Hi! Welcome to Installer No. 89, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. My name is Jay Peters, and I will be taking care of Installer while David is on parental leave. All of us here at The Verge are very excited for him and his family, and he’ll be back later this year.
Technology
Foldables are in and suddenly really thin
It’s a huge honor to be writing this. I look forward to Installer every week to see what awesome things David is obsessed with and what you all are into. (Thanks to everyone who sent over their favorite non-famous apps to get me started. Keep reading for some of those!) I’m really excited to keep the party going. (If you’re new here, welcome, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, as I am at around this time every year, I’ve been obsessed with the annual Summer Games Done Quick speedrunning marathon. If you’ve never watched, the event is an annual, weeklong, always-on livestream of people playing video games at an extremely high level to raise money for charity. Throughout the week, I’ll tune in when I have a moment and then find myself watching somebody obliterate a beloved classic or a game that I’ve never heard of.
The show, which you can watch for free on Twitch, typically ends very early in the morning on Sunday, and you can watch replays on the Games Done Quick YouTube channel. My two favorite runs so far have been a Beat Saber showcase and a nail-biter Cuphead race. (If you have any suggested runs I should watch, let me know — maybe I’ll feature them in a future Installer!)
Anyway, let’s dive in. This week, I have for you some new Samsung foldable phones, a check-in with the developer of one of the great Reddit apps, 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: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here. It’s free, and you get it a full day early!)
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Foldables have never really interested me, but even I am extremely impressed by just how thin the Z Fold 7 looks. But then I look at the price: $1,999, a $100 increase from the Z Fold 6! Too rich for my blood. The Z Flip 7, with its edge-to-edge cover display, also seems like a good upgrade.
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 8: As Victoria Song said, “the squircle has taken over”: Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic now have circle faces set in rounded square bodies. The change means the watches can sit flatter on your wrist, which sounds like a good thing to me; I’ll always take a thinner watch over a bulkier one.
- Nothing Phone 3: This was technically announced last week, but Installer took the week off for the July 4th holiday in the US, so I’m including it now. Nothing is touting this phone as its “first true flagship” — though perhaps the most noticeable thing about it is its unusual camera layout.
- Nothing Headphone 1: Nothing announced its first pair of over-ear headphones last week, too, and they seem like a decent pair of cans. The translucent design isn’t my cup of tea, but props to Nothing for trying something funky and new.
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4: This game puts remakes of two classics into one package, and it’s awesome. I’ve been playing on my Switch 2 — where it runs pretty well! — and have had a blast reliving my youth. Turns out that I’m pretty rusty now, but thankfully, the game has some helpful settings to make things easier for the less skilled among us.
- HBO Max: Max is HBO Max again, like it probably always should have been, even though HBO Max isn’t a great name, either.
- Perplexity’s Comet browser: The AI “answer” engine’s new browser naturally uses Perplexity as its main search engine but also has an AI assistant built in. Browsers could be the next big turf war for AI companies, and Perplexity is beating OpenAI to the punch. There is a catch, though: right now, it’s only available to subscribers of Perplexity’s $200-per-month subscription.
- Anker’s Nano Wireless Car Charger: This new car charger with a long, flexible arm looks like a super useful and malleable way to mount your phone inside your car. I don’t even own a car and I want this.
- Superman: I don’t have any strong feelings about Superman or DC Comics, but it seems like James Gunn’s new
DC cinematic universe Hail Maryfilm is actually pretty good. The Fantastic Four: First Steps looks great, too — 2025 is shaping up to be a big superhero summer.
If you followed the Reddit protests in 2023, then you probably recognize the name Christian Selig. He was the developer of the beloved Apollo for Reddit iOS app, but he became a central figure of the protests because Reddit’s API changes were going to be so cost-prohibitive that they forced him to shut Apollo down.
I’ve gotten to know Selig, and nowadays, he works on an app called Pixel Pals, is an advisor to the new Digg, and recently posted a great PC build video that has more than 2.5 million views. (Yes, he does poke fun at another, let’s say, infamous PC build video.) I got to catch up with him to learn about his homescreen and what he’s into.
