CES 2025: the best things you’ll ever buy

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 66, your guide to the world’s best and coolest stuff. (If you’re new here, welcome, enjoy 2025, and you can also read all the old issues on the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about the silence and deception of Web3 and the future of procedural TV, watching Deadpool & Wolverine on the set like that wanted the director, re-watch Severance and Squid Game to get ready for the second season, waiting for the return of the Children’s Baking Championship, thinking. if it’s real Sara Dietschy or AI Sara Dietschy, and give Apple News Plus a whirl subscription as your go-to news source. I also have for you a big report from CES in Las Vegas. This edition of the Installer is a little different than most, just because we’re seeing a lot of new things, and a lot of new things are being released, and in many cases, it’s hard to know what’s going to be on the shelves. So think of this as part Installer, part CES recap, part “David really hopes these things ship” list. But I try really hard to pick things that I’m sure will sell at some point and maybe make some money. I’m sure I’ll be wrong about some of them… but here’s hoping. And if you want all the best stuff from CES, check out our annual awards — there’s a lot of great stuff there. Also, and most importantly, my heart goes out to everyone in LA and elsewhere who are dealing with the fires this week. I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through, and I hope you’re safe and well. play / read / watch / download / build out of Legos now: installer@theverge.com And if you know someone else who might like Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.) Drop (Note in the link here: I linked to the product page when they were there, as I always try to do But since this CES, sometimes not yet in the case, I link to the Verge story or other coverage.) LG StanbyME 2. I can not explain to you are what i am in this chapter. It’s just a big, portable screen (LG calls it a “lifestyle screen,” which is hysterical), with a strap and a stand, so you can hang it or prop it up on a table. What is that? I don’t know! But I love this idea. Circular Ring 2. The first model was kind of a dud, but Ring 2 seems to get almost everything right: more battery, easier power, good design, more features. My project in 2025 is to ditch my smartwatch for a smart ring, and this has some potential. Nvidia Project Figures. This kind of violates the spirit of the “things real people can buy” rubric here, but I’m increasingly convinced that the only good future for AI is if your AI systems are more local, more personal, and more you. Nvidia’s Mac Mini-looking AI engine is a great step in that direction. Roam SodaTop. I’ve had a SodaStream for years and love everything about it except it’s huge and only in the kitchen. SodaTop screws into your water bottle and carbonates water in five seconds. $50! Spectacular, giving me 14 people. Lenovo Thinkbook Plus Gen 6. I didn’t get to see this one on the CES floor, but Lenovo’s rollable screen concept is real now – and apparently it works pretty well. $3,500 for a laptop is ridiculous, but this is technology that many laptops have. Not for long. Samsung Frame Pro. As far as I can tell, the actual display improvements here aren’t super impressive. But I like that the setup of the Frame is simpler and involves less cables now – and I hope this will make the last-gen Frame cheap enough that I can justify buying one. The Wonder Petal. All your fellow gardeners and birders are curious about this, a flower-style, solar-powered camera that uses AI to identify plants and creatures roaming around your yard. I keep hearing good things about the Buddy Bird feed, too.The Flic Duo. A button! To do the key thing! You stick this little thing on the wall and it programs what happens when you click, double-click, press and hold, swipe, etc. It’s Matter-compatible and $49 and the sort of thing every smart home needs. The SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20 Plus Pro. Yes, his name. But the product is very smart: a modular robot vacuum that doubles as a roving air purifier, pet monitor, and more. I like the trend we’re seeing here, since this is the first home robot. Amazfit Active 2. I saw my friend Victoria Song wearing this watch and told me that I like the red Tron-y face. . He looked at me and said, “THAT’S ONLY ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!” That’s basically the deal – a smart, stylish, cheap smartwatch and fitness tracker. With my favorite watchface yet. Razer Handheld Dock Chroma. One dock for all handheld game consoles. It’s fast charging, seems easy to connect, and supports phones, Steam Decks, Switch, and more. I still totally believe that it’s fun this season of the game, and this is a great accessory idea. Screen sharing It’s a strange time in the blogging/social media universe. Threads, Bluesky, X, Mastodon, and a million other platforms are growing and changing, and it’s hard to decide where to spend your time and energy. I’ve been talking to people for years about how this all works and I’m constantly convinced that Manton Reece is on the right track. He created Micro.blog, which is as simple as Twitter but as personal as a blog and has big ideas about interoperability and fediverse. This week, Manton launched Micro.one, a $1 / month platform that gives you blogs. , on your own domain, which also allows you to post to fediverse. If I’m looking for a new place to post, there’s a good chance I’ll start