Plus, in this week’s Installer: Artemis II photos, new Star Wars and Pokémon stuff, and more. Apr 11, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC. Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 123, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, which Artemis photo did you make your wallpaper, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about Sam Altman and Satoshi Nakamoto and chess drama and Iranian shitposters, buying the stuff I need to mod an old iPod, making videos with the clever new DualShot Recorder, watching Crime 101 now that it’s streaming, finally getting my Stream Deck Mini to control all my office lights, revisiting the incredible 17776 series from our friends at SB Nation, moving all my cable mess to this new Anker power strip, and finally organizing my new closet. Six months after we moved in.
I also have for you new seasons of a couple of great shows, a deep dive into space photos, a book about our gadget brains, and much more.
Also, I want to try something new here. I get a lot of people pitching stuff they’ve made, and I almost never include it here — I much prefer people talking about stuff they like rather than stuff they’ve made, you know? But for once, and maybe only ever once, I want to do an issue full of ruthless self-promotion. (I’ll still vet everything I include, to the best of my ability.)
So, for the first time ever: Tell me about the thing you made! Apps, games, podcasts, weird tchotchkes, anything you think we in the Installerverse might be into. I’ll check out as many as I can, and feature my favorites in a couple of weeks. And I’ll tell you about the thing I’ve been building, too.
All right, fun week of stuff! Let’s do it.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching/reading/listening to/piling up on the dining room table this week? Tell me everything: [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)
The Audacity. I fear this show, like Silicon Valley and Mountainhead, might turn out to be so prescient it becomes hard to watch over time. But I love a good tech bro satire, I love this cast, and I find it deeply hilarious that you’ll be able to watch the whole pilot in three-minute increments on TikTok when it drops on Sunday.
Artemis II Journey to the Moon. I cannot stop staring at the photos coming from the Artemis II crew. The photos of the Earth that show the atmosphere! The eclipse shots! Even the onboard photos of the crew are a blast. For me, though, it’s the dark side of the Moon that’s now permanently my desktop wallpaper.
Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord. As I type this, this show has a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT score on Rotten Tomatoes. I won’t get my hopes up I won’t get my hopes up I won’t get my hopes up okay fine I cannot wait to dive into this gritty animated universe.
Pokémon Champions. The rap on this game so far is that it’s very fun but seems thoroughly unfinished. You might want to wait for an update or three before really diving in, but early players seem to already enjoy the basic battle systems here. So I’m optimistic.
Dimension 20: City Council of Darkness. The D20 crew just never really seems to miss, and this season’s tabletop adventure is as bizarre and fun as ever. If the trailer alone doesn’t convince you to sign up for a Dropout subscription, well, I’ve got nothing for you.
Transcription. I keep hearing great things about this new novel from Ben Lerner about what’s temporary and what’s permanent, what we record and what we remember, and what screens and devices do to us. I’ve been in kind of a reading rut recently, and I think this’ll get me out of it.
Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever. I find the whole immortality movement among tech people to be mostly pointless and silly, so I’m glad to see Kara Swisher have some fun at its expense — while trying some of the movement’s weirdest ideas on herself. Personally, I’ll stay here eating my Sun Chips, thanks.
Jackbox Party Essentials on Netflix. There was a period of the pandemic where Jackbox games formed a key part of my social life. (Quiplash FTW!) These onscreen party games make perfect sense for Netflix, too — Jackbox stuff has always been a little expensive, but now it’s free with your