing patent dispute with medical device maker Masimo. A federal appeals court has temporarily paused the resulting import ban, however. Read more about the ban here.

A few months ago, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) alongside the new Apple Watch Series 9 ($399). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE ($249), but the introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.

But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 10, launched in September on the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, though no one can say with certainty whether the Series 4 will get the next big software update or whether it will be exclusive to newer watches.

Picking up a watch from the latest (or a recent) generation ensures you’re getting a smartwatch with an updated design, a robust number of features, and plenty of sensors. Now, let’s get into the deals.

The best Apple Watch Series 9 deals

The Apple Watch Series 9 represents the latest wearable in Apple’s flagship Series lineup. It introduces a slightly faster S9 SiP chip and a second-gen ultra wideband chip, which allow for onboard Siri processing and precision finding with your iPhone. It also offers a brighter, 2,000-nit display and works with Apple’s new “double tap,” a feature that lets you tap your thumb and index finger together to carry out various actions. While the improvements are welcome, the Series 9 isn’t a vast departure from the prior model, the Series 8.

The Apple Watch Series 9 has only been out a few months, but the GPS-equipped model is currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target in the 41mm sizing starting at $349 ($50 off) or in the larger 45mm configuration at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for as low as $379 ($50 off). As for the LTE model with cellular connectivity, it’s currently available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target starting at $479 ($50 off), which is about $20 shy of its all-time low.

Read our Apple Watch Series 9 review.

The best Apple Watch SE deals

The Apple Watch SE received a refresh in late 2022. It has the same chipset as the Series 8, which is great, but with fewer sensors, no always-on display, and a slightly outdated design compared to the Series 8 and Series 9. Those omissions might take this out of the running for some people, but it still may be exactly what you’re after. Best of all, it starts at $249 for the 40mm Wi-Fi / GPS model, which is $30 less than the previous generation’s baseline cost. Opting for cellular connectivity bumps up the starting price to $299 for the 40mm size (44mm adds $20 to each configuration).

Right now, the 40mm Apple Watch SE with GPS is on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $199 ($50 off); it’s also available in the 44mm sizing for $229 ($50 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. And if you want the LTE configuration, it’s available at Walmart and Best Buy starting at $249 ($50 off), one of its lowest prices to date.

Read our Apple Watch SE (second-gen) review.

The best Apple Watch Ultra 2 deals

Apple’s latest Apple Watch Ultra launched at $799 in September with GPS and LTE support, much like the original model. The ultra-capable smartwatch has the most features, sensors, and ruggedness of any Apple Watch model available thus far, along with a display that’s 50 percent brighter than the first Ultra. The 49mm smartwatch also packs Apple’s new S9 SiP and second-gen ultra wideband chips, just like the Apple Watch Series 9, while maintaining long-lasting battery life, precise GPS tracking, and a bevy of diving-friendly sensors.

We recently saw the Apple Watch Ultra 2 dip to $739 for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Thankfully, it’s still on sale (for slightly more) at Amazon and Best Buy, where you can grab it for just $749 ($50 off) with either an Alpine Loop, a Trail Loop, or an Ocean Band strap.

Read our Apple Watch Ultra 2 review.

A note on the more premium models

While all of the Apple Watch models and colorways covered here are encased in aluminum (except the Ultras, which have a titanium build), Apple does make a more premium range built out of stainless steel and titanium. These offerings are functionally and aesthetically similar to their aluminum counterparts, with slightly refined colors and finishings — polished for the stainless steel and brushed for the titanium. However, they start at much steeper prices of $749 and above. They, too, can often be found on sale, but they’re never discounted as low as the standard base models, so we don’t include them here.

Museum World Hit by Cyberattack on Widely Used Software

Museum World Hit by Cyberattack on Widely Used Software Hackers targeted software that many museums use to show their collections online and to manage sensitive information.

