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Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge

Popular music changes all the time, but there’s been one consistent element in practically everything released in the last two decades: Auto-Tune is everywhere. What started as a simple audio processing tool in the 1990s has become the dominant force in music. Artists are training to sing with Auto-Tune; songs sound like Auto-Tune. Like it or hate it, Auto-Tune is everywhere. And to be clear, most people like it.
On this episode of The Vergecast, the second installment in our series about the future of music, music journalist and Switched on Pop co-host Charlie Harding tells us the story of Auto-Tune. (Disclosure: Switched on Pop is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network, as is The Vergecast.) It starts, of all places, in the oil and gas industry. It involves artists like Cher and T-Pain, spreads like wildfire throughout the music business, and quickly becomes so utterly ubiquitous that you probably notice when Auto-Tune isn’t used more than when it is.

We’re now more than two decades into the Auto-Tune era, and Charlie makes the case that all the backlash and frustration with Auto-Tune is both overrated and misguided. Maybe, after all this time, we should think of Auto-Tune not as a way to mask our deficiencies as musicians, but just as another instrument to play. And as ever more of the music-making process becomes digitized and perfectible, the change Auto-Tune wrought isn’t going anywhere.
As we barrel toward whatever the “AI era” of music will be, we also look for clues in Auto-Tune’s story that point to what’s coming next. We talk about the distinct sound that comes from tools like Suno and Udio, how artists will use and abuse AI, and whether we should be worried about what it all means. We haven’t yet found the “Believe” of the AI music era, but it’s probably coming.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:

Charlie Harding on X
Switched on Pop
From Pitchfork: How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music

From Rick Beato: How Auto-Tune DESTROYED Popular Music

From Gabi Belle: The Problem with Autotune on TikTok

We also asked Charlie for his off-the-cuff thoughts on the ultimate Auto-Tune and vocal processing playlist. Here are a few of his suggestions, first from the pre-Auto-Tune days:

And then for some canonical Auto-Tune hits, in no particular order:

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge

Popular music changes all the time, but there’s been one consistent element in practically everything released in the last two decades: Auto-Tune is everywhere. What started as a simple audio processing tool in the 1990s has become the dominant force in music. Artists are training to sing with Auto-Tune; songs sound like Auto-Tune. Like it or hate it, Auto-Tune is everywhere. And to be clear, most people like it.

On this episode of The Vergecast, the second installment in our series about the future of music, music journalist and Switched on Pop co-host Charlie Harding tells us the story of Auto-Tune. (Disclosure: Switched on Pop is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network, as is The Vergecast.) It starts, of all places, in the oil and gas industry. It involves artists like Cher and T-Pain, spreads like wildfire throughout the music business, and quickly becomes so utterly ubiquitous that you probably notice when Auto-Tune isn’t used more than when it is.

We’re now more than two decades into the Auto-Tune era, and Charlie makes the case that all the backlash and frustration with Auto-Tune is both overrated and misguided. Maybe, after all this time, we should think of Auto-Tune not as a way to mask our deficiencies as musicians, but just as another instrument to play. And as ever more of the music-making process becomes digitized and perfectible, the change Auto-Tune wrought isn’t going anywhere.

As we barrel toward whatever the “AI era” of music will be, we also look for clues in Auto-Tune’s story that point to what’s coming next. We talk about the distinct sound that comes from tools like Suno and Udio, how artists will use and abuse AI, and whether we should be worried about what it all means. We haven’t yet found the “Believe” of the AI music era, but it’s probably coming.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:

Charlie Harding on X
Switched on Pop
From Pitchfork: How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music

From Rick Beato: How Auto-Tune DESTROYED Popular Music

From Gabi Belle: The Problem with Autotune on TikTok

We also asked Charlie for his off-the-cuff thoughts on the ultimate Auto-Tune and vocal processing playlist. Here are a few of his suggestions, first from the pre-Auto-Tune days:

And then for some canonical Auto-Tune hits, in no particular order:

Read More 

Image: David Pierce / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 60, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, it’s a lot of gaming stuff this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been… doomscrolling about the election, if I’m honest. But let’s not talk about that. I’ve also been reading about shipwrecks and in-flight magazines and baseball bat influencers, making a bunch of lists in Listy, dusting off my Bluesky account as Threads becomes increasingly worse, logging a surprising number of hours in VR with Batman: Arkham Shadow, playing with tasks and notes in the Craft beta, seeing if I can replace Gmail with Thunderbird for Android, and trying really, really hard to convince myself I don’t need a new Mac Mini.
I also have for you a couple of new games to play this weekend, some fun stuff to watch, a nifty new way for Mac users to take notes, and more. And I have some ideas for everyone looking for a place to put all their articles, newsletters, and other online stuff.
Oh, housekeeping note: Installer’s off next week. We have some planning meetings going on, and also, honestly, this is one of the driest times of the year when it comes to new stuff. I’ll be back with a big issue in two weeks ahead of Thanksgiving, and then we have some fun plans through the rest of the year.
All right, it’s a lot of games this week. Which feels right. Let’s go.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you comfort watching this week? What have you been playing / reading / downloading / baking that everyone else should know about, too? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Mario & Luigi: Brothership. It feels like we get a fun new Mario game like every two weeks these days. And I’m not complaining! I’m into the teamwork-y vibe of this one — and the amount of pure unadulterated exploring it asks you to do.

Game Changers. The first two episodes of this new Discovery series tell the story of two of my favorite things in gaming: Nintendo and Madden. There are also episodes coming about Call of Duty, Scrabble, and other iconic games. The nostalgia is through the roof with this one.

Raycast Notes. Raycast has become one of my most-used Mac apps: it’s a launcher, a clipboard manager, a window reorder-er, and a million other things. Its built-in notes app just got a big upgrade — it’s as simple as opening a text file but much more powerful.

Guild Builds. The striking New York Times tech workers created a pretty fun set of games you can play instead of Wordle this week. Match Strike is hilarious and fun, as is Scabby’s Fair Contract Builder. Who knew you could build a good game that’s also a sick burn against your boss?

Heretic. I’ve been excited for this movie ever since I read Andrew Webster’s review, which confirmed that Hugh Grant can be as terrifying as he is charming. Plus, a bad guy you can describe as “a theological debate bro?” I’m in.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. This CPU is power-hungry and expensive, but Tom Warren called it the best gaming CPU on the market, and that is no small feat. If you’re building a gaming PC this holiday season, this is where to start.

Stardew Valley 1.6.9. I have heard from a lot of folks who retreated into Stardew Valley this week as a reprieve from the real world. The newest update adds new items, the ability to retrieve things you’ve dropped in water, and lots of other useful and delightful changes.

Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson. Look, I’m not proud of the fact that I’m fascinated by next week’s Tyson / Paul fight. Is it even a real fight? Is it all a bit? Who knows! But leave it to Netflix to milk it for all its worth; I bet you $10 this series will be more fun and dramatic than the fight itself.

Here. By most accounts, this movie is bad. But director Robert Zemeckis did some fascinating and AI-forward work to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in order to make the movie work, and I’ve enjoyed the way all three have talked about the process. This feels like a movie we’ll remember in the story of AI filmmaking.

Google Vids. The pitch for Vids — “what if making a video were as easy as making a Google Doc?” — is a really clever one. And now, months after Google first announced the app, you can give it a whirl. Send me all the weird stuff you make!

Group project
Last week, a lot of you reached out saying you were bummed to see that Omnivore, a really great app for reading articles, newsletters, and other stuff, was shutting down. I was bummed, too! I’ve recommended Omnivore to a lot of people and really liked the app. (PSA, by the way: if you’re still using Omnivore, you only have a few more weeks to get your stuff out.)
Now, a bunch of us are stuck trying to figure out where to go. So I asked you all to share what you need most in an app like this — and lots of you did! Thanks, as always, to everyone who reached out with thoughts and recommendations. I think I have a pretty good sense of what we’re all looking for, so let me try and recommend a few things.

If all you need is a place to save articles and read them later, you have lots of options. Readwise Reader is the most powerful (and the only one that also does RSS and newsletters), but it’s also $8 a month. Matter is a lovely app but is mostly Apple-only. Instapaper is a great option and works across basically all platforms — it’s probably the one I’d recommend to most people. Pocket is solid, too, but I just don’t like the interface.
If you want something a little more open and versatile, I’d go with an RSS tool. I use Feedbin, which I love. Feedly and NewsBlur are also good for this kind of thing. All three give you an email address you can use to subscribe to newsletters and a way to manually save a page to your reader.
If you’re trying to build more of a database of stuff that you can search through later, I’d start with a bookmarking tool. Raindrop is my go-to, but if you’re an Apple user, there’s also GoodLinks and Anybox and Plinky. You can also use an app like Obsidian, with its web clipper, to turn webpages into text files.
If you want something that will truly last forever, the best move is to host something yourself. A few of you recommended apps like Wallabag, Linkwarden, and Linkding, and if you’re willing to do the work, this is the most durable option by far. There are some folks working on ways to self-host Omnivore, too, so keep an eye on that.

