A greater option to YouTube

Hi, associates! Welcome to Installer No. 16, your information to the most effective and Verge-iest stuff on the planet. (If you’re new right here, welcome to our pleasant nook of the web, sorry about all of the productiveness apps, and in addition, you’ll be able to learn all of the previous editions on the Installer homepage.) 

Hope you all had an incredible vacation, or a minimum of an incredible week with one fewer e-mail in your inbox. This week, I’ve been testing Supernotes as a day by day diary app, studying about what it takes to make an iPhone in India and whatever “gamified theater” is, unsubscribing to each model that despatched me a “Happy Holidays!” e-mail, trying to find video games to play on my new Backbone controller, watching Mike Birbiglia’s wonderful The Old Man and the Pool particular (and listening to his podcast, Working It Out), and ramping up my vacation film watching in a giant approach. 

I even have for you a brand new truck (you already know which one), some enjoyable year-end wrap-ups, a few new reveals to observe this weekend, numerous concepts for making YouTube a saner place, some cool AI tasks, and extra. 

As all the time, the most effective a part of Installer is your concepts and suggestions. What do you need to know extra about? What superior methods have you learnt that everybody else ought to? What app ought to everybody be utilizing? Tell me all the things: installer@theverge.com. And if you already know another person who may take pleasure in Installer, ahead it to them and inform them to subscribe right here.)

We’re just a little extra entertainment-heavy than regular this week as a result of ’tis the season I suppose. But a number of enjoyable stuff to get to. Let’s go.

• The Tesla Cybertruck. It lastly launched! Ish! I’ve spent so many hours looking at and speaking about this factor for the final 4 years, and I nonetheless can’t resolve if I really like or hate the design. Slowly however certainly, it appears to be like like we’re about to start out seeing them within the wild — and till then MKBHD’s 40-minute video should do. Also, for those who purchased one… wanna highway journey?
• iA Writer 7. I love the best way this writing app integrates ChatGPT: it detects if you’re pasting in generated content material and prompts you to notice what’s human and what’s AI, and it treats AI extra as a “help me brainstorm and think” instrument than a “just write this for me” one. Tons of intelligent UI, and I feel precisely the fitting method.
• Godzilla Minus One. This feels like a extra advanced film than your common monster flick, however in a very great way. And simply from the trailers and footage I’ve seen, this one’s going to be value viewing on a giant display simply to see the best way director Takashi Yamazaki depicts the beast itself. 
• Spotify Wrapped. All the year-in-review stuff appears to have kicked off this week — YouTube, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, and extra — however Spotify’s simply higher at this than all people else. The AI-powered “DJ: Wrapped” function has been a very enjoyable option to journey again by way of all of the bizarre stuff TikTok obtained me into this 12 months.
• Apple’s and Google’s apps of the 12 months. This is the opposite year-end supply of fine stuff: the app retailer lists are all the time a mixture of very talked-about apps you undoubtedly already know and a smattering of actually cool, unknown stuff. I’m loving Stumble Guys thus far, and the way did I not find out about Mubi earlier than?
• Teenage Engineering’s EP-133 KO II. I’m probably not a musician, however I discover myself desperately wanting the brand new $299 KO II, which is each a cool music-making machine and only a beautiful set of buttons and knobs. (I obtained a bunch of crap in our feedback for calling it a synthesizer and never a sampler, which, truthful! Sampler is extra correct. But the excellence is blurry, and it doesn’t actually matter — this factor appears to be like enjoyable it doesn’t matter what you name it.)
• Dot Social. This could be the primary “brand” podcast I’ve ever advisable right here. But it’s one! Flipboard is all in on the fediverse and the open internet, and CEO Mike McCue’s plan is to speak to sensible individuals about it. The two episodes are with a few of the smartest individuals on this house, and so they’re each wonderful.
• Obliterated. Apparently, this new Netflix present, which feels like The Hangover meets Zero Dark Thirty, is dangerous. I don’t care. I’m completely assured I’m going to adore it and watch each single episode — I’m a sucker for a spy flick, and a foolish comedy, and particularly the intersection of these two issues.
• Slow Horses season 3. This present, alternatively, undeniably guidelines. (As does the book series it’s primarily based on, by Mick Herron.) It’s a narrative about washed-up MI5 brokers roped again in for yet one more job… after which a bunch extra jobs. From what I hear, season 3 is the most effective but — add it to your vacation watching listing for positive.
• Proton Mail. The latest release notes on Proton’s mail and calendar apps are tremendous humorous. There’s nothing enormous and new right here, it’s similar to, “We fixed all the stuff you wanted us to fix, here you go!” And it’s nice. If you’re searching for a privacy-focused different to the entire Google suite, Proton’s an incredible one. (The Drive file-storage app is a specific favourite.)

