Chill games for a chill weekend

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 60, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, it’s a lot of gaming stuff this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) 

This week, I’ve been… doomscrolling about the election, if I’m honest. But let’s not talk about that. I’ve also been reading about shipwrecks and in-flight magazines and baseball bat influencers, making a bunch of lists in Listy, dusting off my Bluesky account as Threads becomes increasingly worse, logging a surprising number of hours in VR with Batman: Arkham Shadow, playing with tasks and notes in the Craft beta, seeing if I can replace Gmail with Thunderbird for Android, and trying really, really hard to convince myself I don’t need a new Mac Mini. 

I also have for you a couple of new games to play this weekend, some fun stuff to watch, a nifty new way for Mac users to take notes, and more. And I have some ideas for everyone looking for a place to put all their articles, newsletters, and other online stuff. 

Oh, housekeeping note: Installer’s off next week. We have some planning meetings going on, and also, honestly, this is one of the driest times of the year when it comes to new stuff. I’ll be back with a big issue in two weeks ahead of Thanksgiving, and then we have some fun plans through the rest of the year.

All right, it’s a lot of games this week. Which feels right. Let’s go.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you comfort watching this week? What have you been playing / reading / downloading / baking that everyone else should know about, too? Tell me everything: [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

• Mario & Luigi: Brothership. It feels like we get a fun new Mario game like every two weeks these days. And I’m not complaining! I’m into the teamwork-y vibe of this one — and the amount of pure unadulterated exploring it asks you to do.
• Game Changers. The first two episodes of this new Discovery series tell the story of two of my favorite things in gaming: Nintendo and Madden. There are also episodes coming about Call of Duty, Scrabble, and other iconic games. The nostalgia is through the roof with this one.  
• Raycast Notes. Raycast has become one of my most-used Mac apps: it’s a launcher, a clipboard manager, a window reorder-er, and a million other things. Its built-in notes app just got a big upgrade — it’s as simple as opening a text file but much more powerful. 
• Guild Builds. The striking New York Times tech workers created a pretty fun set of games you can play instead of Wordle this week. Match Strike is hilarious and fun, as is Scabby’s Fair Contract Builder. Who knew you could build a good game that’s also a sick burn against your boss?
• Heretic. I’ve been excited for this movie ever since I read Andrew Webster’s review, which confirmed that Hugh Grant can be as terrifying as he is charming. Plus, a bad guy you can describe as “a theological debate bro?” I’m in.
• The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. This CPU is power-hungry and expensive, but Tom Warren called it the best gaming CPU on the market, and that is no small feat. If you’re building a gaming PC this holiday season, this is where to start.
• Stardew Valley 1.6.9. I have heard from a lot of folks who retreated into Stardew Valley this week as a reprieve from the real world. The newest update adds new items, the ability to retrieve things you’ve dropped in water, and lots of other useful and delightful changes.
• Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson. Look, I’m not proud of the fact that I’m fascinated by next week’s Tyson / Paul fight. Is it even a real fight? Is it all a bit? Who knows! But leave it to Netflix to milk it for all its worth; I bet you $10 this series will be more fun and dramatic than the fight itself.
• Here. By most accounts, this movie is bad. But director Robert Zemeckis did some fascinating and AI-forward work to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in order to make the movie work, and I’ve enjoyed the way all three have talked about the process. This feels like a movie we’ll remember in the story of AI filmmaking. 
• Google Vids. The pitch for Vids — “what if making a video were as easy as making a Google Doc?” — is a really clever one. And now, months after Google first announced the app, you can give it a whirl. Send me all the weird stuff you make!

Last week, a lot of you reached out saying you were bummed to see that Omnivore, a really great app for reading articles, newsletters, and other stuff, was shutting down. I was bummed, too! I’ve recommended Omnivore to a lot of people and really liked the app. (PSA, by the way: if you’re still using Omnivore, you only have a few more weeks to get your stuff out.) 

Now, a bunch of us are stuck trying to figure out where to go. So I asked you all to share what you need most in an app like this — and lots of you did! Thanks, as always, to everyone who reached out with thoughts and recommendations. I think I have a pretty good sense of what we’re all looking for, so let me try and recommend a few things. 