Samsung is hosting Unpacked in the heart of Silicon Valley

Samsung is hosting Unpacked in the heart of Silicon Valley

That’s so metal. | Image: Samsung

Samsung has formally announced its winter Unpacked — coming right on the heels of CES and just down the street from some of its biggest competitors’ HQs. As previously leaked announced, the event is scheduled for Wednesday, January 17th. It’ll be hosted at the SAP Center, because nothing says “go big or go home” like an NHL arena.

The company says we’ll see the “newest additions to the Galaxy mobile device portfolio,” which is all but guaranteed to be the S24 series. AI will be a major focus — no surprise there. Rumors have also pointed to the S24 Ultra getting a new titanium build — that should ring a bell if you’ve seen literally any advertisement for the iPhone 15 Pro — and the 3D metallic graphic in the event invitation certainly seems to lean that way. Hosting the event in Apple’s backyard is probably no coincidence either!

Per usual, Samsung has opened up “reservations” for device preorders, which get you a $50 credit if you preorder one of the phones. There’s no commitment to follow through and actually purchase one, so join us on Samsung’s livestream at 10AM PT / 1PM ET on the 17th when the devices are revealed. Then you can make a more informed decision.

Pornhub blocks North Carolina and Montana as porn regulation spreads

Pornhub blocks North Carolina and Montana as porn regulation spreads

Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Pornhub has restricted access in two more states in protest of continued nationwide state-level efforts to regulate online access to porn. 404Media reported that residents in both North Carolina and Montana visiting Pornhub and other Aylo-owned sites like Redtube or Brazzers are now greeted by a video of performer Cherie DeVille, and a handful of paragraphs, telling them their states are now blocked. Aylo began blocking access in the states last week, according to reporting from multiple outlets including The Fayetteville Observer and KRTV in Great Falls, Montana.

The move is meant to protest laws that went into effect in both states on January 1st. Montana passed a standalone ID verification law in May, and North Carolina’s new law was tacked onto a bill regarding the high school computer curriculum. The laws require sites to either use third-party verification or, in the case of Montana, “digitized identification” to verify a visitor’s age. Both states also leave enforcement as a civil matter, allowing individuals to sue if they think a site violates the law.

That all makes it much more difficult for a website like Pornhub to operate. Pornhub and other sites aren’t opposed to age-gating content, and it currently uses device identifiers for age verification. It is, however, opposed to the methods required by these new laws.

Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

A similar message is posted for users in Utah.

The message displayed by Aylo’s sites claims few adult sites can “compare to the robust Trust and Safety measures we currently have in place.” The message contends that the “most effective solution” is to allow access based on device identifiers.

Despite the company’s safety claims, Aylo was recently fined $1.8 million by the federal government for allegedly willfully hosting videos of sex trafficking victims.

Montana and North Carolina have joined a small list of states with restricted access to Pornhub. Louisiana, Utah, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Virginia have passed similar laws, prompting Pornhub to block access in those states as well. Meanwhile, Texas passed its own identification law, currently under appeal in the Fifth Circuit, that also requires adult film sites to show unsubstantiated warnings about the health risks of watching porn.

Pornhub will have to find some way to manage age verification as a cornucopia of laws hit it in states around the US, and even overseas. In the EU, for instance, the company was just deemed a “Very Large Online Platform” that will have to make sure it knows how old its users are. Otherwise, giant swaths of people worldwide might have to turn once more to the darkest corners of the internet to find their porn, or start picking it up on Blu-Ray.

Chief Justice Roberts Sees Promise and Danger of A.I. in the Courts

Chief Justice Roberts Sees Promise and Danger of A.I. in the Courts In his year-end report, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. focused on the new technology while steering clear of Supreme Court ethics and Donald J. Trump’s criminal cases.

Microsoft now says the CMA was ‘tough and fair’ over Activision Blizzard deal

Microsoft now says the CMA was ‘tough and fair’ over Activision Blizzard deal

Image: Getty Images

Microsoft president Brad Smith wasn’t happy with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year, after the regulator blocked Microsoft’s giant Activision Blizzard deal. Now that Microsoft has restructured its deal and won approval in the UK, Smith has kinder words for the CMA, describing the regulator as “tough and fair” in an interview with the BBC’s Radio 4 Today program.

