{"id":30227,"date":"2026-09-28T11:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/?p=30227"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:01:35","slug":"googlebooks-might-be-the-real-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/?p=30227","title":{"rendered":"Googlebooks might be the real deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Hi, friends! Welcome to <em>Installer<\/em> No. 145, your guide to the best and <em>Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, I\u2019m happy to be done traveling for a bit, and also you can read all the old editions at the <em>Installer<\/em> homepage.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">This week, I flew to San Francisco to try out Meta\u2019s new hardware, including the impressive Meta VR Glasses. Along the way, I\u2019ve been listening to Joanna Stern\u2019s interview with Mark Zuckerberg, watching this interview with new Apple CEO John Ternus, revisiting Steve Jobs\u2019 \u201cAntennagate\u201d press conference Q&amp;A, playing games on my Steam Deck using the Xreal One Pro glasses, and reading Sarah Wynn-Williams\u2019 <em>Careless People<\/em> when I have spare moments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">I also have for you more on Meta\u2019s glasses, Remedy\u2019s <em>Control<\/em> sequel, Microsoft\u2019s updated Surface Mouse, and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">(As always, the best part of <em>Installer<\/em> is your ideas and tips. What apps are you into right now? What are your favorite things you\u2019ve watched \/ seen \/ listened to recently? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy <em>Installer<\/em>, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)<\/p>\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _1044qizi irzhn80 _19wv7tc1\">\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Google\u2019s Googlebooks<\/strong><strong>. <\/strong>Google finally revealed a ton of details about its Googlebook laptops, and they seem like they could be particularly great for people looking for a laptop to pair with their Android phone. Google is promising that they\u2019ll get 10 years of updates, which hopefully speaks to a real commitment from the company to make the platform work. The first five are from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Ray-Ban Meta Audio<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong> Meta is launching smart glasses without cameras. The glasses still have microphones and speakers, so you can still listen to music and talk with AI. Battery life is longer, and there are also some new styles. Not going to lie, I really like the Clubmaster style.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong><em>Control Resonant<\/em><\/strong><strong>.<\/strong> Remedy\u2019s <em>Control<\/em> sequel moves out of the mind-bending Oldest House and into Manhattan and some strange new locations. I\u2019ve beaten it, and while I prefer the original\u2019s more contained setting, I love a lot about where the story goes. If you\u2019re a Remedy fan, don\u2019t miss this one.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong><em>Silent Hill: Townfall<\/em><\/strong><strong>. <\/strong>Reviews for Konami\u2019s next big horror game, set in a town in Scotland, make it sound like another worthy addition to the franchise. It should be a great one to check out to get ready for Halloween.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Peloton\u2019s Tread Flex<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong> Peloton made a folding treadmill. (Folding is all the rage these days.) Seems like a smart idea, especially for Peloton faithfuls who have smaller living spaces. It\u2019s also Peloton\u2019s \u201cmost affordable\u201d treadmill, though it still costs $2,195.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Microsoft\u2019s Surface Mouse<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong> The second-generation version of the Surface Mouse has haptic feedback, an action button, and can be paired with three devices. It\u2019s a tad pricey at $79.99, but it seems like a really solid option if you just want a good mouse. The Surface Pro and Laptop got a refresh, too.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Logitech G\u2019s Yeti 2<\/strong><strong>. <\/strong>The follow-up to the Blue Yeti, one of the most recognizable microphones ever, has an LED display and can track your voice with an audio proximity sensor. I <em>just<\/em> picked up a cheap mic of my own on a Whoop sale, but maybe if that one doesn\u2019t cut it, I\u2019ll end up snagging a Yeti 2.