Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 83, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, please don't spoil Andor for me, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I've been reading about Mission: Impossible and Sam Altman's kitchen and bad roommates, ranting to PJ Vogt about all the ways I'm trying to use my phone less, writing all my scratch notes in Antinote, deciding to be cautiously optimistic about The Paper, rewatching the last season of Mythic Quest, watching and reading about life as an air traffic controller, trying to restart a meditation practice after discovering I get Headspace through work, and using Ludex to see if any of my sports cards are worth anything. So far… they're not.
I also have for you a pair of headphones you're practically guaranteed to love, two new sci-fi shows to check out, the new Airbnb, and much more. Let's dive in.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you reading / watching / listening to / playing / carrying around in a backpack this week? What should everyone else be just as into as you are right now? Tell me everything: ins …
Successioncreator Jesse Armstrong has never been subtle with his commentary on the rich and powerful, but the new trailer for his HBO feature Mountainhead spells out exactly what makes its central characters people you shouldn’t be rooting for.
Set in a remote cabinat the top of a mountain, Mountainhead revolves around a quartet of tech bros whose companies have turned them into obscenely wealthy people. Though Randall (Steve Carell), Hugo Van Yalk (Jason Schwartzman), Venis (Cory Michael Smith), and Jeff (Ramy Youssef) all have different net worths, they share the same type of worldview that comes with having billions of dollars to your name. The men see their riches as a sign that they deserve some down time relaxing in the snow while their employees keep things running at home.
But the CEOs are given pause when Traam — Venus’ generative AI-filled social media platform — is pointed to as a catalyst for an uptick in violence. And while the men are quick to assure one another that none of their creations can be blamed for making the world a more terrible place, it isn’t long before the friends start pointing out the multitude of ways in which that is absolutely not true.
Especially coming right after X’s recent issues with Grok talking nonstop about “white genocide” in South Africa, Mountainhead’s trailer makes the movie feel unsettlingly tapped into the news cycle. Though the movie is supposed to be funny, the way its characters “joke” about being able to take over the world isn’t all that amusing considering the way actual tech CEOs talk about people. That might make Mountainhead feel more like a dramatic documentary when it makes its HBO debut on May 31st.
It's not TV, it's HBO. No, sorry, it's HBO Go. And also HBO Now. But now it's HBO Max, except wait, now it's not HBO at all? It's just Max? Actually, I'm being told it is once again HBO Max. Thank you for joining us on this wild and utterly nonsensical branding journey. Please keep watching The White Lotus.
On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay, David, and The Verge's Jake Kastrenakes start the show with some personal news before digging into Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to rename its streaming service again this week, re-embracing the HBO brand after eschewing it only a few years ago. (Now that we think about it, maybe we should have seen this coming from a company that couldn't come up with a better combined name than "Warner Bros. Discovery.") The hosts also talk about the rest of the news in a busy week in streaming, from ESPN's upcoming service to the plan for Fox One.
May and June are rarely considered the best time of year to land a streaming deal, though that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to save if you can forgo big-name services like Netflix and Hulu. Now through May 30th, for instance, both new and returning subscribers can sign up for a year of ad-supported Peacock Premium for just $24.99 ($55 off) when they use promo code SPRINGSAVINGS at checkout.
Admittedly, Peacock doesn’t carry the same kind of prestige as other services, but it still has plenty to offer in the way of TV shows and movies. The second season of Poker Face, Rian Johnson’s Columbo-inspired series starring Natasha Lyonne, premiered less than a week ago, and Oscar darling Wickedmade its streaming debut exclusively on Peacock just recently. And if you want something to look forward to, Greg Daniels’ latestmockumentary series, a spinoff of The Office called The Paper,will hit the streaming platform in September.
One caveat to keep in mind with Peacock’s ongoing promo is that you’ll be automatically charged the full subscription price (currently $79.99) at the end of the 12-month period. Thankfully, you can turn off Peacock’s auto-renew feature and still access the full slate of programming until the end of your billing cycle, ensuring you won’t be charged whatever price hike will inevitably go into effect before then.
More ways to save today
The cool weather might be winding down in many parts of the US, but if you’re someone who could still use a little heat in your home, Vornado’s vintage-looking Vheat is on sale at Amazon in select colors starting at $120.24 (about $50 off). The simple space heater packs a lot of the same functionality as other Vornado models — it’s got two heat settings, an auto-off function, and a 47-degree pivoting head — only it sports an all-metal build that’s far more attractive than anything you might pick up at The Home Depot or Lowe’s.