The best answer for most people, I think, is to use an RSS reader like Feedbin to compile all your incoming stuff and then a read-later app like Instapaper to go through your reading list. Readwise Reader is the closest thing I’ve found to Omnivore’s all-in-one capability, and it’s definitely the one I’d recommend to people looking for a one-to-one replacement, but you’ll pay pretty handsomely for it. Maybe Omnivore was too good to be true this whole time.

Screen share
I’ve been listening to Brian McCullough talk for a really long time. I think I first encountered his work on the Internet History Podcast, which is like a treasure trove of early Silicon Valley stories. He also hosts the Techmeme Ride Home podcast, which is an awesome way to get daily tech news. And more recently, I’ve been listening to his newest show, RAD! 80s90s History. (I might even be on that show in a few weeks… stay tuned.) And in addition to all that, McCullough is a general partner at the Ride Home Fund, investing in tech companies. Busy guy, that Brian.
I asked Brian to share his homescreen to see if we might learn how he manages it all. Here it is, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: An iPhone 16 Pro. For the first time in my life of using iPhones, I have a case on it, because my son dropped my previous one twice and shattered the front and back glass. I wouldn’t have upgraded this year except for that. So, lesson learned. Kids.
The wallpaper: The wallpaper is a picture I took some night on Prospect Park West years ago. The lockscreen is obviously an old iPod interface, my favorite version of the iPod. I bought it from some collection of wallpapers about a year ago. Can’t remember where from, though.
The apps: Phone, Fantastical, Apple Maps, Settings, Slack, Microsoft Word, Shopify, Citi Bike, Audible, Microsoft OneNote, Carrot Weather, Amazon, Jersey Mike’s, Wallet, Tovala, Threads, X, York, Claude, Messages, Overcast, Safari, Superhuman.
I’m fairly basic with the apps, as you can see. Apps to get news from, like Threads and Twitter. Slack for work. Superhuman for email.
I’ve totally moved over to Claude in the last few months thanks to Alex Kantrowitz evangelizing it to me constantly. So much so that I’ve canceled my OpenAI subscription. Tovala is a smart oven / meal plan company that I’ve been using religiously since the pandemic. Basically my lunch every single day is a Tovala meal. Jersey Mike’s finally came to Park Slope and so that’s also a meal go-to. I use Citi Bike once or twice a day.
The app that says “York” is interesting. That’s my subway stop for my office in Dumbo. This random dude made this thing that you can get at Nextstop.nyc. Basically, it gives you real-time train times for whatever subway stops you use all the time, and then you put an icon for that on your phone. IT. IS. AMAZING. It is insane that, 20 years into my living in NYC, it took this long for someone to do this right. “I’m about to leave the office, when is the next train? Should I leave now or wait five minutes?” Amazing.
I also asked Brian to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:

My kids and I are playing tons of Tiny Glade. “Relaxing” game that can also be super complex and sophisticated if you put in the time. It’s like Minecraft in that way, but with a sort of romanticist feel.
The book I’m obsessed with right now is Rick Atkinson’s The British Are Coming. I’ve read Rick’s other books about the US Army in World War II, but he has a new series about the American Army in the Revolutionary War. It’s amazing and detailed like all of Rick’s books, but full of stuff I didn’t know. Like, the battle of Lexington and Concord: oh, Paul Revere, the British go and try to shut down a weapons depot and the minutemen take potshots at them? Oh no. WAY more bloody than that. Like hundreds of people died on both sides. Savage fighting. Very interesting stuff. I’m almost to the Battle of Brooklyn and can’t wait.
I rewatched Miller’s Crossing a few nights ago, and god damn if that movie isn’t the most underrated and underseen of the whole Coen filmography.
I’m looking forward to the next book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series, which is coming next month: Wind and Truth. Even though the previous book in the series was pretty boring.

Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads.
“Superfan. A beautiful app to keep tabs on ongoing sports events and matches.” – Karan
“I’ve been using this little-known news app called Adarga Panoptic. Has this interesting take on the news where it’s provided through the lens of a person’s perspective rather than just headlines. Content is a bit limited, but with some added customization options, this could be a really cool way to see the news differently.” – Alen
“Scribe Notes. It’s like Whisper Memos but has more features. Sort of like Cleft but cheaper. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and I love it. Helps me get my scrambled thoughts and to-dos out of my head and into a place where I can make sense of them all.” – David
“Check out the Mobapad M6 HD for the Nintendo Switch! It’s a Joy-Con alternative that has ergonomic grips, Hall effect joysticks, and gyro and HD rumble. It essentially has every feature of the Joy-Cons, but they’re actually comfy to hold. The buttons are a little clicky, and the travel case is almost as bulky as my Steam Deck, but it’s definitely the most comfortable and feature-packed Joy-Con alternative I’ve found. I picked one up on a recent trip to Hong Kong, and it completely changed my Switch playing experience.” – Kevin
“I’ve been keeping an eye on an app called Openvibe. It’s able to aggregate your Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon (and Nostr, too, if you’re into that kind of thing) feeds into a single feed you can scroll. The home feed algorithm is hit or miss, but the trending feed is great, especially because it’s not something Mastodon or Bluesky have natively. Also, it lets you cross-post to all four networks for free!” – Drake
“Winter is looming, so I got myself a Zwift Ride smart bike for days when running outside just isn’t a great idea. Great hardware. The app feels older than it is, but the gamification kinda works. More fun than staring at the wall!” – Robert
“With *gestures around wildly* going on, I’m pouring less of my time into social media and more into a personal blog using a great service called Pika. It’s dead simple to set up and I love how barebones it is.” – Kaleb
“Started collecting sports cards, primarily NFL. It’s not something I’ve thought about since I was 14, but it has been a fun distraction. These are two great YouTube channels to get into: Market Movers and Sports Card Investor. And getting in on “breaks” on Whatnot, where you buy into a live box opening, is some fun entertainment.” – Travis
“I’ve been reading Richard II, which feels of a piece with the moment, and due to which I discovered how much more complicated sideloading a Gutenberg ebook to a Kindle is than it should be. The right format wasn’t the one labeled for Kindles!” – Jeanne
“I’ve been playing a lot of Maestro lately on my Quest 2. It’s such an amazing and immersive experience. If you ever wanted to feel like an orchestra conductor, this is as close as you can get (unless you’re an actual orchestra conductor, in which case, congrats, such a cool job!).” – Gonzalo

Signing off
So I have this Apple Watch. It’s fine, I like it, whatever, but I’d rather wear another watch. So I went down a YouTube rabbit hole: can you turn an Apple Watch into a standalone, pocketable device that works even when it’s not on your wrist? Turns out, you can! There are a lot of good ideas out there, but I’m basically just following the ideas in this video from Jose Briones. (I’m also intrigued by the TinyPod, but that one doesn’t seem to be very good.) I’m turning my Watch into basically a teeny-tiny iPod and backup communications device that I carry around like a pocket watch. It’s silly, but it’s fun. And it works!
See you in two weeks!

Image: David Pierce / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 60, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, it’s a lot of gaming stuff this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been… doomscrolling about the election, if I’m honest. But let’s not talk about that. I’ve also been reading about shipwrecks and in-flight magazines and baseball bat influencers, making a bunch of lists in Listy, dusting off my Bluesky account as Threads becomes increasingly worse, logging a surprising number of hours in VR with Batman: Arkham Shadow, playing with tasks and notes in the Craft beta, seeing if I can replace Gmail with Thunderbird for Android, and trying really, really hard to convince myself I don’t need a new Mac Mini.

I also have for you a couple of new games to play this weekend, some fun stuff to watch, a nifty new way for Mac users to take notes, and more. And I have some ideas for everyone looking for a place to put all their articles, newsletters, and other online stuff.

Oh, housekeeping note: Installer’s off next week. We have some planning meetings going on, and also, honestly, this is one of the driest times of the year when it comes to new stuff. I’ll be back with a big issue in two weeks ahead of Thanksgiving, and then we have some fun plans through the rest of the year.

All right, it’s a lot of games this week. Which feels right. Let’s go.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you comfort watching this week? What have you been playing / reading / downloading / baking that everyone else should know about, too? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Mario & Luigi: Brothership. It feels like we get a fun new Mario game like every two weeks these days. And I’m not complaining! I’m into the teamwork-y vibe of this one — and the amount of pure unadulterated exploring it asks you to do.

Game Changers. The first two episodes of this new Discovery series tell the story of two of my favorite things in gaming: Nintendo and Madden. There are also episodes coming about Call of Duty, Scrabble, and other iconic games. The nostalgia is through the roof with this one.

Raycast Notes. Raycast has become one of my most-used Mac apps: it’s a launcher, a clipboard manager, a window reorder-er, and a million other things. Its built-in notes app just got a big upgrade — it’s as simple as opening a text file but much more powerful.

Guild Builds. The striking New York Times tech workers created a pretty fun set of games you can play instead of Wordle this week. Match Strike is hilarious and fun, as is Scabby’s Fair Contract Builder. Who knew you could build a good game that’s also a sick burn against your boss?