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Today I\u2019m featuring <em>The Verge<\/em>\u2019s <strong>Brad Bourque<\/strong>. Brad joined our commerce team for a few months to help out with our deals coverage and has been going deep into gaming tech. He\u2019s also a fellow Portlander, so I had to feature him as one of our small but mighty Portland contingent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">I asked Brad to share his homescreen and the apps and things he cares about. Here it is, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:<\/p>\n<p>Images: Brad Bourque \/ The Verge<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\"><strong>The phone: <\/strong>Pixel 9 Pro XL<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\"><strong>The wallpaper: <\/strong>My homescreen wallpaper is just an included Pixel wallpaper of plants in mellow green tones. My lockscreen is a fan-made <em>Tekken Tag Tournament<\/em> poster featuring Armor King and Modelo. It doesn\u2019t have to make sense if the vibes are right.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _1044qizi irzhn80 _19wv7tc1\">\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">Right up top you\u2019ll find two of my favorite mobile games. The first is <strong><em>Idle Obelisk Miner<\/em><\/strong><em>, <\/em>an idle game I recently started playing that I\u2019ve found compelling and generous given the genre\u2019s normal conditions. I\u2019ve been playing for just over a month and a half and I\u2019m only at 3.16 percent completion, so I know I have a long road ahead of me.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">The other is <strong><em>Nubby\u2019s Number Factory<\/em><\/strong><em>, <\/em>an oddball roguelike that I\u2019ve sunk dozens of hours into on Steam. The game has a funky style and charm that reminds me of old Adobe Flash browser games, but with modern sensibilities and huge replayability.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">Other than that, there isn\u2019t much exciting to discuss. I like to keep calendar and weather widgets prominently featured on my first screen, mostly because I\u2019m bad at remembering what I have coming up on any given day and Portland is known for surprise rainstorms. <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">The main screen is mostly the boring stuff that I use every day, with apps like mail, texting, and YouTube given priority positions for easy access. My dark secret is that, if you swipe one page to the right, it\u2019s all a disorganized mess of apps with no sorting or folders. If I\u2019m looking for a specific app, I\u2019ll swipe up and search for it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\"><em>I also asked Brad to share a few things he\u2019s into right now. Here\u2019s what he sent back:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _1044qizi irzhn80 _19wv7tc1\">\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">Ever since the final major <strong><em>Destiny 2<\/em><\/strong> update, I\u2019ve been chiseling away at some of the expansions I missed and finishing up old collections. With the recent announcement that old vaulted content would be coming back, I\u2019m planning on continuing to sink time into one of my favorite games ever.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">The other game I\u2019ve been playing quite a lot of over the past few months is <strong><em>Old School RuneScape<\/em><\/strong>. I didn\u2019t play during its heyday, so I don\u2019t actually have much nostalgia for the game, but I\u2019ve been really sucked in by how different it is from other MMOs that I\u2019ve been playing for years, like <em>World of Warcraft<\/em>. I also appreciate that direct user feedback is such a big part of modernizing and updating the game, which I think has helped foster an active and social community in-game.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">We\u2019re at the end of <strong><em>Game Changer<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s latest season. It\u2019s Dropout TV\u2019s groundbreaking game show where the rules change every time, so I\u2019m watching that religiously on Monday evenings. The most recent season has been one of the strongest yet, and constantly has me laughing and occasionally crying over its sweet and incredibly creative episodes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"irzhn82 irzhn81\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">For music, I\u2019ve been on a really chill kick lately, with Janelle Mon\u00e1e\u2019s <strong><em>The Age of Pleasure<\/em><\/strong> and Tom Misch\u2019s <strong><em>Full Circle<\/em><\/strong> headlining a lot of my morning writing and deal-hunting sessions. I\u2019ve been listening to a lot of vinyl recently, which I\u2019ve found gives a nice rhythm and ritual to my day that just turning on Spotify and hitting shuffle doesn\u2019t.