YouTube is a tremendous platform, and all these years later, I preserve being amazed by the stuff on it. The different evening, I watched a 13-year-old video of a dude placing collectively a crib that’s not bought, and it helped me do it myself! What! 

But YouTube as an app… type of sucks. You simply need to watch a video, and also you’re overrun by suggestions, one million social options, and too some ways to purchase one thing. YouTube doesn’t have a single first rate option to save one thing to observe later, and it’s all algorithmic to the purpose of being unusable generally.

So not too long ago, I’ve been exploring a bunch of massive and small methods to enhance the YouTube expertise a bit. I’m not attempting to eliminate advertisements or beat the system, simply… take pleasure in YouTube extra. I’ve discovered some I actually like! So I figured I’d share:

• The Play app. I now open this as a substitute of the YouTube app. It’s an app for storing and organizing video from all around the internet, however I just about solely use it for YouTube. After this week’s replace, it will probably routinely herald movies from channels you subscribe to, which makes it much more helpful. It’s Apple-only, sadly, but it surely works throughout Apple units, together with the Apple TV. This is so significantly better than attempting to handle a library within the YouTube app.
• Piped. Piped is a intelligent workaround: it makes use of the YouTube API to allow you to seek for and watch something on the platform however doesn’t ship any knowledge again to Google about you or what you watch. There are Piped-compatible mobile apps, too, and for those who’re feeling enterprising, you’ll be able to even self-host the app and run it nevertheless you need.
• Unhook. There are a bunch of browser extensions on the market that allow you to take away stuff from the YouTube interface to get a quieter viewing expertise. Unhook’s my favourite as a result of it’s so customizable — I turned off all of the suggestions and sidebars however left chapters and feedback. And because of an exquisite Unhook setting, my computerized YouTube homepage is now my subscriptions and never the default For You feed. 
• Enhancer for YouTube. Another browser extension, and type of the religious reverse of Unhook. This one can disguise issues like feedback and suggestions, however it will probably additionally add a lot extra stuff to YouTube. A variety of it’s actually helpful! I like having a one-click option to screenshot a body, a few of the keyboard shortcuts are helpful, and I’ve very a lot loved creating my very own customized YouTube theme. (It’s very grey.) I’ve seen some people having points with it not too long ago, but it surely continues to work fantastic for my functions.
• Bookmark It. One final browser extension, which helps you to take time-stamped notes on a YouTube video and return to them later. I exploit this after I know I’m going to need to come again to a selected second later, which occurs extra typically than I anticipated.

My new YouTube technique is working nicely thus far: after I discover one thing I need to watch later, I dump it into Play. I’ve a number of folders for instructional stuff and longform interviews, however principally, all the things simply goes within the pile to be watched later. When I need to discover one thing particular, I’m going to Piped, particularly if I don’t need my YouTube algorithm to be overrun by, like, plumbing movies. Otherwise, I’m utilizing YouTube — however a a lot much less chaotic model.

The purpose was all the time to search out the stuff I need to discover on YouTube and never be bothered by all the things else on the platform. I’m getting nearer! If you’ve gotten concepts for what else I / we are able to do to make YouTube higher, I’m all ears: installer@theverge.com.

If you’ve been a part of the Installer neighborhood for very lengthy, you already know I can’t assist myself from continuously switching to-do listing apps. I sincerely assume I’ve tried all of them. But I preserve coming again to Todoist, which is on the market in all places, super-duper quick, and simply is smart. 

Over the years, I’ve additionally gotten to know its founder, Amir Salihefendic, a bit. He has sensible ideas on productiveness instruments but additionally nearly how we are able to stay higher, saner lives on-line. (One time, he tweeted an image of his calendar, and it had, like, nothing on it. He might simply do work! All day! What a life!) In addition to constructing Todoist, his firm, Doist, can also be engaged on Twist, which goals to be mainly a much less chaotic tackle Slack and messaging.

I requested Amir to share his homescreen figuring he’d skew fairly minimalist, and I used to be proper. Here’s Amir’s homescreen, plus some data on the apps he makes use of and why:

The cellphone: iPhone 15 Pro.

The wallpaper: My lock display cycles by way of footage of my children and household photographs 🥰 Homescreen wallpaper is simply black.