Heretic. I’ve been excited for this movie ever since I read Andrew Webster’s review, which confirmed that Hugh Grant can be as terrifying as he is charming. Plus, a bad guy you can describe as “a theological debate bro?” I’m in.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. This CPU is power-hungry and expensive, but Tom Warren called it the best gaming CPU on the market, and that is no small feat. If you’re building a gaming PC this holiday season, this is where to start.

Stardew Valley 1.6.9. I have heard from a lot of folks who retreated into Stardew Valley this week as a reprieve from the real world. The newest update adds new items, the ability to retrieve things you’ve dropped in water, and lots of other useful and delightful changes.

Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson. Look, I’m not proud of the fact that I’m fascinated by next week’s Tyson / Paul fight. Is it even a real fight? Is it all a bit? Who knows! But leave it to Netflix to milk it for all its worth; I bet you $10 this series will be more fun and dramatic than the fight itself.

Here. By most accounts, this movie is bad. But director Robert Zemeckis did some fascinating and AI-forward work to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in order to make the movie work, and I’ve enjoyed the way all three have talked about the process. This feels like a movie we’ll remember in the story of AI filmmaking.

Google Vids. The pitch for Vids — “what if making a video were as easy as making a Google Doc?” — is a really clever one. And now, months after Google first announced the app, you can give it a whirl. Send me all the weird stuff you make!

Group project

Last week, a lot of you reached out saying you were bummed to see that Omnivore, a really great app for reading articles, newsletters, and other stuff, was shutting down. I was bummed, too! I’ve recommended Omnivore to a lot of people and really liked the app. (PSA, by the way: if you’re still using Omnivore, you only have a few more weeks to get your stuff out.)

Now, a bunch of us are stuck trying to figure out where to go. So I asked you all to share what you need most in an app like this — and lots of you did! Thanks, as always, to everyone who reached out with thoughts and recommendations. I think I have a pretty good sense of what we’re all looking for, so let me try and recommend a few things.

If all you need is a place to save articles and read them later, you have lots of options. Readwise Reader is the most powerful (and the only one that also does RSS and newsletters), but it’s also $8 a month. Matter is a lovely app but is mostly Apple-only. Instapaper is a great option and works across basically all platforms — it’s probably the one I’d recommend to most people. Pocket is solid, too, but I just don’t like the interface.
If you want something a little more open and versatile, I’d go with an RSS tool. I use Feedbin, which I love. Feedly and NewsBlur are also good for this kind of thing. All three give you an email address you can use to subscribe to newsletters and a way to manually save a page to your reader.
If you’re trying to build more of a database of stuff that you can search through later, I’d start with a bookmarking tool. Raindrop is my go-to, but if you’re an Apple user, there’s also GoodLinks and Anybox and Plinky. You can also use an app like Obsidian, with its web clipper, to turn webpages into text files.
If you want something that will truly last forever, the best move is to host something yourself. A few of you recommended apps like Wallabag, Linkwarden, and Linkding, and if you’re willing to do the work, this is the most durable option by far. There are some folks working on ways to self-host Omnivore, too, so keep an eye on that.

The best answer for most people, I think, is to use an RSS reader like Feedbin to compile all your incoming stuff and then a read-later app like Instapaper to go through your reading list. Readwise Reader is the closest thing I’ve found to Omnivore’s all-in-one capability, and it’s definitely the one I’d recommend to people looking for a one-to-one replacement, but you’ll pay pretty handsomely for it. Maybe Omnivore was too good to be true this whole time.

Screen share

I’ve been listening to Brian McCullough talk for a really long time. I think I first encountered his work on the Internet History Podcast, which is like a treasure trove of early Silicon Valley stories. He also hosts the Techmeme Ride Home podcast, which is an awesome way to get daily tech news. And more recently, I’ve been listening to his newest show, RAD! 80s90s History. (I might even be on that show in a few weeks… stay tuned.) And in addition to all that, McCullough is a general partner at the Ride Home Fund, investing in tech companies. Busy guy, that Brian.

I asked Brian to share his homescreen to see if we might learn how he manages it all. Here it is, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: An iPhone 16 Pro. For the first time in my life of using iPhones, I have a case on it, because my son dropped my previous one twice and shattered the front and back glass. I wouldn’t have upgraded this year except for that. So, lesson learned. Kids.

The wallpaper: The wallpaper is a picture I took some night on Prospect Park West years ago. The lockscreen is obviously an old iPod interface, my favorite version of the iPod. I bought it from some collection of wallpapers about a year ago. Can’t remember where from, though.

The apps: Phone, Fantastical, Apple Maps, Settings, Slack, Microsoft Word, Shopify, Citi Bike, Audible, Microsoft OneNote, Carrot Weather, Amazon, Jersey Mike’s, Wallet, Tovala, Threads, X, York, Claude, Messages, Overcast, Safari, Superhuman.

I’m fairly basic with the apps, as you can see. Apps to get news from, like Threads and Twitter. Slack for work. Superhuman for email.

I’ve totally moved over to Claude in the last few months thanks to Alex Kantrowitz evangelizing it to me constantly. So much so that I’ve canceled my OpenAI subscription. Tovala is a smart oven / meal plan company that I’ve been using religiously since the pandemic. Basically my lunch every single day is a Tovala meal. Jersey Mike’s finally came to Park Slope and so that’s also a meal go-to. I use Citi Bike once or twice a day.

The app that says “York” is interesting. That’s my subway stop for my office in Dumbo. This random dude made this thing that you can get at Nextstop.nyc. Basically, it gives you real-time train times for whatever subway stops you use all the time, and then you put an icon for that on your phone. IT. IS. AMAZING. It is insane that, 20 years into my living in NYC, it took this long for someone to do this right. “I’m about to leave the office, when is the next train? Should I leave now or wait five minutes?” Amazing.

I also asked Brian to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:

My kids and I are playing tons of Tiny Glade. “Relaxing” game that can also be super complex and sophisticated if you put in the time. It’s like Minecraft in that way, but with a sort of romanticist feel.
The book I’m obsessed with right now is Rick Atkinson’s The British Are Coming. I’ve read Rick’s other books about the US Army in World War II, but he has a new series about the American Army in the Revolutionary War. It’s amazing and detailed like all of Rick’s books, but full of stuff I didn’t know. Like, the battle of Lexington and Concord: oh, Paul Revere, the British go and try to shut down a weapons depot and the minutemen take potshots at them? Oh no. WAY more bloody than that. Like hundreds of people died on both sides. Savage fighting. Very interesting stuff. I’m almost to the Battle of Brooklyn and can’t wait.
I rewatched Miller’s Crossing a few nights ago, and god damn if that movie isn’t the most underrated and underseen of the whole Coen filmography.
I’m looking forward to the next book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series, which is coming next month: Wind and Truth. Even though the previous book in the series was pretty boring.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads.

“Superfan. A beautiful app to keep tabs on ongoing sports events and matches.” – Karan

“I’ve been using this little-known news app called Adarga Panoptic. Has this interesting take on the news where it’s provided through the lens of a person’s perspective rather than just headlines. Content is a bit limited, but with some added customization options, this could be a really cool way to see the news differently.” – Alen

“Scribe Notes. It’s like Whisper Memos but has more features. Sort of like Cleft but cheaper. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and I love it. Helps me get my scrambled thoughts and to-dos out of my head and into a place where I can make sense of them all.” – David

“Check out the Mobapad M6 HD for the Nintendo Switch! It’s a Joy-Con alternative that has ergonomic grips, Hall effect joysticks, and gyro and HD rumble. It essentially has every feature of the Joy-Cons, but they’re actually comfy to hold. The buttons are a little clicky, and the travel case is almost as bulky as my Steam Deck, but it’s definitely the most comfortable and feature-packed Joy-Con alternative I’ve found. I picked one up on a recent trip to Hong Kong, and it completely changed my Switch playing experience.” – Kevin

“I’ve been keeping an eye on an app called Openvibe. It’s able to aggregate your Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon (and Nostr, too, if you’re into that kind of thing) feeds into a single feed you can scroll. The home feed algorithm is hit or miss, but the trending feed is great, especially because it’s not something Mastodon or Bluesky have natively. Also, it lets you cross-post to all four networks for free!” – Drake

“Winter is looming, so I got myself a Zwift Ride smart bike for days when running outside just isn’t a great idea. Great hardware. The app feels older than it is, but the gamification kinda works. More fun than staring at the wall!” – Robert

“With *gestures around wildly* going on, I’m pouring less of my time into social media and more into a personal blog using a great service called Pika. It’s dead simple to set up and I love how barebones it is.” – Kaleb

“Started collecting sports cards, primarily NFL. It’s not something I’ve thought about since I was 14, but it has been a fun distraction. These are two great YouTube channels to get into: Market Movers and Sports Card Investor. And getting in on “breaks” on Whatnot, where you buy into a live box opening, is some fun entertainment.” – Travis

“I’ve been reading Richard II, which feels of a piece with the moment, and due to which I discovered how much more complicated sideloading a Gutenberg ebook to a Kindle is than it should be. The right format wasn’t the one labeled for Kindles!” – Jeanne

“I’ve been playing a lot of Maestro lately on my Quest 2. It’s such an amazing and immersive experience. If you ever wanted to feel like an orchestra conductor, this is as close as you can get (unless you’re an actual orchestra conductor, in which case, congrats, such a cool job!).” – Gonzalo

Signing off

So I have this Apple Watch. It’s fine, I like it, whatever, but I’d rather wear another watch. So I went down a YouTube rabbit hole: can you turn an Apple Watch into a standalone, pocketable device that works even when it’s not on your wrist? Turns out, you can! There are a lot of good ideas out there, but I’m basically just following the ideas in this video from Jose Briones. (I’m also intrigued by the TinyPod, but that one doesn’t seem to be very good.) I’m turning my Watch into basically a teeny-tiny iPod and backup communications device that I carry around like a pocket watch. It’s silly, but it’s fun. And it works!

