Apple beta season is here
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 91, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, how is summer more than a month over already, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’m pondering the leaked Pixel 10 lineup, marveling […]
Here are the laptops I’d tell any parent to consider for their back-to-school student
We’re in the heart of summer fun, but it’s already time for back-to-school planning, especially if that involves buying a new laptop. The dizzying number of different laptops and configurations can feel overwhelming, especially if you want something that doesn’t cost too much but will still last a long time. My general guidelines are to […]
Online MAGA cope is now Congressional strategy
When it comes to defending Donald Trump from the worst accusations, the MAGA influencer-industrial complex, whether out of loyalty or self-preservation, often defaults to whataboutism, arguing that the Democrats are just as guilty as Trump, or (ideally) worse. This principle has held true with the current Jeffrey Epstein saga, and as their audience’s anger against […]
The Drifter is a good old-fashioned thriller
Point-and-click adventure games often tell silly, lighthearted stories. For me, the mishaps of the pirate Guybrush Threepwood in the Monkey Island series come to mind. The nature of the genre – wandering around, talking to people, and trying to solve puzzles – lends itself well to humor, as every interaction with a person or object […]
OnePlus Nord 5 review: selfie-centric midranger
The OnePlus Nord 5 does exactly what the company’s Nord phones have always done: deliver strong specs at a relatively low price. It’s one of the more powerful phones at this price point and should easily outstrip Samsung and Google’s more expensive alternatives. This is a function-over-form phone, one where the key selling points are […]
Inside the struggle to create a cozy Lord of the Rings game
When new employees start at Weta Workshop, they’re herded into a meeting room with a long, unassuming conference table. On the walls, behind panes of glass and in between statues, swords, and masks, are five Oscars. Four of them were awarded to the studio for its efforts on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings […]
GPD’s monster Strix Halo handheld requires a battery ‘backpack’ or a 180W charger
Yesterday, I mentioned how GPD is teasing the most potent handheld yet made — a GPD Win 5 that will house the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip, with AMD’s most powerful integrated graphics yet, inside a PlayStation Vita-shaped machine. If you’ve been wondering how that huge chip could even fit, handheld expert Cary “The Phawx” […]
DJI couldn’t confirm or deny it disguised this drone to evade a US ban
DJI barely sells drones in the United States anymore. The shelves are bare; resellers are jacking up prices. It appears an unofficial ban at US customs is to blame. But on Amazon, you can now buy a drone that’s a a dead ringer for the DJI Mini 4 Pro – the SkyRover X1 – for […]
Google gets its swag back
This week, I take a look at the surprisingly strong state of Google, Meta gets a new chief AI researcher, and more. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out this week’s Decoder episode about deepfakes and where they are headed. Also, do you use an AI coding tool like Cursor or GitHub Copilot? […]
Comcast’s fix for streaming service overload is in your cable box
Streaming has become a tangled web of subscriptions, and now Comcast says it can help by putting all your services into one hub. Comcast is launching a new hub on its set-top boxes, called the StreamStore, where you can buy and manage subscriptions for more than 450 streaming apps and channels. The StreamStore lives within […]
