The best tech and streaming gifts for 2024

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 62, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re fresh here, welcome, happy Post-Thanksgiving Chill Weekend, and besides you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about junk food and Madden 2004 and Anthony Jeselnik, watching Wicked and immediately making certain to hold space for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity,” exploring the back catalog of 60 Second Docs (which I found thanks to Jason Kottke), watching quite a few Thomas the Tank Engine with my toddler, marveling at how complicated it is just to shop for pizza stones, and listening to the first episodes of The remainder is Classified.

I besides have for you a productivity app that I truly love, a fresh portable mic, another lovely-looking music-making gadget, and lots of fun stuff to watch this weekend. It’s a reasonably light week for fresh stuff since it’s a vacation in the US, but luckily you all delivered on the recommendations as always. Let’s dig in.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you reading / watching / playing / building / eating / installing Linux on this week? What should everyone else be as into as you are? Tell me everything: [email protected]. And if you know individual else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

• Craft 3. I say this with (I think) no hyperbole or recency bias: this is the closest thing I’ve always tried to my perfect note-taking app. The fresh version does a wonderful occupation integrating tasks, events, and notes, and the full thing just makes sense. I’ve been surviving in the beta for a while, and if you’re on any platform but Android, I can’t urge it enough. (And I’m told Android is coming! … Eventually.)
• The DJI Mic Mini. I trust The Verge’s Andru Marino on all things audio and microphones, and he’s a fan of DJI’s small, amazingly good-sounding $169 portable mic. Please, delight usage this alternatively of that stupid lapel mic everybody holds on TikTok.
• It’s in the Game. Four hours of archival footage, behind-the-scenes process, and NFL players raving about how much they love Madden is simply a beautiful good argument for me to watch a doc. It skews a small more infomercial than thoughtful in spots, but it’s inactive a truly fun watch if you like virtual football.
• Robot Dreams. This one’s not strictly fresh — it came out in 2023 and was nominated for Best Animated Feature — but until now, it’s been hard to stream this adorable, amazingly affecting movie about a robot and dog duo. Add this to the list this vacation season.
• The Telepathic Instruments Orchid. Oh no, another extremely cool-looking music maker that I will never make appropriate usage of but totally want anyway. This one’s from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, and there’s not much item yet, but it looks fantastic.
• Stuff. A new, nice-looking app for notes and tasks. I truly like its Dependencies feature, which keeps projects in order — you can’t do task 3 until you do task 2, which you can’t do before task 1. Stuff’s developer got any flack for the fact that this app looks like Things, which it does! But that’s more a compliment than a problem.
• The B&O Beoplay Eleven. AirPods Pro, only way better-looking. And $500. B&O is making large claims about sound quality and sound cancellation here, and I’m somewhat skeptical of them, but the plan alone (especially that copper model) is simply a immense upgrade.
• Microsoft Recall. For a while, it looked like Microsoft’s all-knowing private AI was never going to launch. But it’s here, ish! You’ll request a Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus PC, which you … most likely don’t have. But if you do, give this a whirl and tell me how you like it. I’m so curious.

I think I like reading gift guides more than I like even getting gifts. I cannot explain this! But there’s something to the shopping-y nature of it all that is fun and aspirational and feels like a peek into another people’s brains. I tend to gravitate toward individual people’s guides, too: Helen Rosner always does large ones, and Robin Sloan is always uncovering stuff I’d never seen before. peculiar mention to Rambull, too, which compiled quite a few people’s recommendations into a truly delightful gift guide.

Last week, I asked all of you to share your gift ideas for this year, and I got so many good ones! But then something in our Gmail strategy broke, and I haven’t been able to access the Installer email for a fewer days. I’ll get it back, though, and we’ll do more gift-y stuff next week — sorry to everyone I’ve left hanging this week! We’ll get it fixed ASAP, and we’ll do this even bigger next weekend. And delight send me more recommendations! [email protected].

For now, I figured I’d share a fewer of my recommendations. To be clear, this is not an exhaustive gift guide. The Verge’s gift guides are filled with much more cool stuff. Go read those! Click the links! Buy the things! All I gotta offer you is simply a bunch of stuff that I personally love and can vouch for. I tried to keep it all within at least a semi-reasonable price point due to the fact that how many of us are truly out here giving each another $3,000 laptops for the holidays, you know?

Anyway, here are a bunch of my favourite things, and things I think you might like, too:

