Unleash the Morning Like Mario: Revolutionize Your Wake-Up Routine with Nintendo’s Alarmo!
Hi, Friends! Welcome to Installer No. 56, Your Guide to the Best and Verge-iest Stuff in the World
Hey there! Welcome to Installer No. 56, the best and most Verge-iest newsletter in the land! If you’re new here, welcome, and I’m stoked you found us. You can read all the old editions on the Installer homepage.
What’s New This Week?
This week, I’ve been obsessed with a few things: Bill Lawrence’s TV shows, the powerful crypto lobby, and the wild world of plankton. I’ve also been listening to Ed Helms narrate the excellent Snafu podcast, playing a ridiculous amount of both Balatro and Retro Goal, trying to get back into making overnight oats, and answering every single one of my phone calls with the amazing mic on my Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
The Drop
- Alarmo, the Nintendo Sound Clock Alarm Clock: Leave it to Nintendo to create the most charming alarm clock of all time. No, it’s not the high-tech new gadget some people were hoping for, but a super-configurable sleep tracking clock that uses Mario noises and retro animations to get you out of bed? I’m sold.
- Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery: Another day, another splashy reveal that "we’ve found Satoshi Nakamoto!" Color me deeply, deeply skeptical. But even that aside, this doc does a great job of arguing that Nakamoto — and Bitcoin in general — matters.
- GoodTask, the Apple App: I recently stopped using TickTick and have been trying to reduce my subscriptions. I wanted to try living off of Apple Reminders. I feel like it’s 90 percent of the way there. Luckily, for the last 10 percent, I think I found the perfect app with GoodTask! It’s only for Apple devices, but it basically supercharges Reminders by adding customization, a better interface, and a calendar. Best of all, it’s a one-time purchase of $10!
Your Feedback Matters
What are you playing / reading / watching / baking / steeping in teapots this week? What should everyone else be into, too? Tell me everything: [email protected]. And if you know someone who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.
Signing Off
I have to admit something: I’ve become a spreadsheet person. I’ve avoided Excel, Google Sheets, and anything that looks like rows and columns for as long as I can remember, but over the course of this year, I’ve worked on an unusual number of big team projects — the kind that require a lot of people to know what’s going on at any given time — and man, you just can’t beat the efficiency of a good spreadsheet. I’m barely scratching the surface, features-wise, but I’m hooked on how easy it is to build a calendar, a project tracker, or just a good old budget system in a spreadsheet. Who needs awesome optimized apps! Give me rows and columns! I hate that I’ve become this person, but I fear there’s no going back.
