Monument Valley 3: a worthy replace to a wonderful cell sport

Hi, pals! Welcome to Installer No. 64, your information to the perfect and Verge-iest stuff on the planet. (If you’re new right here, welcome, prepare for some bizarre documentaries, and likewise you may learn all of the previous editions on the Installer homepage.) 

This week, I’ve been studying about uncooked milk and $HAWK and WhatsApp, watching A Man on the Inside and the brand new Ken Burns da Vinci doc, lastly getting caught up on The Great British Bake Off (about which I’ve SO MANY FEELINGS), storing all my loyalty numbers and Airbnb codes in Cheatsheet, and doing a genuinely upsetting quantity of analysis on pizza stones.  

I even have for you a pleasant new cell sport, an E Ink pill value a glance, a stunning new to-dos app, and far more. It’s a unusually Netflix-centric week, which is odd for mid-December? But so it goes. Let’s dive in.

(As at all times, the perfect a part of Installer is your concepts and ideas. What are you watching / studying / enjoying / baking / listening to / soldering this week? Tell me every thing: installer@theverge.com. And if you realize another person who may take pleasure in Installer, ahead it to them and inform them to subscribe right here.)

• Monument Valley 3. I’ve thought of it, and Monument Valley is my favourite cell sport sequence of all time. It’s beautiful, quiet with out being ponderous, and infinitely replayable. Even the soundtrack is one in all my all-time faves! It’s a bit odd to say “it’s important to have a Netflix subscription to play this sport in your cellphone,” however you do. And if you have already got one, it’s an enormous win.
• Mozi. Ev Williams constructed Twitter, Medium, and now this — an app for planning together with your actual pals, and connecting with of us who’re on the town. Strikes me as sort of… area of interest? But intelligent. And since Facebook stopped mattering, there’s actually nothing else prefer it.
• iOS 18.2. I’m together with this one largely as a PSA to iPhone house owners: all of the Apple Intelligence stuff is no matter, however the truth that you may change go to Settings > Apps > Default Apps and alter what you utilize for keyboards, calls, e mail, and extra, completely guidelines. Go make it work the best way you need.
• The Supernote A5 X2 Manta. Dumb title, actually cool-looking new E Ink pill. $459 is loads for a tool like this, however I dig Supernote’s emphasis on making it repairable and upgradeable. I really like that these digital notebooks proceed to get higher.
• Joi Planner. You absolutely already know this about me, however I’m a sucker for a stupendous app. And this one, a combo calendar / duties / behavior tracker for iPhones, is likely one of the best-looking “day at a look” designs I’ve ever seen. The app is, and feels, prefer it’s lacking some options, however I dig it.
• Nickel Boys. Based on the terrific, brutal novel of the identical title, the film is filmed virtually fully in first-person views. And it appears to work. Lots of people assume that is going to win lots of awards — don’t miss it.
• “Behind the scenes calling the Simpsons Monday Night Football Game.”  I by no means completely acquired the attraction of those animated facet broadcasts, however the technical story of how they work is extraordinarily cool. Pair that with this new video on how soccer is shot for TV, and it’s like a manufacturing grasp class suddenly.
• Carry-On. I don’t know if it’s simply my algorithm or what, however this Netflix film has been in all places on my feeds the previous couple of weeks. It additionally may be the brand new document holder for gifting away the entire thing within the trailer. But I’ll nonetheless be watching it this weekend — right here’s hoping it’s good, and Christmas-y, and might go within the Die Hard vacation canon.

Did you subscribe to The Verge but? You don’t need to with a view to get Installer, however you need to anyway! I’m not remotely biased, and I believe it’s a fairly good web site. And now we have huge plans.

Esther Cohen is the particular person making all these plans, and making them actual. She’s been working like loopy the previous couple of months as our director of subscriptions, and so I figured now could be a good time to ask her to do extra work and share her homescreen with us. How many subscriptions does the subscription director have, you realize? Inquiring minds need to know.

Here’s Esther’s homescreen, plus some information on the apps she makes use of and why:

The wallpaper: An image of my (very huge) youngsters and me from my birthday this yr. (It’s additionally my lockscreen, the place I can see their faces.) Apparently, I’m a masochist and each time I see that my 11-year-old son is my top it makes me need to cry.

The apps: Weather, Settings, Apple Maps, Safari, Slack, The Verge, Apple Notes, Spotify, Phone, Mail, Messages, WhatsApp.

One solution to summarize my apps is primary. At the highest proper, I hold all my utility stuff: issues I take advantage of as I am going about my day. (I’m largely trying up locations in NYC and determining methods to get there — don’t @ me, I want Apple Maps!)

The backside left nook is the place I spend probably the most time, totally on work-related apps like Slack, the Verge homepage, and Apple Notes. I’m horrible at unplugging and really feel the necessity to keep up to date on work always, so having the calendar widget entrance and heart is a lifesaver. I are inclined to lose monitor of time after I’m deep right into a undertaking, so seeing my upcoming conferences at a look is tremendous useful.