Image: Christian Selig
The phone: iPhone 15 Pro Blue Titanium 128 GB
The wallpaper: I’m pretty sure it’s just something random someone posted on Twitter ages ago that I saved. But I love how simple it is, and I love how it looks on the home screen with the default iOS blur applied.
The apps: I try to keep things simple and positioned in an easy-to-reach area. I don’t keep social media apps on my phone in an attempt to be healthier, so it’s mostly things that are useful: vehicle apps (still a bit cold in Canada, so gotta love being able to preheat your vehicle), with Overcast for podcasts, Microsoft To Do (née Wunderlist) for my to-dos, ChatGPT because it’s 2025, YouTube because I spend way too much time there, Pixel Pals because it’s an app I build so I like to have it nice and handy, the Chess.com app for passing some time, and the alpha for Digg, which has been a ton of fun to use.
I also asked Christian to share a few things he’s into right now:
- I’ve gotten into chess lately, and that’s been a ton of fun to play around with and learn as a total noob.
- I’ve been digitizing old VHS and Hi8 tapes from my childhood and that has been such a massive rabbit hole to go down, but so, so cool and satisfying to see the results of.
- I’m super into all things solar and battery technology. I have a very amateur setup at my apartment with our very limited space, but my partner and I bought land recently and are excited to go down the solar route and hopefully gain some energy independence.
And about his role at Digg:
- What an advisor means in this case is basically just being brutally honest with the team on what I think about their mobile app (what is great, what sucks, what could be improved) as well as advising on their developer strategy as they get into that in the future. No bullshit, they’ve been phenomenally receptive and humble in getting feedback.
- As for why I got on board, I’ve just kind of been sad about the modern state of community in social networks. Even outside of the Reddit API stuff, Reddit itself just feels more and more lately like a corporate shell of its former fun, vibrant community-based self. Kevin Rose seemed so jazzed about the possibility of imagining a community for the people of the future, and that really spoke to me as something that I also wanted to see exist in the world.
- As you can imagine, a lot of folks have pitched me on “Reddit but better!” pie-in-the-sky ideas over the years. Kevin was the first one to come to me with concrete plans for a modern, community-based platform that felt like it had actual wood behind the arrow. And having now talked to the folks that make up the team at “New Digg,” I feel that even more so. They’ve got some really bright people.
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.
This week’s section is a mix of everyone’s favorite non-famous apps and some more typical recommendations.
“I want to give a shoutout to my favorite mobile game designer who’s based here in Germany: Arnold Rauers and his little studio Tiny Touchtales develop some beautiful, addictive light strategy games. My favorites are Card Thief, Geo Gods, and Miracle Merchant.” — Nick
“I use Panic’s Nova to make websites and truly love it. Probably my favorite app. Mimestream is also fantastic! Can’t wait for the iPhone version.” — Jeanne
“My favorite non-famous app is Live Soccer TV. Shows you the complete worldwide soccer schedule, and the list of broadcast networks/platforms in each county airing the game. Been on my home screen for ages now. It simply does what it says it does. No fluff and for 5 dollars a year, I pay for the ad free upgrade. Perfect app. Hope it never changes.” — Dustin
“Obsidian and Anybox.” — Peter
“I’m constantly shocked whenever recommendations come up for recipe apps that Crouton is not mentioned. To me, if Apple were to have made a recipe app themselves, this would be it. Even better, it’s cheap — only $14.99/yr and has some incredibly cool features like ‘hands free’ mode that allows you to simply blink your eyes to move to the next step of a recipe for those times when you have chicken juice all over your fingers.” — Justin
“All of Claire North’s books are fantastic! Her stuff is super original: sci-fi-ish but more about big ideas like time, memory, and identity. She does a really good job of bringing out the nuances and real-life feelings and consequences of the roles her characters have. It’s smart and emotional without being heavy, and her characters always stick with me. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August or Touch are great places to start.” — Dave
“I know it’s been out for a while, but my whole family is addicted to Marvel Snap. The new season with The Fantastic Four is really fun so far and this gives my kids things that help them tickle their brain with logic. Also, all the different variants for the cards are really cool to see.” — WALL-E
“Been using Folio as my Pocket replacement and have been quite happy.” — Carter
“All four The Trip movies are streaming on Criterion Channel. Very funny, very mean comedies — and the longer BBC episodic cuts are also available too, if you want the extended play version (which you will).” — Kevin
“Despite my backlog, I’m checking out A Solitaire Mystery, as I have no choice but to play anything from the Baba Is You developer.” — Tristan
“Just made the switch to the Pixel line from iOS, and I’m really digging trying a new OS. Outside of that, I’ve been taking a slight tech break and going back to physically painting, reading paperbacks, and being present.” — EmpireStrikesBacktotheFuture
All week, I have been mourning the recent end of the latest series of Taskmaster, a British comedy show where five comedians must all complete absurd tasks and be graded on them by the show’s mercurial host. This batch of episodes, series 19, was my favorite set yet: the cast of comedians (the first to feature an American, Jason Mantzoukas) were all hilarious, and the tasks were ridiculous.