See you in two weeks!

Read More 

Was anyone asking for this? | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

At the risk of stating the obvious, AI is absolutely everywhere lately. There’s AI in your car, AI in your messaging app, AI in your glasses. I’ve gotten pretty desensitized to it all as a hazard of the job, but it was Spotify’s AI DJ that actually got my attention.
I’ve listened to a top 40 radio station in the past two decades, so I’m familiar with the concept of a robot picking music for me. In that context, an AI DJ doesn’t seem like much of a stretch. But after using it on and off for a week, I’m convinced it’s the perfect analogy for our AI-everything moment. It’s eerily human, and it plays a lot of music I like. But take it from someone with access to a high-quality local indie radio station — one that employs human DJs! — there just ain’t nothing like the real thing.
Spotify’s AI DJ has been around since early 2023, but it piqued my interest recently when I was scrounging around the app looking for some work-friendly tunes. The AI voice greeted me by name, then after a little preamble, told me it had some “dream pop and neo-psychedelic waves” picked out. As the music started, I was annoyed at how extremely my shit it was. I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering that Spotify has nearly a decade’s worth of data on my musical listening habits. It drew on my previous listening for the next track, too: a song by Classixx, whose Hanging Gardens album I listened to on repeat last year. But while I listened to Hanging Gardens on Spotify, I didn’t discover it there. I heard it first on KEXP — a local station where real humans pick the music.

“DJ X” is represented by an animated green circle that moves as it talks.

Do I want to listen to Santigold? Yeah, but it’s more meaningful coming from a human curator.

See, here in Seattle, we’re extremely spoiled. In between the robot-programmed, conglomerate-owned stations, we have a real honest-to-god independent station on our radio dials: 90.3, to be precise. I started listening to KEXP through their online stream years before I moved to Seattle. Being a local has only made me more of a fan; I celebrated the opening of the “new” KEXP location in 2016 and saw one of my favorite bands play a free in-studio show there not long before they broke up. I’ve logged countless hours working on my laptop in the community gathering space. Being able to walk into my favorite radio station and just like, hang out, remains cool as hell all these years later. I wish every city in the country had a KEXP.
It’s not that I like everything that I hear on KEXP. “The Friday song” is banned in my house because my husband and I are both so sick of it. And as much as I’ve tried, I can’t get into Wet Leg. It’s a me problem. But that’s kind of the point of a radio station, isn’t it? You hear some stuff you like and some stuff you’re not as into. Maybe you hear a song you forgot about but love or a band you dig that you’ve never heard before. It’s a well-rounded meal, while an AI-curated set feels like a dessert buffet. It’s all the stuff you love, and it’s great at first, but then it gives you a stomach ache after a while.
It hits different than when it comes from an algorithm
In the era of Spotify algorithms and top 40 stations, a DJ might seem like an abstract concept. But KEXP’s DJs are very much real people that I see out in the community, emceeing local music festivals and shopping at the co-op grocery store. It’s an obvious but crucial difference. When a real human plays a song you really like because they really like it, too, it hits different than when it comes from an algorithm.
Being on air and sharing music is “a way of connection with thousands of people across the world,” says Evie Stokes, DJ and host of KEXP’s Drive Time. “It’s a great way for me to be honest and have accountability and community that I think we so desperately need.”
Her connection to the audience is built through and alongside the music; Stokes has shared her journey into sobriety with her listeners. “Every time I talk about it on air… I get an influx of messages from folks who are going through similar paths in their life.” That connection simply can’t exist when the only thing running the station is a robot.
One of the downsides of being employed as a writer is that it’s basically impossible for me to listen to the radio while I work. I can’t write to songs with lyrics, and I definitely can’t write while a DJ is talking. So I turn to Spotify a lot during the workday, and I’ve listened to plenty of “lofi” and “smooth jazz beats” playlists while blogging. I’ve used another of Spotify’s AI features, too: AI-created playlists. For the purpose, they’re fine. Best of all, there’s no pretense that a human is picking the music for me. I tell the computer what mood I’m in, and it assembles a playlist of tunes that fit the assignment.
If nothing else, the AI DJ is a kind of totem of the particular AI moment we’re in. Generative AI is buzzy, and tech companies are busy shoving it into every corner of every product they make, whether it has any business being there or not. There’s plenty of stuff AI can do and probably will do for us in the near future. But standing in for a real human, especially in creative applications, isn’t one of them. Take it from the Polish radio station that tried — and failed spectacularly — to replace its human presenters with AI characters.
A podcast is just humans talking to each other
Does anyone actually want an AI DJ calling them by name? Does anybody want an AI-generated DM from their favorite creator? Does anyone want to have a Zoom meeting with your AI avatar? Maybe, but I think the tech executives pushing for more of this stuff are vastly overestimating this demand and underestimating the value that a real human brings to an exchange. People want to listen to podcasts, for Christ’s sake. A podcast is just humans talking to each other. Conceptually, listening to a podcast is about as advanced as gathering round the radio for your favorite program like people did a hundred years ago. Some things are constants.
On the day I started listening to the Spotify AI DJ, I got in the car that afternoon to pick my kid up from daycare. DJ Riz was hosting Drive Time on KEXP, and the first thing I heard him play was “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” by Lesley Gore, released in 1963. It’s a bop that’s as syrupy-sweet as the candy in its title. Riz followed that up with Love from Mos Def’s 1999 album Black on Both Sides. I’m sure I wouldn’t have listened to either of those songs on my own that afternoon, let alone back to back. But it worked, and the juxtaposition made me smile. You just don’t get that kind of thing from AI.

Was anyone asking for this? | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

At the risk of stating the obvious, AI is absolutely everywhere lately. There’s AI in your car, AI in your messaging app, AI in your glasses. I’ve gotten pretty desensitized to it all as a hazard of the job, but it was Spotify’s AI DJ that actually got my attention.

I’ve listened to a top 40 radio station in the past two decades, so I’m familiar with the concept of a robot picking music for me. In that context, an AI DJ doesn’t seem like much of a stretch. But after using it on and off for a week, I’m convinced it’s the perfect analogy for our AI-everything moment. It’s eerily human, and it plays a lot of music I like. But take it from someone with access to a high-quality local indie radio station — one that employs human DJs! — there just ain’t nothing like the real thing.

Spotify’s AI DJ has been around since early 2023, but it piqued my interest recently when I was scrounging around the app looking for some work-friendly tunes. The AI voice greeted me by name, then after a little preamble, told me it had some “dream pop and neo-psychedelic waves” picked out. As the music started, I was annoyed at how extremely my shit it was. I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering that Spotify has nearly a decade’s worth of data on my musical listening habits. It drew on my previous listening for the next track, too: a song by Classixx, whose Hanging Gardens album I listened to on repeat last year. But while I listened to Hanging Gardens on Spotify, I didn’t discover it there. I heard it first on KEXP — a local station where real humans pick the music.

See, here in Seattle, we’re extremely spoiled. In between the robot-programmed, conglomerate-owned stations, we have a real honest-to-god independent station on our radio dials: 90.3, to be precise. I started listening to KEXP through their online stream years before I moved to Seattle. Being a local has only made me more of a fan; I celebrated the opening of the “new” KEXP location in 2016 and saw one of my favorite bands play a free in-studio show there not long before they broke up. I’ve logged countless hours working on my laptop in the community gathering space. Being able to walk into my favorite radio station and just like, hang out, remains cool as hell all these years later. I wish every city in the country had a KEXP.

It’s not that I like everything that I hear on KEXP. “The Friday song” is banned in my house because my husband and I are both so sick of it. And as much as I’ve tried, I can’t get into Wet Leg. It’s a me problem. But that’s kind of the point of a radio station, isn’t it? You hear some stuff you like and some stuff you’re not as into. Maybe you hear a song you forgot about but love or a band you dig that you’ve never heard before. It’s a well-rounded meal, while an AI-curated set feels like a dessert buffet. It’s all the stuff you love, and it’s great at first, but then it gives you a stomach ache after a while.

In the era of Spotify algorithms and top 40 stations, a DJ might seem like an abstract concept. But KEXP’s DJs are very much real people that I see out in the community, emceeing local music festivals and shopping at the co-op grocery store. It’s an obvious but crucial difference. When a real human plays a song you really like because they really like it, too, it hits different than when it comes from an algorithm.