The apps: Calendar, Photos, Google Maps, Spotify, Overcast, Audible, Halist, Twist, Todoist, Safari, Phone. 

The most fascinating are most likely:

• Todoist is a to-do app (shock! ) 
• Twist as a group communication app (one other shock! ) 
• Overcast as a podcast participant
• Halist as a ChatGPT different. I created my very own ChatGPT different as I don’t totally belief the privateness coverage of ChatGPT (as a result of they’ll prepare on the information). 

I additionally requested Amir to share a number of issues he’s into proper now. Here’s what he got here again with:

• The OpenAI drama. It’s just like the real-life model of HBO’s Succession present (which is improbable). We might say it’s the nerd model of Succession.
• I’ve began watching Blue Eye Samurai, and it’s unimaginable.
• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. This is without doubt one of the finest video games ever! There’s nonetheless a neighborhood on Twitch, and I recurrently watch video games. I additionally performed a bit with associates, however my eyes obtained tremendous sore, so I’m on pause.
• Lastly, I’m studying Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk, and it’s a wild learn. It feels like a completely chaotic life. Reading what it takes to construct a few of these accomplishments is fascinating.

Here’s what the Installer neighborhood is into this week. I need to know what you’re into proper now as nicely! Email installer@theverge.com together with your suggestions for something and all the things, and we’ll function a few of our favorites right here each week. 

“This awesome project out of Mozilla, Llamafile. You can get a pretty fully featured version of ChatGPT running locally on your own computer (with image analysis and everything), super easily. I followed the three steps and got the thing working in less than a minute, and it works as fast as GPT-4 (so, more slowly than GPT-3.5) on my Intel 2019 MacBook Pro. It’s really cool.”  – Matthew

“Me and my wife are recovering from watching the finale of Modern Family and found Fresh Off the Boat to be a great watch. Absolutely hilarious!” – Adam

“Trash Baby. Chaotic and creative and wacky AI-based photo remixing app. Combine two photos to create some really out-there outputs. It’s a really creative and collaborative play on generative AI. Every “baby” is an sudden pleasure.” – Kyle

“It’s called Loddlenaut, and it recently came out on Steam! Your job is to basically clean up a polluted ocean planet and to become friends with the Loddle creatures living there. P.S. You can pet the Loddles.” – Andrew

“Last Stop Larrimah. Being a town of only 11 people, Larrimah is kind of like Cheers. A place where everybody knows your name (and also spends most of their time in a bar). But they’re not all glad you came. When one of the residents goes missing, two others become prime suspects. And the theories as to how they might have disposed of the body, well, I won’t spoil it for you.” – Carl

“In response to the recommendation for Frinkiac, the Simpsons meme generator, I thought I’d recommend the equivalent Futurama meme generator, Morbotron, which is made by the same people. Now you can create all the ‘Shut up and take my money’ memes you desire!” – Jonathan

“Fleeting Notes. In my quest to de-Google my life, I have found a really great replacement for Google Keep. It’s cross-platform, available offline, and syncs with Obsidian. Plus it’s end-to-end encrypted, open source, and free. Perfect for when I have something I need to quickly jot down or remember without the hassle of creating a whole Obsidian note.” – Braedon

“Travle. Wordle-style, you play once a day, it counts your streaks, etc. The premise is super simple: they give you two countries and a number of attempts you have to name the countries that connect them. Sometimes they spice it up and tell you a country you need to avoid going through. My girlfriend and I have been playing it every day for months now, and there’s also different versions where you name regions / provinces in a specific country.” – Sam

“Here are my two fastest ways to add to Apple Reminders. 1: On my iPhone, I use this app called Remind Me Faster. 2: On Mac, I use Type to Siri. E.g., Remind me to call home at 4PM.” – Krishna 

I’m deep in lip-syncing TikTok, y’all. I don’t know the way I obtained right here, however I’m right here: there are numerous individuals on TikTok who, like, sing stunning harmonies in garages and kitchens whereas making very intense faces and physique motions, and it seems, numerous these persons are prerecording their audio and autotuning it earlier than pretending to sing it stay, and now, there are a bunch of creators whose shtick is to call these individuals out, and folks on all sides are mad. (Do you ever write a sentence and instantly notice you sound insane? This is what I’ve change into.) But the most effective half was when shirtless Charlie Puth did a video that was similar to, “Everyone uses autotune, it’s 2023, let’s all be nice to each other.” And everybody obtained mad about that, too! But I feel shirtless Charlie Puth is correct. The web ought to hearken to shirtless Charlie Puth.