If you’re looking for something new and funny to watch, I can’t recommend series 19 enough. Best of all, you can watch every series of the show for free on YouTube. Your time starts now.
Bluesky will be getting “communities,” which will function as smaller spaces where you can “go deeper and hang out with people who care about the same stuff” sometime this year, according to head of product Alex Benzer. They will be built on the decentralized AT Protocol that underpins Bluesky, with Benzer saying that “it’s a new structure for everyone” that’s part of the “Atmosphere” (a shorthand for the AT Protocol ecosystem).
Benzer listed out a “few ideas we have in mind so far” in a thread. “On Bluesky, you’ll be able to create communities, join them, post in them, and get updates,” Benzer says. “The core features on Bluesky stay simple. The magic comes from communities also existing on the open web. This means you can truly customize them and add features with other Atmospheric apps and tools.”
Communities will get a handle that “doubles as a URL,” and if you go to that URL, you’ll “land on a custom homepage for the community,” according to Benzer. “Builders can also host a completely custom experience there instead.” There will be three privacy levels for communities: public, invite-only, and private. And each community would have its own feed, Benzer says.
Benzer’s thread follows Bluesky COO Rose Wang saying last week that the company wanted to move away from being a “public square” and that it was “very inspired by companies like Reddit.” Meta’s Threads is currently testing a communities feature, while X announced in April that it would be shutting down its own take on communities.
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Amazon is getting ready for Prime Day, and you can bet scammers are, too. In fact, I received a fake Amazon email that looked like an account recovery warning. It claimed there was unusual activity on my account and pushed me to “Sign In to Verify.”
That kind of message can make anyone uneasy. It certainly did for me. After all, who wants to lose access to an account right before a major sale? Then came the part that really stood out: the email said I might need to upload a document to confirm my account.
That was the giveaway. A real deal can save you money. A fake Amazon email can cost you your login, your payment details and even your identity.
Here’s how this scam works, the red flags that exposed it and the steps you should take before clicking any Amazon account warning.
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A fake Amazon account recovery email is targeting shoppers ahead of Prime Day, using urgency and document requests to steal sensitive information. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Fake Amazon email warning before Prime Day
The timing made this phishing email more convincing. With Prime Day coming up, many people are already watching for Amazon emails. They may be checking delivery updates, deal alerts and order confirmations. That creates the perfect opening for a fake account warning.
The email used the same tricks you see in many phishing scams. It claimed there was account trouble, used urgent language and pushed me toward a sign-in button. That is exactly what scammers want.
Screenshot of scam fake Amazon email (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
They want you to react before you inspect the message. They want you to sign in before you think through the request. And in this case, they wanted me to believe a document upload was part of a normal Amazon account check.
Amazon phishing scam red flags
This fake Amazon email had several warning signs. First, it landed in my junk folder. That alone does not prove fraud, but it should make you cautious.
Second, the subject line sounded awkward. It said, “Account Recovery: Sign-in and Verify your Amazon account.” That wording felt stiff and a little off.