Once again, Costco has restocked what might very well be the best Insta360 X5 bundle out there, making it a great time to snag Insta360’s excellent action camera. The X5 can capture 4K footage up to 120fps, and like the last-gen X4, it can film in 8K up to 30fps or in 5.7K up to 60fps (with better low-light performance and the ability to swap lenses). The $549.99 package nets you a total of two batteries, a selfie stick, and a lens cap, along with a 256GB microSD card for stowing footage of all your adventures. Read our review.
The delightfully unique Sharge Pouch is down to an all-time low of $49.99 ($50 off) at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon for an additional $10 off. The compact, 40W USB-C charger is a bit different than your standard offerings from Anker and Baseus in that it functions as a wearable battery with a built-in cable, which allows you to easily take it with you on the go. Just ask our own Sean Hollister, who gave the chic(-ish) charger a whirl last year.
Netflix is working on a new type of ad that will use AI to let advertisers “marry” their product with the streaming service’s shows and movies. This may sound like Warner Bros. Discovery’s plan to turn its IP into commercials, but during Netflix’s Upfront event on Wednesday, the company demonstrated an example that placed the image of a product over a background inspired by one of its shows, like Stranger Things.
If you’re on Netflix’s ad-supported plan, that means you might see an ad that blends in with the show you’re watching, whether it’s Bridgerton or Wednesday. Netflix says advertisers can insert this new ad format in the middle of what you’re watching, or put them on the screen when you hit pause. They could contain an overlay or call to action when they roll out by the end of this year.
It’s not clear how Netflix plans to evolve these ads down the road, but its advertising president Amy Reinhard said the pace of progress “is going to be even faster.” During the event, Netflix also announced that its ad-supported tier reached 94 million monthly users, more than doubling the 40 million it had at the same time last year.
You’re about to start seeing even more characters from Warner Bro. Discovery’s films and series popping up in ads for stuff like condiments and insurance.
In addition to its plan to start calling HBO Max by its proper name again, WBD announced this week that it’s launching something called the “WBD Storyverse,” a new ad sales initiative designed to turn pieces of the studio’s classic IP into elaborate commercials. Inspired by some WBD’s past brand partnerships with companies including Unilever, Wayfair, and State Farm, WBD Storyverse will create ads meant to capitalize on consumers’ fondness for movies like The Matrixand Harry Potteras well as series like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and Family Matters.
According to WBD, Storyverse content will run on its own linear and digital platforms as well as social channels. While the studio didn’t go into detail about what Storyverse ads will look like exactly, it did note that program talent (read: actors you recognize) may reprise their roles in some instances. In a press release about the initiative, WBD’s executive vice president of partnerships Sheereen Russell described Storyverse as being “all about creative possibilities.”
“Audiences have a deep connection to our stories, and we want to offer that connectivity in service to our partners,” Russell said. “By blending fresh ideas with the familiarity of our beloved worlds and characters, we empower marketers to spark cultural conversations and delight consumers with meaningful moments.”
All of this makes it sound like WBD wants to flood the zone with the sorts of commercials you would expect to see airing during the Super Bowl. That makes a certain degree of sense given how those kinds of ads can become miniature cultural moments that get people talking about and more primed to spend money on products. But part of what makes ad spots like “Batman vs. Bateman” fun is how unexpected and out of the ordinary they are. And if the studio churns out too many of these things, it’s very easy to imagine them becoming a depressing reminder of how it sees everything as Content™.
At its best, Netflix's Love, Death, and Robots creates the same feeling as picking up a collection of sci-fi short stories. You don't always know what to expect, and not everything is brilliant, but you're guaranteed to experience something interesting. That was especially true of volume 3 of the animated anthology, which offered nine shorts, all of which were excellent. The latest volume doesn't quite hit the same heights, nor does it have a singular standout episode like "The Very Pulse of the Machine," but it's still a strong offering.
What volume 4 does do well - and it's something that's a strength of LDR as a whole - is offer a wide variety of tones and styles. There are still the dark, violent, and hyperreal episodes that are so closely associated with LDR, like "Spider Rose," a follow-up to last season's "Swarm," which tells a cyberpunk story about a woman consumed with revenge who ends up finding it with the help of a very strange creature. There's also "The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur," in which trained warriors fight to the death in front of rich dignitaries and royalty, all while racing on dinosaurs. In a strangely inspired bit of casting, the death races are hosted …
YouTube announced a range of initiatives designed to attract more TV ad dollars to its platform at Brandcast, its annual Upfront event for advertisers. Notably, the Google-owned video service is expanding its relationship with the NFL and plans to exclusively stream the NFL’s first Friday game of the 2025-2026 season. It’s also preparing to pilot […]
Netflix is adding more livestreaming content, the company announced at its Upfront presentation on Wednesday. The service, which now reaches over 94 million global monthly active users, has been steadily introducing live TV to its audience with sports content from WWE wrestling, comedy, and awards shows, and other special events (some of which definitely didn’t […]
Netflix is joining its streaming rivals in testing the amount and types of advertisements its subscribers are willing to endure for lower prices.