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\"><em>Here\u2019s what the <\/em>Installer<em> community is into this week. I want to know what you\u2019re into right now as well! Email <\/em><em>installer@theverge.com<\/em><em> with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we\u2019ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to <\/em><em>this post on <\/em>The Verge<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">\u201cI\u2019ve been really enjoying a new app for my self-hosted media server. <strong>NostalgiaTV<\/strong> uses your media library to set up TV channels akin to classic cable. You turn it on and it brings up the \u2018live\u2019 TV guide\/schedule and you can channel surf to choose what to watch instead of scrolling through your media library. Totally unnecessary and also way more fun than I thought it would be. They automatically set up a few channels for you, but you can also get in the weeds setting up custom channels and schedules.\u201d \u2014 vikrael<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">\u201cCurrently playing: <strong><em>Fire Emblem: Fortune\u2019s Weave<\/em><\/strong>, only during the evenings when my son is put to sleep. Reading: <strong><em>The Iliad<\/em><\/strong>, I try to read it in bits whenever I can during the early part of the evening during the week. I read more during the weekend mornings.\u201d \u2014 basicalexguy<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">\u201cAs a fan of the Planet Money podcast, I was surprised to come across their new book at my local library. Now being a few chapters into it, I am pleasantly surprised about how good of a read it is (especially if you enjoy the podcast). Title is <strong><em>Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d \u2014 YG_400<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">\u201cCurrently reading <strong><em>The God of the Woods<\/em><\/strong><strong> by Liz Moore<\/strong> that is being adapted into a Netflix show soon. The book is so good and hard to put down as the mystery draws you in as you hope for answers with each turn of the page.\u201d \u2014 Sabertooth<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">\u201cIn the final act of <strong><em>Star Wars Zero Company<\/em><\/strong>. It is VERY good.\u201d \u2014 BV<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">\u201cI just recently got back into photography after years of just shooting on my iPhone and trying to tweak the results. Wow have I missed my <strong>Ricoh GRIII<\/strong> and <strong>Olympus XA2<\/strong>. While the Ricoh gives me instant gratification of capturing a moment exactly how I envisioned it, it\u2019s been a lot of fun shooting rolls of film (stored in the freezer of course), and having to patiently wait for the results to come back!\u201d \u2014 Ricky<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Well, after my big tip in this section last week about eating at familiar restaurants while traveling, I wasn\u2019t able to do any of that while traveling for Meta, and I <em>felt<\/em> it. Boy was I tired and hungry. It came down to a few different things, like a busier schedule and mostly being on Meta\u2019s campus, where eating options were limited. I <em>did<\/em> get to devour some protein bars, which are a guilty pleasure of mine. But I really was hankering for some Chipotle.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"tly2fw2\"><strong>Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"tly2fw3\">\n<li id=\"follow-author-article_footer-dmcyOmF1dGhvclByb2ZpbGU6MTIz\"><span aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\"><span class=\"gnx4pm0 _1618ekm2 _1uf8q814 _19wv7tc5 _1618ekm0\"><span class=\"_1ajq89kf _1ajq89k1 _1ajq89k0\"><\/span><span class=\"_1618ekm9\">Jay Peters<\/span><\/span><\/span>Close\n<p>Jay Peters<\/p>\n<p class=\"fv263x1\">Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n<p><span>Follow<\/span><span>Follow<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"fv263x4\">See All by Jay Peters<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"gnx4pm0 _1618ekm2 _1uf8q814 _19wv7tc5 _1618ekm0\"><span class=\"_1ajq89kf _1ajq89k1 _1ajq89k0\"><\/span><span class=\"_1618ekm9\">Installer<\/span><\/span>Close\n<p>Installer<\/p>\n<p class=\"fv263x1\">Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n<p><span>Follow<\/span><span>Follow<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"fv263x4\">See All Installer<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"gnx4pm0 _1618ekm2 _1uf8q814 _19wv7tc5 _1618ekm0\"><span class=\"_1ajq89kf _1ajq89k1 _1ajq89k0\"><\/span><span class=\"_1618ekm9\">Tech<\/span><\/span>Close\n<p>Tech<\/p>\n<p class=\"fv263x1\">Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n<p><span>Follow<\/span><span>Follow<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"fv263x4\">See All Tech<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/1000424\/googlebooks-meta-ray-ban-audio-control-resonant-microsoft-surface-mouse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 145, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, I\u2019m happy to be done traveling for a bit, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I flew to San Francisco to try out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1714,13960,1601],"class_list":["post-30227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gear","tag-deal","tag-googlebooks","tag-real"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}