Hello friends! Welcome installer No. 58, your guide to the best and threshold-The most beautiful thing in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome to Batman Forever, and you can also read all the back editions here.) installer home page.)

This week I read: Simone Giertz And billionaire assistants And Checo Pérez And Call His Father, “to learn aboutworldrise“I am listening Quinta Brunson and Conan O’Brien I’m trying to talk comedy and decide if it’s going to be great or not. blue sky Or maybe I’ll give up socializing altogether and devote myself to baseball so I can pretend I know what I’m talking about during the World Series.

I’m also giving you a great new VR game, a great new reading tool, a nice RSS reader update, a new browser worth trying, and much more.

(As always, the best part installer are your ideas and tips. What are you busy with right now? What does everyone need to watch/read/play/cook/cut with scissors this week? Tell me all about it: [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might like installerforward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

• Batman: Shadow of Arkham. I’m hopelessly biased about this game, the latest in my favorite series of video games of all time. But a surprising amount of what worked in the past arkham games work in VR too; The story is whatever it always is, but the action is fun, intense, and everything I want it to be. This is the most I’ve used my Quest in months.
• Boox Palma 2. Another week and I’ll feel ridiculous buying another reading device, but I’ll definitely buy it anyway. One of my favorite devices of the year gets a faster processor, new Android… and not much else. But I still love this little Android e-reader.
• Hasan Minhaj: He’s Headed Out. I’ve been waiting for this ever since that New Yorker storyand delivers. All of these reviews from crypto bros and podcast listeners have been all over my For You pages this week, and for good reason.
• Reader. Inoreader is a really good RSS reader, but I’ve always thought it was… ugly. The new design is really nice! It’s still very dense and text-heavy, but as a news reader I really like it. I’m also enjoying all the new filters that help me find to-do list app news easier than ever.
• “Shrek ASMR.” One of the most extraordinary, committed things I’ve ever seen on YouTube: a complete remake shrekASMR style. I uploaded it after reading the video really fun story about this From our friends at Polygon and eventually I started watching everything. It is remarkable in many ways.
• vivaldi. I’m still a little on the fence about the new tab design, which is nice but a little busy. But I like the new Control Panel feature that lets you dock a bunch of apps and websites and see them all at once. It’s like what iGoogle used to be, but much better.
• Sonic x Shadow Generations. Sonic. And Evil Sonic. What else do you need to know? All the reviews I’ve read say this game is an excellent remaster of a classic, and also has a lot of new stuff, including a massive new Shadow-focused campaign. I immediately made space on my Switch for this.
• Concept Forms. Notion’s quest to be all things to all people continues! New Notion Mail app It looks pretty cool, but day to day I think Forms is the bigger issue. Even if you only use Notion (or Sheets, or Airtable, or something else), creating a set of forms for easy data entry is a very simple way to make your life easier.
• mail bird. One of the best – maybe the best — Windows email apps are now available on Mac. The free tier is pretty limited, but it will at least give you an idea of ​​whether the app is right for you. I still meme stream dedicated, but it’s worth a look, especially if you’re balancing Outlook with Gmail.
• Computer use at Claude. Anthropic’s AI bot received an upgrade this week, including a new feature that can use your computer on your behalf. Video explaining how it works it’s great and a useful explainer of how simple some complex things can really be. Finally. One day.

I reviewed the new iPad Mini this week, and as a result I’ve spent a lot of time setting up a new tablet and thinking about how to lay out the home screen. I’ve deliberately kept this space phone-focused so far, because I really think you can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their phone, but after spending so much time thinking about my iPad life, I’m wondering. It is necessary to expand its scope a little. Maybe I should let people share their computer desktops? Or game console home screens? Maybe the first screen of their smart TV? I don’t know, there are a lot of home screens out there. We’ll try something.

With all that said, here’s some information about my iPad Mini home screen, as well as the apps I use and why:

Tablet: iPad Mini, 2024. I love the iPad Mini. I wish this was a lot better and that Apple would put more emphasis on the Mini, but here we are.

Wallpaper: Apple’s weather wallpaper that adapts to the current weather outside. It’s a total gimmick and I was surprised at how much I liked it.

Applications: balatro, Madden, EA Sports FC, Retro Castle, Retro Bowldelta, Call of Duty: Warzone, Coffee Golf, Real Racing 3, Tiny WingsNYT Games, The New York Times, Apple News, The Washington Post, Unread, Netflix, TikTok, Disney Plus, Prime Video, Sling, YouTube, Peacock, Max, Hulu, ESPN, Arc, Kindle, Workflowy, Readwise Reader, Pocket Players , Spotify, Mela.

