Laptop that finally breaks the boring cycle

Welcome to Installer No. 125, your weekly guide to the most interesting and Verge-worthy stuff out there. If you are just joining us, welcome. Please send cereal recommendations, and you can catch up on past editions at the Installer homepage.

This week, I am excited to share some standout new PC hardware, a must-see film for the spring, a pair of genuinely useful AI applications, a high-tech postcard, and more. Let’s jump in.

As always, the best part of this newsletter is your feedback. What are you reading, watching, playing, listening to, or dipping in hummus this week? Tell me everything at installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone who might enjoy this, forward it and tell them to subscribe.

The Drop

The Framework Laptop 13 Pro. I have long admired Framework’s mission to make computers more upgradeable and repairable. Now, for the first time, they have crafted a laptop that is also genuinely beautiful. If the final product matches the spec sheet and our early impressions, it will be a major win for both Linux and Windows users.

The Framework Laptop Sleeve. I have a soft spot for a great laptop carrier, and this one is excellent. The silver model, which looks convincingly like duct tape without actually being duct tape, is especially appealing. It was designed for Framework gear but should fit many other laptops as well.

Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85. I feel obliged to mention this new animated Netflix show because, well, it is Stranger Things. By all accounts, it is not very good. But if you watch it anyway because you cannot get enough of the Hawkins crew, I completely understand.

New Things. Our friend Joanna Stern has launched her own newsletter and YouTube channel, and it is already delightful and unmistakably Joanna. Go subscribe. And stay tuned, because we plan to get her back in this space one way or another.

Extra. As my email inbox becomes increasingly unmanageable, I am growing more intrigued by the idea of letting AI handle it. Using Extra requires a fundamental rethink of what email is for, but I have found it full of clever organizational ideas.

Memo AI. Smart transcription apps are everywhere now, but this one stands out. It was built by the developer of NotePlan, so it is thoughtfully designed and clever. It is also fast. In my experience, speed is the deciding factor between AI tools I abandon and those I keep using.

Vampire Crawlers. Every so often, my gamer friends vanish for a few days because they are all obsessed with a new title. That is happening right now, and the culprit is this highly addictive, retro-styled deckbuilder. I know I should not get into this game. I am going to get into this game.

The Govee Table Lamp Classic. Half the power is currently out in my house, making this smart lamp (which can be plugged in or carried around) incredibly useful. I have found that Govee products are nearly as good as Hue and much cheaper. That is a winning combination.

Claude’s Spotify connector. If you have been hesitant about trying AI tools, my advice is to connect one to Spotify. ChatGPT has had this feature for a while, and Claude just got it this week. It is a fun, useful, and surprising way to organize and discover music.

Screen share

Every 25 issues or so, I share my own homescreen. As the self-appointed Head of Thing-Trying in the Installerverse, I am always experimenting with new systems, apps, and workflows. It is also a fun record of where my thinking is at any given moment.

Right now, my thinking is apparently all over the place. My homescreen is not intentionally organized; it is more of a snapshot of my recent phone habits. (I also have far too many unread notifications.) Here it is, as of this week.

The phone is an iPhone 17 in sage. I love the color, though I am mildly annoyed that I am still an iPhone user.

The wallpaper is blue. I had a solid black background for a long time, so this feels like sprucing things up. Honestly, it is too bright at night, and I will probably go back to all black soon.

The apps include Coffee Pool, RB College, Memo AI, Craft, DualShot Recorder, Todoist, Google Maps, MyMind, Obsidian, Readwise Reader, Phone, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Camera, Messages, Notion Calendar, the app I am vibe-coding, and Arc.

Some of these are staples. Readwise Reader, Pocket Casts, MyMind, and Arc have been with me for a long time. The rest are experiments.

I have been a longtime fan of Retro Bowl, an essentially perfect mobile game, so I jumped on the college football version. I also love Coffee Golf, a quick daily game, and the pool-shooting version is equally satisfying. These games probably will not live on my homescreen forever.

As you can see, I am in the middle of a productivity app crisis. Craft, Obsidian, Memo AI, Todoist, and Notion Calendar are all in rotation, along with Workflowy, Twos, and NotePlan. My life has more deadlines than usual, so I am exploring time blocking to see if schedule-maxxing works for me. So far, the results are mixed.

That app with the nine dots? I hate the icon (thanks, Claude Code), but it is the beginning of a tool I am building to bring all this together. It will be useful to exactly no one, but I am excited about it. More on that next week.

If you shoot a lot of video and have not tried DualShot Recorder, change that now. It captures horizontal and vertical video simultaneously, and it is simple and excellent whether you are a content creator or just trying to get the right aspect ratio for videos of your kids. It is not quite my default camera app yet, but it might get there. It is the best $10 I have spent on an app in a long time.

The widgets include Notion Calendar, which is fine. Acme Weather is fantastic. It was built by the team behind Dark Sky and tells me everything I need to know about the weather, the chance of rain, and the chance the forecast is wrong in about two seconds. It is already my go-to weather app.

Crowdsourced

Here is what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you are enjoying too. Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal at @davidpierce.11 with your recommendations. We will feature some of the best here each week. For even more recommendations, check the replies to this post on Threads and Bluesky.

“I am loving the Earth.fm app. I never thought soundscape apps would help me focus or relax, but these nature field recordings are perfect. And the app is beautiful.” , Ben

“I know I am late to the party, but I started using Nvidia GeForce Now. It is incredible on an iPad Pro.” , Jean-Francois

“Check out the Aviate app for Android. It is like Flighty but for Android. It is in early access and has a beautiful design.” , Guarav

“I absolutely loved Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. One of my top movies this year. Hilarious with great action. There is a five-minute argument between grown men about who the best boyfriend on Gilmore Girls was. It is Logan, by the way.” , Justin

“I just picked up the Aune AC55 on-ear clip headphones. I want to shout out that this headphone style is still alive and kicking, not just a relic of the 90s and 2000s. It offers a great alternative to large over-ear sets and IEMs. The Koss KSC75 is the affordable classic, but Aune is breaking new ground with high-end options.” , Brian

“I have been playing enclose.horse for a few months. It is a quick daily game that is not centered on words or letters, and I always enjoy it.” , Peter

“Clayton Morris did a YouTube video about great games for adults with no time. His recommendations are excellent. Vampire Survivors and Dredge are particularly great and both are available on Apple Arcade.” , Witzke

“A new, fully native font manager called Pica for macOS launched this week. Design nerds are freaking out about it.” , Pedro

“Space Design Warehouse is a phenomenal under-the-radar Mac YouTube channel. The host, Nicholas Johnson, gets as nerdy over specs and testing as you could want while keeping it accessible and fun. Every episode features a Mac on fire and Dunkin’ Donuts. He also includes a secondary audio track on some videos where he riffs on his thoughts.” , Clinton

Signing off

The funniest thing has happened to my YouTube feed over the last few months. While researching stories and Version History episodes, I have watched a lot of really old YouTube videos. This has evidently convinced the algorithm to send me more old YouTube videos. Recently, I have been reminded of the great Epic Rap Battles of History, some top-notch Lonely Island shorts, an iconic clip of Jay Z and Timbaland in the studio, and even Charlie the Unicorn. Early YouTube was a time, and mostly a very good one.

See you next week.