Joanna Stern’s – In Installer No. 128, David Pierce highlights Mac utilities, games, fediverse-friendly apps, and a viral streaming special—then details what Joanna Stern says worked after a year of using AI for everything, from Claude/ChatGPT Projects to BookBots for research
A tidy computer isn’t glamorous—until it is.. In this week’s Installer No.. 128. David Pierce makes the case for small. practical fixes: a Mac app called Mole that hunts down huge files and memory-hungry processes. a menu-bar cleanup tool that adds features like zero-click AirDrop. and even a $40 dongle designed more to keep a phone from dying than to fully charge it.
But the issue also swings from the everyday to the viral and the ambitious.. Pierce highlights Dungeon Crawler Carl’s eighth book. the Steam breakout “Subnautica 2. ” and Indigo—described as a Bluesky and Mastodon combo timeline—before turning to software for photos. smart glasses culture. and a Disney Plus special that’s gone viral for “bad reasons” including a confusing VFX shot and audio issues.. He also flags something personal and telling: today, Joanna Stern becomes the first-ever repeat guest in Installer history.
Mole is front and center for people who want cleanup without constant nagging.. Pierce says the Mac app looks for “huge files. un-needed apps. memory-hungry processes. and other things mucking up your computer. ” and notes it doesn’t feel “overzealous” or constantly focused on upsells.. The price he points to is $9.
From there, Pierce moves to a small accessory that’s meant to prevent anxiety at the worst time. The Twelve South PowerClip is described as a tiny $40 dongle that isn’t designed to fully charge your phone; instead, its job is to keep it from dying. Pierce adds that it can also act as a USB-C cable.
On the software side, he returns to Bartender Pro, calling it the classic power-user menu-bar app for cleaning things up.. For $15 a year. Pierce says Bartender Pro goes further—adding utilities such as audio controls and a calendar into the notch area of a Mac screen (or the middle of the menu bar).. His favorite is “Zero-click AirDrop from my computer to my phone, just by dragging a file.”
Installer doesn’t stay only on productivity.. Pierce points to Dungeon Crawler Carl: the eighth book as “back. ” and says he’s still catching up on the series while remaining confident it will bring “even more chaos to Carl and Donut.” He calls it “maybe the most-recommended thing in the history of Installer. ” calling the news “huge.”
He also notes the rapid rise of Subnautica 2, calling it one of the biggest Steam titles “literally overnight.” His irony is blunt: reviews say the early-access game is “full of bugs and weirdness,” but he says “doesn’t seem to be stopping anybody.”
Then comes Indigo, an app aimed at reducing the hassle of switching timelines.. Pierce describes Indigo as combining a Bluesky app and a Mastodon app into a single timeline that “looks and feels great. ” and adds that the same developers also make Croissant for posting to both services.. He links this to his continuing interest in the fediverse. saying apps like this are why he’s “still so excited about the fediverse.”
Pierce also includes a pointer to a cultural debate around smart glasses: “We aren’t ready for Meta glasses.” He frames the video as Christophe’s look at the cultural state of smart glasses—and why these devices are “genuinely both thrilling and horrifying”—while referencing that his colleague Vee Song has covered the subject at length.
On the photo-editing front, he praises Snapseed 4.0 from Google, saying it managed to produce “an extremely cool app” again.. He credits it with a feature set that’s not overwhelming. describing “a lot of features but a simple. straightforward set of controls.” He adds that the new look “definitely won’t be for everyone. ” but says he digs it.
And there’s plenty of entertainment too.. Pierce highlights The Punisher: One Last Kill. a Disney Plus special that’s “gone viral for bad reasons. ” including “a confusing VFX shot and some audio issues. ” while still saying he’s “always here for a gritty superhero story” and that this one “seems to execute the genre really well.”
What makes this edition feel especially personal is how it turns from tools to a year-long experiment with AI.. Today’s spotlight is Joanna Stern. and Pierce says she spent the last year of her life trying to use AI “for absolutely everything. ” aiming to figure out “where AI might actually be useful.” He also points to her book. I Am Not a Robot. which he says just came out this week and needs to be bought and read “several times. ” while also noting her new project—her media company. newsletter. and YouTube channel called New Things.
Stern, in the conversation Pierce shares, names her daily AI setup.. She says she’s a “Claude person and a ChatGPT person. ” using “Claude Code and Claude Cowork for a lot of multi-step work and for integrating with my Google tools.” She says she uses ChatGPT “more for editing and talking things through. ” calling out that “the voice and live video mode are superior.”
When asked what surprised her most, Stern emphasizes that Projects in both tools saved her time during book making.. She adds a line about wordplay—“book making” sounds like “baby making”—but then clarifies she wrote “the whole book” herself.. She says she used AI for “organization, reporting, and research help,” and that those details are covered in the book.