Today, at its second annual upfront to advertisers, the streaming leader announced that it has created interactive mid-roll ads and pause ads that incorporate generative AI. Subscribers can expect to start seeing the new types of ads in 2026, Media Play News reported.
“[Netflix] members pay as much attention to midroll ads as they do to the shows and movies themselves,” Amy Reinhard, president of advertising at Netflix, said, according to the publication.
Netflix is adding an important category to its live offerings: talent competition. The streamer announced that it will be reviving Star Search, the classic American Idol and America’s Got Talent precursor that has been off the air since 1995. The modern iteration will air live twice a week on Netflix, and viewers will be able to vote on contestants across four categories: music, dance, variety / comedy, and kids.
A lot of details are still to be announced, including who the host and judges will be and when the new Star Search will start streaming. But Netflix has tapped longtime America’s Got Talent showrunner Jason Raff to lead the project.
Netflix has more than doubled the number of people watching its ad-supported tier over the last year. At its upfront presentation for advertisers on Wednesday, the company revealed that the $7.99 per month plan now reaches more than 94 million users around the world each month – a big increase from the 40 million it reported in May 2024 and the 70 million it revealed last November.
Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s president of advertising, said the streaming service has “the most engaged audience anywhere,” with subscribers on its ad-supported tier spending an average of 41 hours per month on the service.
The new ad formats are part of Netflix’s in-house advertising platform, which is now live in the US after arriving in Canada. It plans to bring the platform to all 12 countries with ad-supported plans by June. “The foundations of our ads business are in place,” Reinhard said. “And going forward, the pace of progress will be even faster.”
Max, formerly HBO Max, is now HBO Max again. Warner Bros. Discovery announced the change today, rolling back one of the clumsiest rebrands in history from a streaming service that's had more than its share of clumsy ideas.
Right from the start, it seemed like everyone outside of Warner Bros. Discovery knew the change was a bad one. The first takes were brutal, like this take from Design Matters host Debbie Millman in a Fast Company story:
"I am completely bewildered by the HBO Max rebrand," says Debbie Millman, a designer, brand consultant, and host of the Design Matters podcast. "HBO took four decades of prestige and casually tossed it all into a dumpster, lit a match, and cheered as it burned."
According to the company, the problem with HBO Max was the HBO part. There is an important lesson here, which is that your brand is not what you call your streaming service. Your brand is the way your customers feel about whatever you make. In this case, the feelings are pretty clear-this is a bad idea.
Digs at the rebrand are littered all over the place. Like an Engadget story headline …
Warner Bros. Discovery's (WBD) streaming service Max will be called HBO Max starting this summer, bringing back a name that WBD curiously ditched a couple of years ago.
In May 2020, the company then known as WarnerMedia Group launched its flagship streaming service, HBO Max. The successor to the HBO Now subscription-based streaming service that launched in 2014, and not to be confused with the now-defunct HBO Go (which was a video-on-demand streaming service accessible to those with subscriptions to the HBO cable channel), HBO Max offered “the entire HBO service,” per WarnerMedia’s announcement. HBO Max also combined content from other titles WarnerMedia owned, including titles from DC Comics and Cartoon Network. But the main draw continued to be the ability to stream HBO’s prestigious library via a Netflix-like streaming subscription.
When WarnerMedia acquired Discovery in 2022 and became WBD, it sought to combine the libraries of HBO Max and the Discovery+ streaming service. WBD landed on Max as the name for the combined app. The name seemed to suggest access to a maximum amount of streaming content with maximum appeal. However, it questionably distanced itself from the legacy of high-budget, award-winning TV shows and recent popular movies that the HBO brand had been building since 1972.
Warner Bros. Discovery is changing the name of its streaming service back to HBO Max. During its Upfront event on Wednesday, the company announced that it will rebrand Max this summer, a change HBO head Casey Bloys said “better represents” its offering.
The company said in a press release that “returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect” from the service.
“The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in a statement. “Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.”
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav turned "HBO Max" into "Max." Now he's saying goodbye to the new name and hello to the old one.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
First, there was HBO. Then there was HBO Max. Then there was Max.
Now, Warner Bros. Discovery is going back to HBO Max.
