The 2024 Installer gift guide, part one

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 62, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy Post-Thanksgiving Chill Weekend, and also 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 sure 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 a lot of 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 Rest is Classified.

I also have for you a productivity app that I truly love, a new portable mic, another lovely-looking music-making gadget, and lots of fun stuff to watch this weekend. It’s a fairly light week for new stuff since it’s a holiday 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: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone 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 ever tried to my perfect note-taking app. The new version does a wonderful job integrating tasks, events, and notes, and the whole thing just makes sense. I’ve been living in the beta for a while, and if you’re on any platform but Android, I can’t recommend 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, surprisingly good-sounding $169 portable mic. Please, please use this instead 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 a pretty good argument for me to watch a doc. It skews a little more infomercial than thoughtful in spots, but it’s still a really fun watch if you like virtual football.
• Robot Dreams. This one’s not strictly new — it came out in 2023 and was nominated for Best Animated Feature — but until now, it’s been hard to stream this adorable, surprisingly affecting movie about a robot and dog duo. Add this to the list this holiday season.
• The Telepathic Instruments Orchid. Oh no, another extremely cool-looking music maker that I will never make proper use of but totally want anyway. This one’s from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, and there’s not much detail yet, but it looks fantastic.
• Stuff. A new, nice-looking app for notes and tasks. I really 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 some 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 big claims about sound quality and noise cancellation here, and I’m somewhat skeptical of them, but the design alone (especially that copper model) is a huge 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 need a Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus PC, which you … probably 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 other people’s brains. I tend to gravitate toward individual people’s guides, too: Helen Rosner always does great ones, and Robin Sloan is always finding stuff I’d never seen before. Special mention to Rambull, too, which compiled a lot of 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 system broke, and I haven’t been able to access the Installer email for a few 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 please send me more recommendations! installer@theverge.com.

For now, I figured I’d share a few 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 have to offer you is 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 because how many of us are really out here giving each other $3,000 laptops for the holidays, you know?  

Anyway, here are a bunch of my favorite 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 third just in case. UE’s lineup of speakers ranges from huge and expensive 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 certainly no stocking stuffer, but I’d argue this is the best gift you can give a gamer right now. (With a possible nod to the PlayStation Portal, which now streams games and suddenly seems way more worthwhile than before.) 
• The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2. Look, you’ll probably 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 also living the rest 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 particular brand loyalty here. It’s just the combo that’s magic.
• The Kindle Paperwhite. I love the Boox Palma, but it’s probably more expensive and complex than most people need. If all you need is a book reader, I don’t think you can beat the speed and simplicity of the new Paperwhite. (Also, this might be a hot take, but: save the $20 and get it with ads. They don’t bother me one bit.)
• Streaming service gift cards. Giving someone a few 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 film snob. There are so many niche services out there, and this is a great way to explore them. 
• Gift cards in general. Gift cards rule! “I didn’t know exactly what you wanted, so here’s some money for your favorite store / platform / whatever that you can use on anything that makes you happy.” EVERYBODY WINS. That is all. Gift cards forever.
• The Nothing CMF Phone 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 use a cheap Android phone for reading, gaming, and more. Think of it like a pocket-sized tablet.
• A Bluetooth game controller. I continue to be amazed at how useful an accessory a good gaming controller is. They’re great for games, obviously, but you can often connect these to all your devices and use them as a remote and all kinds of other 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 a lot of notebooks over the years, and I keep coming back to this one. It’s light and thin but still pretty sturdy and feels really great to write in.
• The Google TV Streamer. The longer I use 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 job of just… showing you stuff to watch than any other platform out there. For $100, I don’t think you can beat this one.

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

It all made me curious, too, what Matthias’ other 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 some info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: I’m still holding on to my iPhone 14 Pro. Once 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 using Newsify forever. The Alto widget tracks any recurring Apple Reminders, I track my yoga workouts. Could do better. The three dock shortcuts go to my Home note, current Month note, and my Daily note in Apple Notes.

I also asked Matthias to share a few 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, once a week with a whole bunch of great 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 listen (!) 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 installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every 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 using 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 two toddlers, it is a lot to think about raising kids in an overprotective and tech-filled world.”  — Mitchell

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

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

“Dropout has essentially become my default streaming app. From Make Some Noise to Gastronauts, almost everything is 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 proper Grown Up movie with killer performances from Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini.” — Marty

“Picked up Stephen Fry’s Odyssey, his fourth 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 new 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 currently listening to Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew. It’s a great read for anyone interested 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 two parking tickets!” — Arnold

I love Thanksgiving, but I don’t honestly love most Thanksgiving food. Huge slices of turkey, mashed potatoes, weird casseroles, it’s all just not exactly what I’d pick for a huge 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 one reason, two words: Stuffing waffles. Trust me. It changes everything.

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