Being on air and sharing music is “a way of connection with thousands of people across the world,” says Evie Stokes, DJ and host of KEXP’s Drive Time. “It’s a great way for me to be honest and have accountability and community that I think we so desperately need.”

Her connection to the audience is built through and alongside the music; Stokes has shared her journey into sobriety with her listeners. “Every time I talk about it on air… I get an influx of messages from folks who are going through similar paths in their life.” That connection simply can’t exist when the only thing running the station is a robot.

One of the downsides of being employed as a writer is that it’s basically impossible for me to listen to the radio while I work. I can’t write to songs with lyrics, and I definitely can’t write while a DJ is talking. So I turn to Spotify a lot during the workday, and I’ve listened to plenty of “lofi” and “smooth jazz beats” playlists while blogging. I’ve used another of Spotify’s AI features, too: AI-created playlists. For the purpose, they’re fine. Best of all, there’s no pretense that a human is picking the music for me. I tell the computer what mood I’m in, and it assembles a playlist of tunes that fit the assignment.

If nothing else, the AI DJ is a kind of totem of the particular AI moment we’re in. Generative AI is buzzy, and tech companies are busy shoving it into every corner of every product they make, whether it has any business being there or not. There’s plenty of stuff AI can do and probably will do for us in the near future. But standing in for a real human, especially in creative applications, isn’t one of them. Take it from the Polish radio station that tried — and failed spectacularly — to replace its human presenters with AI characters.

Does anyone actually want an AI DJ calling them by name? Does anybody want an AI-generated DM from their favorite creator? Does anyone want to have a Zoom meeting with your AI avatar? Maybe, but I think the tech executives pushing for more of this stuff are vastly overestimating this demand and underestimating the value that a real human brings to an exchange. People want to listen to podcasts, for Christ’s sake. A podcast is just humans talking to each other. Conceptually, listening to a podcast is about as advanced as gathering round the radio for your favorite program like people did a hundred years ago. Some things are constants.

On the day I started listening to the Spotify AI DJ, I got in the car that afternoon to pick my kid up from daycare. DJ Riz was hosting Drive Time on KEXP, and the first thing I heard him play was “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” by Lesley Gore, released in 1963. It’s a bop that’s as syrupy-sweet as the candy in its title. Riz followed that up with Love from Mos Def’s 1999 album Black on Both Sides. I’m sure I wouldn’t have listened to either of those songs on my own that afternoon, let alone back to back. But it worked, and the juxtaposition made me smile. You just don’t get that kind of thing from AI.

Read More 

Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World. | Screenshot: YouTube

General — er, President — Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) gets a lot bigger and redder in the new Captain America: Brave New World trailer that Marvel debuted at Disney’s D23 Brazil event. The company also released a second trailer for Thunderbolts, the new superhero team movie that will end the MCU’s phase 5.
The Brave New World preview opens on Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) visiting one of the first supersoldiers, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), in prison after his attack on the president. Isaiah, who doesn’t seem to remember the attack, warns Sam to “be careful.”
The trailer then sets up some heavy tension and intrigue, using a fun splitscreen theme to build to a much more thorough reveal of Ross’ Red Hulk than Marvel did in July. Although it leaves the feeling that he’s the movie’s main villain, it also suggests there’s much more to the story than just “Sam fights a Hulk.” Captain America: Brave New World hits theaters on February 14th.

Then there’s the nearly four-minute-long “special look” at Thunderbolts, which offers more of the Thunderbolts working as an actual team, assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) as a super-powered task force of flawed anti-heroes.
The movie’s other main characters include Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ava Starr / Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian (David Harbour), Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and John Walker / US Agent (Wyatt Russell). Oh, and Bob (Lewis Pullman), who seems like just a guy until you see him, injury-free despite a shirt that looks like it’s full of bullet holes that might have come from the dozen or so people pointing guns at him.
Thunderbolts comes out on May 2nd.

Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World. | Screenshot: YouTube

General — er, President — Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) gets a lot bigger and redder in the new Captain America: Brave New World trailer that Marvel debuted at Disney’s D23 Brazil event. The company also released a second trailer for Thunderbolts, the new superhero team movie that will end the MCU’s phase 5.

The Brave New World preview opens on Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) visiting one of the first supersoldiers, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), in prison after his attack on the president. Isaiah, who doesn’t seem to remember the attack, warns Sam to “be careful.”

The trailer then sets up some heavy tension and intrigue, using a fun splitscreen theme to build to a much more thorough reveal of Ross’ Red Hulk than Marvel did in July. Although it leaves the feeling that he’s the movie’s main villain, it also suggests there’s much more to the story than just “Sam fights a Hulk.” Captain America: Brave New World hits theaters on February 14th.

Then there’s the nearly four-minute-long “special look” at Thunderbolts, which offers more of the Thunderbolts working as an actual team, assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) as a super-powered task force of flawed anti-heroes.

The movie’s other main characters include Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ava Starr / Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian (David Harbour), Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and John Walker / US Agent (Wyatt Russell). Oh, and Bob (Lewis Pullman), who seems like just a guy until you see him, injury-free despite a shirt that looks like it’s full of bullet holes that might have come from the dozen or so people pointing guns at him.

Thunderbolts comes out on May 2nd.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reviews of Intel’s new Arrow Lake-based Core Ultra 9 200S-series processor have been lackluster, specifically when it comes to gaming performance, but Intel says that’s not the end of the story. Its new chips should be performing better, and the company will have an ETA on getting them there soon, according to Robert Hallock, Intel’s VP and GM of client AI and technical marketing, in a new interview with HotHardware’s Dave Altavilla and Marco Chiappetta.
Intel was up-front in saying these new chips wouldn’t beat AMD’s chips for gaming. But reviewers’ findings have been unexpectedly poor. Despite some efficiency gains like those noted in Tom Warren’s Verge review of the Core Ultra 9 285K, the new chip seems to lag behind even Intel’s earlier Raptor Lake chips. That’s to say nothing of its performance versus AMD’s very good Ryzen 9800X3D.

Intel’s Arrow Lake chips’ “bones are solid,” Hallock said during the interview. Still, the company has identified factors “that can combine to produce some pretty wild unintended effects.” Hallock was also clear that the new Arrow Lake performance issues are strictly Intel’s responsibility, and not the fault of Microsoft or anyone else.
As for when Intel will provide an ETA on fixes, Hallock said Intel hopes to give a “comprehensive update” on what the chip’s issues are and what’s causing them by the end of November or early December. The good news is that the fix will be easy, according to Hallock, who called it a “flash the BIOS and update Windows kinda situation.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reviews of Intel’s new Arrow Lake-based Core Ultra 9 200S-series processor have been lackluster, specifically when it comes to gaming performance, but Intel says that’s not the end of the story. Its new chips should be performing better, and the company will have an ETA on getting them there soon, according to Robert Hallock, Intel’s VP and GM of client AI and technical marketing, in a new interview with HotHardware’s Dave Altavilla and Marco Chiappetta.

Intel was up-front in saying these new chips wouldn’t beat AMD’s chips for gaming. But reviewers’ findings have been unexpectedly poor. Despite some efficiency gains like those noted in Tom Warren’s Verge review of the Core Ultra 9 285K, the new chip seems to lag behind even Intel’s earlier Raptor Lake chips. That’s to say nothing of its performance versus AMD’s very good Ryzen 9800X3D.

Intel’s Arrow Lake chips’ “bones are solid,” Hallock said during the interview. Still, the company has identified factors “that can combine to produce some pretty wild unintended effects.” Hallock was also clear that the new Arrow Lake performance issues are strictly Intel’s responsibility, and not the fault of Microsoft or anyone else.

As for when Intel will provide an ETA on fixes, Hallock said Intel hopes to give a “comprehensive update” on what the chip’s issues are and what’s causing them by the end of November or early December. The good news is that the fix will be easy, according to Hallock, who called it a “flash the BIOS and update Windows kinda situation.”

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

There is an apparently new iOS 18 security feature that reboots iPhones that haven’t been unlocked in a few days, frustrating police by making it harder to break into suspects’ iPhones, according to 404 Media.
404 Media, which first reported police warnings about the reboots on Thursday, writes that restarted iPhones enter a more secure “Before First Unlock,” or BFU state. Now, it seems Apple added “inactivity reboot” code in iOS 18.1 that triggers iPhones to restart after they’ve been locked for four days, Chris Wade, who founded mobile analysis company Corellium, told the outlet.
The code appears below in screenshots posted by Dr. -Ing. Jiska Classen, a Hasso Plattner Institute research group leader.

