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The most fun way to look through old photos
Gaming Gear

The most fun way to look through old photos

by admin


Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 95, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, new gadget season is starting, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

I also have for you Pixel’s next foldable, new Samsung earbuds, a chill indie game, and more.

(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: [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

  • Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Google’s newest foldable has an IP68 ingress rating, meaning that it should be significantly more resistant to dust than other foldables. The company made it happen with a new gearless hinge design. When you’re paying nearly $2,000 for your phone, having some extra confidence in its durability goes a long way.
  • Pixel Watch 4. The newest Pixel Watch has screws on its chassis that you can remove to more easily repair and replace the screen and the battery. Previous Pixel Watches haven’t been repairable, so this is a major step up for Google.
  • Shutter Declutter. Every day, this excellent new iOS app nudges you to look through all of the photos you’ve taken on that date — across all years where you’ve snapped a photo on that date — and swipe left or right to delete or keep them. I’ve been testing it for a few days, and it makes chipping away at my photo library feel much more digestible. Plus, it’s surfaced photos from years ago that I forgot I had.
  • Galaxy Buds 3 FE. Samsung’s newest earbuds adopt an AirPods-like stemmed design and have 6 hours of battery life with ANC on and 8.5 with ANC off. And at $149.99, their starting price is $100 cheaper than the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.
  • Nanoleaf 4D V2. Nanoleaf has a new version of its immersive TV lighting kit that adds a color-matched glow behind your screen. I’ve always wanted to try one of these — they seem like a fun way to add a little more pop to what you’re watching.
  • Insta360’s Go Ultra. Insta360’s new compact action camera has a bigger sensor than the Go 3S and can capture footage at 4K / 60fps. It comes in a square shape instead of a pill, but that change means it can include a larger 500mAh battery.
  • Sony InZone Mouse-A. As part of a suite of new InZone gaming peripherals, Sony launched a wireless mouse that weighs just 48 grams. At $149.99, it’s a bit of an investment, but it seems like a decent option if you’re looking for a superlight gaming mouse.
  • Herdling. In Herdling, you guide a flock of adorable sheep / woolly mammoth-like creatures through scenic landscapes backed by beautiful music. It’s kind of like Journey, if you played as a shepherd. It’s a slow, chill game that I’ve loved winding down with at the end of the day, and it only takes a few hours to finish.

Today I’m featuring Jane Manchun Wong, who has scooped many, many updates and features coming to tech products and apps over the years (like an early version of then-Twitter’s edit button) and was part of the launch team behind Meta’s Threads. Jane seems to be inside every app, so I wanted to see which ones actually live on her phone. Turns out she has a lot of apps, and they actually seem pretty well organized!

Image: Jane Manchun Wong

The phone: iPhone 16 Pro! It’s a perfect size for me! I used to have the iPhone 15 Pro Max for the 5x optical zoom, but it got clumsy to operate with one hand. Now that the iPhone 16 Pro has the 5x optical zoom, too, I went back to the regular size right away.

The wallpaper: It’s an aerial view taken from my flight to Seattle! I like taking photos and using them as my own wallpaper — in fact, that photo is part of the Photo Shuttle collections on my phone, showcasing my other “Nature” photos in rotation!

The apps: Before you say anything about the grid of folders on my Home Screen, I know I know… even though App Library is a thing now, I’d rather organize them by myself, using the categories that are meaningful to me (like “Outside” for getting around when I’m outside, which includes Waymo, Maps, SF311, ridesharing apps, etc.). Besides, a number of the apps I use are TestFlight builds, which the App Library would lump into the “TestFlight” category anyway.

Also, I have the Kalkyl app up there because it’s really handy for making quick calculations.

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

  • I’m still monitoring various apps and websites for their upcoming features! As expected, many companies are adapting similar AI-related features in hope to stay relevant (similar to when they adapted social audio and NFT features). It still gives me the spark of joy when companies begin to explore product features that are unique and meaningful to users, not just another button in some text field that opens a chatbot.
  • There’s also a few leads about some new hardware that’s being worked on — will share when there’re more signal about it.

