Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 41, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope you like gaming gadgets and silly spy movies, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
Technology
An AI PC you’ll want to tinker with
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25481662/installer_41.png?ssl=1 "An AI PC you’ll want to tinker with")
This week, I’ve been reading about the tough times at Humane and how Suicide Squad flopped, watching the TikTok dancing cult documentary and Furiosa, swapping my crappy Roku for a slightly less crappy Apple TV, listening to a lot of WikiHole, mixing up new mocktail recipes, and testing the Phanpy app for all things fediverse.
I also have for you a new Raspberry Pi accessory, an incredibly well-liked movie to watch this weekend, a couple of fun tech books, some gaming gear, and lots more. Let’s do it.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be as into as you are? Tell me everything: email installer@theverge.com, share with @imdavidpierce on Threads, or find me on Signal @davidpierce.11. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)
The Drop
- The Raspberry Pi AI Kit. This is my kind of AI PC: a super simple $70 kit that works with a Raspberry Pi 5 and gives you a surprising amount of power with which to do simple processing tasks. I don’t even know what I’ll use this for! But I’m getting one anyway.
- Hit Man. A bunch of very smart people have said this comedy-action-thriller Netflix flick is one of the best movies of the year. And why not? Richard Linklater directs, Glen Powell stars, it’s based on an all-timer of a magazine article. I cannot wait to watch.
- Dark Wire. This is as good a premise for a book as I’ve ever seen: the story of the FBI’s secret tech startup, designed to track some of the world’s most sophisticated criminals. A few places have published excerpts, and I already can’t put this book down.
- Building SimCity. Two books this week! You love to see it. This is a story all about SimCity, yes, but also about the history of computer simulation, with lots of photos and diagrams to go with it. One for the coffee table for sure.
- The new Rivian R1. Same look, same funky headlight design, totally new car underneath. A lot of what Rivian’s doing here is clearly just to keep costs down, but this continues to be the EV I lust after the most.
- The Acolyte. This is a very different kind of Star Wars story, set in a very different time and place, told from a very different point of view, all of which I definitely think is a good thing. The reviews seem pretty mixed so far, but I’m excited to give it a whirl.
- Sequel 2.3. A very cool update to the Installerverse’s favorite media tracking app for Apple devices. The new feature is called Magic Lookup, and it lets you send a URL to the app and have it automatically parsed and dumped into your lists. Perfect for saving those “20 things coming to Netflix this month” things you see all over the place.
- The ModRetro Chromatic. The retro gaming hardware boom we’re in right now is just the best thing. And this, a $199 Game Boy homage from a team led by Palmer Luckey, looks great. It’s not shipping until the end of the year, but it’s up for preorders now.
- The Asus ROG Ally X. Speaking of portable consoles! This one’s a lot bigger, a lot more expensive, and a lot more ambitious than the Chromatic — but it also sounds pretty great. Maybe this is the first Windows handheld that can really stand up to the Steam Deck?
- Comfort Zone. Fun new podcast from the MacStories crew, with a gimmick I really like: every week, the three hosts have to basically do “Tech Show and Tell” and then issue a tech-related challenge to complete before the next episode. (MacStories also has another new podcast, called NPC, all about portable gaming.
- “How ‘Wall-E’ Reveals Our Changing Feelings Toward Tech.” I am outrageously jealous of this whole series of episodes from the Offline podcast, looking at how movies like Her and The Social Network influenced the way we think about and build tech. This is the final episode in the miniseries, and they’re all worth a listen.
Screen share
Well, friends, it took 41 issues, but it happened: I had someone lined up for Screen Share this week, and it just didn’t come together in time. So let’s do something slightly different. I’ve recently become obsessed with the Niagara Launcher for Android, which is, in theory, largely optimized for one-handed phone use but is also just a better, quieter way of organizing your homescreen. In the last 10 days, I’ve probably redone my setup eight times. It’s a lot.
Niagara is just so clever! It turns your apps into a customizable list, pops up widgets and notifications right in place, and lets you do a shocking amount of stuff without ever opening an app. This is totally how phones should work. (If you want to understand how it operates, here’s a good thorough video to watch.)
Niagara just got a big update, too, particularly if you pay the $10 a year or $30 lifetime Pro subscription. Its search is better now, it got some cool new icons, and there are a few other little improvements, too.
As I’ve been tinkering with my own homescreen, I’ve been collecting some Niagara setups I like, and I figured I’d share a few. You can do so many things with this launcher!
Cool, right? There are rumors and reports that we’re going to get a bunch of new customization possibilities for iOS, too, so here’s hoping this is a year filled with chaotic homescreen reorgs. If you use Niagara, by the way, or any other awesome Android launcher, I’d love to see your sick homescreen setups. Send them my way. And we’ll be back to regular Screen Share next week!
Crowdsourced
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 or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week.
“New version of Vibescape just came out for Apple Vision Pro — new Oregon coast-inspired meditation environment! Completely new experience with this and the Forest Ledge environment — pushing the boundaries of what’s possible outside of Apple’s own environments.” – Gregory
“I’ve been using Beeper a ton on my Pixel 8 Pro and MacBook Pro. I actually installed it in early April when the acquisition announcement came out but have really hit my stride with it a month ago. It’s just so helpful to have all of your messaging in one app, both for work and personal.” – Josh
“Patrick Willems has a new video this week about what’s next after superhero movies so I’ve been diving back into his channel after a while.” – Mike
“A friend introduced me to Guild Wars 2 a few months back. As someone who likes the concept of an MMO but always felt let down by the execution, I can confidently say this is one of the most underrated games ever made. A fun, free-to-play MMORPG with a healthy community and no microtransactions sounded too good to be true, but it’s not. Plus, with the recent announcements around the next expansion, there are more reasons to play than ever.” – Dallin
“I heard about Microsoft’s Recall, which felt exhausting and tedious to me. So, last weekend, I paved over Windows and installed the Bazzite Linux distro on my gaming PC and have been playing all my Steam and Epic games that way. It’s surprisingly so much better than the last time I tried Linux on the desktop. I’m sure mileage varies, but everything worked with about the same amount of tweaking Windows required.” – Les
“The LOTR movies are finally coming back to theaters. The extended editions — the only versions I’ll watch. So excited to go watch these with my pals, like high school all over again.” – Colin
“Watching Who Killed WCW? from Vice. It’s a three-part miniseries interviewing Eric Bischoff and a bunch of wrestlers like Kevin Nash, Konnan, and Booker T about the inevitable downfall of WCW. Everyone has their own thoughts about who to point the finger at, from Turner executives hating wrestling to Bischoff not knowing what he’s doing to the wrestlers only looking out for themselves. Only one episode out so far, but it’s good.” – Brian
“The new shows Thousandaires from Dropout and Trolley Problems from 2nd Try premiered this week and are both hilarious and great examples of modern media companies and the trend of creating their own streaming platforms.” – Zach
“On the anime watch. I highly recommend Delicious in Dungeon. Very fun to watch, the characters’ comedic timing is excellent. This anime is hilarious while keeping the stakes of the story high.” – John
Signing off
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about a blog post Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO, wrote recently. He talks about his system of “Inbox Ten,” which basically means not trying to end every day with nothing on your plate but instead just trying to find a more manageable flow of information in your life. Boz has a whole system for managing his inbox in particular, which I really like — I used to be an Inbox Zero zealot and get stressed out when there’s stuff in there, but I like his slightly less drastic approach. And this sentence has popped into my brain all week, every time I get an email: “Don’t let it linger in your inbox or get yourself talked into work you don’t think is a good use of your time.” Words to live by.
Continue Reading
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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