• Ultimate Ears Bluetooth speakers. I have a Wonderboom in my bathroom for shower tunes, another in my luggage for travel, and a 3rd just in case. UE’s lineup of speakers ranges from immense and costly to tiny and cheap, but they’re all durable and long-lasting and sound good. You truly can’t go wrong.
• The Steam Deck OLED. At $549, this one’s surely no stocking stuffer, but I’d argue this is the best gift you can give a gamer right now. (With a possible motion to the PlayStation Portal, which now streams games and abruptly seems way more worthwhile than before.)
• The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2. Look, you’ll most likely end up gifting or getting AirPods. Which are great! But if you’re looking for headphones to wear on walks, runs, bike rides, or just while you’re besides surviving the remainder of your life, open-ear is the way. These are my most-used headphones right now, and it’s not close.
• A charger / power bank combo. It’s like a universal charger — plug it into the wall, or just plug it into your device, and you’ll always have juice. I have this Anker one, which I like, but I don’t have peculiar brand loyalty here. It’s just the combo that’s magic.
• The Kindle Paperwhite. I love the Boox Palma, but it’s most likely more costly and complex than most people need. If all you request is simply a book reader, I don’t think you can beat the velocity and simplicity of the fresh Paperwhite. (Also, this might be a hot take, but: save the $20 and get it with ads. They don’t bother me 1 bit.)
• Streaming service gift cards. Giving individual a fewer free months of Netflix or Max or whatever is great, if you know they don’t have it. But I say get weird with it! Give your friend a year of Shudder and introduce them to horror movies; give them the Criterion Channel and turn them into a movie snob. There are so many niche services out there, and this is simply a large way to research them.
• Gift cards in general. Gift cards rule! “I didn’t know precisely what you wanted, so here’s any money for your favourite store / platform / whatever that you can usage on anything that makes you happy.” EVERYBODY WINS. That is all. Gift cards forever.
• The Nothing CMF telephone 1. One of the coolest, and cheapest, Android phones to come out this year. I dig the modular backplates and accessories, and mostly I think everyone could usage a inexpensive Android telephone for reading, gaming, and more. Think of it like a pocket-sized tablet.
• A Bluetooth game controller. I proceed to be amazed at how useful an accessory a good gaming controller is. They’re large for games, obviously, but you can frequently connect these to all your devices and usage them as a distant and all kinds of another things. I have the 8BitDo Pro 2, which is great, but again there are plenty of good options.
• The Studio Neat Totebook. I’ve tried quite a few notebooks over the years, and I keep coming back to this one. It’s light and thin but inactive beautiful sturdy and feels truly large to compose in.
• The Google tv Streamer. The longer I usage Google’s set-top box, the more I like it. It’s easy to set up, runs all the streaming apps you need, and does a better occupation of just… showing you stuff to watch than any another platform out there. For $100, I don’t think you can beat this one.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve seen quite a few folks in productivity nerd circles getting truly excited about this thing called Forever Notes. It’s a system, created by Matthias Hilse, for adding any truly useful organization and structure to Apple Notes without making the full thing needlessly complicated. It’s truly clever, and besides truly easy to adapt to another apps. I’ve even stolen any ideas for my own system.

It all made me curious, too, what Matthias’ another systems and setups look like. If you’re the guy who solves Apple Notes, what else have you figured out? So I asked him to share his homescreen with us.

Here’s Matthias’ homescreen, plus any info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: I’m inactive holding on to my iPhone 14 Pro. erstwhile Apple gives me a real reason to upgrade, I will.

The wallpaper: I designed this wallpaper on my lockscreen to go along with the cover images I created for Forever Notes. They are free to download on the website. I wanted something that’s visually bold and can be associated with the framework.

The apps: Insight Timer, Newsify, WienMobil, Arc, Apple Notes.

I love RSS feeds and have been utilizing Newsify forever. The Alto widget tracks any recurring Apple Reminders, I track my yoga workouts. Could do better. The 3 dock shortcuts go to my Home note, current period note, and my regular note in Apple Notes.

I besides asked Matthias to share a fewer things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:

• Watching: Somebody Somewhere — a show inspired by the life of Bridget Everett. I get to be in Manhattan, Kansas, erstwhile a week with a full bunch of large characters. I love the indie vibe of the show.
• Not playing: Tiny Glade — a PC-only game where the only thing you do is build tiny cottages and castles in a forest. As I’m a Mac user, I only get to watch and perceive (!) to others playing it on YouTube. It’s ASMR therapy.
• The YouTuber @SunnyKindJourney: Minimalist from Finland — just started following him recently. Feel-good content.

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email [email protected] or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature any of our favorites here all week. For even more recommendations than I can fit here, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“My latest app obsession has been Fitbod. It actually gets me to work out and track strength training progress! I’ll definitely be utilizing it to feel better after Thanksgiving.” — Mai

“I’m listening to the podcast Raising Parents with Emily Oster. After reading books by social economists Jonathan Haidt and Richard Reeves and having 2 toddlers, it is simply a lot to think about raising kids in an overprotective and tech-filled world.” — Mitchell

“Watching Architectural Digest’s video about the production plan of the Wicked movie — fascinating stuff.” — Eli

“I’ve never played a lick of League of Legends, but period 2 of Arcane is any of the best damn compelling tv I’ve seen in a long time.” — Noah

“Dropout has fundamentally become my default streaming app. From Make any Noise to Gastronauts, almost everything is simply a banger.” — Brad

“Watching the Waveform podcast’s trivia extravaganza. Ellis’s intro alone deserves a listen!” — Colin

“Going to check out the Pope drama Conclave now that it’s on VOD. Sounds like it’s a right appropriate Grown Up movie with killer performances from Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini.” — Marty

“Picked up Stephen Fry’s Odyssey, his 4th book in the retelling of Greek mythology. The man is gifted. His books are just so damn readable and fun. I hope he picks up a fresh mythology after this one.” — Payasam

“Say Nothing, a tv show on Hulu based on the book by Patrick Radden Keefe on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.” — Darragh

“I’m presently listening to Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew. It’s a large read for anyone curious in tech who wants to examine the difference between gadgets and social technologies and learn a lot about disability communities.” — Jeanne

“Leaving my 2024 games on the backlog while playing last year’s Robocop: Rogue City. The best part is that it simulates the less-exciting parts of Robocop’s job. I’ve already issued 2 parking tickets!” — Arnold

I love Thanksgiving, but I don’t honestly love most Thanksgiving food. immense slices of turkey, mashed potatoes, weird casseroles, it’s all just not precisely what I’d choice for a immense all-day meal, you know?

But the leftovers. THE LEFTOVERS. The weekend after Thanksgiving is better eating than Thanksgiving, if you ask me. All for 1 reason, 2 words: Stuffing waffles. Trust me. It changes everything.

Hope everyone who celebrates is having a large holiday. See you next week!