Stern then drills into her “BookBots” workflow: she used Projects to create BookBots. uploading “research notes. academic papers. transcripts. deadlines. editor notes and more.” She says the BookBots “kept me on track” and made it “easy to find things when I was writing.” If she had questions about deadlines. what she should work on. or which companies and experts her research suggested were worth talking to. she says she asked the BookBots.
She also describes using AI for a website.. Stern says she “vibe-coded” joannastern.com and ran a “pin promotion” where people who pre-ordered the book could get a free pin.. She says the workflow included “an order form on the site” and a “backend workflow where every submission with an uploaded receipt and address automatically added the person to a spreadsheet and emailed both me and the publisher a confirmation.”
After a year of experiments, Stern says what’s stuck is straightforward: she talks to ChatGPT in the car “via voice mode,” and she also mentions Meta AI in her Meta Ray-Bans, saying she talks to AI “a lot” because “you don’t pick up my calls.”
But Pierce also shares a different kind of moment at the end of Stern’s interview—one that doesn’t fit neatly into the productivity theme.. When Pierce asked Stern to recommend what she’s into right now. Stern “did not do so.” Instead. Pierce writes that Stern told him that once you write and release a book. “there is absolutely no time for anything else. ” and looks forward to the day “for you” while encouraging him that there’s “no time for other books. movies. podcasts or even recipes for how to make food.” She then recommends six podcasts and adds that she is “on all of them” and has taken over Pierce’s feed.
Stern’s apology comes with a practical note: Pierce says she says if someone buys the book, “they will automatically be removed from your feed.” Pierce includes that he loves tech pod listeners whose feeds he says he took over “this week,” and he wraps the line with “Love you all.”
Even with the AI focus, the issue stays anchored to a community exchange.. Pierce asks what the Installer community is into this week and invites readers to email installer@theverge.com or message him on Signal—@davidpierce.11—with recommendations.. He adds that the community favorites are drawn from replies on Threads and Bluesky.
The submissions themselves run from games to kids shows to reading.. Astanush recommends “Mars First Logistics. ” describing building rovers to deliver objects across Mart terrain and calling the tinkering “surprisingly funny” when a build fails and it’s back to the drawing board.. Allison says she discovered Trash Truck on Netflix and calls it “one of those rare pieces of kids entertainment” that’s funny to both her and a four-year-old. giving it a “10/10.” Michiel writes that he’s documenting weekly D&D adventures for five years. keeping notes in a Google Doc and adding them to NotebookLM for questions about past characters. past places. maps. and organizations. though he calls going through old notes “exhausting.”
Aron recommends Devil May Cry 5 and a new season of the series on Netflix.. Oscar shares Blento. calling it “a website maker” that’s “an AT Protocol alternative for Bento (RIP)” and pulls in information from apps in the ATmosphere.. Scott says he’s reading Mason & Dixon “for a very very long time.” John recommends Widow’s Bay on Apple TV. blending comedy with horror and saying it “supplants horror expectations. ” plus that he usually covers his eyes for jumpscares but not for this show.
Rob says Graveyard Keeper was free on Steam and that he’s obsessed, describing it as “Stardew Valley if you also made sandwiches and zombies out of dead bodies.” Ryan recommends an audiobook—Apple: The First 50 Years by David Pogue—available on Everand and calls it a “great alternative to Audible.”
Pierce also closes the week with a personal reset that ties back to the “clean up your computer” idea.. He takes a “sort of half-vacation,” skipping meetings and taking a week off of podcasting while still handling urgent things.. He spends free time organizing his home office after it became a “bit of a disaster zone. ” adding an Anker power strip that clamps to his desk and is his “best mix of minimalism and accessibility.” He also adds “a couple of 10-foot USB-C cables” that make charging and power setup easier without stretching everything.
He bought his power strip and cables from Anker but floats a possible upgrade: Native Union Pop Cable, described as “coiled and stretchy and won’t tangle as easily.” He adds, “It’s probably good for my wallet that it’s back to work on Monday.”
The throughline in this issue is that the week’s suggestions keep orbiting around getting clutter under control. whether that means cleaning a Mac. sorting a timeline across fediverse services. or keeping a book project organized through BookBots—Stern’s detailed workflow and the app picks all point to the same practical goal of making information easier to find and act on.
For now, Installer 128 ends where it began: with Pierce asking what you’re into and inviting everyone to share. The email remains installer@theverge.com, Signal is @davidpierce.11, and the remaining favorites sit in the replies on Threads and Bluesky—ready for next week’s roundup.
Installer 128 David Pierce Mac utilities Mole Bartender Pro Twelve South PowerClip Indigo Bluesky Mastodon fediverse Snapseed 4.0 AI workflow Joanna Stern ChatGPT Claude BookBots NotebookLM