there. I asked Manton to share the homescreen with us, wanting to see if I could snoop on any other news that could be used. Here’s Manton’s home screen, plus some information about the apps he’s using and why: Phone: iPhone 16 Pro Max. This is the first time I’ve had the biggest iPhone. I thought it would be good to try as a sort of small iPad. It makes reading and writing just a little easier. Wallpaper: My wallpaper is solid black. boring! But it makes everything feel crisp and readable. (For my lock screen background, I have a family photo.) Apps: Messages, Phone, Photos, Camera, Safari, Calm, NetNewsWire, Spotify, Google Maps, Slack, Fantastical, Libby, Cloudy, Swarm, Reeder, Kindle, Hey, Epilog, Strata, Micro.blog.I keep an empty row of icons at the top and bottom of the home screen, so there are fewer icons to sort through when finding open apps. It also makes reaching the top icon easier. I keep all the notification badges hidden to avoid clutter. In the dock, I have Hey email and some companion apps for my Micro.blog platform: Epilog for keeping track of books, Strata for notes, and the official Micro.blog app . Also on the home screen, I have several applications for reading, like Libby and the Kindle application, and, for some reason, two RSS readers: NetNewsWire and Reeder. I use Spotify instead of Apple Music and Fantastical instead of Apple Calendar. I also asked Manton to share some things that are going on now. Here’s a repost: Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson. I’m now half way through this book and loving the epic scope of the story that spans several standalone book series. I hope to read more this year. I track what books I read, and I post a short microblog to my own site about each one.ChatGPT. As a developer, I thought I was good at writing code on my own, and I was initially skeptical of AI. But now, the ChatGPT app for Mac is always running. Throughout the day, I gave random questions and asked for programming help. I’m a big believer in human creativity, and there are a lot of things robots don’t want me to do, but as tools, they’re useful. while traveling. Foursquare recently shut down city guides to refocus on Swarm, but it’s unclear what the future holds for the app. I sometimes import my check-ins into a separate blog so I have all the historical data. Here’s what the Installer community did this week. I would also like to know what you are doing now! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 ​​​​— with recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For better recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Thread and this post on Bluesky. He dives deep into using his iPod for 30 days and how it changed his life. Great interview and insight into algorithms, getting your life back, and using technology without addiction. Really interesting stuff.” – Owen“Last week, I ordered a Laifen Wave electric toothbrush, and it took so long to ship. I’m going to play with my new gadget now, dammit!” – Ellie“I have listened to the entire Essenger discography. I think having an electronic flow during the busiest time of the year in tech makes the tech world even cooler! – Eli” A new extension called Pre-AI Search. All it does is filter to Google results before 2023, but it’s a bit of a lifesaver because it’s a waste of Google image search right now. Pretty useful for my research – Google image search has been difficult with all the AI ​​stuff, but filtering for pre-2023 helps find real design resources again. – Frankie “Flyleaf. A great read-it-later app for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS. – Ryan”I just started listening to the excellent If Books Could Kill podcast. You’re Wrong About alum Michael Hobbes and attorney Peter Shamshiri tackle the question, ‘What if pop science books would have peer review?’ The answer is surprising enough for the books but exciting for the listeners. – Laszlo “It’s not new, but the Baseus Nomos 5-in-1 charging station changed my entire desk setup. Retractable cable and StandBy mode (Qi2!) friendly phone plug make it worth it. – Hawke “I’ve been bingeing AEW on Max. I am a small time wrestling fan who casually returned to WWE during the pandemic Wrestlemania. Now at Max, I have been bingeing the past two months of AEW shows to get acquainted with the product and better compare it with the post-McMahon WWE. Overall, it’s pretty good. – Brian “Greg Iles’ Southern Man, a huge but entertaining novel set in modern Mississippi, has been eating up all my free time.” – Darragh“I recommend you check out ProjectionLab. This is a well-designed financial planning tool that I have been using for the past few years. This solo dev built app makes financial modeling and future planning easy. – Jake” Watch this horror series, Saka, on Prime Video. It’s very different from the shows on the internet.” – DaniyalSigning offDuring the holidays, I found a really nice set of app icons from a designer named Lokki, and of course jumped at the excuse to not finish checking my homescreen. I’m so happy now! But when I bought the icon pack, I also got a set of Widgy widgets, which sent me down the rabbit hole of what I now believe is the coolest app on the planet for Apple devices. Widgy lets you create any widget you can imagine – you can design it from scratch, add tons of features and interactivity, and share your creations so others can download or buy them. The next version of my home screen will be all widgets, no apps. And it will all be Widgy. Widgets are all down, baby.

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