The Verge rounds up summer's surprises: a breakout movie, a new Pixel and more
The Verge writer David Pierce used his weekly Installer newsletter to highlight this summer's standout tech and entertainment picks, including the new Google Pixel 11 and an unexpectedly popular movie, while announcing he is heading off on parental leave.
Summer standouts
The Verge journalist David Pierce has published issue No. 140 of his weekly Installer newsletter, rounding up the most notable happenings in tech and entertainment. He reveals this is his last edition before going on parental leave — colleague Jay Peters will take over for the coming weeks while Pierce returns in early October.
Pierce names the film "The End of Oak Street" as this summer's biggest surprise, noting it became unexpectedly popular even though almost no one predicted its success. A similar surprise came from the new series "Lanterns" — a gritty, buddy-cop-style Green Lantern drama from Damon Lindelof that, according to Pierce, won him over despite his usual skepticism toward superhero stories.
On the gadget side, the Google Pixel 11 gets a mention — Pierce doesn't call it the most exciting year in Pixel history, but credits Google with the best take on Android, useful AI tools and thoughtful camera ideas, recommending the base model as a starting point. Also highlighted are a reissued Commodore TAC-2 joystick for retro gamers and an update called "Cues" for the Matic robot vacuum, which lets users direct cleaning by voice or by pointing.
The newsletter also features a conversation with author Hugh Howey, whose novels inspired the series "Silo." Howey discussed the apps he uses daily, his life living full-time on a sailboat, and Neo, a new book-writing app he built himself.
In closing, Pierce mentions the upcoming film "The Social Reckoning," which has drawn attention mainly through actor Jeremy Strong's press tour and an interview with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, and recommends watching Sorkin's earlier series "Sports Night."