• If all you need is a place to save articles and read them later, you have lots of options. Readwise Reader is the most powerful (and the only one that also does RSS and newsletters), but it’s also $8 a month. Matter is a lovely app but is mostly Apple-only. Instapaper is a great option and works across basically all platforms — it’s probably the one I’d recommend to most people. Pocket is solid, too, but I just don’t like the interface.  
• If you want something a little more open and versatile, I’d go with an RSS tool. I use Feedbin, which I love. Feedly and NewsBlur are also good for this kind of thing. All three give you an email address you can use to subscribe to newsletters and a way to manually save a page to your reader.
• If you’re trying to build more of a database of stuff that you can search through later, I’d start with a bookmarking tool. Raindrop is my go-to, but if you’re an Apple user, there’s also GoodLinks and Anybox and Plinky. You can also use an app like Obsidian, with its web clipper, to turn webpages into text files.
• If you want something that will truly last forever, the best move is to host something yourself. A few of you recommended apps like Wallabag, Linkwarden, and Linkding, and if you’re willing to do the work, this is the most durable option by far. There are some folks working on ways to self-host Omnivore, too, so keep an eye on that.

The best answer for most people, I think, is to use an RSS reader like Feedbin to compile all your incoming stuff and then a read-later app like Instapaper to go through your reading list. Readwise Reader is the closest thing I’ve found to Omnivore’s all-in-one capability, and it’s definitely the one I’d recommend to people looking for a one-to-one replacement, but you’ll pay pretty handsomely for it. Maybe Omnivore was too good to be true this whole time.

I’ve been listening to Brian McCullough talk for a really long time. I think I first encountered his work on the Internet History Podcast, which is like a treasure trove of early Silicon Valley stories. He also hosts the Techmeme Ride Home podcast, which is an awesome way to get daily tech news. And more recently, I’ve been listening to his newest show, RAD! 80s90s History. (I might even be on that show in a few weeks… stay tuned.) And in addition to all that, McCullough is a general partner at the Ride Home Fund, investing in tech companies. Busy guy, that Brian.

I asked Brian to share his homescreen to see if we might learn how he manages it all. Here it is, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: An iPhone 16 Pro. For the first time in my life of using iPhones, I have a case on it,  because my son dropped my previous one twice and shattered the front and back glass. I wouldn’t have upgraded this year except for that. So, lesson learned. Kids.

The wallpaper: The wallpaper is a picture I took some night on Prospect Park West years ago. The lockscreen is obviously an old iPod interface, my favorite version of the iPod. I bought it from some collection of wallpapers about a year ago. Can’t remember where from, though.

The apps: Phone, Fantastical, Apple Maps, Settings, Slack, Microsoft Word, Shopify, Citi Bike, Audible, Microsoft OneNote, Carrot Weather, Amazon, Jersey Mike’s, Wallet, Tovala, Threads, X, York, Claude, Messages, Overcast, Safari, Superhuman.

I’m fairly basic with the apps, as you can see. Apps to get news from, like Threads and Twitter. Slack for work. Superhuman for email. 

I’ve totally moved over to Claude in the last few months thanks to Alex Kantrowitz evangelizing it to me constantly. So much so that I’ve canceled my OpenAI subscription. Tovala is a smart oven / meal plan company that I’ve been using religiously since the pandemic. Basically my lunch every single day is a Tovala meal. Jersey Mike’s finally came to Park Slope and so that’s also a meal go-to. I use Citi Bike once or twice a day. 

The app that says “York” is interesting. That’s my subway stop for my office in Dumbo. This random dude made this thing that you can get at Nextstop.nyc. Basically, it gives you real-time train times for whatever subway stops you use all the time, and then you put an icon for that on your phone. IT. IS. AMAZING. It is insane that, 20 years into my living in NYC, it took this long for someone to do this right. “I’m about to leave the office, when is the next train? Should I leave now or wait five minutes?” Amazing.

