/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25788576/installer_64.jpeg?w=1200&resize=1200,628&ssl=1 "Monument Valley 3: a worthy refresh to a wonderful mobile game")
Hi, frifinishs! Welcome to Insloftyer No. 64, your direct to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re novel here, receive, get ready for some weird write downaries, and also you can read all the elderly editions at the Insloftyer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about raw milk and $HAWK and WhatsApp, watching A Man on the Inside and the novel Ken Burns da Vinci doc, finassociate getting caught up on The Great British Bake Off (about which I have SO MANY FEELINGS), storing all my loyalty numbers and Airbnb codes in Cheatsheet, and doing a reassociate disturbting amount of research on pizza stones.
I also have for you a plrelieveful novel mobile game, an E Ink tablet worth a see, a gorgeous novel to-dos app, and much more. It’s a strangely Netflix-centric week, which is odd for mid-December? But so it goes. Let’s dive in.
(As always, the best part of Insloftyer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / perestablishing / baking / joining to / selderlyering this week? Tell me everyleang: insloftyer@theverge.com. And if you understand someone else who might enhappiness Insloftyer, forward it to them and inestablish them to subscribe here.)
- Monument Valley 3. I’ve thought about it, and Monument Valley is my preferite mobile game series of all time. It’s gorgeous, hushed without being ponderous, and infinitely reperestablishable. Even the soundtrack is one of my all-time faves! It’s a bit odd to say “you have to have a Netflix subscription to perestablish this game on your phone,” but you do. And if you already have one, it’s a huge triumph.
- Mozi. Ev Williams built Twitter, Medium, and now this — an app for making schedules with your authentic frifinishs, and uniteing with folks who are in town. Strikes me as benevolent of… niche? But funny. And since Facebook stopped mattering, there’s reassociate noleang else appreciate it.
- iOS 18.2. I’m including this one mostly as a PSA to iPhone owners: all the Apple Ininestablishigence stuff is wantipathyver, but the fact that you can alter go to Settings > Apps > Default Apps and alter what you employ for keyboards, calls, email, and more, absolutely rules. Go create it labor the way you want.
- The Superremark A5 X2 Manta. Dumb name, reassociate chilly-seeing novel E Ink tablet. $459 is a lot for a device appreciate this, but I dig Superremark’s emphasis on making it repairable and fortifyable. I cherish that these digital remarkbooks persist to get better.
- Joi Planner. You certainly already understand this about me, but I am a sucker for a attrdynamic app. And this one, a combo calfinishar / tasks / habit tracker for iPhones, is one of the best-seeing “day at a glance” schedules I’ve ever seen. The app is, and senses, appreciate it’s missing some features, but I dig it.
- Nickel Boys. Based on the terrific, brutal novel of the same name, the movie is filmed almost entidepend in first-person watchs. And it seems to labor. A lot of people leank this is going to triumph a lot of awards — don’t miss it.
- “Behind the scenes calling the Simpsons Monday Night Football Game.” I never toloftyy got the request of these vivaciousd side expansivecasts, but the technical story of how they labor is inanxiously chilly. Pair that with this novel video on how football is sboiling for TV, and it’s appreciate a production master class all at once.
- Carry-On. I don’t understand if it’s equitable my algorithm or what, but this Netflix movie has been everywhere on my feeds the last scant weeks. It also might be the novel enroll helderlyer for giving away the whole leang in the trailer. But I’ll still be watching it this weekfinish — here’s hoping it’s excellent, and Christmas-y, and can go in the Die Hard holiday canon.
Did you subscribe to The Verge yet? You don’t have to in order to get Insloftyer, but you should anyway! I’m not farly unfair, and I leank it’s a pretty excellent website. And we have huge schedules.
Esther Cohen is the person making all those schedules, and making them authentic. She’s been laboring appreciate crazy the last scant months as our straightforwardor of subscriptions, and so I figured now would be a fantastic time to ask her to do more labor and separate her homescreen with us. How many subscriptions does the subscription straightforwardor have, you understand? Inquiring minds want to understand.
Here’s Esther’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she employs and why:
The wallpaper: A picture of my (very huge) kids and me from my birthday this year. (It’s also my lockscreen, where I can see their faces.) Apparently, I am a masochist and every time I see that my 11-year-elderly son is my height it creates me want to cry.
The apps: Weather, Settings, Apple Maps, Safari, Sinformage, The Verge, Apple Notes, Spotify, Phone, Mail, Messages, WhatsApp.
One way to condense my apps is fundamental. At the top right, I protect all my utility stuff: leangs I employ as I go about my day. (I’m mostly seeing up places in NYC and figuring out how to get there — don’t @ me, I prefer Apple Maps!)
