An AI voice notes app that really works

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 32, your usher to the champion and Verge-iest worldly successful the world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, blessed weekend, and also, you tin work each the aged editions astatine the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been penning astir AI hunt engines and the aboriginal of Disney Plus, speechmaking astir Anne Hathaway and Andrew Huberman and Jonathan Kanter, talking productivity apps with the WVFRM crew, continuing to ticker each “how they made Dune” video I tin get my hands on, listening to the Black Box podcast, and learning what The Format is and however to use it to each facet of my life.

I besides person for you a clump of caller things to ticker this weekend, a caller AI dependable notes app, a delightful new-old keyboard, an app for nutrient tracking, immoderate drama podcasts, and a full clump more. Let’s get into it.

(As always, the champion portion of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into close now? What should everyone other beryllium playing, watching, reading, whittling, looking at, oregon cooking this week? Tell maine everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you cognize idiosyncratic other who mightiness bask Installer, guardant it to them, and archer them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

• Cleft Notes. I’ve been playing astir with a batch of AI-powered dependable notes apps, and this 1 mightiness beryllium the champion yet. You conscionable talk, and the app turns your unordered thoughts into nicely formatted notes — which you tin ever conscionable toggle backmost into your transcripts.
• A Gentleman successful Moscow. Amor Towles’ book is an all-timer, and the amusement — starring Ewan McGregor arsenic a number surviving nether location apprehension successful a fancy hotel, I swear, it’s much breathtaking than it sounds — looks similar it holds up beauteous well. I mightiness adjacent wage for Paramount Plus for this.
• The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt. Remember that Atlantic story about the effect of phones and societal media connected kids that went mega-viral a mates of weeks ago? This is the publication version. I don’t ever similar Haidt’s ideas oregon mode of thinking, but truthful far, I’m taking this publication conscionable arsenic a bid of speech starters astir however to beryllium a genitor (and a kid, and a person) successful the modern world. There’s a batch to chew connected here.
• Steve! (martin) a documentary successful 2 pieces. This doc is three-plus hours long, which is simply a batch of clip to walk with Steve Martin. But it’s Steve Martin! In a way, it’s a documentary each astir however cipher truly knows the main character, which is rather the conceit, but it’s inactive a heavy look astatine a profoundly comic dude.
• SigmaOS. This is simply a browser afloat of absorbing ideas astir however browsers should work. Most recently, the institution rolled retired a clump of AI features for searching and summarizing the web. As a idiosyncratic who publishes connected the internet, it makes maine consciousness a batch of feelings. As a user, it’s beauteous useful.
• The Believers. A Netflix amusement astir startups, religion, fraud, the powerfulness of selling and belief, faking it till you marque it, crimes, cops, much crimes, and much cops? Yes, I volition beryllium watching this connected Netflix this weekend.
• Spotify Courses. Every clip Spotify launches a caller thing, I person 2 thoughts. First, oh no, however is this going to further ruin the Spotify UI? Then, second, oh huh, I mightiness really usage this. This week’s entrant: video and audio acquisition courses. It’s lone in the UK truthful far, but I really deliberation I’ll usage this if it comes my way.
• The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story. A full-on movie successful a seven-minute short. The animation benignant successful the Spider-Verse movies continues to stroke my mind, and this communicative astir anxiousness and connection is simply a beauteous almighty one. And it’s each for a bully cause!
• The 8BitDo Commodore 64 keyboard. Thanks to everyone who emailed past week aft my plea astir keyboards! I’m looking astatine soundless switches and the Logitech MX Keys, but my bosom already belongs to this $110 device: a retro beige keyboard with each the flair and customization it deserves.