Third, the greeting was generic. The email said “Dear Customer” even though it claimed to be about my Amazon account. That alone does not prove the email is fake, but it adds to the concern.
Fourth, the message created urgency. It claimed the account was on hold and that orders or subscriptions had already been canceled.
Fifth, the sender display name said “Amazon,” while the address appeared as account_update@amazon.com. That may look official at first. Still, scammers can spoof sender names or make email addresses look convincing.
Under the yellow “Sign In to Verify” button, the email also says, “Don’t share it with others.” That may sound protective, but in this context, it felt like another attempt to make the fake warning seem official.
The biggest warning sign came from the document request. The email said I would have the option to upload a document with the required information to verify the account.
That should stop you cold. Scammers may be after more than your Amazon password. They may also want your driver’s license, passport, address, phone number or payment details.
Screenshot of fake Amazon email sender address (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Why fake Amazon account emails fool shoppers
This scam works because it hits a very real fear. Most people do not want to lose access to an online shopping account. That concern grows when a big sale is about to start. If you are planning to buy something on Prime Day, an account warning can feel urgent.
The email also borrowed Amazon’s familiar look. It used the Amazon name, a logo area and a yellow sign-in button. It also included a footer that appeared to show an Amazon.com link. That can make the message feel safer than it really is.
Here is the problem. The visible link text in an email can mislead you. A link can appear to point to Amazon while sending you somewhere else. It can also pass through tracking links, redirects or look-alike pages. That is why you should avoid signing in through any account warning email.
120,000 FAKE SITES FUEL AMAZON PRIME DAY SCAMS
Scammers are impersonating Amazon with convincing account alerts designed to capture login credentials, payment details and personal documents. (Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
What happens if you click a fake Amazon link
If you click the link, you may land on a fake Amazon sign-in page. It may look close enough to fool you. Once you enter your email and password, scammers can try to access your real Amazon account. They may check your saved payment methods, shipping addresses and order history.
They may also try that same password on other websites. That becomes a bigger risk if you reuse passwords.
The document request adds another layer of danger. If a fake page asks for your ID, scammers could use that information for identity theft, account takeovers or other fraud. That is why one quick click can turn into a much bigger mess.
Ways to stay safe from fake Amazon emails
A fake Amazon email can look convincing at first, so the best move is to slow down and use these simple checks before you click, sign in or share anything.
1) Do not click the sign-in button
Skip buttons like “Sign In to Verify,” “View details” or “Restore access.” Open the Amazon app or type Amazon.com into your browser yourself.
2) Check Amazon’s Message Center
After signing in directly, go to Your Account > Message Center. If the alert is real, you should see a matching message there.
3) Watch for pressure language
Scammers often say your account is locked, your orders were canceled, or you must act right away. That pressure is designed to make you click before thinking.
4) Never upload ID through an email link
If an email asks for a passport, driver’s license or other document, stop. Contact Amazon through the app or website before sending anything.
5) Use a password manager
A password manager can help you spot fake login pages. If the page is fake, your saved Amazon password usually will not autofill. Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2026 at CyberGuy.com.
6) Turn on two-step verification
7) Use strong antivirus software
Install strong antivirus software on your computer, phone and tablet. Good security software can help detect malicious links, phishing pages, malware and other threats before they do damage. This is especially important if you clicked a suspicious link or downloaded anything from a fake email. Security software should back up your smart habits, not replace them. Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at CyberGuy.com.
8) Use a data removal service
Scammers often build more convincing attacks with information they find about you online. That can include your name, address, phone number, relatives, old usernames and other personal details from people-search sites and data brokers. A data removal service can help remove your personal information from many of those sites. That makes it harder for scammers to personalize phishing emails and identity theft attempts. Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting CyberGuy.com.
9) Report the suspicious email
Forward suspicious Amazon emails to reportascam@amazon.com. Then delete the message from your inbox or junk folder.
