Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 53, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about Beyoncé and Rosanna Pansino and Bowen Yang, pouring my life back into Todoist, watching the end of The Grand Tour, catching up on some My Brother, My Brother and Me episodes, seeing if the Pixel Recorder app can replace my trusty voice recorder, and moving Headspace to my homescreen to see if it helps me meditate more. (So far… no.)I also have for you a truly wild new pair of AR glasses, a Batman-adjacent show on HBO, a great new book about the end of Twitter, a funny twist on... Continue reading…

While Microsoft Excel is the most powerful spreadsheet software out there, its not always a feasible solution. Excel is part of the Microsoft 365 bundle that requires a monthly subscription. If you are not heavily invested in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem or do not require Excel's advanced functionalities, you might want to explore some free alternatives for your workflow.

Are you getting tired of AI keys yet? We've been seeing them everywhere, from replacing keys on keyboards to mini PCs. Now, it seems that recent leaks from the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 have shown that even the Korean tech giant's products aren't spared from the wave of AI buttons, and this one isn't even a Copilot key.

2024 has been an amazing year for Windows on Arm, with companies such as Adobe and Google bringing their apps over to the architecture. However, Linux users on an ARM64 architecture may have felt a bit left out in the cold in recent months. Fortunately, that may soon turn around, as it seems that Valve is working on getting its PC gaming apps up and running with ARM64 Linux devices.

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Scratch the surface of Windows (and macOS), and you’ll find a command line console underneath, a lingering remnant of how these operating systems started out: as user-friendly graphical wrappers built on top of text-based, monochrome interfaces.If you’re as old as I am, you might remember having to launch apps and games on a computer by typing out text commands, rather than pointing and clicking. The modern-day methods are much easier, of course, but the old ways are still available — and they’re actually still useful for multiple tasks, as the list below shows.To begin with, Windows kept the Command Prompt utility as a reminder of its MS-DOS roots. That was later joined by PowerShell (Command Prompt with extras), and in the latest... Continue reading…

The Verge Steven Johnson is a very meta author. He writes frequently about science and technology, and likes to immerse himself in the things he’s covering, even using them to change the way he writes books. A couple of years ago, a few months before ChatGPT launched and the AI boom took over the tech world, Johnson got a magazine assignment that sent him really, really deep down the AI rabbit hole. And he never came back up.Now, in addition to writing books, Johnson is also working at Google. He’s part of the team building a product called NotebookLM — “Notebook,” as the team calls it. It’s a note-taking and research tool: you upload documents and import web links, and Notebook’s Gemini-powered AI helps you organize things, extract information,... Continue reading…

If youve read my articles at XDA, you must have noticed that I'm a fan of Raspberry Pi boards. The Raspberry Pi Zero W marked my first venture into the world of SBC computing, and the Raspberry Pi 5 is easily the best SBC Ive used so far.

Although Microsoft Excel's default functions meet the needs of most professionals, perhaps you could still benefit from occasional enhancements. Here is where Excel add-ins come into play. These little plugins can unlock your hidden potential and transform the way you work. Whether you are a casual Excel user or a seasoned pro, check out the top Excel add-ins to take your skills to the next level.

The topic of mechanical keyboards is a deeply divisive one, with every opinion evoking passionate reactions from the community. For many hobbyists and enthusiasts, a mechanical keyboard is a highly personal device, and devoted users go to extreme lengths to craft every single aspect of their keyboard to painstaking standards.

If you're looking for one of the best gaming monitors out right now, the 27-inch Asus ROG Swift OLED monitor is going to be it. Not only does this monitor look good thanks to its sleek design, but it also provides a visual experience that goes unmatched, with impressive colors and excellent black levels. Furthermore, you also get excellent performance here as well, with a 240hz refresh rate and 0.03ms response time.

The rivalry between Evernote and OneNote goes back decades. Since being acquired by the Italian company Bending Spoons, Evernote has seen significant improvements in recent months. Nevertheless, for Windows users, my top recommendation is still Microsoft OneNote. In addition to its robust capabilities, the company's note-taking application integrates smoothly with the Windows ecosystem and is well worth considering for those looking to enhance their productivity.

If you're using your own Wi-Fi router instead of one your ISP offers, you can get a basic model or go more expensive, the choice is yours. You may wonder if you're choosing the right router though. Buying a more expensive router isn't usually worth the extra money though. They might look cool or have more features, but you likely won't need all that in reality. Here's why you can get what you need even if you go with a cheaper router.