Screen share

Jesse David Fox knows much astir drama than, I don’t know, astir apt anybody. He writes for Vulture (our Vox Media friends) astir comedy; helium wrote a publication astir drama delightfully called Comedy Book; helium hosts the precise comic and sometimes precise heavy podcast Good One; and helium conscionable turned that podcast into a Peacock peculiar that dropped this week called Good One: A Show About Jokes. It’s astir Mike Birbiglia, who I love, but besides astir what it means to beryllium comic and originative and just, like, a person.

I asked Jesse to stock his homescreen, successful portion due to the fact that I privation to cognize if Comedy Apps are a happening but besides to spot however idiosyncratic with his occupation — to perpetually beryllium watching, listening to, reading, discovering, talking about, and dissecting comic worldly — really finds each that stuff.

So here’s Jesse’s homescreen, positive immoderate info connected the apps helium uses and why:

The phone: iPhone 13 Mini, but I don’t similar it. I bash similar that it’s not that big, but I vow my adjacent telephone volition not beryllium an Apple.

The wallpaper: The fastener surface is an Art Shay photograph. My homescreen is Joel Meyerowitz. Aren’t they nice? I saw them some astatine The Photography Show years ago.

The apps: Calendar, Photos, Camera, Apple Notes, Settings, Weather, Clock, SevenBell, Phone, Yelp, Peacock, Messages, Marvel Unlimited.

Generally, these are the apps I usage and americium good using. Weather, Notes, Camera, and the podcast apps (I perceive to a batch of podcasts to bash probe for Good One) are my astir used. I cheque Slack and Instagram each the clip but would similar to marque it much challenging for maine to bash so, truthful I request to hunt for them.

Two apps person precocious moved to the homepage: 1.) Peacock, truthful I tin perpetually play the Good One peculiar to get the views up, and 2.) Marvel Unlimited. I precocious started speechmaking comics. There are definite MCU movies and shows I liked truthful overmuch that I thought possibly I’d similar the source. And I’m loving it! Love that Groot.

I besides asked Jesse to stock a fewer things he’s into close now. Here’s what helium sent back:

• Watch content. During the pandemic, YouTube radicalized maine to beryllium into watches. On TikTok, I was being served a batch of Pawn Stars clips, and I loved it. Then, I realized each the clips were actually connected YouTube, and that way, I wouldn’t request to interest astir TikTok destroying my brain. After a fewer weeks, I started moving retired of Pawn Stars clips and YouTube suggested Antiques Roadshow clips, which I loved. One of the astir celebrated Antiques Roadshow clips involves an older service seasoned receiving an absurd estimation connected his Rolex, and I LOVED that. Maybe due to the fact that I watched it a fewer times and sent it to people, YouTube started suggesting videos from Hodinkee and Teddy Baldassarre. Years later, present my Instagram provender is conscionable pictures of aged watches and shady characters making deals connected watches I could ne'er afford. (If you tin spend and privation my suggestion, delight consciousness escaped to scope out.) I besides person a batch of theories astir a monolithic conspiracy involving each these contented creators, truthful I’m mostly spending my clip trying to unravel that.
• Clips of the Mind the Game podcast. I similar watching 2 radical speech astir thing they some cognize a batch about, careless if I americium acquainted with the subject. I ticker and play basketball, but LeBron James and J.J. Redick’s caller podcast is often beyond my comprehension. Still, I find it truly enjoyable to spot LeBron enactment similar a large dorkus astir the ways you effort to defender an inverted prime and roll. That said, I can’t ticker afloat episodes, due to the fact that it is, successful fact, excessively boring.
• Newcomers. A podcast connected the nonstop other extremity of the spectrum, Lauren Lapkus and Nicole Byer cognize thing astir what they speech astir each play (currently, Batman movies), but determination is thing truthful endearing successful however they enactment each other’s disorder and whimsical misreadings of the films they watch.
• After Midnight and Dinner Time Live. I similar comedians, and I similar watching radical cook, but what I bask astir astir some of these shows is however often things spell wrong. Comedians messiness up oregon intentionally interruption the rules, and After Midnight host Taylor Tomlinson benignant of gets huffy astatine them, but mostly everyone, including me, is laughing. On DTL, David Chang truly messes up cooking truthful overmuch much than is mean connected a cooking show. And then, with the champion episodes, the guests find ways to beryllium agents of chaos successful their ain right. So overmuch of late-night tv is neat and organized. It is amusive to spot folks beryllium comparatively free.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer assemblage is into this week. I privation to cognize what you’re into close present arsenic well! Email installer@theverge.com oregon connection +1 203-570-8663 with your recommendations for thing and everything, and we’ll diagnostic immoderate of our favorites present each week.

