Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 66, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy 2025, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about loneliness and Web3 scams and the future of procedural TV, watching Deadpool & Wolverine on an airplane like the director intended, rewatching Severance and Squid Game to get ready for the second seasons, eagerly awaiting the return of Kids Baking Championship, wondering if that’s real Sara Dietschy or AI Sara Dietschy, and giving an Apple News Plus subscription a whirl as my go-to news source.
I also have for you a big report from CES in Las Vegas. This edition of Installer is a little different than most, just because we saw so many new things, and so many new things launched, and in many cases, it’s hard to know whether any of it will ever hit shelves. So think of this as part Installer, part CES recap, part “David hopes desperately these things actually ship” list. But I tried hard to pick out the stuff I’m confident will actually end up on sale at some point soon and might be worth your money. I’m sure I’ll be wrong about a few of them… but here’s hoping. And if you want all the best stuff from CES, check out our annual awards — there’s lots of great stuff in there.
Also, and most importantly, my heart goes out to everyone in LA and elsewhere dealing with the fires this week. I’m so sorry for everything you’re dealing with, and I hope you’re safe and doing okay.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be playing / reading / watching / downloading / building out of Legos right now? 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
(A note on the links in here: I linked to product pages when they existed, as I always try to do. But since this is CES, sometimes there isn’t one yet. In those cases, I link to Verge stories or other coverage.)
- The LG StanbyME 2. I cannot explain to you why I am so into this thing. It’s just a big, portable screen (LG calls it a “lifestyle screen,” which is hysterical), with a strap and a stand, so you can hang it up or prop it on a table. Is that anything? I don’t know! But I love this idea.
- The Circular Ring 2. The first model was kind of a dud, but the Ring 2 appears to get almost everything right: better battery, easier charging, nicer design, more features. My 2025 project is to ditch my smartwatch for a smart ring, and this has some potential.
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It’s a strange time in the blogging / social media universe. Threads, Bluesky, X, Mastodon, and a million other platforms are growing and changing, and it’s hard to figure out where to spend your time and energy. I’ve been talking to folks for years now about how all this is supposed to work and have consistently been convinced that Manton Reece is on the right track. He’s the creator of Micro.blog, which is simple like Twitter but personal like a blog and has a lot of big ideas about interoperability and the fediverse.
This week, Manton launched Micro.one, a $1 / month platform that gives you a blog, on your own domain, that also lets you post to the fediverse. If I were looking for a new place to post, there’s a good chance I’d start there.
I asked Manton to share his homescreen with us, wanting to see if I could snoop on any other new things he might be working on. Here’s Manton’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:
The phone: iPhone 16 Pro Max. This is the first time I’ve had the biggest iPhone. I thought it would be good to try as a sort of tiny iPad. It makes reading and writing just a little easier.
The wallpaper: My wallpaper is solid black. Boring! But it makes everything feel crisp and readable. (For the lockscreen background, I have a photo of family.)
The apps: Messages, Phone, Photos, Camera, Safari, Calm, NetNewsWire, Spotify, Google Maps, Slack, Fantastical, Libby, Overcast, Swarm, Reeder, Kindle, Hey, Epilogue, Strata, Micro.blog.
I keep a blank row of icons at the top and bottom of my homescreen, so there are fewer icons to sort through when finding an app to open. It also makes reaching the top icons easier. I keep all notification badges hidden to avoid clutter, too.
In the dock, I have Hey email and a few companion apps for my Micro.blog platform: Epilogue for keeping track of books, Strata for notes, and the official Micro.blog app. Also on the homescreen, I have some apps for reading, like Libby and the Kindle app, and, for some reason, two RSS readers: NetNewsWire and Reeder. I use Spotify instead of Apple Music and Fantastical instead of Apple Calendar.
I also asked Manton to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:
- Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson. I’m currently halfway through this book and love the epic scope of a story that spans multiple standalone