Spotify is my most-used “enjoyable” app; it’s what I take advantage of for podcasts and music whereas working, understanding, cooking, and so forth. Oh, and I not too long ago moved social media apps off my dwelling display screen — it’s been a game-changer for my stress and focus.

I additionally requested Esther to share a couple of issues she’s into proper now. Here’s what she despatched again:

• Watching: Shrinking. I’ve been actually having fun with this present — it’s one of many least cynical issues in leisure proper now. It’s not fairly Scrubs degree (extremely advocate a rewatch!), however it’s heartfelt, humorous, fantastically written and shot, and by no means saccharine.
• Playing: Mahjong! The youngsters and I play a couple of instances per week throughout dinner, and it’s so stress-free. I even have the Real Mah Jongg app on my cellphone. It may truly be the one app I pay for?
• Listening: Molière: Le Spectacle Musical. Hear me out: final yr, TikTok stored serving me clips of this French musical that’s like an urban-pop Hamilton about Molière’s life. I not too long ago discovered the soundtrack on Spotify, and it’s been on repeat in our home. I don’t perceive a phrase, however the songs are whole bangers.
• Reading: The Atlantic. This may cement my primary girly standing, however I not too long ago subscribed to The Atlantic and — actually? — each single story is so good. Lately, I’ve been pondering loads about what makes a publication value paying for, and I really like that I genuinely need to learn virtually every thing on their homepage and social feeds.

Here’s what the Installer neighborhood is into this week. I need to know what you’re into proper now as effectively! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — together with your suggestions for something and every thing, and we’ll characteristic a few of our favorites right here each week. For much more nice suggestions, try the replies to this put up on Threads and this put up on Bluesky.

“I’m attempting to study 3D modeling as a result of I simply acquired a Bambu A1.“ — Erwin

“My favourite music-to-work-by web site is myNoise. I notably like ‘Medieval Library’ and ‘Medieval Village’ (with turned-down blacksmith’s clang). It’s free to make use of, however when you toss the fascinating French sound engineer obsessive Stephane a couple of bucks you get lifetime entry to a bunch extra sounds in addition to some good instruments.” — Molly

“Caves of Qud is an esoteric masterpiece of a sport, I’m on my tenth character, I’ve barely seen a fraction of the world, however I’m hooked” — Jack

“I’ve completed studying Deep Work by Cal Newport. It supplied helpful insights about methods to take trip of your busy schedule to deal with deep work. It additionally supplied methods to minimise distractions and lower down shallow work.” — Ankur

“I acquired actually actually enamored by the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. I don’t know why. The thickness of it, simply sitting subsequent to a 15 Pro Max after which unfolding it to that display screen inside… it’s one thing.” — Abhi

“The sport Mouthwashing is getting lots of consideration proper now, however I’m simply letting Indiana Jones and the Great Circle wash over me. It’s been a really very long time since we had something even remotely good with this franchise, however this sport appears to essentially nail the vibe.” — Mike

“Reading the gargantuan Wind and Truth from Brandon Sanderson! It’s been fairly a doozy of a guide.” – Jiatao

“I wanted an affordable pair of earbuds whereas I watch for the AirPods Pro 3. I purchased the Baseus Bowie MA10 and so they work higher than I might ask for. They do precisely what I want them to do: play my music and podcasts.” — Alex

“I simply purchased a ROG Ally X and I’m excited to twin boot it with Bazzite to show it into half Steam Deck / half Windows gaming handheld, in order that I can get the perfect of each worlds.” — Benny

“Just completed the superb Stories Are Weapons by Annalee Newitz, concerning the energy of storytelling & worldbuilding in propaganda & psyops. Fascinating, insightful, typically humorous & tragic in turns. A extremely nice learn that’s serving to me course of our more and more polarized world.” — Kailey

“So I’m utterly new to graphic novels. Went on Reddit to see the highest suggestions. Came throughout Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound. What a tremendous intro to this medium! Highly really useful for followers of Miles Davis and jazz.” — Mike

Last week on The Vergecast, I discussed that I persistently have a tough time determining cheap, comparatively common presents to purchase for co-workers, Secret Santa exchanges, and that sort of factor. A bunch of parents responded with nice concepts, so I figured I’d share some:

• Power banks. Give the reward of battery energy.
• Scratchers. Everybody loves a enjoyable lottery ticket!
• Local reward playing cards. Loads of of us stated I shouldn’t simply do Starbucks for everybody, however ought to assist folks discover and take a look at new native spots. I really like this concept.
• Coffee. Forget the reward playing cards, simply purchase them a pound of fine espresso.
• Candles. Is a candle too, like, intimate for an acquaintance? I don’t know! Probably not! But I do love a great candle.

These concepts have already made my vacation procuring simpler — let’s simply say lots of of us in my life are getting some scratchers this yr. Hope this helps you, too. And if in case you have different concepts, hold ‘em coming. I want all of the gifting assist I can get.