{"id":272192,"date":"2025-11-09T14:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/272192\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T14:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:12:08","slug":"ikeas-new-smart-home-line-looks-fantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/272192\/","title":{"rendered":"Ikea\u2019s new smart home line looks fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 105, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, hope you\u2019ve recovered from the clocks falling back, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

This week, I\u2019ve been reading about David Ellison<\/a> and Common Crawl<\/a> and Stephen Colbert<\/a>, catching up on It\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia<\/a> and The Great British Baking Show<\/a>, letting TikTok turn me on to a new Olivia Dean song<\/a> and a new Broadway musical<\/a>, testing the Boox Palma 2 Pro<\/a>, spending way too many hours trying to design my new home office \/ podcast studio, and packing every single thing I own in boxes. One more week until I move, and life goes back to normal. I hope.<\/p>\n

I also have for you a very exciting new line of smart home stuff, a new Apple TV show worth watching, a great update to a great Android launcher, an app for your AirPods, and much more.<\/p>\n

Also, quick housekeeping note: no Installer next week. We\u2019ll be back in two weeks with some fun pre-Black Friday stuff, in addition to everything else. In the meantime, lots to do this week. Let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What have you been reading \/ watching \/ playing \/ listening to \/ turning into cider this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com<\/a>. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Ikea Bilresa<\/a>. If anyone is going to really democratize the idea of the smart home, it\u2019s Ikea. I am into most of the nearly two dozen Matter-compatible things the company announced this week, from lights to sensors to controllers, but the super customizable Bilresa buttons and remotes won me over immediately. They\u2019re not on sale yet, but I\u2019m putting them here now because I think they\u2019re gonna be worth waiting for.Predator: Badlands<\/a>. Whenever a movie gets reviews that are like, \u201cIt\u2019s well-made and a great time but it\u2019s not exactly High Art,\u201d I confess I immediately get excited. Give me more dumb fun! This appears to be a little dumb and a lot of fun. I\u2019m in.Pluribus<\/a>. \u201cCreated by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul\u201d is literally all the pitch this show requires for me. But the fact that it\u2019s a sci-fi show \u2014 about a world in which everyone is a little too happy \u2014 makes it even more exciting. Sora for Android<\/a>. The Sora hype continues! Honestly I\u2019m getting tired of seeing AI-generated stuff all over my social feeds, but I keep hearing from folks who love making videos of themselves in all sorts of funny situations. Now that it\u2019s on Android, too, maybe everything can stay in the app and off my Instagram feed? Please? Europa Universalis V<\/a>. I didn\u2019t know anything about this game, or even this series, until this week. But a massive, world-conquering strategy game is extremely up my alley. I almost lost a lot of friends over Risk games\u2026 I wonder how this\u2019ll go.Shuffalo<\/a>. A new daily game from The New Yorker in which you have to make progressively longer words with progressively more letters. Scratches my Bananagrams-loving brain so nicely. Niagara Launcher\u2019s Artistic Update<\/a>. Niagara remains my favorite Android launcher, and I really like the direction this update takes the product: The team tapped a bunch of great artists to make not just cool wallpapers but whole themes that reimagine everything about your device. Also, the new dark icon pack? Gorgeous.BeeBot<\/a>. Super clever new app from Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, which he refers to<\/a> as \u201cWaze meets Gossip Girl.\u201d Basically, it\u2019s an audio-only app that will pipe up in your headphones and periodically tell you about what\u2019s happening nearby. WhatsApp for Apple Watch<\/a>. This, plus the recent iPad app, suggests to me that WhatsApp is really pushing hard to become your default messaging service across all devices and platforms. For me it\u2019s mostly a group chat platform, but I\u2019m pumped to be able to do tapback reactions from my wrist.Operation Space Station<\/a>. The first of this two-part PBS series on the International Space Station is, in a word, epic. I always figured building a city in space would be hard, and I had no idea. This is way more dramatic than any space movie.<\/p>\n

Ryder Carroll, the creator of the Bullet Journal Method<\/a>, is one of my favorite thinkers on the web. He\u2019s done such a good job of not just having Big Theories About Productivity, but actually building systems to put them into practice. I\u2019ve tried to go full-analog Bullet Journal before, but have ultimately settled for just adapting a lot of his principles into whatever note-taking app I\u2019m using.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been wanting to have Ryder in Installer for a while, but was never able to make it work. But then! He recently posted a great video<\/a> about how he thinks about his phone, and how he has set it up to be exactly what he wants and nothing more.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to learn from what Ryder\u2019s done here, so for the first time in this space I\u2019m just going to deconstruct someone\u2019s setup for them. Here\u2019s Ryder\u2019s homescreen:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The phone: iPhone 16 Pro Max.<\/p>\n