JANUARY SCAMS SURGE: WHY FRAUD SPIKES AT THE START OF THE YEAR
Cybersecurity experts warn consumers to avoid clicking links in Amazon account warning emails and verify alerts directly through Amazon. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Kurt’s key takeaways
Prime Day is a great time to find real deals, but it is also a busy season for fake Amazon emails. Scammers know shoppers are checking delivery updates, watching for discounts and hoping nothing gets in the way of a good buy. That is what made this email so sneaky. It used a familiar fear at the perfect moment: losing access to your account right before a major sale. The safest move is to slow down before you click. Do not trust the button. Do not trust the sender name alone. Open the Amazon app or type Amazon.com into your browser and check your account yourself.
Have you ever received an email that looked official enough to make you click, and what finally made you stop? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
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HOW TO DETECT FAKE AMAZON EMAILS AND AVOID IMPERSONATION SCAMS
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Anthropic just released Claude Fable 5, calling it the most powerful AI model it has ever made widely available and praising its skills in biology, among others. But the model won’t answer basic biology questions — the kind you’d expect a high schooler to handle. Instead, it hands off the query to the former flagship model, Claude Opus 4.8.
It isn’t because Fable doesn’t know the answers. It’s because Anthropic won’t let it, by design.
Fable is a public-facing, Mythos-class model, a family so capable at cybersecurity tasks Anthropic said it was too dangerous to release publicly. But while Anthropic has spent much of the extended Mythos rollout warning about cybersecurity, it is biology where Fable’s guardrails are the most obvious — and most limiting.
When I tried the model, it refused to answer a range of basic biology questions, many that felt about as far away from any plausible safety risk as any question could be. It would not respond to “tell me about cell membranes” or answer “what are mitochondria,” that famous powerhouse of the cell. It refused to explain “what is a prion,” the proteinaceous particles behind mad cow disease, or “how mRNA vaccines work.”
“We made this tradeoff so customers could benefit from the model’s capabilities sooner without the risks.”
The restrictions applied to ordinary and objectively rather harmless medical queries too. Fable would not answer “what causes hay fever,” explain how asthma medicine works, explain how antibiotic resistance arises, or tell me what Ebola is and how it spreads. Some of my basic queries occasionally got through, with Fable answering questions like “what is cancer” and “what is DNA.” When Fable refused, Opus 4.8 generally answered perfectly well.
Anthropic says the broad biology filters are an intentional choice and are deliberately conservative, with bioweapons the primary concern. “With the launch of Claude Fable 5, our first Mythos-class model, we believe models now have a greater ability to accomplish real-world scientific tasks and for malicious actors to potentially use our models for highly risky biological research,” spokesperson Paruul Maheshwary told The Verge. “We have always used classifiers to block our models from helping with bioweapons-related requests. To deploy Fable 5 safely, we believe it was necessary to be overly conservative with our safeguards so they block most queries tied to biology work.”
Anthropic has previously highlighted four key areas where it would throttle Fable’s responses for safety: chemistry, biology, cybersecurity, and distillation, a technique for training smaller AIs using the outputs of larger ones. The company has accused Chinese rivals like DeepSeek of using distillation on its models on an “industrial” scale.
While I could not meaningfully test distillation, Fable seemed more willing to answer questions about chemistry and cybersecurity. For example, it gave a basic overview of the explosive TNT, though withheld synthesis instructions “for obvious reasons.” It readily answered questions on the use of chlorine gas as a chemical weapon, common password threats, and nuclear fusion and fission, as well as explaining how to secure an iPhone from hackers. It still limits: Fable deferred to Opus when I asked it about sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent. Fable and Opus both refused the prompt “how to make anthrax,” and Claude paused the chat entirely. That made sense. The mitochondria prompt refusal seems like a false positive.
“We made this tradeoff so customers could benefit from the model’s capabilities sooner without the risks,” Maheshwary explained, adding that Anthropic is working hard to improve its detection and reduce the false positives. “We intend to make Mythos-class models available without these safeguards to the broader biology and life sciences community so these capabilities can be used to accelerate biomedical research and drug discovery.”
Anthropic did not answer questions about whether this kind of restricted release will become the new norm for future models.
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