is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
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Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 96, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, has your inbox been as busy as mine the past few days?, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I also have for you Hollow Knight: Silksong (finally!), Instagram on iPad (also finally!), a spinoff for The Office, and more.
And a programming note: David’s taking over Installer again next week! It’s been a blast writing the newsletter while he’s been away. Thanks to everyone for sharing their recommendations and nice notes while I’ve been steering the ship!
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Drop a line to [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)
The Drop
Screen Share
Today I’m featuring Paulus Schoutsen, founder of the popular open-source smart home automation platform Home Assistant and president of the Open Home Foundation. With so much smart home news coming out of the IFA 2025 conference this week, I figured this would be the perfect time to feature his homescreen. I was very curious how someone so involved in the smart home world actually uses their phone day to day — unsurprisingly, Paulus has put a lot of thought into his homescreen setup.
Side note: I originally got these responses from Paulus about his iOS homescreen in August, but he told me this week that he’s since switched over to a Google Pixel. He says the setup is largely the same, with one notable change to use more web apps.
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