is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 91, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, how is summer more than a month over already, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

I also have for you some new betas from Apple, a retro-styled PC, some thoughts about cases, and how to play Dance Dance Revolution at home today.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

The Case Conundrum

Thanks to everyone who replied to my quandary about whether or not I should keep using a phone case. There were a bunch of great perspectives and feelings, so I’m sharing a few of them here in the newsletter — a lot more people go caseless than I expected!

As for my own decision? Well, I haven’t reached one yet, and honestly, I may never pick one lane. Typically, my iPhone 16 Pro lives in this slim Torras case, but as I write this, it’s sitting on top of the case, not in it. Will I put the case on before I walk out the door? We’ll see!

“I, too, felt the urge to go caseless. I’m pretty careful with my electronics, so I still didn’t love the idea of setting my phone down on tables and things alike. I got the magnetic back from Nomad, and it has felt like the perfect meet-in-the-middle accessory for me! Phone feels almost caseless, and I still get the back protection.” – Omesh

“I am totally the same with cases. I know I’ll drop it once a year and totally ruin the thing and I hate that. What I do is take the case off when I’m just chilling at my desk or couch or chair. That way I get the joy of the smooth phone, but when I am in danger of dropping it on concrete or getting out of my truck, I have the protection it needs.” – Travis

“I ran my first gen Pixel Fold without a case (while living in a beachy resort town) for two years! If the Fold can survive it, so can a 16 Pro. The Fold is still alive and well as a secondary device/backup phone. Of course, it’s definitely not pristine, so if you don’t want your phone to bear its scars, you should probably keep a case on it.” – John

“I have the Peak Design GNAR case. Saw some complaints online about the protection being too minimal for the front of the phone, but it’s been solid for me. Does well being outdoors (I run outside all the time). I’m rocking no screen protector.” – airwr3ck6669

“I never used cases until I got my current phone (Pixel 6A) because the Razer Kishi controller I used no longer fit snuggly around it, so I found a case that allowed it to fit again. I would say the case would eventually come off, but I only realized as I was reading this article that even though I no longer use that controller, I hadn’t thought to take the case off.” – xPutNameHerex

Screen Share

Today, I’m featuring Keith Broni, the editor-in-chief of Emojipedia. I thought of reaching out to him for this section after World Emoji Day on July 17th (the date shown on the calendar emoji), and he graciously replied. He initially got involved with the site in 2018 and took on increasing responsibilities “over the years” before taking the editor-in-chief job in 2022.

In addition to everything about his homescreen, I wanted to know what he’s looking forward to in the world of emoji. “I’m excited to see what the next unexpected emoji repurposing meme is going to be, especially as Gen Alpha becomes more and more online,” he tells me, like how Millennials repurposed the Eggplant and Peach and how Gen Z repurposed the Skull.

Emoji fascinate me — full disclosure, I submitted proposals that helped bring the Saluting Face, Bubbles, Waffle, and Yawning Face emoji into the world — so I’m to share more of the emoji universe with Installer readers.

Here’s Keith’s homescreen and his explanation of what’s on it.

Image: Keith Broni

The phone: Google Pixel 6. Like Molly last week, I’m an “until the wheels fall off” type of person when it comes to my personal phone, though I use an iPhone 15 Pro for work.

The wallpaper: A 2019 picture of me (I’m in all black, bar the white soles of my sneakers) wandering the grounds of the Zōjō-ji Temple in Tokyo, with the Tokyo Tower looming in the background.

The apps:

The top row is my fitness-focused stuff, as I’m preparing for a Hyrox-like competition in October, so it’s all step counts ( Garmin Connect ), protein goals ( MyFitnessPal ), habit tracking ( HabitShare — a free and simple tracker with some nice friend-sharing elements for accountability), and gym class bookings ( Glofox ).

Since I’m European, WhatsApp is my primary mode of texting / calling folks. And since I’m Irish, you’ve got my Irish banking app, AIB Mobile , ha.

I’m a millennial, so Instagram is my primary mode of social media these days, though I’m also on X / Bluesky / TikTok a lot for work purposes (that end up drifting into non-work purposes if I’m not careful).

I’m a Letterboxd user, and do enjoy attending the cinema as much as I can (shoutout to the Lighthouse in Dublin — I was there last night watching Friendship, which I thoroughly enjoyed). But really, YouTube is where I spend far too much of my time (and to a lesser extent, Nebula, which is on the next page of my home screen).

I also asked Keith to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he said:

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 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 The Verge, this post on Threads, and this post on Bluesky.

“I use Outplay on my Apple Watch to track the soccer matches I play. It shows a heat map of my movement during a match and has metrics specific to playing soccer like sprints. It works better for me than using the built-in Apple Workout app or Strava.” – Harry Tequila

“Been playing the macOS version of Cyberpunk 2077 on a base M4 Mac Mini. I am impressed with the game and graphic quality of this version. Just hoping this is the start for more Mac-native versions of A & S tier games.” – penguinchiller

“I just completed the (not so) Endless Tower in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and beat Clea… on an MSI Claw 8 with an Intel chip! Didn’t expect that after panning the first Claw. It’s the only handheld I’ve really enjoyed this game on so far!” – Sean

“I’ve become obsessed with the Twos app and using it constantly. Highly recommend!” – Rich

“After steadfastly avoiding it because of its difficulty, I recently purchased and have been dying over and over again in Returnal. The environment really does feel like a hostile alien planet, and with headphones it feels like I can hear every drop of rain. And yeah, it’s really difficult.” – Aram

“Been playing Lushfoil Photography Sim and it is so relaxing and lovely.” – Allison

“I’ve been binging CityNerd on YouTube. The channel discusses cities, transportation, urban design, walkability, etc. Good stuff.” – low_light_mixes

Signing off

Last week, I included a tidbit from a reader who has been playing Dance Dance Revolution recently. As someone who played a lot of DDR when I was a kid (“Butterfly,” anyone?), I was curious to learn more about how he does it. Here’s some of what the reader, Tom, told me — he also pointed me to a starter guide on Reddit:

“I’ll start with acknowledging I am fully not an expert in the scene, but spent a lot of time in the local arcade and at home playing on a PS2 when I was growing up.

“I grabbed the Deluxe 1-inch thick foam pad from www.ddrpad.com, along with the extension cord and the preloaded Stepmania Flash drive. Stepmania is the open-source clone of DDR. People make their own stepcharts (the arrows that scroll up during a song) and make custom songs that you can download and load in, as well as songs from the actual DDR games.

“Someone who is really into playing may want to eventually invest in a metal pad, like what’s in the arcades. They’re super sturdy and will last for years of use, whereas soft mats could potentially tear over time. There are many manufacturers out there, and the price range is usually from $400 and up for the metal pads. People even buy old arcade cabinets for thousands of dollars and have them in their home.”

Thanks, Tom! See you next week, everyone!