SocialAI is a social network where everyone is a bot except you

Hello friends! Welcome installer No.53, the best guide VergeThe most amazing thing in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, we’re so excited you found us. Also, all the old versions are installer Please visit our homepage.

This week, Beyoncé and Rosanna Pansino and Bowen Yangreinjecting my life Todoist, Watch the end The Grand Tour, catch up My brother, my brother and me Watch the episode, Pixel Recorder The app could replace my trusty voice recorder, Headspace I added it to my home screen to see if it would make meditating more enjoyable. (So far… no effect.)

Plus, some really wild new AR glasses, a Batman-related show on HBO, a great new book about the demise of Twitter, an interesting twist on The Social Network, and a ton of other stuff. Lots of great new TV this week! Let’s get started.

(As always, installer Your ideas and tips. What are you obsessed with right now? What should other people be reading, playing, watching, buying, downloading, building, or playing with LEGO right now? Tell us all at installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone who would enjoy it, send us a message at: installer@theverge.com. installerPlease forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.

• Social AI. This iOS “social network” where you post and get 1,000 AI bots replying instantly has had some very funny reactions – some loved it, some hated it, and some half thought it was a joke. No joke, it’s a really thoughtful approach to how you interact with LLM, and it feels remarkably similar to actual social networks these days – maybe even better.
• Character limit: How Elon Musk destroyed Twitter. It’s a great addition to the book about Musk’s takeover and revamping of the social network as we once knew it, and there are lots of great new details about the turmoil that went into becoming X, making it a really good read.
• Simple Snapchat. I would recommend buying a new Snap. glassesbut they are ridiculous and cannot be purchased by the general public. Intention You’ll get a new look for Snapchat, which is a lot cleaner and easier to use than the app has been in recent years. It’s unclear whether it will attract many new users, but Snapchat is still one of the best messaging apps out there.
• Bose QuietComfort EarphonesThe AirPods 4 got all the attention this week, but I’ve been a fan of Bose earphones for some time. They sound good, have great battery life, and I love the new “Hey Headphones” wake word on the new models. And at $179, they’re a decent alternative to Apple.
• Omni Loop. This time-traveling movie starring Ayo Edebiri and Mary-Louise Parker will likely annoy continuity freaks, but it also has some well-thought-out plot twists and is said to be a lot of fun, and I plan to enjoy it very soon.
• penguin. “HBO’s real-life Batman show” gets me totally hooked on The Penguin. Reviews so far have been mixed – what I’ve seen has been “best show ever” and “just ok”, with many comparing it unfavorably to “The Sopranos”. Personally, I can’t wait.
• Tripsy 3.0. I’ll be traveling a lot this fall, so I’ve started looking again for a good place to store all my reservation numbers, flight details, and expenses. Tripit is good, but Tripsy looks much better. I also like the map view, which is incredibly useful for planning my day.
• Agatha All Along. WandaVision is the only Marvel show I’d recommend to people who aren’t interested in Marvel because it’s just so original and smart overall, and this spinoff sounds equally original and cool. It’s always good to see more Kathryn Hahn in it.
• UFO 50. In the year 2024, a bunch of developers decided to make a bunch of 1980s-style games. What they created was a sort of historical document about games, but at the same time, they also made a bunch of really fun retro-style games. It’s a really cool concept.
• “Mark Zuckerberg interviewYou may have seen the photos from last week. Acquired The podcast host interviewed Zuckerberg at the Chase Center in San Francisco, and the 90-minute episode was a little awkward in parts, but also very interesting in parts: I don’t think you’ve ever heard Zuckerberg talk about his career as a CEO like this before.

Alex Goldmana talented podcaster and former co-host of best-tech-pod-ever Reply to allA new program has started! Hyper FixationAlex’s job is basically to solve all of people’s problems, and the first two episodes are both ridiculous and profound, which suggests this show is going to be great.

I asked Alex to share his home screen with us as his new show begins, because one thing I know about Alex is that he’s a man of many hobbies and obsessions (for one, he’s always loved to post about the songs he makes in his attic). I was curious to see what he’s up to and what’s on his phone.

Below is Alex’s home screen, along with some information about the apps he uses and why.

wallpaper: A photo of kids chilling out on the beach.

App: Camera, Weather, Settings, Notes, App Store, FaceTime, Amazon, Proton Mail, Find My, Overcast, Patreon, Koala, Messages, Google Voice, Gmail, Safari.

I know my home screen is a mess, but I gave up on organizing it a long time ago. It’s in a state of flux where I have no idea where anything is, and it’s been a while since I downloaded any new apps that I absolutely needed.