Apple indeed added a feature called “inactivity reboot” in iOS 18.1. This is implemented in keybagd and the AppleSEPKeyStore kernel extension. It seems to have nothing to do with phone/wireless network state. Keystore is used when unlocking the device.https://t.co/ONZuU9zVt2 https://t.co/4ORUqR6P6N pic.twitter.com/O3jijuqpN0— Jiska (@naehrdine) November 8, 2024

Both iOS and Android devices enter this BFU state when they’re restarted, requiring you to enter your passcode (or PIN) to unlock your phone, limiting what sort of data forensics experts can extract, according to a blog post from Dakota State University’s digital forensics lab.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. The company has steadily made iPhones harder to compromise over the years, putting it at odds with law enforcement and raising the specter of government regulations requiring encryption backdoors. Apple has repeatedly resisted authorities’ requests to create backdoors, although that hasn’t stopped law enforcement from finding its own workarounds.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

There is an apparently new iOS 18 security feature that reboots iPhones that haven’t been unlocked in a few days, frustrating police by making it harder to break into suspects’ iPhones, according to 404 Media.

404 Media, which first reported police warnings about the reboots on Thursday, writes that restarted iPhones enter a more secure “Before First Unlock,” or BFU state. Now, it seems Apple added “inactivity reboot” code in iOS 18.1 that triggers iPhones to restart after they’ve been locked for four days, Chris Wade, who founded mobile analysis company Corellium, told the outlet.

The code appears below in screenshots posted by Dr. -Ing. Jiska Classen, a Hasso Plattner Institute research group leader.

Both iOS and Android devices enter this BFU state when they’re restarted, requiring you to enter your passcode (or PIN) to unlock your phone, limiting what sort of data forensics experts can extract, according to a blog post from Dakota State University’s digital forensics lab.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. The company has steadily made iPhones harder to compromise over the years, putting it at odds with law enforcement and raising the specter of government regulations requiring encryption backdoors. Apple has repeatedly resisted authorities’ requests to create backdoors, although that hasn’t stopped law enforcement from finding its own workarounds.

Read More 

Seagate’s proprietary storage solution ain’t cheap, but it remains the easiest way to outfit your Series / X with additional space. | Image: Seagate

Black Friday won’t be here for several more weeks, but the holiday promos are beginning to take shape at Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers. We expect to see steep discounts on a number of gaming goods when many of the early sales kick off next week, but if you want to shop ahead of time, Seagate’s 2TB Storage Expansion Card for the Xbox Series X / S is already matching its all-time low of $199.99 ($160 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Seagate’s online storefront.

While pricey, Seagate’s proprietary expansion cards are a great way to expand the storage capacity of your Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. The NVMe-based, Microsoft-licensed cards — of which there are currently two — are incredibly easy to install, fast, and allow you to run games as if they were loaded on your console’s internal memory. That means they support Microsoft’s Quick Resume function and prevent you from having to shuffle downloads around, which you’d have to do if you were to purchase a USB-based external hard drive (those are limited to playing backward-compatible games).
Understandably, Sony’s approach to expandable storage, which lets PlayStation 5 owners upgrade their console with any PS5-compatible M.2 SSD, is still far more inviting. But Seagate’s proprietary option has been coming down in price since the introduction of Western Digital’s WD_Black C50, and Seagate’s 2TB model is far easier to stomach now than with its original starting price of $399.99. Here’s hoping the current price drop is a sign of steeper cuts to come.

Other deals and discounts of note

Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 are on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Wellbots for an all-time low of $179 ($50 off), with the latter retailer offering an additional $10 off when you use offer code VERGEBF60 at checkout. They’re a pretty notable step up from the prior model — particularly if you use a Pixel phone — with a smaller build, an excellent transparency mode, and some of the best battery life you can get in a pair of noise-canceling earbuds. Read our review.

Nomad is running an early Black Friday sale through the end of today, November 9th, allowing you to save 20 percent on a variety of accessories when you use coupon code EARLY20. The promo applies to a few Verge favorites, including the Traditional Leather Case for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max ($12 off) and a selection of Apple Watch Sport Bands ($12 off), along with the Nomad Stand One ($22 off). The latter isn’t as capable as the Stand One Max, but it still offers up to 15W MagSafe speeds and an ultra-premium design made of metal and glass. Read our Stand One review.
In some ways, the best Fitbit you can buy is actually the Google Pixel Watch 3. The Fitbit Charge 6 isn’t a bad alternative for fitness tracking, though, especially since it’s fallen to $99.95 ($100 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. The high-end band features a color OLED screen and a solid suite of fitness-tracking tools, plus EKG, EDA, and SpO2 sensors. It also offers turn-by-turn navigation via Google Maps and a haptic side button, one that’s far better than the inductive groove on the previous model. Read our review.

Seagate’s proprietary storage solution ain’t cheap, but it remains the easiest way to outfit your Series / X with additional space. | Image: Seagate

Black Friday won’t be here for several more weeks, but the holiday promos are beginning to take shape at Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers. We expect to see steep discounts on a number of gaming goods when many of the early sales kick off next week, but if you want to shop ahead of time, Seagate’s 2TB Storage Expansion Card for the Xbox Series X / S is already matching its all-time low of $199.99 ($160 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Seagate’s online storefront.

While pricey, Seagate’s proprietary expansion cards are a great way to expand the storage capacity of your Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. The NVMe-based, Microsoft-licensed cards — of which there are currently two — are incredibly easy to install, fast, and allow you to run games as if they were loaded on your console’s internal memory. That means they support Microsoft’s Quick Resume function and prevent you from having to shuffle downloads around, which you’d have to do if you were to purchase a USB-based external hard drive (those are limited to playing backward-compatible games).

Understandably, Sony’s approach to expandable storage, which lets PlayStation 5 owners upgrade their console with any PS5-compatible M.2 SSD, is still far more inviting. But Seagate’s proprietary option has been coming down in price since the introduction of Western Digital’s WD_Black C50, and Seagate’s 2TB model is far easier to stomach now than with its original starting price of $399.99. Here’s hoping the current price drop is a sign of steeper cuts to come.

Other deals and discounts of note

Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 are on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Wellbots for an all-time low of $179 ($50 off), with the latter retailer offering an additional $10 off when you use offer code VERGEBF60 at checkout. They’re a pretty notable step up from the prior model — particularly if you use a Pixel phone — with a smaller build, an excellent transparency mode, and some of the best battery life you can get in a pair of noise-canceling earbuds. Read our review.

Nomad is running an early Black Friday sale through the end of today, November 9th, allowing you to save 20 percent on a variety of accessories when you use coupon code EARLY20. The promo applies to a few Verge favorites, including the Traditional Leather Case for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max ($12 off) and a selection of Apple Watch Sport Bands ($12 off), along with the Nomad Stand One ($22 off). The latter isn’t as capable as the Stand One Max, but it still offers up to 15W MagSafe speeds and an ultra-premium design made of metal and glass. Read our Stand One review.
In some ways, the best Fitbit you can buy is actually the Google Pixel Watch 3. The Fitbit Charge 6 isn’t a bad alternative for fitness tracking, though, especially since it’s fallen to $99.95 ($100 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. The high-end band features a color OLED screen and a solid suite of fitness-tracking tools, plus EKG, EDA, and SpO2 sensors. It also offers turn-by-turn navigation via Google Maps and a haptic side button, one that’s far better than the inductive groove on the previous model. Read our review.

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Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Google Photos continues to get new and improved features on a regular basis, and one of the most recent Android updates has focused on video editing. Even if you don’t have the latest Pixel 9 phone (which is required if you want to try out the weird new Reimagine tool), you can now speed up, slow down, and enhance your clips with a few taps as well as trim them down more easily.
You can also expect what Google calls “AI-powered video presets” on both the Android and iOS versions of Google Photos. After the app algorithm analyzes your clips, you get a choice of effects — trims, zooms, slow-mos — you can apply with a tap. The app takes the role of director and chooses where and how these tweaks should be applied.
When the changes arrive on your phone, you’ll also notice the interface is a little cleaner, with larger icons and bigger text that make it more obvious what you’re doing. The idea is it’s more straightforward than ever to quickly apply a few edits before sharing your clips, without having to open up a separate editor on your phone or computer.
Trim tool
First up, we have what Google describes as “improved controls” for cutting out extraneous footage at the start and end of your clips — though, to my eyes, there’s not a huge amount that’s different here compared to the previous version of the trim tool.
The handles at each end of the clip are a little bigger and thicker, making them easier to hit with a finger press. You also get a timestamp shown onscreen as you drag those handles around, so overall, the edits are a little easier to apply.
The trim tool shows up automatically as soon as you edit a video, and you can get back to it by tapping the Video button.

Drag the left-hand handle to change where the video starts.
Drag the right-hand handle to change the video’s end point.
Drag the white bar between the two handles to move around the clip.
Tap the play button at any point to check your new footage.
Choose Save copy to confirm your changes and save a separate clip.

Screenshot: Google
The trim tool has a new look.

Screenshot: Google
You can toggle the auto-enhancement changes on and off.

Auto-enhance tool
Google Photos now has a new auto-enhance feature you can access, which analyzes your clip and then applies its own choice of color enhancements, while stabilizing the video at the same time.

Tap Video then Enhance to apply the automatic enhancements.
Tap the play button to see how the updated footage looks.
Tap Enhance again to see the difference with and without the tweaks.
Choose Save copy to save the enhanced video as a separate file.

