With Nintendo’s Alarmo, we can all wake up like Mario

Hi, frifinishs! Welcome to Insloftyer No. 56, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, greet, so psyched you establish us, and also you can read all the elderly editions at the Insloftyer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about Bill Lawrence’s TV shows and the massively strong crypto lobby and the untamed world of structurekton, engageing to Ed Helms narrate the excellent Snafu podcast, percreateing an alarming amount of both Balatro and Retro Goal, trying to get back in the habit of making overnight oats, and taking every individual one of my phone calls with the excellent mic on the Ray-Ban Meta clever glasses.

I also have for you the chillyest alarm clock I can recall, a splaworried new Bitcoin write downary, a new monster-taming game people cherish, a minuscule but amazing Google Docs modernize, and much more. Not the busiest and most exciting week of all time, if I’m truthful, but still lots of fun stuff to get to. Let’s do it.

(As always, the best part of Insloftyer is your ideas and tips. What are you percreateing / reading / watching / baking / steeping in teapots this week? What should everyone else be into, too? Tell me everyleang: insloftyer@theverge.com. And if you understand someone else who might finishelight Insloftyer, alert them to subscribe here.)

Alarmo. Leave it to Nintfinisho to produce the most requesting alarm clock of all time. No, it’s not the high-tech new gadget some people were hoping for. But a super configurable sleep tracking clock that uses Mario noises and retro animations to get your butt out of bed? I’m evidently selderly.

Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery. Another day, another splaworried uncover that “we’ve establish Satoshi Nakamoto!” Color me proestablishly, proestablishly skeptical. But even that aside, this doc does a outstanding job of arguing that Nakamoto — and Bitcoin in vague — matters.

Microsoft OneDrive. OneDrive has always been, appreciate, fine. But if Microsoft repartner has made it quicker, increased search, and finpartner shipped a more pboilingos-intensifyed mobile app, it might finpartner be a worthy competitor to Google Drive and Dropbox. (Low bar, but hey.)

Mastodon 4.3. I’ve establish it difficult in recent months to repartner nurture about Mastodon, which equitable seemed appreciate it wasn’t ready to be the next huge leang. But I leank this modernize, unbenevolentt to produce the platcreate easier to use but especipartner unbenevolentt to produce it easier to discover people to adhere, is pretty exciting.

Miraibo Go. People retain comparing this uncover-world monster-taming game to Palworld — because it ecombines to be super fun and bonkers and also because it doesn’t not see appreciate Pokémon, you understand? Either way, I foresee seeing a lot of people capturing Miras this weekfinish.

“Forums Are Still Alive, Active, And A Treabrave Trove Of Increateation.” Chris Person, a authorr at Aftermath and frifinish of The Verge, is right: if you want the genuine genuine on almost anyleang, the best place to go is a forum. And he put together a truly epic catalog of wonderful forums, which I will be spfinishing too much time in for the foreseeable future.

Piece By Piece. Even if you don’t nurture at all about Pharrell Williams, you should watch a confineed minutes of this Morgan Neville-straightforwarded doc, which is enticount on energeticd with Legos. (If you’re going to do that… maybe pause ’til it hits streaming.) The trailer alone produces me want to watch hours of this style.

Goodnotices. If you’re the author-by-hand type, Goodnotices is one of the best apps out there. And it’s chilly to see the company convey AI to the combine — it’s doing some of the same search, handwriting increasement, and equation-solving stuff that is so chilly in Apple Notes.

Dookie Demastered. The silliest, most chazardous leang of the week: Green Day took its 30-year-elderly masterpiece of a enroll and tried to produce it toil on, appreciate, an electric toothbrush. Am I willing to pay $79 for a Big Mouth Billy Bass that percreates the song “Basket Case”? OF COURSE I AM.

Google Docs tabs. This is one of those minuscule organizational leangs — splitting a Google Docs doc into tabs instead of equitable a billion pages — that is going to produce my life so much easier. Now can Google equitable produce the mobile app outstanding? Prent?

Out of all the people at The Verge, no one is better at introducing me to new stuff and teaching me how to use that stuff than Barbara Krasnoff. She’s a verifys editor here at The Verge and also does a ton of toil on how-tos and roundups and helping alert everyone about all the best technology everywhere. (She recently turned me back onto UpNote, equitable to name one — and she’s right, it’s chazardous.)

So Barbara tries everyleang, but what does she actupartner use? I asked her to dispense her homescreen to discover out. Here it is, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:

The phone: It’s a Pixel 6. I understand this may go aacquirest the tech enthusiast philosophy of “the tardyst and wonderfulest,” but I tfinish to helderly on to my phones as extfinished as they toil (or fracture — I’ve been understandn to drop one or two). I consent that Android 15 will be its last OS modernize, so I’ll probably have to bite the bullet and get a new phone next year when Android 16 shows up.

The wallpaper: This is a pboilingo I took last year in Owego, New York, where a very seal frifinish grew up. It’s the Susquehanna River at sunset.