Smith originally criticized the CMA and said confidence in the UK had been “severely shaken” after the regulator moved to block Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal in April last year. He called it the “darkest day” for Microsoft in its four decades of working in Britain, and went a step further, saying “the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business” than the UK.

“I certainly learned a lot personally,” admitted Smith on Radio 4 yesterday. “I wouldn’t step back necessarily from all of the concerns I raised when I talked way back in April, but I might choose slightly different words to make my point.”

The CMA forced Microsoft to restructure its Activision Blizzard deal, giving up key cloud gaming rights in the UK and many other markets worldwide. “The CMA held to a tough standard and I respect that. In my view it was tough and fair,” added Smith. “It pushed Microsoft to change the acquisition that we had proposed for Activision Blizzard, to spin out certain rights that the CMA was concerned about with respect to cloud gaming.”

While Smith has had a change of heart over his criticism of the CMA, the regulator was less than impressed with Microsoft’s tactics. “Businesses and their advisors should be in no doubt that the tactics employed by Microsoft are no way to engage with the CMA,” warned CMA CEO Sarah Cardell in October. “Microsoft had the chance to restructure during our initial investigation but instead continued to insist on a package of measures that we told them simply wouldn’t work. Dragging out proceedings in this way only wastes time and money.”

Microsoft’s concession to the CMA allowed the deal to close in October, following months of regulatory scrutiny worldwide. The Federal Trade Commission is still pursuing its case against Microsoft’s deal in the US, with a decision on an appeal over the FTC v. Microsoft case expected from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals soon. The FTC is also still pursuing a separate administrative case against Microsoft’s deal that’s set to commence shortly after the appeal decision unless the FTC abandons its case entirely.

A Stunning Eclipse, a Moon Race and Other Space Events in 2024

A Stunning Eclipse, a Moon Race and Other Space Events in 2024 In April, people across North America will be able to gaze at a stunning total eclipse. And astronauts may get closer to that promised moon landing.

Alamo Drafthouse blames ‘nationwide’ theater outage on Sony projector fail

Alamo Drafthouse blames ‘nationwide’ theater outage on Sony projector fail

A sign reportedly placed at Alamo Drafthouse’s Minnesota location informing patrons that no films will be shown that day. | Photo: 3NU (Reddit)

“Sorry everyone! Sony is having issues with their projectors that is preventing us from being able to project movies at some of our theaters today.”

That’s what theater chain Alamo Drafthouse posted to social media sites on New Year’s Eve, adding that it was closing five theaters entirely for the rest of the day as a result. As of New Year’s Day, however, most theaters and most showtimes now appear to be available, with a few exceptions.

Screenshot of @alamodrafthouse (X)

It’s not entirely clear what happened. As New Year’s Day is a holiday, we somewhat understandably haven’t yet been able to reach Alamo or Sony spokespeople, and not every theater or every screening was affected.

That didn’t stop Alamo from blaming its Sony projectors for what at least one theater called a “nationwide” outage, however.

“Due to nation-wide technical difficulties with Sony, we aren’t able to play any titles today,” read part of a taped paper sign hanging inside a Woodbury, Minnesota location. That didn’t keep the customer who took a picture of that sign from watching The Apartment at that very same location, though:

When we went to our seats, the wait staff let us know that despite the fact that the previews were playing, we wouldn’t know until the movie actually started whether we could see the film or not. If it didn’t work, the screen would just turn black. Luckily, the film went through without a hitch.

Here’s the latest guidance from Alamo on January 1st:

Most screenings are back online today at the affected theaters listed below! We thank you all for your patience and understanding. Please, check the email used to purchase your ticket, as our team will reach out directly if your show is impacted.