Everything you need is right on the front page: from games to exercises, TV and music apps, social media platforms, etc. My favorite apps are Notes (I use it to make a bullet-point list of things I need to do every morning), Voice Memos (I love it when I get an idea or a good melody in my head, so I can record it right away), and more. Three. Three is a game where you combine blocks of the same number without running out of space on the playfield. I’ve made zero progress in the last 3-4 years, but I still play it about 4 times a day. It just makes me nervous. And Overcast is a podcast app. Everything else pales in comparison.

I also asked Alex what he’s interested in at the moment. Here’s what he said:

• Pinball MapI love pinball. But loving pinball also means being picky about it and preferring certain games over others. For me, the mid-90s Midway/Williams pinball games were a renaissance, so I’m always on the hunt for copies of Attack From Mars, Medieval Madness, Twilight Zone, Monster Bash, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Bride of Pinbot. Luckily, Pinball Map can help me find them.
• koalaKoala is an amazingly powerful sampler app. You can record sounds directly from your phone, load sounds, and rip sounds directly from videos. It has almost all the features of the classic Roland SP-404 sampler, but while a Roland SP-404 sampler costs $500, Koala costs only $5.
• Erica Synth LXR-02A cheap handheld drum machine that you can load sounds into or create sounds from. I’m someone who likes to make little beats on public transport.
• Beware the WFMU BlogThe blog of a non-profit radio station in New York City. It closed down about a decade ago, but it’s still full of great obscure recordings, comics, and weird cultural stories. Perhaps most famously, it’s the only place you can find the story of how Paul Simon stole so many of their songs. Graceland From Los Lobos.

This is installer Let us know what the community is obsessed with this week. We want to know what you’re obsessed with! Email installer@theverge.com Or send us a message on Signal (@davidpierce.11) with any of your recommendations. Every week we’ll feature some of our favorites here. For even more great recommendations, This post in the thread.

“It’s interesting that you mention Short Film YouTube three days after discovering this horror treasure trove of a channel. Vintage EightThis is by Paul Catalanotto, a film professor at the University of New Orleans. His most popular video is Tangi virus, Oracle Projectand Human testingwhich are more interrelated than the other videos on the channel.” — Drake

“Hild is the best historical novel I have ever read. game of thrones But in the real world, if you’re also a fan of Tolkien’s references to the ancient languages ​​of Britain, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse, you’ll love this book.” — Christopher

“Caravan Sandwich It’s a great cozy game. It’s used in everything and it’s really cool.” — Ian

“I tried playing Notebook LM From Google: One fun and useful use case is generating podcasts from research papers. As an engineering student, I read a lot of complex ML papers, so I convert them into podcasts and listen to them on my commute. It’s certainly an interesting TTS application.” — Kruti

“In a recent newsletter, someone No roll ban YouTube channel, but we haven’t mentioned the best content. Clocktower BloodThis is a social mystery game for 7-20(!!) players by Pandemonium Labs. Werewolf or mafia“It’s fun, but it’s also a lot more fun. There’s never-ending content on YouTube that I can’t stop watching, and I love throwing big parties for it.” — Greg

“Since Today in Tabs is on hiatus, I’m posting the Caitlin Dewey newsletter. Link If we were friends, I’d contact you via Gchat It’s become the most trusted, curated reading list. (Also, don’t miss her amazing G*mergate decade memoir.)” — Kevin

“With years of loyalty Thing 3I mustered up the courage to move Todoist“Natural language input is a big factor, but I’m also getting tired of the long lists in Things. Todoist’s Kanban does a good job of breaking things down, but I miss the Things UI.” — Scott

“It was really good to work together Rocket Jump “They’re writing, developing, and producing an independent action comedy film on Patreon. They’re doing it all from location planning to studio pitch decks.” — Josh

“I can’t stop playing Astro Bot“This feels like a love letter to 30 years of PlayStation. I’ve been a PlayStation fan my whole life, so it makes me smile on every level.” — Nick

On Wednesday, I attended the Made on YouTube event in New York City (it was just me and about 200 other really cool, fun creators) where CEO Neal Mohan and other executives announced some new features. But forget about new features; the absolute highlight of the event was a singer/songwriter/creator. videoAfter talking about the AI ​​project,Join me here“That was amazing. I’ve been reading about him and watching his videos ever since. wonderful GQ Interview It is full of details about his story, Here is his TikTokand His YouTube channel is here.

To be fair, D4vd is already so popular that I might be the last person to discover him, but I thought I’d share it just in case – I’m a huge fan of his.