I think there are two ways you can go with your iPad. You can use it to try and do laptop-related things, or you may decide to use your iPad mostly as a way to avoid doing laptop-related things. I chose the latter: Roughly 100 percent of my iPad usage is reading, watching, and playing. I don’t have Gmail, Slack, or Google Docs here; Nothing is allowed to send me notifications. My iPad is a place for relaxation and entertainment, period.

I like and use all of these apps, but there are a few I need to mention in particular: I’ve tried a lot of recipe apps and mela It is still the simplest and best when it comes to getting recipes from websites; balatro The most addictive game I have downloaded in years; I finally became one Apple News Plus I’m a subscriber and I’m blown away by how much I use it; iPad Mini is the perfect tablet to use as a steering wheel and Real Racing 3 It is an amazing driving game.

My Dock is dedicated to the apps I use at least every day; This means reading, notes, recipes, podcasts, and music. (I just realized I need to move Workflowso it’s not among the reading apps — I’ll get into that.) It’s probably the most used non-dock app right now peacockowner Society And Parks and Recreation And Brooklyn Nine Nine and therefore my streaming service is always open in the background.

For years I tried to turn my iPad into a laptop replacement. But as I lean more into the screen being a purely entertainment device, I find myself using it more when I don’t want to get stressed out by screens. It’s a weird and expensive strategy, but it works for me.

Here’s what installer community this week. I also want to know what you’re doing right now! Email [email protected] or send me suggestions for anything at @davidpierce.11 ​​on Signal; Let’s publish some of our favorites here every week. For even more great suggestions, check out these answers: This article on topics.

“I saw that Adi wanted a Goodreads alternative and wanted to suggest it Story Chart! It’s really cool that GR focuses on showcasing stats about what you’re reading rather than focusing on sharing updates, and they have really nice monthly summaries!” – Aurora

“While reading about Adi’s troubles with LibraryThing, I remembered that I started using the library a few days ago. Hardcover“And so far I’m finding it really cool.” – oh

“Officer It’s a very simple list app for iOS with absolutely nothing else. I was looking for something to manage my shopping list or just the things I need to buy. ikidos is one such application, but it has a very clever way of splitting the list into two categories: Sooner and Later. “This is something I really love.” –Karan

“I devoted about six hours wagotabiand I was wildly impressed. One of the most clever and effective Japanese learning games I’ve ever played. It is structured like this pokemonBut instead of catching monsters, you learn Japanese words and grammar. Instead of fighting, you engage in social interactions that will put your new skills to the test. Over time, more and more English texts are replaced by Japanese. And it’s really fun! To hell with Duolingo; wagotabi is the king.” –Tom

“I caught someone Vapor Deck OLED a few weeks ago and I started diving into the games I’ve been missing a bit. Unknown 4 And Uncharted: The Lost Legacy it was great. Now we delve deeper into the modern Tomb Raider trilogy. I think I like adventure games FIFA not available.” – Andi

“I update phones every two to three years, and one way to keep it up to date is to buy a new case every year. This year’s case upgrade Wedge Design. They make gorgeous wood and metal phone cases (and other goodies). Look at these!” – Invoice

“I’m trying out a new second brain app, SublimeThis adds a few interesting features. I’ll try it for a few weeks and see how it grows on me. –Miguel

“I’ve got a really good Switch controller for you: GuliKit Zen Pro is great, supports everything the Pro Controller does, and salon effect It sticks on boot. It’s also much cheaper than the Pro Controller, so I’d recommend it to anyone buying a new Switch too!” – Ben

“I was using Capture It’s for iOS and it’s simple and amazing. It should be amazing on a built-in feature level like this. “Anything I come across on the internet, I can put it aside, keep it aside, and then send it where it needs to go.” – Maximum

“premise Movie Basket simple: it’s for watching feature films on a real Atari 2600. The truth is quite complex. This is a work of mad genius, and you might feel that way too when you actually see the movie in theaters!” –Tom

Almost every person on the internet is talking about this topic. Chicken Shop History episode With Andrew Garfield it really is as charming as you can imagine. (Garfield has a history of great YouTube moments. his speech about grief with Stephen Colbert.) This episode took me down the rabbit hole of all things Chicken Shop Date, and it turns out that host Amelia Dimoldenberg has been through a truly fascinating journey as a creator.

He did this last year great interview With Colin and Samir, it doubles as a (hilarious and silly) masterclass in how to turn a YouTube channel into a show right at the heart of pop culture. All of my favorite creative stories are equal parts ruthless execution and constant aimless experimentation, and Dimoldenberg is a perfect example of both.