The 2025 Android Upgrade Cycle Has Begun

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 68, your line to nan champion and Verge-iest worldly successful nan world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, dream you’re staying lukewarm and sane, and too you tin publication each nan aged editions astatine nan Installer homepage.) 

This week, I’ve been reference astir Kieran Culkin and insomnia and the eBay for fancy startup stuff, yet watching The Wild Robot, reasoning a batch astir my shopping habits while watching The Mega-Brands That Built America, adding a bunch of Baseus retractable cables to my recreation kit, playing an astonishing browser-based rendition of nan Atari crippled Pitfall!, testing retired nan caller Spark calendar for Android, and trying to transcript Babish’s delicious-looking breakfast sandwich.

I too personification for you nan biggest caller telephone successful nan Android world, nan GPU each gamer’s going to want, an intolerable proceedings for AI tools, a clever Google alternative, and overmuch more. It’s been a somewhat quiet week for caller stuff, honestly, since it’s immoderate post-CES doldrums and utter governmental chaos. But we’ve still sewage awesome worldly to talk about! Let’s do it.

(As always, nan champion information of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reference / cooking / downloading / building pinch Legos / strapping to your wrists this week? What should everyone different beryllium into arsenic overmuch arsenic you are? Tell maine everything: [email protected]. And if you cognize personification different who mightiness bask Installer, show them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Screen share

Every erstwhile successful a while, Mike McCue and I jump connected Google Meet and rant astatine each different astir nan future. Mike is nan CEO of Flipboard, a tech executive each nan measurement backmost to nan Netscape days, and immoderate a realist and a afloat bleeding-heart optimist astir what exertion tin be. Recently, what we’ve mostly talked astir is Surf, Flipboard’s caller feed-reader app. 

I deliberation Surf, aliases point for illustration it, is nan future. (There’s too nan caller Reeder and Project Tapestry, which personification akin ideas — but Surf is nan astir eager 1 I’ve seen yet.) It’s social, but it’s not controlled by immoderate azygous company; it’s personalized, but only successful ways that you choose. All this worldly is still ace early, but each clip X changes aliases TikTok goes away, it becomes clear that we petition point very different.

Oh, and I personification nosy news: if you sign up for Surf pinch nan codification “Installer,” you tin skip nan waitlist connection and effort nan app out. Right now you petition a Mastodon narration to get successful (which is easy tin to mobility up for), but Mike says Bluesky support is coming soon, too.

Anyway! I asked Mike to banal his homescreen, affirmative springiness america a glimpse into immoderate of nan feeds he’s enjoying astir correct now. Here is his homescreen, affirmative immoderate info connected nan apps he uses and why:

The phone: iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The wallpaper: I alternate betwixt Apple’s Earth and photos of my family. It’s easy and nosy to alteration wallpapers connected iOS. The Earth wallpaper is move passim nan day. I for illustration really it reminds maine that I’m conscionable a mini speck successful abstraction and time.

The apps: Apple Maps, Gaia GPS, Windy, Sky Guide, Spotify, Google Calendar, Safari, Leica Fotos, Apple Photos, Pixelfed, Flipboard, Threads, Ivory (a Mastodon client), Bluesky, Surf Beta.

If there’s 1 takeaway here, it’s that I’m a societal web nerd, and I’m hopelessly addicted to news and societal media.

My redeeming grace is that I do negociate to get extracurricular a adjacent bit. I precocious switched to Apple Maps (I emotion nan position erstwhile driving), and I usage Gaia for trails erstwhile I’m hiking aliases upland biking. Windy is nan champion upwind app retired location (I bought a premium subscription for sailing). That said, I deliberation MyRadar is champion astatine answering nan question, “Is it astir to rain? And for really long?” I usage Sky Guide a astonishing amount. It’s peculiarly nosy to spot and measurement nan planets and nan abstraction position pinch my kids.

The small correct quadrant has my astir utilized apps because I tin easy scope them one-handed. Of these, Apple Notes is wherever I locomotion by acold nan astir time. It’s wherever I do each of my thinking, planning, and penning for activity and life. I cognize location are overmuch powerful alternatives retired there, but Notes is truthful elemental and conscionable works.

For societal media, I usage a cognition of Mastodon (via Ivory), Bluesky, and Threads, 3 of nan main apps connected nan societal web. I too emotion nan caller Pixelfed app. Not only is it built connected ActivityPub, it’s for illustration what Instagram utilized to be. I stopped posting connected Instagram years agone because it sewage truthful noisy. It’s bully to commencement sharing photos again.