If you’d rather apply the video stabilization without the color enhancements, just tap Stabilize on the Video panel of tools instead.
Speed tool

Screenshot: Google
Speed up or slow down your footage.

The new speed tool in Google Photos gives you more control over the pace of your videos for speeding up and slowing down the action. The effect can be applied to a specific section of your clip or all of it.

Tap Video and then Speed to bring up the editor.
Use the bars on the timeline to indicate where you want the effect to start and stop.
Choose a playback speed under the timeline: from 1/4 speed to 4x the speed.
Tap the play button to see how the video now looks.
Choose Done, then Save copy when you’re happy with the results, to save a separate video file.

It’s not the most advanced video editing effect you’ll ever see, but considering it only takes a couple of taps on your phone screen, you can get some impressive results from it.
Video presets

GIF: Google
AI-powered presets make editing easier.

Unlike the tools above, which are exclusive to Android, the AI-powered video presets are available in Google Photos for both Android and iOS. Or at least, they will be eventually — though they were announced in September, as of this writing, I haven’t yet seen the presets in the Google Photos apps on either platform.
When they do appear, the Presets button will appear between Video and Crop in the options at the bottom of the interface. Select it, and you’ll see a choice of edits you can apply with a tap: Basic cut, Slow-mo, Zoom, and Track. These will be applied as the Google Photos AI sees fit based on the video content.
The example Google gives is a skateboard video, with the action trimmed right down to a key jump, which is also slowed down. Color enhancements are applied at the same time for good measure. As before, you can preview the changes, then tap Save copy to accept the changes and save a new video file, leaving the original untouched.

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Google Photos continues to get new and improved features on a regular basis, and one of the most recent Android updates has focused on video editing. Even if you don’t have the latest Pixel 9 phone (which is required if you want to try out the weird new Reimagine tool), you can now speed up, slow down, and enhance your clips with a few taps as well as trim them down more easily.

You can also expect what Google calls “AI-powered video presets” on both the Android and iOS versions of Google Photos. After the app algorithm analyzes your clips, you get a choice of effects — trims, zooms, slow-mos — you can apply with a tap. The app takes the role of director and chooses where and how these tweaks should be applied.

When the changes arrive on your phone, you’ll also notice the interface is a little cleaner, with larger icons and bigger text that make it more obvious what you’re doing. The idea is it’s more straightforward than ever to quickly apply a few edits before sharing your clips, without having to open up a separate editor on your phone or computer.

Trim tool

First up, we have what Google describes as “improved controls” for cutting out extraneous footage at the start and end of your clips — though, to my eyes, there’s not a huge amount that’s different here compared to the previous version of the trim tool.

The handles at each end of the clip are a little bigger and thicker, making them easier to hit with a finger press. You also get a timestamp shown onscreen as you drag those handles around, so overall, the edits are a little easier to apply.

The trim tool shows up automatically as soon as you edit a video, and you can get back to it by tapping the Video button.

Drag the left-hand handle to change where the video starts.
Drag the right-hand handle to change the video’s end point.
Drag the white bar between the two handles to move around the clip.
Tap the play button at any point to check your new footage.
Choose Save copy to confirm your changes and save a separate clip.

Auto-enhance tool

Google Photos now has a new auto-enhance feature you can access, which analyzes your clip and then applies its own choice of color enhancements, while stabilizing the video at the same time.

Tap Video then Enhance to apply the automatic enhancements.
Tap the play button to see how the updated footage looks.
Tap Enhance again to see the difference with and without the tweaks.
Choose Save copy to save the enhanced video as a separate file.

If you’d rather apply the video stabilization without the color enhancements, just tap Stabilize on the Video panel of tools instead.

Speed tool

The new speed tool in Google Photos gives you more control over the pace of your videos for speeding up and slowing down the action. The effect can be applied to a specific section of your clip or all of it.

Tap Video and then Speed to bring up the editor.
Use the bars on the timeline to indicate where you want the effect to start and stop.
Choose a playback speed under the timeline: from 1/4 speed to 4x the speed.
Tap the play button to see how the video now looks.
Choose Done, then Save copy when you’re happy with the results, to save a separate video file.

It’s not the most advanced video editing effect you’ll ever see, but considering it only takes a couple of taps on your phone screen, you can get some impressive results from it.

Video presets

GIF: Google
AI-powered presets make editing easier.

Unlike the tools above, which are exclusive to Android, the AI-powered video presets are available in Google Photos for both Android and iOS. Or at least, they will be eventually — though they were announced in September, as of this writing, I haven’t yet seen the presets in the Google Photos apps on either platform.

When they do appear, the Presets button will appear between Video and Crop in the options at the bottom of the interface. Select it, and you’ll see a choice of edits you can apply with a tap: Basic cut, Slow-mo, Zoom, and Track. These will be applied as the Google Photos AI sees fit based on the video content.

The example Google gives is a skateboard video, with the action trimmed right down to a key jump, which is also slowed down. Color enhancements are applied at the same time for good measure. As before, you can preview the changes, then tap Save copy to accept the changes and save a new video file, leaving the original untouched.

Read More 

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge

You know that thing where, just after you’ve opened Instagram and become invested in whatever video was already loaded, a new video pops in and seemingly yeets the old video into the void, never to be seen again? That’s a thing of the past, according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who says in an AMA from his Instagram Story yesterday that the app now waits for you to scroll to show you the new stuff.
That behavior — which Instagram apparently called “rug pull” internally — wasn’t just some weird bug. Mosseri says the app did it “because we were trying to load new content, and it was taking a while, so we showed you something that was already downloaded in the meantime, and it is generally good for engagement.”
But that’s “really annoying,” he acknowledges, “so we stopped doing it.”

Instagram has taken “a little bit of an engagement hit for this,” Mosseri concludes, saying it’s a much better experience for those of us using the app.
Agreed.

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge

You know that thing where, just after you’ve opened Instagram and become invested in whatever video was already loaded, a new video pops in and seemingly yeets the old video into the void, never to be seen again? That’s a thing of the past, according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who says in an AMA from his Instagram Story yesterday that the app now waits for you to scroll to show you the new stuff.

That behavior — which Instagram apparently called “rug pull” internally — wasn’t just some weird bug. Mosseri says the app did it “because we were trying to load new content, and it was taking a while, so we showed you something that was already downloaded in the meantime, and it is generally good for engagement.”

But that’s “really annoying,” he acknowledges, “so we stopped doing it.”

Instagram has taken “a little bit of an engagement hit for this,” Mosseri concludes, saying it’s a much better experience for those of us using the app.

Agreed.

Read More 

This walking pad was supposed to help me relieve stress. Then I overcomplicated it.

I became so mired in the smart features, I forgot to walk. 2024 has been a stressful year. Other people might pick more relaxing ways to de-stress — a spa day, a nice cocktail, or maybe a social media detox. Not me, baby. I’ve decided to cope the same way I always do: ramping up training instead of stress eating my weight in mini-muffins. Except it’s unreasonable to abandon my desk and run a 5K every time the news cycle spikes my anxiety. Which is why, for the last three months, I’ve taken to logging miles on a desk treadmill. Specifically, the $240 Mobvoi Home Walking Treadmill.
As an overly self-quantified wearables reviewer, I picked Mobvoi’s walking treadmill for one reason and one reason only: it pairs with a smartwatch so all your steps are properly counted.
My beef with treadmills — especially ones you stick under a standing desk — is that you can walk 500 miles on them but your smartwatch will record maybe 100 steps. Your legs could be working overtime, but smartwatches rely on arm swings to count steps. I know because anytime I write and walk at the same time, my Apple Watch says I’ve done diddly squat. And that’s even when I record an indoor walking session. No one needs to record every little step, but it helps me keep track of my workout volume and intensity.

I chose Mobvoi’s desk treadmill because it connects with smartwatches.

Many folks get around that by strapping a smartwatch to their ankle. I refuse. Not only because I’ve tried it and found it uncomfortable but also because fitness tracking algorithms and sensors are all programmed and tested for your arm. Treadmill walk data becomes useless to me, a wearables reviewer, if I can’t trust that data to be accurate.
That’s where Mobvoi’s treadmill comes in. You can download the Mobvoi Treadmill app from the Google Play Store onto any Android smartwatch. (I used it with Mobvoi’s TicWatch Atlas and Samsung’s Galaxy Watches.) It connects to the walking pad when you turn it on. And voila. Your metrics are right there on your wrist — even if your arms are limp as you’re typing an email. It’s pretty accurate, too! There aren’t any extra sensors, but once connected to the app, it allows the device to share data with your watch. I noticed that meant my Android watches would correctly register my subtler movements as steps. My Oura Ring and Apple Watch didn’t.
Problem solved! Or, it would’ve been if I were a devoted Mobvoi user. But alas, even this simple walking pad can’t escape gadget ecosystems.

But since you can also view stats on this display… technically you don’t need the smartwatch bit.