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email [email protected] 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’ve moved my task management process from Amazing Marvin (which, don’t get me wrong, is a great product) to TickTick. I’ve been writing Apple Shortcuts to try and automate archiving over to Obsidian because I have the data hoarding illness.” — @feather.town‬

“Lately I’ve gotten a lot of joy out of grabbing PDFs of crossword puzzles and putting them on my Remarkable 2 E Ink writing tablet. Finishing the crossword in the morning beats doomscrolling.” — jontomato

“New Digg, baby!” — dome_node

“I have been newly-enjoying two website resources: Retro Catalog and Retro Handhelds. I am also quite a huge fan of Russ from Retro Game Corps on YouTube, who does some very lovely discussions about this wonderful world of retro handhelds.” — verge_user_m498isna

“Boys Go to Jupiter is a brilliantly weird animated film about a teen trying to raise $5,000 as a delivery driver in surreal Florida. It has a unique video game-inspired animation style, sublime lofi music, and unapologetically bizarre humor that creates one of the most original moviegoing experiences in years!” — Daniel

“I suspect most Verge readers know about Beeper, but it has a hidden use case that they probably haven’t thought about: accessing DMs without risking getting sucked into an app. Struggling to break your debilitating reels addiction or checking Discord servers any time you get an Instagram or Discord DM? You can use Beeper to separate the DMs from the attention vortex part of those apps. Maybe you can even uninstall the main app and just keep DMs!” — boblin

“I just finished Aisling Rawle’s The Compound. If you’re a fan of Love Island but wished there was more dystopia and violence, boy do I have the book for you. On the comics front, Absolute Martian Manhunter is the best showcase for the medium we’ve had in a minute. Also, I’ve been slowly re-watching Mr. Robot for the first time and it is incredible (also, slightly depressing) how well this show still holds up.” — SocialJerm

For those of you who watched the Made by Google event this week, how did you feel about the live, Jimmy Fallon-hosted format? It was certainly a big departure from the usual Big Tech keynote vibe. I personally prefer a more traditional news- and spec-filled show, but I get the sense myself and Verge / Installer readers aren’t who the event was meant for. But you tell me! And I do respect Google for trying something different.

Also, a quick programming note: I’m on vacation next week, so there won’t be a new issue of Installer until September 6th. See you next month!

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Product Reviews

Trump Mobile is promoting its smartphone with terribly edited photos of other brands’ products

by admin


Since it was announced in June, Trump Mobile has committed to an increasingly-surreal smoke-and-mirrors approach to its promised T1 smartphone. Despite the initial claims that the phone would be made in the United States, it seemed highly unlikely from the start that it was accurate. The “Made in USA” claims were quietly removed from the Trump Mobile website at a later date. AppleInsider spotted the latest bizarre wrinkle to this story, which is that the actual phone still does not exist.

The publication noticed that promotional images for T1 all show different smartphones that appear to be tweaked in a photo editor to look gold. While the website shows a badly edited image of what appears to be a Revvl 7 Pro 5G phone, an Instagram ad seems to depict an iPhone 16 Pro Max, again with the company’s branding overlaid. A third confusing image edit was posted on X earlier this week:

That photo shows a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra equipped with a case made by Spigen. The South Korean accessory company’s logo can be seen behind the render of an American flag. Spigen’s response sums our reaction up pretty succinctly: “??? bro what.”



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Screenshot showing Apple's revised Photos app
Gaming Gear

Unwanted Photos Keep Showing Up on My iPhone. What Gives?

by admin


I’ve definitely opened my iPhone just to be hit in the face with photos of people or times that I’d just rather forget.

Apple wants to remind you of the good times you’ve had with featured photos and memories but this trip down nostalgia lane can backfire. These two iPhone features work together to create “featured content,” to highlight the moments you want to remember. Unfortunately, along with your favorite vacation with friends, you might also end up looking at photos of your ex.

The worst part is that featured content isn’t exclusive to the Photos app. Featured content appears across your device, like in the search page and on widgets on your home screen.

Don’t miss: How to Download iOS 26 Right Now

Having these unexpected photos randomly show up on your iPhone, especially if you’re showing something on your phone to someone, or someone else is using your phone, can become a headache … that you can luckily avoid.