“Found a caller macro tracker / nutrient diary that I emotion — FoodNoms. It has the champion AI diagnostic I’ve seen successful this category: it volition conjecture astatine the approximate caloric / nutritional worth of a meal, truthful if you spell retired for meal and don’t consciousness similar trying to interruption down each ounce of that eggs Benedict, the app volition assistance you get a ballpark estimation to adhd to your diary.” – Nick

“Addicted to playing ‘End of Beginning’ by Djo connected loop and lone just present recovered out that it’s by the broadside task of the cute floppy-haired feline from Stranger Things.” – Amy

“3 Body Problem has consumed my week and my brain. Now that I’ve finished S1, I’m connected to the audiobook, narrated by Rosalind Chao.” – Bud

“I’m presently gathering the Lego Technic Mars Crew Exploration Rover. It conscionable dropped this month!” – Jeff

“Since you mentioned conflict royales, Blizzard has conscionable released a limited-time BR called Plunderstorm. It is accessible wrong the main paper of WoW, uses WoW assets and themes, but does not diagnostic your subordinate quality and plays wholly differently. It is the weirdest happening I’ve seen successful ages.” – Sanjeev

“Strategery for iOS. This crippled app particularly shines connected iPad wherever you tin make larger battlefields. It’s astir meditative to play alternatively than stressful to suffer similar Risk, erstwhile you get the bent of it.” – Jake

“Slice & Dice conscionable shipped this week connected Steam, and it’s wholly worthy checking retired if you’re a instrumentality of Slay the Spire. I’ve been playing an aboriginal mentation connected itch.io for a mates of years, and just warning: I had to uninstall it due to the fact that I was playing it excessively much. So I conjecture I would nominate this for The Uninstaller?” – Ron

“Dragon’s Dogma 2 had been occupying my encephalon abstraction each week. It’s a marvelous premix of phantasy adventuring and a chaos simulator, with spectacular results. Also, Giant Bomb has an ongoing amusement called Blight Club successful which they instrumentality turns playing the astir notoriously atrocious games ever made and cosplay arsenic characters from them. It’s hilarious, nostalgic, and besides heartbreaking arsenic they conflict with busted games.” – Bobby

“I utilized to ticker everything from Marvel, but I don’t deliberation I’m the lone 1 who mislaid involvement successful the MCU. As a longtime Spidey and X-Men fan, I present scratch my Marvel itch with games. Card games for mobile and 1 for desktop. Marvel Snap is rather fun, and you tin play (and win!) without spending money. Midnight Suns is besides amusing but a spot bloated. But hanging astir with the heroes betwixt missions is nice. Make excavation Marvel!” – Jasper

Signing off

Roughly erstwhile a year, I stumble crossed an NPR Tiny Desk video, recognize Tiny Desk is the champion happening connected YouTube, and past walk a fewer days oregon months watching dozens of them. (This time, it was Justin Timberlake’s caller appearance that got maine rehooked.) To me, this is everything delightful astir the internet, each successful 1 place: it’s some low-tech and truly good made, silly and intimate, and inactive ace professional, and it honestly feels similar I’m successful the country with Olivia Rodrigo oregon the formed of The Lion King or Usher. And yes, obviously, of people I ticker the Taylor Swift one each azygous clip I get into it again.

See you adjacent week!