That's pretty funny! But behind the scenes, there's a serious story: an acknowledgment that a huge merger has been a flop.
Remember when HBO used to be called HBO, and then it became HBO Max, and then it became Max?
And how everyone except the people who owned the iconic TV brand thought it was a terrible idea to demote an iconic TV brand?
Turns out everyone was right.
Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that owns Max, now says it will rebrand the service and call it … HBO Max.
That's the brand it operated under from May 2020 — when it had a different owner — through May 2023. That's when current ownership flipped the name to Max, which it's now ditching.
And if you think that's a pretty funny example of sweaty corporate pivoting and flailing — the kind of stuff that regularly got flayed on HBO's "Succession" — you are not alone. The folks at WBD also acknowledge the silliness of the whole episode, and are distributing a mea culpa meme to poke fun at themselves:
Turning HBO into HBO Max and then Max and now HBO Max is pretty funny — something the streaming service is acknowledging by distributing this meme to the media.
Warner Bros. Discovery
So that's the fun part. There is some more serious stuff going on behind the scenes, though.
For starters, this is yet another acknowledgment that the thesis behind the merger of what used to be called WarnerMedia and Discovery hasn't panned out. The thesis was that combining HBO's programming with reality TV programming would make a streaming service with broad enough appeal to take on Netflix.
Not that the WBD folks are saying that exactly in public. But you can read between the lines in the press release announcing the change, where the company says its streaming service is thriving because of "investment and re-focusing the strategy on the programming that is working best like HBO, recent box-office movies, docuseries, certain reality series, and Max and local originals, and de-prioritizing other genres that drive less engagement or acquisition."
Translation: We thought HBO was a brand that meant a lot to some people but not much to a much bigger group of people. Whoops! Turns out people like HBO. Also, they like other shows made by HBO people, that for some reason weren't called HBO shows, like "The Pitt." And they do like a few things from Discovery, like "90 Day Fiancé." But a lot of the Discovery stuff — think Food Network and other lifestyle programming — really isn't working on a service that also brings you "The White Lotus," and we're done pretending that it's a good idea.
It's also important to recognize that WBD's rebranding of its streaming service isn't the only acknowledgment that things haven't gone as planned.
It also did that late last year, when it reorganized the company, doing an on-paper separation of its studio and streaming business — the stuff it thinks is going to grow — from its old-school cable networks like Discovery and TNT.
If that happens, don't expect a funny meme to accompany the announcement. But it's still going to be the same story: The people who insisted that pushing two companies together was a good idea will be telling you that they're better apart, after all.
As promised, Marvel just released the first proper trailer for its upcoming Ironheart series on Disney Plus.
Ironheart takes place after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and follows Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) as a genius inventor with a badass mech suit (she also made her first appearance in Wakanda Forever). The new trailer starts out with just about the worst-possible job interview — which, naturally, Riri aces in her own unique way — before shifting to her actually designing the suit of armor itself, and dealing with some shady characters to get it done. By the end of the clip, of course, are some beautiful shots of a suit that would make Tony Stark jealous.
Apple is pushing a new software update for Apple TV today that includes a useful feature for home theater setups: the ability to automatically calibrate the synchronization of Dolby Atmos surround sound audio with your speakers.
The new tvOS 18.5 update enhances Apple’s existing Wireless Audio Sync feature, introduced in 2019, that lets you use your iPhone’s microphone to calibrate audio sources with your home theater speakers. Now it can help you get your TV video synced up with Atmos audio over either AirPlay or Bluetooth by accounting for latency.
As pointed out by MacRumors, people have complained about Apple TV Dolby Atmos syncing issues with sound bars and other speakers on Reddit and on Apple’s community discussions page, but until now they couldn’t use Apple’s tool to try to fix things.
After updating, you can calibrate your audio by going to Settings > Video and Audio > Wireless Audio Sync on your Apple TV, and following the steps from there.
YouTube is exclusively streaming an NFL week 1 game for free worldwide to kick off the 2025 season. The game will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, September 5th, and will feature the Los Angeles Chargers taking on a yet-to-be-named opponent.
As with other streaming NFL games, it will also be available to viewers in the teams’ home markets via over-the-air broadcast, on NFL Plus for mobile devices inside the US, and the NFL Game Pass package from DAZN outside the US.
YouTube’s chief business officer, Mary Ellen Coe, says this will be the company’s first time operating as a live NFL broadcaster, and it will feature creators and “an interactive viewing experience. Coe adds that people have watched “over 350 million hours” of NFL content on YouTube.
In addition to the week 1 game, YouTube also announced a multi-year deal with the NFL to continue streaming the Super Bowl Flag Football game.
