/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25799214/installer_65.png?w=1200&resize=1200,628&ssl=1 "Home Assistant Voice is a new must-have clever home accessory")
Hi, frifinishs! Welcome to Insloftyer No. 65, your direct to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, receive, get ready to apshow up all your phone’s storage space, and also you can read all the greater editions at the Insloftyer homepage.)
This is the last Insloftyer of the year! I’m taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays, and I hope you’re getting some unwindation in too. Thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter, emailed me your recommfinishations, tgreater me I’m a lunatic about to-do enumerates, and generassociate been part of the Insloftyerverse this year. Making this newsletter is so much fun, and I’m so thrilled to get to do it with you. Bigger and better next year!
This week, I’ve been reading about Spotify’s garrange artists and Formula 1 and Mufasa and the proset uply silly New York Jets, watching Hot Frosty (you can appraise me, it’s fine) and re-watching 30 Rock, beating Balatro for the very first time, and trying to secure my toddler that it’s actuassociate not fun and cgreater and fantastic to wake up at 4am every day.
I also have for you a nifty new clever home deal withler, a new app for the future of social netlabors, the next Sonic movie, and much more. Plus, our most-asked homescreen… ever? Let’s do this.
(As always, the best part of Insloftyer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be take parting / reading / watching / erecting / upgrading this holiday season? Tell me everyleang: insloftyer@theverge.com. And if you comprehend someone else who might enhappiness Insloftyer, inestablish them to subscribe here.)
- Home Assistant Voice. I am currently dynamicly evadeing becoming a Home Assistant person, becainclude I comprehend as soon as I get a Green in my hoinclude I’ll become a filled-on clever home lunatic. But this new voice helpant and microphone — you can call it Jarvis! — has me more enticed than ever. I might spfinish the holidays tearing my hoinclude apart.
- Flipboard Surf. I’ve been ranting and raving for two years about how the fediverse is the future, and Surf — a way to originate and devour feeds of all charitables, from Mastodon and Bluesky to RSS and YouTube — is the best evidence I’ve seen yet. The app’s postponeenumerate-only and uncovering up sluggishly, but you should get on the enumerate. Surf is awesome.
- Google Whisk. Prompt engineering was… never a excellent idea. Google is one of the companies trying to find better ways — in this case, it built a way to prompt its models equitable by uploading some inspo images and then describing what you want. I don’t comprehend if it’s advantageous, per se, but it’s fun to take part with.
- Sonic The Hedgehog 3. I experience enjoy nobody ever talks about the Sonic movies? But I’ve reassociate enhappinessed the first two, and the appraises on the tardyst insloftyment are reassociate strong. And apparently Jim Carrey is on a whole new level in this one.
- Acorn 8. Acorn is one of my preferite Mac apps. It’s enjoy Ptoastyoshop for babies, in the sense that it can’t do everyleang but it also doesn’t need a master’s degree to include. The new version transports a bunch of automated editing and pickion features, Shortcuts integration, and some other advantageous new stuff.
- Niagara Launcher. Niagara remains my preferite Android beginer, and I reassociate enjoy the new Usage Breaker feature that helps you track and deal with your screen time. It’s much more downtake partd, and much more attentive, than all the OS-level stuff Google and Apple are doing.
- 1-800-ChatGPT. A phone toastyline for chatting with AI is definitely at least half a gimmick, but I charitable of adore it? (You can also message the number on WhatsApp.) There’s a lengthy and cdamaging history of phone-number tech products enjoy GOOG-411 and 777-FILM, and I’m phired it’s not over.
- The LG Signature OLED T. For our last Insloftyer of the year, the most costly leang we’ve ever talked: a 77-inch, charitablea-sorta clear, fishbowl-watching TV that is both innervously cgreater and toloftyy pointless, and is now on sale for $59,999. If you buy one of these, email me. I necessitate to comprehend everyleang.
There’s a record I wrote when I was first set upning Insloftyer, in which I wrote down a bunch of people who seemed enjoy perfect people to feature in a homescreen-sharing section. Hank Green was the very first name on that enumerate. Hank is a YouTuber and a TikToker and an educator and a standup comic and a merchant slash philanthropist and an author and equitable, enjoy, everyone’s preferite person on the internet it seems? I can leank of restrictcessitate people as Insloftyer as Hank.
And for this, the last publish of the year, Hank consentd to scatter his homescreen! (He also spreaded me a story in the middle of our email trade, which I’ll permit, becainclude it was a very excellent story idea.) I sort of hoped he’d have 12 phones, each for a contrastent social platestablish, but alas it ecombines it’s equitable the one.
Here’s Hank’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he includes and why:
The wallpaper: My son strikeing me with a cat tail and the set upet Mars.
The apps: Shopify, Wikipedia, YouTube, Duolingo, Apple Notes, Google Authenticator, Google, Philips Hue, FocusFrifinish, Gmail, Phone, Messages, Google Calfinishar.