Showings of the following films are being reorganized and may remain cancelled due to these complications. Please, check your email if you had tickets to one of these films:

- BURN IT DOWN

- AMERICAN FICTION

- FERRARI

- BOY AND THE HERON

What might have only affected some screenings at some theaters? I’ve seen speculation on Reddit that it may have something to do with expired digital certificates used to unlock encrypted films, but we haven’t heard that from Alamo or Sony. We’re looking forward to finding out.

Sony reportedly exited the digital cinema projector business in 2020; all of the company’s existing models are listed as discontinued.

Screenshot of pro.sony

Every Sony 4K digital cinema projector is listed as discontinued.

LG’s newest 32-inch 4K monitor is a looker with a smart TV inside

LG’s newest 32-inch 4K monitor is a looker with a smart TV inside

The LG MyView Smart Monitor. | Image: LG

LG will show off a new series of 32-inch 4K computer monitor / TV hybrids called the ‘MyView’ at CES this year. The company announced they’ll come “in a variety of colors, including essence white, mild beige, cotton pink and cotton green.” They’ll be offered in three variants at two price levels — $599.99 and $499.99, and LG says it will announce availability in the US “at a later date.”

The specs and design language of LG’s new smart LED displays are very similar to the Samsung M8. They both come in multiple colors and have a whiff of modern iMac design, though with more adjustable stands (both support tweaks to height, tilt, and rotation). Each can be used as a smart TV with the included remote and all of the new MyView monitors will have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, 2 built-in speakers, and dual HDMI ports.

Image: LG

The LG MyView comes with a remote to prove it’s serious about streaming.

But some key differences could make LG’s new monitor a better deal. Its IPS panel likely looks better at an angle than the VA tech in Samsung’s displays, and its three USB-C ports with 90-watt USB-C charging outdoes the M8’s single USB-C with 65W maximum output. The priciest MyView is also $100 less than the M8, so there’s that.

Image: LG

The LG MyView looks a little like an iMac if you squint.

LG’s MyView displays will run webOS, which gives them a nice advantage over other more mundane monitors, according to LG’s announcement: they should be able to kind of work like a Chromebook, using cloud services like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace without being tethered to another computer.

Speaking of price — LG’s press release says the $599.99 model 32SR85U will come with three USB-C ports with 90 watts of USB-C power output and ships with a detachable webcam. The product page for the 32SR85U also mentions HomeKit compatibility, which, for smart TVs, usually means you can ask Siri to switch inputs or turn it on and off.

The other two variants come in at $499.99. The 32SR83U still has three USB-C ports and 400 nits of screen brightness, but it only outputs 65 watts over USB-C and won’t come with the webcam. The 32SR70U doesn’t appear to support the detachable webcam at all, shines at only 350 nits, and only has one 45-watt charging USB-C port, trading the other two for USB 2.0 (presumably USB-A) ports. One of these things is not like the other.

The MyView may undercut the Samsung M8 in a lot of ways, but the target for this series is clearly to fill a void left by Apple’s monitor selection. Because look, monitors are ugly, almost always, and while most folks just accept that as a fact of life, there’s a class of people who would love to have something that looks nice on their desk and would pick up a Studio display if it didn’t cost more than their computer. The straightforward display specs of the MyView probably won’t justify its price, but the look and the added smart TV features might just.

The apps, movies, games, and everything else we loved in 2023

The apps, movies, games, and everything else we loved in 2023

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 19, 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.)

It’s the last Installer of the year, so we’re going to do something a little different! We’re going to talk about all our favorite things of 2023. Some ground rules / disclaimers: this list is not exhaustive, not everything in here is new this year it’s just new to us, this is not an Official List of Every Single Good Thing That Exists, and most importantly, if there’s something missing that you find outrageous and unacceptable you know where to find me: installer@theverge.com and (203) 570-8663 on all the messaging apps.