I also asked Brian to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:

• My kids and I are playing tons of Tiny Glade. “Relaxing” game that can also be super complex and sophisticated if you put in the time. It’s like Minecraft in that way, but with a sort of romanticist feel. 
• The book I’m obsessed with right now is Rick Atkinson’s The British Are Coming. I’ve read Rick’s other books about the US Army in World War II, but he has a new series about the American Army in the Revolutionary War. It’s amazing and detailed like all of Rick’s books, but full of stuff I didn’t know. Like, the battle of Lexington and Concord: oh, Paul Revere, the British go and try to shut down a weapons depot and the minutemen take potshots at them? Oh no. WAY more bloody than that. Like hundreds of people died on both sides. Savage fighting. Very interesting stuff. I’m almost to the Battle of Brooklyn and can’t wait. 
• I rewatched Miller’s Crossing a few nights ago, and god damn if that movie isn’t the most underrated and underseen of the whole Coen filmography.
• I’m looking forward to the next book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series, which is coming next month: Wind and Truth. Even though the previous book in the series was pretty boring.

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email [email protected] or 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 great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads.

“Superfan. A beautiful app to keep tabs on ongoing sports events and matches.” – Karan

“I’ve been using this little-known news app called Adarga Panoptic. Has this interesting take on the news where it’s provided through the lens of a person’s perspective rather than just headlines. Content is a bit limited, but with some added customization options, this could be a really cool way to see the news differently.” – Alen

“Scribe Notes. It’s like Whisper Memos but has more features. Sort of like Cleft but cheaper. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and I love it. Helps me get my scrambled thoughts and to-dos out of my head and into a place where I can make sense of them all.” – David

“Check out the Mobapad M6 HD for the Nintendo Switch! It’s a Joy-Con alternative that has ergonomic grips, Hall effect joysticks, and gyro and HD rumble. It essentially has every feature of the Joy-Cons, but they’re actually comfy to hold. The buttons are a little clicky, and the travel case is almost as bulky as my Steam Deck, but it’s definitely the most comfortable and feature-packed Joy-Con alternative I’ve found. I picked one up on a recent trip to Hong Kong, and it completely changed my Switch playing experience.” – Kevin

“I’ve been keeping an eye on an app called Openvibe. It’s able to aggregate your Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon (and Nostr, too, if you’re into that kind of thing) feeds into a single feed you can scroll. The home feed algorithm is hit or miss, but the trending feed is great, especially because it’s not something Mastodon or Bluesky have natively. Also, it lets you cross-post to all four networks for free!” – Drake

“Winter is looming, so I got myself a Zwift Ride smart bike for days when running outside just isn’t a great idea. Great hardware. The app feels older than it is, but the gamification kinda works. More fun than staring at the wall!” – Robert

“With *gestures around wildly* going on, I’m pouring less of my time into social media and more into a personal blog using a great service called Pika. It’s dead simple to set up and I love how barebones it is.” – Kaleb

“Started collecting sports cards, primarily NFL. It’s not something I’ve thought about since I was 14, but it has been a fun distraction. These are two great YouTube channels to get into: Market Movers and Sports Card Investor. And getting in on “breaks” on Whatnot, where you buy into a live box opening, is some fun entertainment.” – Travis

“I’ve been reading Richard II, which feels of a piece with the moment, and due to which I discovered how much more complicated sideloading a Gutenberg ebook to a Kindle is than it should be. The right format wasn’t the one labeled for Kindles!” – Jeanne

“I’ve been playing a lot of Maestro lately on my Quest 2. It’s such an amazing and immersive experience. If you ever wanted to feel like an orchestra conductor, this is as close as you can get (unless you’re an actual orchestra conductor, in which case, congrats, such a cool job!).” – Gonzalo

So I have this Apple Watch. It’s fine, I like it, whatever, but I’d rather wear another watch. So I went down a YouTube rabbit hole: can you turn an Apple Watch into a standalone, pocketable device that works even when it’s not on your wrist? Turns out, you can! There are a lot of good ideas out there, but I’m basically just following the ideas in this video from Jose Briones. (I’m also intrigued by the TinyPod, but that one doesn’t seem to be very good.) I’m turning my Watch into basically a teeny-tiny iPod and backup communications device that I carry around like a pocket watch. It’s silly, but it’s fun. And it works!