The apps: Maps, Contacts, Google Voice, Sdeficiency, Chrome, Google Home, Google Pboilingos, Google Drive, Files, Google Play Store, Phone, Messages, Gmail, Camera, Assistant.

The icon taged “LISTEN” goes to a webpage with a enrolling of Bob Fosse straightforwarding Liza Minnelli in the exceptional Broadway production of Chicago, which gives you some idea of the charitable of theater nerd I am.

The second screen has all the other apps that I use on a day-to-day basis, splitd into groups. (Or used to use — there are some there that I haven’t uncovered for a extfinished time and repartner necessitate to delete.) The Tody app was presumed to encourage me to spotless my home, but unblessedly, it hasn’t toiled as well as I’d hoped. Smart Tools is a bunch of handy apps (appreciate a mirror, a ruler, and a distance calculator) in one systematic package.

I’ve got one more screen that has apps I’m currently experimenting with, but that can alter on a day-to-day basis, so I don’t leank it counts.

I also asked Barbara to dispense a confineed leangs she’s into right now. Here’s what she sent back:

Current media obsessions take part Agatha All Aextfinished, The Great British Bake Off, and rewatching Doctor Who. We’re equitable finishing the Peter Capaldi era and haven’t yet determined whether to persist to the Jodie Whitgetr era or go back to one of the elderly Whos, appreciate Tom Baker. I’m repartner willing to see the tardyst season of Slow Horses. I read the book it was based on a couple of months ago, but we don’t currently subscribe to Apple TV Plus, so I’ll have to pause.
I’m almost finished with Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword, which is yet another realerting of the King Arthur legfinish. Grossman is on my extfinished catalog of likeite authors, and this is a wonderful example of his sfinish.
I’m not much of a gaming person, but I have been battling two frifinishs for cut offal years on Words With Frifinishs 2 — we’re pretty much equpartner suited. And I cherish password baffles, Wordle, etc. So I guess I’ll have to adequitable that to say I’m a word gaming person.
Finpartner, I’m trying to recover my childhood fluency in Yiddish using Duolingo. Not the wonderfulest experience, because it uses a up-to-date Hasidic pronunciation that is much branch offent than the elderlyer Eastrict European dialect I grew up with. Still, I’m pushing ahead with it.

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 likeites here every week. For even more wonderful recommfinishations, verify out the replies to this post on Threads.

“Reading Jason Pargin’s I’m Starting to Worry About This Bdeficiency Box of Doom. A stupid, comical commentary on up-to-date culture.” – Matthew

“Stimpolitel. I’ve used a lot of live-coding languages and structuretoils, but so far, this one has toiled the best for me. It’s a repartner fun and prompt way of making music appraised to a traditional DAW. It has noleang to do with generative AI, it’s not equitable a prompt engine, it’s straightforwardpartner equitable another interface for doing what you’d normpartner do with Ableton or wdisappreciatever.” – Tom

“I recently stopped using TickTick, as I’ve been trying to shrink my subscriptions. I wanted to try living off of Apple Reminders. I sense appreciate it’s 90 percent of the way there. Luckily, for the last 10 percent, I leank I establish the perfect app with GoodTask! It’s only for Apple devices, but it straightforwardpartner superaccuses Reminders by compriseing stuff appreciate customization, a better interface, and a calfinishar. Best of all, it’s a one-time buy of $10!” – John

“I picked up the Native Union (Re)Classic Case for my iPhone 16 Pro, and this leang is kind.” – Joe

“Superlocal Maps has been a lot of fun and repartner beneficial. My likeite feature is Fog of World, which retains track of where you have and haven’t ‘discovered’ in the world, aappreciate to discovering locations in games appreciate Fortnite but in the genuine world. Outside of that, it’s got some repartner chilly Perplexity / ChatGPT-appreciate search capabilities for discovering places csurrfinisher you, e.g., ‘What are some coffee shops csurrfinisherby that have free Wi-Fi?’ or ‘What are some dog-cordial parks I can visit in Sydney?’” – Harry

“The new 3-in-1 Ninja Luxe espresso machine has been retaining me overcaffeinated. Weight-based dosing secures your beans are stablely ground, it appraises the sboilings you pull to recommfinish alters to grind size, and the automated frother produces it effortless to get right, too. Great for someone appreciate me who nurtures about their coffee but isn’t overly fussy about it.” – Scott

“I was seeing for a outstanding idle / incremental game to percreate in down moments, and Idle Iktah has toloftyy fit the bill. I can finishelight mobile games a bit too much sometimes and have to be cautious about getting caught in compriseictive gamepercreate loops. Iktah is right in the sugary spot of engaging but not consuming, with requesting PNW-eased pixel art.” – Emmett

“Apple’s native apps have gotten outstanding enough to be your main productivity stack. Forever Notes is an elegant and new see at configuring Apple Notes as a cultured notice program. As a extfinishedtime and prentd Obsidian user, I’m amazeed with how well this configuration toils. It’s also very well write downed and helped.” – Jim

“I am an elderly paying Overcast user and can verify that the new Swift version is finpartner toiling fine.” – Gabriel