My New Go-To Browser for Daily Browsing

Hi, friends. Welcome to Installer No. 129, your guide to the best and most Verge-worthy stuff in the world. (If this is your first time, welcome , come on you Gunners , and you can catch up on all previous editions over at the Installer homepage.)

I’ve spent most of this week under the weather, which meant a near-complete rewatch of Parks and Recreation in between naps and feeling sorry for myself. Along the way, I’ve been reading about Nick Fuentes and clowns, catching up on old Short History Of episodes, testing the NextSense Smartbuds while I sleep, writing in the Outerline Markdown app beta, and eagerly plotting what to do with the upcoming Flipper One.

This edition is a bit shorter than usual since I’ve been out, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging entirely. And it’s a good week: I’ve found my favorite new browser in years, there’s a new Star Wars movie, two excellent new tech books, a surprisingly great set of earbuds, and more. Let’s dive in.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you reading, watching, listening to, playing, or streaming over a hotspot from the beach this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

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 or message me on Signal , @davidpierce.11 , with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some favorites here each week. For even more great picks, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“Got an Oculus Go at a thrift store for $10. Most of the apps are nonexistent except for YouTube, and it’s surprisingly… fine? I wonder if future AI wearables will be useful for a long time; Apple devices seem to be the only ones that remain usable even after half a decade.” , Allen

“My mom gave my son a Stickerbox for his 9th birthday. My kids and their friends have spent many hours collectively making stickers for everything and everyone. I love that it embraces simplicity while still using AI and a screen. Also great that there’s no subscription!” , Matt

“A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve listened to in a long time. I don’t often run to books anymore, but I maintained my race cadence listening to the Apollo 11 moon landing section.” , James

“I’m going to experiment this weekend with a couple of Google Docs alternatives , Writer and Ellipsus , and work on the slog of transitioning away from Gmail (I’ve had my account since you needed an invite).” , Wintersong

“I bought a new pair of headphones this month: the Sony WH-1000XM5. They’re amazing, and the sound quality feels incredibly professional.” , Seb

“You recommended a cable last week, and it inspired me to tell you about the Allroundo Eco cable from Vonmahlen: a short, coiled USB-C to USB-C cable in a little case. But what makes it special is it also includes USB-A, microUSB, and Lightning adaptors in the case. I don’t know the rated speed for power or data delivery, but it’s such a brilliant package I’ve used for years that it’s a moot point to me!” , Mitch

“Almost done with Light Bringer (Red Rising book 6) on my Xteink X4!” , Tynan

“Been messing about on Record Club, a European indie selling themselves as the Letterboxd of music. I wish they had a section for your vinyl, CD, or cassette collections, but it’s a really nice site and the new social-sharing images are a lovely touch.” , comicallytinyhat

“Rewatching Scavengers Reign because it’s leaving Netflix at the end of the month!” , Fry

“After a few years of bouncing between multiplayer games we’d try for six weeks and then drop, me and the homies have a standing Monday-evening Diablo IV date, which has been amped up by the new Lord of Hatred expansion.” , Luis

Signing off

This was the last week of Stephen Colbert’s run on The Late Show (and also the end of the show itself, plus politics, late-night TV dying, and so on , moving on). For my money, the brightest silver lining of the whole saga was that the Strike Force Five gang got back together. If you don’t remember: Strike Force Five was a podcast started by five late-night hosts during the writers strike in 2023, and it produced at least one episode , “Strike Force Wives!” , that made me laugh so hard I had to stop listening for a while.

Anyway, the guys reunited for one more episode to celebrate Colbert’s run (plus a long hang on Colbert’s show), and it is predictably delightful. It also made me think I should start wearing a suit for every Vergecast episode. Might be weird to do in my basement studio, though. Lots to think about.

See you next week!