Thanks to everyone who sent stuff in, I discovered so many cool things that are going to inevitably take over my life in 2024. And hopefully you find some stuff here too! I know I say this every week, but it’s always true: the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What apps / games / movies / podcasts / sacred rituals / philosophical musings do you wish everyone liked as much as you? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. (And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

Oh, also! The Verge has an amazing 2023 in review series running right now, which you should check out. This was the year of Fitbit and Google, of Matter and the smart home, of Game Pass games and Hulu shows and arthouse movies and a new social web. Don’t miss any of it.

That’s enough preamble, let’s just dive in. My favorite things, and yours, of 2023. Happy Holidays, friends, here we go!

---

David’s favorite things

One reason I love working on Installer is that it constantly forces me to try new things. I’m always watching and reading and downloading stuff I wouldn’t otherwise, which is terrible for my Netflix algorithm but otherwise extremely fun.

A lot of that stuff comes and goes — some of it is awful, much more of it is fine but sort of transient. Just not sticky for me, you know? But a bunch of stuff this year graduated from “I’ll try it out” to something more. That’s what this list is: in no particular order the stuff I discovered in 2023 that I’m still using, talking about, and recommending today.

• Number Go Up. The best tech book I read this year, and one of my favorite “the future is weird” books ever. It’s an adventure story and a financial investigation, and I absolutely devoured it. Crypto is even more bizarre than you think.
• Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Two days with these things, and I was convinced that smart glasses are going to be a thing. They’re already my go-to gadget for phone calls on the go and are replacing my headphones more and more.
• Kagi. I’ve tried all the search engines, and I always ended up back at Google — until Kagi. It’s private, it’s fast, it’s super customizable, it’s a little ugly but I’m getting over that, and it’s the first search engine I’ve tried that feels just as good as Google.
• Shrinking. I laughed, I cried. I did both those things several times on a plane while binge watching this show, which really confused the person next to me. It’s a winner from beginning to end.
• Anytype. It’s like Notion, only offline-first and super fast. Which turns out to be exactly what I was looking for. It’s also in beta, and has a steep learning curve, but now it’s set up to help me run basically my entire life. For now, anyway.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. This was not the year of Serious Movies in my life — it was the year of “the baby’s finally asleep, what fun silly thing can I watch?” This was one of the most fun and one of the most silly. I loved it.
• Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology. A history of the chip industry, which is also a story about startups and geopolitics and all the things in the world you don’t think of as “technology” but very much are. Miller’s appearance on The Ezra Klein Show was also one of my favorite podcast interviews of the year.
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder. It’s probably not the best game of the year, but it’s certainly the one I played the most. It’s a perfect mix of old ideas and new ones, playable but challenging, and endlessly (like, endlessly) replayable.
• A hybrid charger. The single best quality-of-life tech upgrade I made this year was to buy an Anker gizmo that is both a wall charger and an external battery. It charges my devices, and then itself, so next time I don’t have an outlet it still charges my phone. Game changer.
• Beef. This show had a moment, but I still don’t think enough people saw it. It’s such a bizarre premise, but one of the funniest and best-written things I watched this year. I just rewatched the whole show in two days.
• Mimestream. I haven’t opened Gmail’s ugly and cluttered web app in months, and I don’t miss it a bit. I’m terrible at email, and this Mac app has made me much better at it — here’s hoping an iOS version shows up in 2024.
• Twos. My never-ending quest for the perfect to-do list app led me to this app, which is both super simple — just a list of stuff you write down — and incredibly clever. Cross-platform, free to use, and improving really fast. I’ve been using it all year.
• BlackBerry. Nobody believes me when I tell them to see this movie! But it’s excellent, regardless of whether you care a lick about the BlackBerry story.
• Google Bard. Definitely not the AI tool I would have guessed would end up here. But the thing I use chatbots for most is finding stuff — in my email, my documents, YouTube, the web — and Google is just better at that. Bard’s bad at a lot of stuff, but it’s a solid search engine.
• 1Password. I’ve been using this app for years, but I really went all-in in 2023. Now all my two-factor codes, all my passkeys, all my important documents live here — and centralizing all that stuff in one place I trust has made my online life a lot easier.
• Working it Out. This and Search Engine are the two podcasts that entered my “listen to every episode no matter what” list this year. Listening to comedians tell jokes, talk about jokes, and think about life and process, is just perpetually fun.
• Tubi. A surprising amount of my TV watching time is now happening on Tubi, because it’s just easy: I don’t have to log in or search for anything. I just open the app and stuff starts playing. (The BBC Earth channel gets a lot of airtime in my house.)
• Backbone. Most of my phone-gaming time is either remote playing my PlayStation or playing silly driving games. The Backbone controller makes both better and is super easy to connect and carry around. Now I just have to find some new games to play.
• The Roku Voice Remote Pro. I’m on record about how bad I think all set-top boxes are, but this remote? This remote rules. A headphone jack for private listening, a useful voice assistant, a bunch of lovely buttons — it almost makes my stupidly slow smart TV bearable.
• It Was a Sh*t Show. This and Hot Ones are probably the YouTube series I talk about the most. The channel chronicles the making of shows and movies, and all the ways they go spectacularly, hilariously wrong. The Arrested Development double feature is excellent (and is how I found the channel), but almost every video here is a winner.