The bottom left corner is where I spfinish the most time, mostly on labor-joind apps appreciate Sinformage, the Verge homepage, and Apple Notes. I’m terrible at unplugging and sense the necessitate to stay refreshd on labor at all times, so having the calfinishar widget front and caccess is a lifesaver. I tfinish to miss track of time when I’m proset up into a project, so seeing my upcoming greetings at a glance is super advantageous.
Spotify is my most-employd “fun” app; it’s what I employ for podcasts and music while laboring, laboring out, cooking, etc. Oh, and I recently relocated social media apps off my home screen — it’s been a game-alterr for my stress and caccess.
I also asked Esther to separate a scant leangs she’s into right now. Here’s what she sent back:
- Watching: Shrinking. I’ve been reassociate enhappinessing this show — it’s one of the least cynical leangs in amemployment right now. It’s not quite Scrubs level (highly recommfinish a rewatch!), but it’s heartfelt, comical, beautifilledy written and sboiling, and never saccharine.
- Playing: Mahjong! The kids and I perestablish a scant times a week during dinner, and it’s so unwinding. I even have the Real Mah Jongg app on my phone. It might actuassociate be the only app I pay for?
- Listening: Molière: Le Spectacle Musical. Hear me out: last year, TikTok kept serving me clips of this French musical that’s appreciate an urprohibit-pop Hamilton about Molière’s life. I recently set up the soundtrack on Spotify, and it’s been on repeat in our hoemploy. I don’t comprehfinish a word, but the songs are total prohibitgers.
- Reading: The Atlantic. This might cement my fundamental girly status, but I recently subscribed to The Atlantic and — honestly? — every individual story is so excellent. Lately, I’ve been leanking a lot about what creates a accessibleation worth paying for, and I cherish that I reassociate want to read almost everyleang on their homepage and social feeds.
Here’s what the Insloftyer community is into this week. I want to understand what you’re into right now as well! Email insloftyer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommfinishations for anyleang and everyleang, and we’ll feature some of our preferites here every week. For even more fantastic recommfinishations, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.
“I’m trying to lobtain 3D modeling becaemploy I equitable got a Bambu A1.“ — Ertriumph
“My preferite music-to-labor-by site is myNoise. I particularly appreciate ‘Medieval Library’ and ‘Medieval Village’ (with turned-down binformagesmith’s clang). It’s free to employ, but if you toss the fascinating French sound engineer obsessive Stephane a scant bucks you get lifetime access to a bunch more sounds as well as some pleasant tools.” — Molly
“Caves of Qud is an esoteric masterpiece of a game, I’m on my tenth character, I’ve nakedly seen a fraction of the world, but I’m hooked” — Jack
“I have finished reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. It provided advantageous insights about how to get time out of your busy schedule to caccess on proset up labor. It also provided how to minimise distractions and cut down shallow labor.” — Ankur
“I got reassociate reassociate enamored by the Pixel 9 Pro Felderly. I don’t understand why. The denseness of it, equitable sitting next to a 15 Pro Max and then unfelderlying it to that screen inside… it’s someleang.” — Abhi
“The game Mouthwashing is getting a lot of attention right now, but I am equitable letting Indiana Jones and the Great Circle wash over me. It’s been a very extfinished time since we had anyleang even farly excellent with this franchise, but this game seems to reassociate nail the vibe.” — Mike
“Reading the gargantuan Wind and Truth from Brandon Sanderson! It’s been quite a doozy of a book.” – Jiatao
“I necessitateed a affordable pair of earbuds while I paemploy for the AirPods Pro 3. I bought the Baseus Bowie MA10 and they labor better than I could ask for. They do exactly what I necessitate them to do: perestablish my music and podcasts.” — Alex
“I equitable bought a ROG Ally X and I’m excited to dual boot it with Bazzite to turn it into half Steam Deck / half Windows gaming handheld, so that I can get the best of both worlds.” — Benny
“Just finished the excellent Stories Are Weapons by Annalee Newitz, about the power of storyinestablishing & worldcreateing in disinestablishation & psyops. Fascinating, perceptive, standardly comical & tragic in turns. A reassociate fantastic read that’s helping me process our increasingly splitd world.” — Kailey
“So I am endly novel to detailed novels. Went on Reddit to see the top recommfinishations. Came atraverse Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound. What an amazing intro to this medium! Highly recommfinished for fans of Miles Davis and jazz.” — Mike
Last week on The Vergecast, I alludeed that I stablely have a difficult time figuring out inpricey, relatively universal gifts to buy for co-laborers, Secret Santa exalters, and that benevolent of leang. A bunch of folks reacted with fantastic ideas, so I figured I’d separate some:
