Readwise Reader is the final word app for studying the web

Hi, pals! Welcome to Installer No. 18, your information to the most effective and Verge-iest stuff on the planet. (If you’re new right here, hiya, pleased holidays, and likewise you may learn all of the outdated editions on the Installer homepage.) 

This week, I’ve been combing this record for brand spanking new board video games to strive, studying about the NFL’s obsession with ping pong and the rise of chess influencers and the wacky historical past of Yahoo Pipes, watching Lupe Fiasco totally clarify how rap works, testing Anytype as a Notion various, attempting to determine tips on how to justify shopping for myself a Lego Polaroid, and including Us to all my phrases on Threads to welcome my European pals. 

I even have for you a brand new approach to play Grand Theft Auto, some new AI-powered note-taking and journaling instruments, new stuff to observe this weekend, a glance into the creator economic system, and rather more.

I even have a query. We solely have yet another Installer this yr, so I figured now’s the time to do it: what was your favourite factor of 2023? I promise I received’t maintain this to, like, a authorized normal of that is your solely favourite ceaselessly. But while you look again on the final 12 months, what new present / e book / weblog / app / creator entered your life that you simply’re notably pleased about? Tell me one, or two, or three! Doesn’t need to be new this yr, simply new to you. Email [email protected], or textual content / WhatsApp me at (203) 570-8663, and inform me every part. All issues Favorites, coming your approach in two weeks.

(As at all times, the most effective a part of Installer is your concepts and suggestions. What do you wish to know extra about? What superior methods have you learnt that everybody else ought to? What app ought to everybody be utilizing? Tell me every part: [email protected]. And if you wish to get Installer in your e-mail inbox a day early, subscribe right here.)

• The NPR app. If you gave me $100, I couldn’t inform you the distinction between the NPR One app and the NPR app, or why they each existed. Luckily, they don’t anymore! There is simply the brand new and good NPR app, which does a superb job of each curating tales into newsy playlists and simply enjoying the reveals I’m on the lookout for. 
• The GTA trilogy on Netflix. Netflix’s gaming providing is turning into actually spectacular, actually rapidly. If you’re a subscriber, you now have free entry to a bunch of excellent video games, together with three all-timer GTA titles: San Andreas, Vice City, and GTA III. They’re outdated, however they nonetheless rip.
• Finalist. One of the niftier to-do record apps I’ve seen shortly. My fundamental difficulty with Finalist originally was I hated the colour selections. With the brand new model, you may design the app any approach you need! And it’s nonetheless a super-simple and fairly intelligent duties system.
• How Much I Make on TikTok vs Shorts vs Reels from Hank Green. Nobody explains the creator economic system like Hank Green. (If you’ve by no means seen his rant in opposition to TikTok and creator funds, go watch it.) This is an unusually trustworthy, and form of bleak, take a look at how a lot cash there actually is on this recreation and the place it comes from.
• Journaling Suggestions in Day One. When I wrote about Apple’s Journal app — which is out for everybody now in iOS 17.2! — I stated that Journaling Suggestions, the API that combs by way of your images, actions, areas, music, and extra to give you stuff to journal about, was essentially the most intriguing a part of the product. Day One, my favourite journaling app, now integrates Suggestions proper into the app. It works rather well.
• Epic’s vacation sale. This is without doubt one of the higher “free video games!” offers you’ll discover: Epic is gifting away a sequence of older titles over the course of the vacation season. Right now it’s the Destiny 2: Legacy Collection, which is a large quantity of Destiny content material — and there are 16 extra video games left to assert. I’ll be maintaining a tally of this one over the following few days. 
• The new Apple TV app. Every day, I swear, my Roku TV will get somewhat slower. And daily, I get somewhat nearer to simply plugging in an Apple TV. I actually like what Apple’s attempting to do with this app — common search, cross-platform suggestions, straightforward shopping for and renting — though it’s lacking Netflix and some different necessary providers. 
• NotebookLM. Google’s AI-powered notes app nonetheless doesn’t have many options, and I nonetheless don’t completely perceive why it’s not only a characteristic of Keep or Docs… nevertheless it’s a nifty app nonetheless. Upload your docs, summarize them, ask questions on them, make finding out or researching somewhat simpler.
• Xbox Cloud Gaming on Quest 3. This could be the most effective purpose but to purchase a VR headset. If you’re a Game Pass subscriber, now you can join your controller, hearth up an enormous digital TV, and play video games from wherever. This goes to change into a part of my bedtime routine approach too rapidly. 

