Clean Up Your Computer Fast With This Essential App
▼ Summary
– The article is Installer No. 128, a guide to the best and “Verge-iest” stuff, featuring Mac utilities, a new book, and a fediverse management tool.
– Recommended items include the Mole Mac app for cleaning up files, the eighth “Dungeon Crawler Carl” book, the Twelve South PowerClip dongle, and the Bartender Pro menu bar app.
– Guest Joanna Stern shares her AI setup using Claude and ChatGPT, and discusses using “Projects” to create “BookBots” for organizing research during her book writing.
– Stern also mentions using AI voice modes in ChatGPT and Meta Ray-Bans, and recommends six podcasts she appeared on to promote her book.
– The Installer community recommends “Mars First Logistics,” the show “Trash Truck,” and using NotebookLM for D&D campaign notes, among other items.
Welcome to Installer No. 128, your guide to the best and most Verge-worthy tech, tools, and culture. This edition is heavy on Mac utilities, but stick around for a new book in a beloved series, a fresh fediverse management tool, and much more.
As always, the real magic comes from your suggestions. What are you reading, watching, playing, or turning into something creative this week? Email me at installer@theverge.com. If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe here.
Mole is a standout Mac utility I’ve been tracking for a while. For just $9, it efficiently hunts down large files, unused apps, memory-hungry processes, and other clutter slowing your computer. It avoids being overzealous or constantly pushing upsells. I strongly recommend it.
Dungeon Crawler Carl returns with its eighth book, A Parade of Horribles. I’m still catching up, but I’m confident Carl and Donut face even more chaos. This series is the most-recommended in Installer history, so this release is huge news.
The Twelve South PowerClip is a charming $40 dongle. I usually prefer giant backup batteries, but this tiny device isn’t meant to fully charge your phone,just keep it from dying. It also doubles as a USB-C cable.
Bartender Pro upgrades the classic menu bar cleaner for $15 a year. It adds utilities like audio controls and your calendar to your Mac’s notch or menu bar center. My favorite feature is zero-click AirDrop from my computer to my phone, just by dragging a file.
Subnautica 2 became one of Steam’s biggest titles overnight, despite early-access bugs and weirdness. That hasn’t stopped anyone from diving in.
Indigo combines Bluesky and Mastodon into a single, beautiful timeline. The same developers also make Croissant for posting to both services. Apps like this keep me excited about the fediverse.
“We aren’t ready for Meta glasses” is a terrific Christophe video on smart glasses’ cultural state. My colleague Vee Song has covered this extensively, and the devices are genuinely thrilling and horrifying,and likely here to stay.
Snapseed 4.0 is Google’s unexpected return to making cool apps. It’s a rare photo editing app with many features but simple, straightforward controls. The new look won’t please everyone, but I love it.
The Punisher: One Last Kill went viral for bad reasons,confusing VFX and audio issues,but I’m always up for a gritty superhero story, and this one executes the genre well.
Screen share
Today, Joanna Stern achieves her most important professional accomplishment: becoming the first repeat guest in Installer history. She spent the last year using AI for everything to figure out where it’s actually useful. After all that experimenting, she shared what truly works.
Her day-to-day AI setup includes Claude and ChatGPT. She uses Claude Code and Claude Cowork for multi-step work and Google tool integration, and ChatGPT for editing and conversation, thanks to its superior voice and live video modes.
Surprising finds include Projects in ChatGPT and Claude, which saved her time while writing her book. She created “BookBots” by uploading research notes, academic papers, transcripts, deadlines, and editor notes. These bots kept her on track and made it easy to find information.
She vibe-coded a pin promotion for her book pre-orders, creating an order form and a backend workflow that automatically added submissions to a spreadsheet and sent confirmations.
After a year of AI experiments, she talks to ChatGPT in the car via voice mode and uses Meta AI in her Ray-Bans. She also shared six podcasts she’s been on, since writing a book leaves no time for anything else.
Crowdsourced
The Installer community shares what they’re into this week. Email me at installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal at @davidpierce.11 with your recommendations.
- Mars First Logistics: Build rovers to deliver objects across Mars. The tinkering is rewarding and funny when creations fail spectacularly.Signing offI took a half-vacation this week, skipping meetings and podcasting but handling urgent tasks. I organized my home office, which was a disaster zone. Two things solved many problems: an Anker power strip that clamps to my desk, balancing minimalism and accessibility, and a couple of 10-foot USB-C cables from Anker. I’m considering upgrading to the Native Union Pop Cable, which is coiled and stretchy to avoid tangling. It’s probably good for my wallet that work resumes Monday.See you next week!