The wallpaper: Solid black.<\/p>\n

The apps: Blank Spaces<\/a>. We\u2019ve talked about this launcher \u2014 and others like it, such as Dumb Phone<\/a> \u2014 before, but it\u2019s basically an iOS widget designed to replace your entire homescreen with big, text-based app launchers. (Fair warning: it costs $4 a month, or $24 lifetime.) Ryder\u2019s using a pretty simple version of Blank, but it has a huge amount of built-in customization options.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to spoil his whole video, which is full of good thoughts and tips, but I want to highlight a couple of things Ryder did to his phone that I\u2019ve also done, and heard from you works well too:<\/p>\n

Get colorless. I never managed to stick to a full grayscale phone like Ryder has, but switching to an all-black wallpaper and ditching as many app icons as possible in favor of simple, productive widgets has been a huge help.Delete all algorithmic apps. I could quibble forever with the precise definition here, but I support the theory of getting rid of anything designed to keep your attention as long as possible.Use Focus modes. I like the way he thinks about these modes, especially in combination with the very simple verb-based homescreen he built. He has Focus modes that shift throughout the day, as a way to unsubtly dictate what he ought to be doing right now. I love this.<\/p>\n

Even if you\u2019re ultimately not worried about your relationship with your phone, or don\u2019t want to do the work to get a setup like this, I really do recommend periodically just blowing up your whole system. Going through this, Ryder discovered the same thing I have over and over: that if you\u2019re not careful, you\u2019ll end up looking down for more time, and at the wrong things, than you think.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you\u2019re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com<\/a> or message me on Signal \u2014 @davidpierce.11 \u2014 with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we\u2019ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads<\/a> and this post on Bluesky.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cStephen King\u2019s son wrote an 800 page book called King Sorrow<\/a> that is (reductively) Millennial It. The title is a conjured dragon that embodies the very notion of evil. But it\u2019s also a play on the author\u2019s famous father, and his half-century of work. I\u2019d say read it, but don\u2019t do that: go audiobook!\u201d \u2014 Chris<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been using Today\u2019s Budget<\/a> for the past month and it fundamentally changed how I view my finances. Created by just two people, the app answers a simple question that no other app can easily answer: How much can you actually spend today?\u201d \u2014 Win<\/p>\n

\u201cHi! I\u2019ve been exploring the n8n<\/a> platform for automating (not only) tasks. I\u2019ve built an automation which sends me D&B events everyday. I was pleasantly surprised how powerful n8n is!\u201d \u2014 Dima<\/p>\n

\u201cAffinity<\/a>! Down with the Adobe monopoly.\u201d \u2014 Jack<\/p>\n

\u201cI can recommend the game Dispatch<\/a>, some described it as a game where you cannot fail. It\u2019s similar to Telltale, where you choose the dialog and do some mini games. Reminds me of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.\u201d \u2014 Bogdan<\/p>\n

\u201cStaccs<\/a> is literally mind-bending. It\u2019s a super lightweight matching card game (think Uno) that has just enough complexity to keep every game interesting but still accessible enough for younger kids. But what sets Staccs apart is the visual design. It\u2019s my favorite kind of card game: small package, amazing design, endlessly replayable, great for kids and adults.\u201d \u2014 Bone<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone with even a passing interest in cooking needs to follow Frank Prisinzano<\/a> (I follow on instagram but he\u2019s all over). Start learning his methods (not recipes) and start changing your life!\u201d \u2014 Scott<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you haven\u2019t watched Pantheon<\/a> on Netflix, it\u2019s worth it.\u201d \u2014 Michael<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently got a Mac Studio<\/a> and set up Tailscale<\/a> and Jellyfin<\/a> to get access to all of my (legally obtained) media from anywhere across the world. Tailscale creates a direct and private VPN to your devices. Jellyfin is a much better open source alternative to Plex. The Mac Studio\u2019s fast processor can transcode the video to lower resolutions on the fly. It all works well together.\u201d \u2014 Xyan<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but I love bad Christmas movies. (I was going to call it a guilty pleasure, but I don\u2019t feel one tiny bit of guilt about it.) Hotshot executive from the big city goes back to her hometown, finds love and the spirit of the holidays? Yes please, every time, a thousand times a year.<\/p>\n

Anyway this year is shaping up to be a pretty special one on the holiday movie front. And if you care as much as I do, you should bookmark this TVLine story<\/a> that lists every single one coming over the next couple months, sorted by streaming platform. Did you know there\u2019s a Jonas Brothers movie coming next week?!?! Happy holidays indeed.<\/p>\n

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