For a extremely very long time, Instapaper was the most-used app on my cellphone. (This was again within the pre-TikTok period, after I spent extra time studying and fewer time scrolling. But let’s not dwell on that change.) I learn rather a lot for work, I’ll learn any superstar profile wherever, and I’m ceaselessly on the lookout for a greater approach to handle all of the stuff I’ve to learn.

This yr, form of by chance, I wound up doing a tour of all the most effective choices. And excellent news, there are a bunch of them! Instapaper remains to be nice; Matter is beautiful; Omnivore is tremendous highly effective; Upnext is doing a little intelligent AI stuff; even Pocket nonetheless does the job, although I dislike quite a lot of its current design modifications. We’re form of spoiled for alternative on this division.

But I’ve discovered the one for me, at the very least for now. It’s Readwise Reader, which works on iOS, Android, and the net. It’s nonetheless technically in beta however is already completely indispensable in my life and workflow. Here’s just a few the explanation why:

• Reader can deal with every part. You can save articles, add books, add movies, import RSS feeds, subscribe to newsletters, and extra. The app does a extremely good job of sorting issues into the suitable locations, so that you’re not simply caught with an enormous mass of stuff. But it could actually parse, retailer, and arrange virtually something of any file kind, and I find it irresistible for that.
• It’s greater than only a queue. The very first thing I beloved about Reader was the homescreen, which reveals you classes like “fast reads,” “lengthy reads,” and “just lately added.” There’s additionally a Digest characteristic that simply grabs a bunch of stuff you’ve saved and tells you to learn it right now. I attempt to get by way of my digest daily, and so I’m really studying stuff I saved greater than ever.
• It’s additionally form of a note-taking app. Readwise’s authentic shtick was to compile all of your notes and highlights from locations like Kindle and Pocket right into a searchable, reviewable archive. With Reader, I can spotlight something I add, or any stay webpage altogether, and every part goes into that very same notes archive — all of which might sync to Notion, Obsidian, or different note-taking apps, too. All my studying, and all my notes, now stay in the identical place.
• You can… learn… video. I watch quite a lot of YouTube, for, uh, journalism. Reader provides a (good however not excellent) transcript to each video you save, so you may spotlight and take notes identical to on an article. Everything will get time-stamped, too, so yow will discover it later. It’s so useful.
• It’s tremendous quick. One purpose I’ve stopped utilizing Reader up to now is that the app was form of sluggish. One of these apps that at all times felt prefer it was working, you understand what I imply? But just lately it has been slimmed down and sped up, and now it feels fairly zippy — besides when it’s loading the AI voice to learn an article aloud, which takes ceaselessly, however I don’t look after that characteristic a lot anyway.

I solely have two ongoing points with Reader, actually. One, it’s not essentially the most enticing app; it feels extra Productivity Tool than Beautiful Reading Space, you understand? (I hate the app icon, too. Fingers crossed there’s a greater one coming.) And two, it really might need too many options for my style. You can add tags, there’s an Inbox and a Feed and Library and a Later and an Archive, there are 1,000,000 Views, simply determining the place every part goes takes some time. Oh, and a bonus third factor: it’s not low-cost. The entire Readwise service — notice syncing, Kindle integration, all that — prices $8 a month. Well price it, if you happen to ask me, however not low-cost. 

Speaking of: if you happen to use this hyperlink, I believe you’ll get two free months earlier than you begin paying as an alternative of only one. Give it a whirl, let me know what you suppose and what you employ to learn in your gadgets!

Tom Warren’s dwelling workplace is in all probability cooler than yours. It’s positively cooler than mine! He has a teleprompter, an outrageously cool custom-built PC, some sick wall artwork, and extra. Tom is a setup connoisseur, along with being The Verge’s fundamental authority on all issues Microsoft, and I respect him for each issues.

If you need all of the desk-setup deets, you may discover them right here, on Reddit, or ping Tom on Threads. But I needed to know if he cares for his small display screen as a lot as the massive ones, so I requested him to share his homescreen with us.

Here’s Tom’s homescreen, plus some data on the apps he makes use of and why:

The cellphone: iPhone 15 Pro.

The wallpaper: It’s one in every of The Verge ones I believe. (Editor’s notice: it’s this one.)