---

Your favorite things

Thanks again to everybody who shared their favorite things over the last couple of weeks! I got so many more responses than I could fit here — if you want a bunch more recommendations here’s a bunch on Threads and a bunch on Mastodon.

A few names showed up most often, so special shouts to the unofficial top five:

• Arc. My favorite browser, no question, and clearly I’m not alone.
• The Steam Deck. A lot of us got into handheld gaming this year, it appears, and this was by a mile the most-recommended gadget in my inbox.
• Scavengers Reign. One of The Verge’s favorite shows of the year, and definitely one of yours as well.
• Artifact. The hot new thing in news apps! I’ve been getting a little annoyed with all the clutter and AI stuff recently, but it’s still a great way to find new stuff.
• Omnivore. An app for reading articles, newsletters, PDFs, and basically everything else. It’s a bit of a power-user tool, but it’s a really good one.

Now for the specific recommendations, from all over the Installerverse:

“I’m currently on month 8 of what was supposed to be a six-month deployment. I have a love-hate relationship with the Wi-Fi that was installed just before we left. With that said, because we have Wi-Fi access (sometimes) the Shonen Jump app and subscription has been my favorite app. When the ship’s Wi-Fi works, I can download and read offline up to 100 chapters of manga at a time. I’ve used it to relive a bit of my childhood by reading through all 700 chapters of Naruto and discover new stories like Demon Slayer and One Punch Man.” — Chris

“Citizen Sleeper really, REALLY hit the right vibe for me this year. It came out last year, but I had a lot of downtime Jan-April this year, as I was on medical leave and then recovering from an appendectomy. I read all of Murderbot (more than once, and the most recent one just came out in November!) and got deep into Citizen Sleeper and the ennui and pessimistic optimism (optimistic pessimism?) that both franchises share worked just right for me.” — Zoe

“The Town podcast from Matt Belloni. The best source of Hollywood and entertainment news. Excellent guests, every episode is a banger.” — Myke

“Arc browser definitely took over all my computers this year. It was pretty impressive to see something take Chrome and Firefox on in a big way.” — Wisdom

“I travel A LOT. I’ve been working remotely in Costa Rica for 6 months of the year, and then when I’m back in the States, I’m all over for work and family. This Anker Nebula Capsule projector has been a GAME CHANGER. You never know when your Airbnb or hotel will have a shitty little TV. This thing makes any wall a giant screen, has a decent built-in speaker, and it’s TINY — like can of soda tiny — so I don’t even notice it in my carry on. Oh, and built-in apps, no need for an external streaming device or laptop.” — Mitch

“My biggest time investment had nothing to do with tech. It was a physical trading card game called Flesh and Blood! So good. Really gets your brain working and is highly addictive.” — Thore