For whatever reason, Apple Watch users are out of luck, as the Mobvoi Treadmill app isn’t available in Apple’s App Store. To view your live stats via the wrist, you must have an Android smartwatch. I don’t love that, and it’s a little baffling considering all this does is connect the walking pad and your watch over Bluetooth. Fortunately, I spend a good chunk of the year testing Wear OS watches and don’t care about having two phones and wearing two smartwatches at all times. But that’s not most people, and for regular iPhone users, this is a nonstarter. I asked Mobvoi if an iOS version would ever arrive but didn’t hear back.
Somehow, getting your phone to actually save that data is even more of a headache. If you have a Mobvoi watch, there’s no problem. Workouts recorded in the Mobvoi Treadmill app automatically pop up in the separate Mobvoi Health app on your phone. But the Mobvoi Health app only works with Mobvoi watches. If you use any other kind of Android smartwatch, you can’t actually log the treadmill data into whatever health app you keep on your phone. The data is just stuck on your wrist.
Things like this are why people pick one ecosystem and stick with it. During testing, I fixated on how to get all my walking pad data onto my iPhone — the device where most of my health data is stored. Thinking through all the ways to get my data off Android and into Apple’s Health and Fitness apps was so exhausting, it made me not want to use the walking pad at all. There were weeks when I let it collect dust in my office because I didn’t want to use it if I wasn’t getting credit for it. And getting that credit was too much work.

This is my preferred turtle speed for walking while working.

At this point, I had to take a good hard look in the mirror. The whole point was to use this device to relieve stress. Instead, all I’d done was overcomplicate a walking pad. I ended up anxious and dreading my imperfect, messy metrics. I was so concerned about doing something “the right way” that I ended up not doing it at all. Looking back, I’ll be the first person to tell you that’s absurd. And yet, I’ve also been part of enough running and fitness communities to know that this is a common trap that even the best of us fall into.
My experience improved once I chucked the smartwatches into a drawer. I accepted my step counts wouldn’t be accurate and that my training algorithms across a dozen wearable platforms would be slightly off. I actually stopped recording my walks on every single platform altogether. As a result, my mental health improved, and I take far more walks now. My life isn’t any less stressful — I just have more endorphins, but that’s enough to make me more resilient.
Once I stopped caring about the data, I was free to figure out how to use the walking pad meaningfully. A lifelong overachiever, I started out trying to walk and work at 2.5mph to make it “worth it.” Imagine my surprised Pikachu face learning it’s quite difficult to walk at a brisk pace and write emails or even read because you’re bobbing up and down. And sweaty. Eventually, I accepted that my desk walks don’t have to be fast and found a turtle-like speed that works. (I’ve written most of this review at a 0.6mph pace.)

Turns out, ignoring the smart features and tracking helped me walk more.

On mornings when the caffeine just isn’t hitting, a 20-minute walk usually jogs my shriveled brain cells while I catch up on the news. When something just isn’t working in a draft, walking while reading my sentences helps enormously. I’ve also noticed how my body becomes so stiff when I’m frustrated, anxious, angry, or full of dread. Hopping on a walking pad for a ploddingly slow 10 minutes is always enough to loosen me up — even if my step count isn’t impressive.
I highly recommend a walking pad if you, too, often experience existential dread and anxiety. Just maybe not this exact one. It’s funny. I picked Mobvoi’s treadmill precisely because it had the bells and whistles. But at the end of the day, all the extra connectivity, the data, and the “smarts” got in my way. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is remember why you’re doing something, zero in on it, and cut out the extra noise.

This walking pad was supposed to help me relieve stress. Then I overcomplicated it.

I became so mired in the smart features, I forgot to walk.

2024 has been a stressful year. Other people might pick more relaxing ways to de-stress — a spa day, a nice cocktail, or maybe a social media detox. Not me, baby. I’ve decided to cope the same way I always do: ramping up training instead of stress eating my weight in mini-muffins. Except it’s unreasonable to abandon my desk and run a 5K every time the news cycle spikes my anxiety. Which is why, for the last three months, I’ve taken to logging miles on a desk treadmill. Specifically, the $240 Mobvoi Home Walking Treadmill.

As an overly self-quantified wearables reviewer, I picked Mobvoi’s walking treadmill for one reason and one reason only: it pairs with a smartwatch so all your steps are properly counted.

My beef with treadmills — especially ones you stick under a standing desk — is that you can walk 500 miles on them but your smartwatch will record maybe 100 steps. Your legs could be working overtime, but smartwatches rely on arm swings to count steps. I know because anytime I write and walk at the same time, my Apple Watch says I’ve done diddly squat. And that’s even when I record an indoor walking session. No one needs to record every little step, but it helps me keep track of my workout volume and intensity.

Many folks get around that by strapping a smartwatch to their ankle. I refuse. Not only because I’ve tried it and found it uncomfortable but also because fitness tracking algorithms and sensors are all programmed and tested for your arm. Treadmill walk data becomes useless to me, a wearables reviewer, if I can’t trust that data to be accurate.

That’s where Mobvoi’s treadmill comes in. You can download the Mobvoi Treadmill app from the Google Play Store onto any Android smartwatch. (I used it with Mobvoi’s TicWatch Atlas and Samsung’s Galaxy Watches.) It connects to the walking pad when you turn it on. And voila. Your metrics are right there on your wrist — even if your arms are limp as you’re typing an email. It’s pretty accurate, too! There aren’t any extra sensors, but once connected to the app, it allows the device to share data with your watch. I noticed that meant my Android watches would correctly register my subtler movements as steps. My Oura Ring and Apple Watch didn’t.

Problem solved! Or, it would’ve been if I were a devoted Mobvoi user. But alas, even this simple walking pad can’t escape gadget ecosystems.

But since you can also view stats on this display… technically you don’t need the smartwatch bit.

For whatever reason, Apple Watch users are out of luck, as the Mobvoi Treadmill app isn’t available in Apple’s App Store. To view your live stats via the wrist, you must have an Android smartwatch. I don’t love that, and it’s a little baffling considering all this does is connect the walking pad and your watch over Bluetooth. Fortunately, I spend a good chunk of the year testing Wear OS watches and don’t care about having two phones and wearing two smartwatches at all times. But that’s not most people, and for regular iPhone users, this is a nonstarter. I asked Mobvoi if an iOS version would ever arrive but didn’t hear back.

Somehow, getting your phone to actually save that data is even more of a headache. If you have a Mobvoi watch, there’s no problem. Workouts recorded in the Mobvoi Treadmill app automatically pop up in the separate Mobvoi Health app on your phone. But the Mobvoi Health app only works with Mobvoi watches. If you use any other kind of Android smartwatch, you can’t actually log the treadmill data into whatever health app you keep on your phone. The data is just stuck on your wrist.

Things like this are why people pick one ecosystem and stick with it. During testing, I fixated on how to get all my walking pad data onto my iPhone — the device where most of my health data is stored. Thinking through all the ways to get my data off Android and into Apple’s Health and Fitness apps was so exhausting, it made me not want to use the walking pad at all. There were weeks when I let it collect dust in my office because I didn’t want to use it if I wasn’t getting credit for it. And getting that credit was too much work.

This is my preferred turtle speed for walking while working.

At this point, I had to take a good hard look in the mirror. The whole point was to use this device to relieve stress. Instead, all I’d done was overcomplicate a walking pad. I ended up anxious and dreading my imperfect, messy metrics. I was so concerned about doing something “the right way” that I ended up not doing it at all. Looking back, I’ll be the first person to tell you that’s absurd. And yet, I’ve also been part of enough running and fitness communities to know that this is a common trap that even the best of us fall into.

My experience improved once I chucked the smartwatches into a drawer. I accepted my step counts wouldn’t be accurate and that my training algorithms across a dozen wearable platforms would be slightly off. I actually stopped recording my walks on every single platform altogether. As a result, my mental health improved, and I take far more walks now. My life isn’t any less stressful — I just have more endorphins, but that’s enough to make me more resilient.

Once I stopped caring about the data, I was free to figure out how to use the walking pad meaningfully. A lifelong overachiever, I started out trying to walk and work at 2.5mph to make it “worth it.” Imagine my surprised Pikachu face learning it’s quite difficult to walk at a brisk pace and write emails or even read because you’re bobbing up and down. And sweaty. Eventually, I accepted that my desk walks don’t have to be fast and found a turtle-like speed that works. (I’ve written most of this review at a 0.6mph pace.)

Turns out, ignoring the smart features and tracking helped me walk more.

On mornings when the caffeine just isn’t hitting, a 20-minute walk usually jogs my shriveled brain cells while I catch up on the news. When something just isn’t working in a draft, walking while reading my sentences helps enormously. I’ve also noticed how my body becomes so stiff when I’m frustrated, anxious, angry, or full of dread. Hopping on a walking pad for a ploddingly slow 10 minutes is always enough to loosen me up — even if my step count isn’t impressive.

I highly recommend a walking pad if you, too, often experience existential dread and anxiety. Just maybe not this exact one. It’s funny. I picked Mobvoi’s treadmill precisely because it had the bells and whistles. But at the end of the day, all the extra connectivity, the data, and the “smarts” got in my way. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is remember why you’re doing something, zero in on it, and cut out the extra noise.

Read More