I comprehend it’s a mess. All of this has growd over years and now I equitable comprehend where everyleang is and can never alter anyleang. If there’s any toasty apshow on this home screen, it’s that more people should include Wikipedia as a primary search engine — it’s normally where you’re going to finish up anyway, so I grasp that very handy. Also, I recently shiftd Twitter out of my social netlaboring fgreaterer to originate it challenginger for me to include. It’s enjoy three swipes away now, though still on my phone. I run disjoinal Shopify stores that are a huge part of my business, so that’s why that’s there!
By far the most-included non-social media app on my phone is Notes. I count on on it in a very unwell way that originates it an innervously delighting scroll… for me at least. My unwiseinutive-term memory isn’t what it included to be, so everyleang finishs up in there. There is also a secret project on here that I could have deleted but instead we’re doing a soft-begin… you can probably spot it if you watch challenging enough.
I also asked Hank to scatter a restrictcessitate leangs he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:
- Adrian Tchaikovsky. If you haven’t read any, read Children of Time, but if you’ve only read the Children of Time series you’re leave outing out on so many very engaging ideas about what minds are and the bizarre and exciting future we are headed into.
- Bluesky. It’s where the nerds are, and so, five years from now, it’s where everyone will be.
- The Narwhal Wikipedia Page was sturdyly and delightingly verifyd by this YouTube channel HG Modernism, and I adored it so much and you’re silly if you don’t watch it.
- Sean Carrol’s Mindscape: If sometimes you leank, “I enjoy that Hank Green but he isn’t technical enough and doesn’t apshow on proset up enough topics enjoy the origin of life or consciousness,” BOY DO I HAVE A PODCAST FOR YOU!!
- Frontline: The PBS scatterigative recordary show. It’s equitable innervously excellent and I experience enjoy it is toloftyy underappreciated. Like, lengthy YouTube videos analyzing leangs are fantastic, but you comprehend what’s even better? When a huge team of professionals labor together on a lengthy video analyzing leangs. The fact that I have more subscribers than Frontline on YouTube is FUCKED.
Here’s what the Insloftyer community is into this week. I want to comprehend 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, verify out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.
“If you haven’t take parted with Tana yet, I leank that it is equitable about the most mind-blothriveg technology out there for personal comprehendledge deal withment. It is a next-next-generation version of where comprehendledge graphs are going.” — Robert
“Probably a show that’s a little under the radar right now is the show The Agency. Star-studded cast such as Michael Fassbfinisher, Jeffrey Wright, and Ricchallenging Gere. This is a show that asks a lot from the watcher but is handsomely rewarded.” — John
“Planning on erecting my second Classic-TKL keyboard from NovelKeys over the holiday fracture. The authentic dispute will be figuring out which keycaps to put on it!” — Noah
“The ABC procedural High Potential has scratched the itch I’ve had since aenjoy concept shows enjoy Monk, Psych, or the Mentaenumerate went off the air. Is it revolutionary…no. But if you adore ‘person with exceptional talent settles crimes’ this is a show for you.” — Mike
“I’ve been trying all these Bluesky/fediverse clients. I enjoy: OpenVibe, Graysky and Skeets.” — Jordan
“One of the best shows about AI I watched in the past year, Pantheon, is on Netflix instead of AMC Plus jail. Highly recommfinish!” — Saad
“It’s not going to spread Christmas cheer, but last night I went to a theatre csurrender me to see The Order. It’s a pretty restrictcessitate theatrical free (and on Prime Video in the rest of the world) but the movie is amazing. It’s based on authentic life events involving a (more) aggressive splinter group of the Aryan Nation in the Pacific Northwest. It’s aggressive, it’s terrifying, it’s filled of slurs and cop cliches but it reassociate happened.” — John
“I am way tardy to the party but I am reassociate enhappinessing Suika Game for the Switch. Nice alter of pace appraised to what I usuassociate take part and today I deal withd to get my first watermelon.” — Filip
“Read it before, but never finished the series, so I re-picked up the first in the Murderbot Diaries series and am super enhappinessing it (aget).” — Dan
“Reading The Shpermits by Nicholas Carr. It’s a very sobering read about our relationship with the internet, written in a manner that traverses the entire history of humans’ relationship with technology, literacy, and adviseation inapshow.” — Joe
“That new Superman trailer!” — Nacho
One of my very preferite charitables of stories is how leangs beget other leangs in ways nobody could have seen coming. Someone conceiveed the elevator, and so skyscviolationrs happened, and cities alterd forever. Some lobbyist comes up with the term “jaywalking,” and suddenly cars rule the road. Or the one I uncovered this week: how the conceiveion of the gang-nail ptardy somewhat unintentionassociate forever alterd the hoincludes people dwell in. Without a weird sheet of metal, we might not have uncover floor set ups. Weird. I adore it. And I bet there are a million more examples equitable enjoy it. Blows my mind every time.