I too asked Mike to banal a less things he’s into correct now connected Surf. Here’s what he sent back:

Here’s what nan Installer statement is into this week. I want to cognize what you’re into correct now arsenic well! Email [email protected] aliases relationship maine connected Signal — @davidpierce.11 — pinch your recommendations for point and everything, and we’ll characteristic immoderate of our favorites coming each week. For moreover overmuch awesome recommendations, cheque retired nan replies to this position connected Threads and this position connected Bluesky.

“Nothing published a very absorbing video astir really nan creation of iOS & Android tin personification a different effect connected your intelligence authorities and really different cultures onslaught creation successful general. Super absorbing stuff.” — Teo

“UFO 50! Truly unthinkable compilation of 50 caller retro-style indie games, built astir a fictional crippled institution successful nan 80s. It’s each I’ve been playing and I’ve only played astir 15 games truthful far.” — Jelly

“Watching Unrivaled, nan caller 3 connected 3 women’s hoops league, connected TNT / TruTV / Max! So overmuch nosy to watch nan champion hoops players play pinch overmuch abstraction and a different format from accepted basketball.” — Renata

“I sewage a Miyoo A30 this week, installed Spruce (a civilization firmware) connected it, and now I’m playing Pokémon Yellow Legacy because I needed immoderate nostalgic comfortableness nutrient to woody pinch everything going connected correct now.” — Beeks

“Just vanished up Kevin Can F**k Himself connected Netflix. I deliberation it’s a less years old, but man it was truthful good. I emotion nan storytelling instrumentality they employment wherever immoderate clip Kevin is around, it’s filmed arsenic an All In nan Family-style sitcom, and nan remainder of nan clip it’s filmed for illustration a acheronian comedy.” — JK

“Been spending a bunch of clip connected Graze building feeds for BlueSky! They’re really doing immoderate awesome activity for nan community, and personification made mounting up civilization feeds ace quick, nosy and disposable to beautiful overmuch anyone, techie aliases not.” — Kerha

“I Love Hue Too. It’s been retired a while, but it’s beautiful, addictive and a awesome measurement to distract from nan crumbling world astir me.” — Brad

“Last week’s Silo play finale was unthinkable and I’ve too started Wool (the first successful nan book series) and it is simply a really nosy read. Crazy really overmuch faster nan book is paced – it’s only for illustration 40 percent done nan communicative that [REDACTED] happens!!” — Andy

“I’ve been playing a afloat batch of Dragonsweeper, which is for illustration Minesweeper crossed pinch a dungeon crawler. It’s tricky astatine first, but it’s sick.” — Sophie

“This playlist of old schoolhouse Weather Channel songs my comparative sent maine has been my soundtrack for nan past less days. Just beryllium backmost and fto nan nostalgia of trying to get a forecast complete basal cablegram lavation complete you.” — Mike

Signing off

At CES a less weeks ago, I was chatting pinch a caller friend connected nan show level erstwhile he casually referenced “that constituent Douglas Adams wrote astir nan internet.” I stared stupidly backmost astatine him. “You know, nan Hitchhiker’s Guide guy?” Yeah, no, sewage that. What nett thing?

Turns out, successful 1999, Adams wrote an effort titled “How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love nan Internet,” and wow does it clasp up 26 years later arsenic a measurement to deliberation astir nan world we unrecorded successful now. Here’s conscionable 1 quote:

“Another problem pinch nan nett is that it’s still ‘technology’, and ‘technology’, arsenic nan instrumentality intelligence Bran Ferren memorably defined it, is ‘stuff that doesn’t activity yet.’ We nary longer deliberation of chairs arsenic technology, we conscionable deliberation of them arsenic chairs. But location was a clip erstwhile we hadn’t worked retired really galore legs chairs should have, really gangly they should be, and they would often ‘crash’ erstwhile we tried to usage them. Before long, computers will beryllium arsenic trivial and plentiful arsenic chairs (and a mates of decades aliases truthful aft that, arsenic sheets of insubstantial aliases grains of sand) and we will cease to beryllium alert of nan things.”

I deliberation astir this effort damn adjacent each clip now. The overmuch things change, nan overmuch they enactment nan same. And perchance we should beryllium comforted by that.