If you want to stop unwanted photos from randomly appearing across your iPhone, here’s how to stop it.

While you’re here, check out all the new features coming on iOS 26 and how to disable the most annoying Apple Intelligence feature.

Your iPhone Wants These 11 Essential Accessories in the New Year

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You can show a person less frequently or not at all

If someone is featured pretty prominently across your photo library, iOS will consider them an important person in your life. That person will definitely show up in your memories and featured photos across your device. For most, it’s a joyous experience, reliving precious memories with your favorite people.

If things are not so precious anymore and you no longer talk to that person, you probably don’t want to see their face randomly pop up on your phone. Sure, you could go through your camera roll and scrub every photo and video with that person in it but that’s a lot of work. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to hide photos with a specific person.

To feature a person less frequently or not at all in memories, features photos and widgets, open the Photos app, find a photo or video with the person you want to show less often, tap the three-dot menu button in the top-right and then hit Feature This Person Less.

You can now choose from two options:

  • Feature This Person Less: You won’t see any individual photos or videos of this person in memories or featured photos, but if this person is in a group photo, those may still appear.
  • Never Feature This Person: You won’t see any photos or videos with this person, including group photos.

If you still want to see group photos featured across your device, choose the first option. If you really don’t want to see that person, choose the second. 

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

You can also completely disable memories and featured photos

Now, not everyone’s unexpected photo is going to be of an ex-spouse or former friend. An embarrassing photo of yourself or something borderline inappropriate might pop up on your phone somewhere, and if you’re worried about that happening, you might just want to get rid of memories and feature photos completely.

In the Settings app, go to Apps > Photos and toggle off Show Featured Content. This will stop all featured content across your device, including albums in the Photos app, widgets on your home screen and photos in search.

Instead of seeing memories and featured photos, you’ll see a gray box that says “Featured Content is Turned Off.”

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Other tips you can follow to prevent unexpected photos from showing up

What I’ve detailed above is a great start to prevent certain photos from appearing across your device, but you can do more, especially if the two tips don’t really do it for you.

  • Remove photos widgets from your lock and home screen. There is a photos widget that only shows featured photos, and that may end up being embarrassing or unwanted photos. Simply remove them from your phone, or choose a photo widget that isn’t a “featured” one.
  • Hide collections in the Photos app. Starting with iOS 18, you can now hide certain collections that may preview photos you don’t want to necessarily see. In Photos, go to Customize & Reorder and check off the collections you want to hide. These collections include Recent Days, People & Pets, Trips and more. If you have featured content disabled, you’ll notice that some collections are grayed out.
  • Turn off holiday memories. If you don’t want to see memories of recent holiday events, like Christmas or Thanksgiving, you can go to Settings > Apps > Photos and toggle off Show Holiday Events.
  • Stop photos from appearing in search. If you type something into search, you may see photos appear. You can stop this from happening by going to Settings > Apps > Photos and toggling off Show App in Search and Show Content in Search.
  • Don’t choose a featured wallpaper on your lock screen. On iOS 18, you can have featured photos appear as your lock screen, changing through the day. Choose any other wallpaper than the featured photos wallpaper to avoid unwanted photos from appearing on your lock screen.

Watch this: I’m Impressed With iOS 26. Apple Just Made iPhones Better

05:40

If you want to learn more about iOS, check out how to get more iPhone storage with these two tips and why the iPhone 16 camera control button is also a secret action button.



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Photos app
Gaming Gear

Finding Recently Saved Photos on My iPhone Is Much Easier With This One Change

by admin


Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9 that the next version of the iPhone’s operating system will be called iOS 26, and it will bring a lot of new features to your iPhone in the fall, like a transparent glass design on icons and menus and redesigned interfaces for the Camera and Photos apps. But when Apple released iOS 18 in September, it brought a simple change to Photos to make it easy to find recently saved photos, no matter when they were taken. The change sorts your photos by when they were added to Photos, not by when the photo was taken, and it’s saved me so much time searching for photos.

Read more: An Expert’s Guide to iOS 18

Before, if someone sent me a photo and I saved it, the photo would be placed in chronological order — based on when the picture was taken — alongside all my other photos by default. So if a family member sent me a photo from last summer and I saved it, the photo would be lost in a sea of other snaps from the past year.