“The Villa by Rachel Hawkins is like Almost Famous meets a thriller murder mystery. A fantastic book that’s stuck with me most of the year! Also, the show Jury Duty is a must-watch for any fan of The Office / Parks and Rec. A truly new take on a modern sitcom or reality show.” — Tyler

“I’ve been getting tired of Apple Music misorganizing my music collection, so I finally started a Plex Music library to go with my TV and Movie libraries. Turns out they have a great mobile app called Plexamp that creates awesome radio stations from my library.” — Michael

“The Artifact app that I actually got from you guys at The Verge. It’s such a better scrolling experience from Instagram and I find as it learns who I am it is getting better at recommending stuff to me.” — Vishal

“My favorite thing of 2023 has been JustWatch. The sad demise of Netflix’s DVD business — yes I was a subscriber — motivated me to find a new place to track the obscure movies I like, and JustWatch is solving the problem. My watchlist filtered by streaming services I subscribe to: ‘Things I want to watch, available to me right now.’” — Ron

“TickTick. So many random things need to get done daily, from random house work, gentle reminders, to dos… if I don’t put it in TickTick, chances are that I will forget to do it at all.” — Omesh

“My new years’ resolution was to listen to more albums. To that end, Musicboard has been a great companion, sorting the stuff I want to hear, allowing me to rate / write a few thoughts about them, and also having a community of reviewers. It’s a simple app but it helped me a lot!” — Nathann

“Book: Barbarians at the Gate. Old book; new to me. Made me better understand seemingly wacky Wall Street things, like why banks helped Elon buy Twitter. It’s probably all about the FOMO and fees. Thing: Garmin Instinct 2X. I ran my first couple of miles for over 10 years in June. And a little more than 13 miles last week. This watch helped me find my inner runner. Cool look, awesome battery life, and an unexpectedly useful flashlight.” — Robert

“Slow Horses on Apple TV Plus is excellent. Really enjoyed the games Dead Cells and Vampire Survivors on various platforms.” — RoBo

“My favorite thing of 2023 was Rude Tales Of Magic, an RPG podcast that, while older than 2023, had its final episode of its first campaign. Now that it has a beginning, middle, and end, I feel better recommending it to people! It’s hilarious, well-edited, and doesn’t resemble D&D — in a good way for listeners.” — Hunter

“2023 for me was the Year of (Brandon) Sanderson. Remember his record-break-breaking Kickstarter for four secret novels? Well, this was the year they all got delivered monthly. I have enjoyed opening the swag boxes each month and reading a LOT of his books. I fell in love with his work when I read Mistborn a few years ago, but this Kickstarter really kickstarted (heh) a deep dive into his bibliography and it was so worth it. 10/10 would recommend.” — Doug

“MUBI and MUBI GO! It was Apple’s TV app of the year. Here in the UK, MUBI GO is £18.99 a month to access a streaming platform AND get a free cinema ticket a week (MUBI picks the film — normally a great pick, last week was Godzilla Minus One). It’s my favorite subscription.” — Chris

“This was a year I got back into reading in a real way, and one of my favorite books (and almost definitely my favorite book from this year) was Doppelganger, by Naomi Klein. Essential reading IMO!” — Jeanne

“The Steam Deck has been my personal favorite tech thing of 2023. I bought the cheap one and upgraded the internals so it scratched that long dormant itch. I can hook it up to my monitor and use it like a desktop computer which is super useful for… emulation things. And finally, it feels so good in the hands to play (and it gives me access to my entire Steam library!). It has been a long time since I’ve been this delighted by a device.” — Scott

---

All right, friends, that’s it for Installer in 2023. We’ve got some big plans for next year, and I’m so grateful to everyone who has subscribed, commented, shared recommendations, gotten very mad at me for not including enough Android apps, and reached out to say you’re enjoying Installer. Keep the recommendations and feedback coming, have a wonderful rest of your holidays, and see you in 2024!