The apps: Phone, Clock, Photos, Camera, App Store, Telegram, Messages, Settings, Slack, YouTube, Google Home, Discord, Instagram, Unread, Twitch, Xbox, WhatsApp, Outlook, Chrome, X, Threads, Bluesky.

The two widgets are good ones that rotate between Spotify and my 30-min electrical energy value on the suitable, and my calendar and the climate on the left. The electrical energy one is there to observe the most effective instances to run home equipment and cost my EV, as a result of electrical prices within the UK spiraled after the invasion of Ukraine. I even have fast entry to my safety cameras by way of Google Home, which itself has widgets for good dwelling controls. I’ve X, Threads, and Bluesky multi function simply accessible folder as a result of I can’t determine which one replaces Twitter!

I additionally requested Tom to share just a few issues he’s into proper now. Here’s what he shared:

• The Wombles. I used to be an enormous fan of The Wombles rising up as a child, so after I’m not listening to EDM loudly in my headphones, you’ll discover me listening to an episode of The Wombles on BBC Sounds. It’s delightfully enjoyable, due to the voice performing of Richard E. Grant.
• TeeDee. TeeDee got here on my radar when he did a mixture of Dave and Secondcity’s “I Wanna Feel” final yr. Since then I’m totally invested in his SoundCloud as a result of he continuously produces absolute bangers.
• The Finals. I’m obsessive about The Finals in the meanwhile. It’s a harmful first-person area shooter that’s blowing up on Twitch and Steam. It’s a giant break from the same old Call of Duty, Overwatch, or battle royale components, and I can’t cease smiling after I discover some new approach to explode buildings within the recreation.

Here’s what the Installer group is into this week. I wish to know what you’re into proper now as nicely! Email [email protected] along with your suggestions for something and every part, and we’ll characteristic a few of our favorites right here each week. 

“I used this shelf app referred to as Anybox. This app is a field to rapidly entry any kind of merchandise: picture, textual content, doc, and hyperlinks. The app permits customization for default motion based mostly on saved merchandise kind, we are able to preview, copy, share, and so forth.” — Krishna

“Watching Fisk on Netflix. This Australian quirky comedy simply launched a second season this month. I really like the quick 25-minute episodes, makes it straightforward to observe and luxuriate in.” — Carter

“As you have been speaking about media group / assortment apps, please try the game-tracking app developed by IGN referred to as Playlist. It is free and I’m liking it.” — OK

“Analogue Duo baybee.” — Chris

“AI wallpapers on the Google Pixel! I’ve been hooked on creating AI wallpapers and it feels just like the mixtures are really limitless. Going from an AI-generated portray of a mountain and spaceships to a surreal citadel manufactured from muslin with completely different colour shades is wildly enjoyable!” — Michael

“Listening to The Vergecast podcast on how Twitter formally died this yr and Watching Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix. I extremely advocate it to anybody who likes animation.” — Paul

“If it hasn’t been talked about but, or even when it has, you need to try the present Scavengers Reign on Max. Brilliant and freaky sci-fi wonderfulness!” — Edward

“Using Calibre to subscribe to newsletters / newspapers and have them seem on my kindle each morning provides me a ravishing little ‘sluggish web’ expertise whereas I sip my espresso.” — Jon

“This week I found Mammoth, an insanely beautiful Mastodon app. Until now I’ve not been in a position to see previous Ivory. Also Longplay is a superb iOS app to rediscover my album assortment in Apple Music.” — Chris

“Spotify audiobooks. I do know you don’t personal the audiobooks after however it’s actually handy to get 15 hours without cost. It’s sufficient to get me by way of at the very least one medium-sized e book every month. I exploit it with Libby and Audible to learn a bunch throughout the month!” — Harrison

This week, The Verge printed one in every of my favourite packages we’ve ever achieved, all about the loss of life of Twitter. The tales are good, learn all of them, however critically, y’all: you must go to The Great Scrollback of Alexandria and spend a couple of minutes / hours / months scrolling by way of hundreds of the most effective tweets of all time. The record reorders each time you open the web page, and if there’s a backside of the record, I positive haven’t discovered it. Twitter was really a deranged, horrible, fantastic place. And if you happen to get to the 3944 tweet (you’ll understand it while you see it), simply know that I laughed for totally quarter-hour at that tweet. I hope you do, too.

We’re off subsequent week for the vacation. Hope you’ve got a terrific one, and see you in two weeks!