I’d scroll through hundreds of pics and videos to find it, and sometimes I’d give up. But there’s a toggle in Photos called Sort by Recently Added that lets you sort your pics based on when they were saved to your device, not when they were taken.

Here’s how to sort your photos by when they were saved to Photos so you won’t lose a picture again.

How to sort your photos based on when they were saved

Apple/CNET

1. Open Photos.
2. Scroll up into your photos until the grid takes up your whole screen.
3. Tap the up and down arrows in the bottom-left corner of your screen.
4. Tap Sort by Recently Added.

Once you’ve tapped that option, you may see your photos shift to adjust to the setting change. Your most recently saved or taken photo will now be at the bottom of the grid, even if it was from your wedding years ago.

For more on iOS 18, here’s what you need to know about iOS 18.5 and iOS 18.4. You can also check out our iOS 18 cheat sheet and everything to know about iOS 26.

Watch this: Liquid Glass Stirs Debate, but These iOS 26 Updates Matter More

06:45



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Anna Washenko
Gaming Gear

Google has ‘paused’ the Ask Photos rollout

by admin


If you’re still waiting on access to Google’s AI-driven Ask Photos feature, you’ll need to hold tight a little longer. Jamie Aspinall, a product manager for Google Photos, chimed in to a conversation on X to address some complaints about the feature. “Ask Photos isn’t where it needs to be, in terms of latency, quality and ux,” Aspinall wrote. He said the rollout was being paused “at very small numbers” and that a new version of Ask Photos is slated to ship in about two weeks.

I hear you both. Ask Photos isn’t where it needs to be, in terms of latency, quality and ux. Rollout has been paused at very small numbers while we address these issues. In ~2 weeks we’ll ship an improved version that brings back the speed and recall of the original search

— Jamieasp (@jamieasp) June 3, 2025

Ask Photos was introduced at last year’s I/O conference and began select early access availability in September. The feature uses the Gemini AI chatbot to find images from a photo library based on natural language queries.

As with so many tech giants, Google’s implementation of AI-powered features to its services has hit several snags. The AI Overviews feature in search had a notoriously bad introduction to users and its image-generation tool offered some baffling results at launch. Google has also seen critiques from former leaders and current employees about its approach to artificial intelligence.





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Google paused the rollout of its AI-powered ‘Ask Photos’ search feature
Gaming Gear

Google paused the rollout of its AI-powered ‘Ask Photos’ search feature

by admin


Google is pausing the rollout of its AI-powered “Ask Photos” feature within Google Photos, which has been slowly expanding since last fall. “Ask Photos isn’t where it needs to be,” wrote Jamie Aspinall, a product manager for Google Photos, in a post on X responding to criticism, citing three factors: latency, quality, and user experience.

The experimental feature is powered by Google’s “most capable” Gemini AI models. Specifically, it’s a specialized version of its Gemini models that are “only used for Ask Photos,” according to Google.

Aspinall said Google had paused the feature’s rollout “at very small numbers while we address these issues,” and that in about two weeks, the team would ship a better version “that brings back the speed and recall of the original search.

At the same time, Google also announced Tuesday that keyword search in Photos is getting better, allowing you to use quotes to find exact text matches within “filenames, camera models, captions, or text within photos,” or search without quotes to include visual matches too.

Google announced the feature last May at I/O 2024, and positioned it as a way to query your Photos app for common-sense questions that another human would typically have to help with — i.e., asking about which themes you’ve chosen in the past for a child’s birthday party, or which national parks you’ve visited.

“Gemini’s multimodal capabilities can help understand exactly what’s happening in each photo and can even read text in the image if required,” the company wrote in the announcement. “Ask Photos then crafts a helpful response and picks which photos and videos to return.”

It’s not the first time Google has paused the rollout of an AI-powered feature, as it competes in a quickly intensifying AI arms race against other tech giants and startups alike.

Last May, within weeks of debuting “AI Overview” in Google Search, Google paused the feature after nonsensical and inaccurate answers went viral on social media, with no way to opt out of usage. Two high-profile examples: The feature called Barack Obama the first Muslim president of the United States, and recommended users put glue on pizza to keep the cheese on.

And last February, Google rolled out Gemini’s image-generation tool with a good deal of fanfare, then paused the feature that same month after users reported historical inaccuracies, such as an AI-generated image depicting the U.S. Founding Fathers as people of color.



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Argentina's President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy's X account on May 27. 2025.
Product Reviews

RFK Jr. Poses for Weird Photos With Argentina’s President as They Plot Alternative to World Health Organization

by admin


Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a fringe anti-vaxxer who somehow became head of America’s health agencies under President Donald Trump, met with the president of Argentina and discussed establishing a new alternative to the World Health Organization, according to a tweet from Kennedy on Tuesday. And while the substance of their meeting is important, all anyone can notice on social media is their bizarre photoshoot.

Your eyes don’t deceive you. That’s the Secretary of Health and Human Services holding a chainsaw that belongs to Milei and reads “las fuerzas del cielo” in Portuguese. Translated into English, it means “the forces of heaven.”

Milei, a far-right ally of President Trump, campaigned on promises to deliver austerity to his country and slash government spending, often wielding his chainsaw. And ever since, people who meet with Milei will often hold the chainsaw themselves. Billionaire oligarch Elon Musk waved the chainsaw around earlier this year at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where Musk looked absolutely blitzed out of his mind.

That conference in February, it should be noted, was the same CPAC gathering where two other speakers (including Steve Bannon) did Nazi-style salutes that mimicked Musk’s gestures on Jan. 20.

Elon Musk holds a chainsaw reading “Long live freedom, damn it” during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on February 20, 2025.© Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

It’s particularly odd for Kennedy to be posing with a chainsaw, considering he was investigated for using a chainsaw to hack the head off a dead whale two decades ago. Kennedy’s daughter described how the head was strapped to the top of the family car and said that whale juice was streaming down into the open windows. Kennedy called the investigation a weaponization of the government, and it was later dropped.

Kennedy posted other photos from the strange meeting at Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Tuesday, including another where Milei is seated at the head of the table and the chainsaw is in the foreground. Needless to say, the vibes are straight out of The Shining.

A group of people seated around a table, including RFK Jr. and Javier Milei, with a chainsaw on the table in front of them. Photo: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. / X

In another era, these photos would be mind-boggling and come to define the legacy of the politicians involved. But here in the year 2025, it’s just another day that ends in Y.

What did these guys actually discuss? Apparently the Milei and Trump governments want to create some kind of woo-woo public health body that competes with the World Health Organization. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the WHO on his first day back as the American president on Jan. 20, and and Milei followed suit on Feb. 5.

“I had a wonderful meeting with Argentine President @JMilei about our nations’ mutual withdrawal from the WHO and the creation of an alternative international health system based on gold-standard science and free from totalitarian impulses, corruption, and political control,” Kennedy wrote.

What makes the World Health Organization totalitarian? Kennedy doesn’t get into specifics. But some far-right figures have claimed that WHO colluded with China to hide the “real” origins of the covid-19 pandemic. The Trump regime’s gallery of health-adjacent weirdos insist covid-19 was created in a lab and unleashed upon the world either intentionally or accidentally. Most scientists still believe covid-19 has natural origins.

RFK Jr. holding a gadsen flag hat that reads “No Me Joda,” which means “don’t fuck with me,” alongside Javier Miliei. Photo: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. / X

Kennedy has been busy in recent weeks, firing vital employees of the agencies he runs, including the FDA and CDC, and rolling out new policies. The health secretary was on a podcast Tuesday called “Ultimate Human” where he suggested government scientists would no longer be allowed to publish in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet. Those are, of course, the most prestigious medical journals, but Kennedy called them “corrupt,” according to Politico.

Kennedy would instead like American scientists to publish their work in “in-house” journals. As luck would have it, FDA head Marty Makary and NIH director Jay Bhattacharya recently launched their own medical journal called the Journal of the Academy of Public Health. Science magazine called the journal’s editorial policies “unusual,” and real scientists have noted the journal seems to be comprised of “a small clique of contrarians around the COVID pandemic.”



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