Flighty is the app you need to navigate the airport right now | The VergeSkip to main contentThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.The VergeThe Verge logo.TechReviewsScienceEntertainmentAIPolicyHamburger Navigation ButtonThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.Hamburger Navigation ButtonNavigation DrawerThe VergeThe Verge logo.Login / Sign UpcloseCloseSearchTechExpandAmazonAppleFacebookGoogleMicrosoftSamsungBusinessSee all techReviewsExpandSmart Home ReviewsPhone ReviewsTablet ReviewsHeadphone ReviewsSee all reviewsScienceExpandSpaceEnergyEnvironmentHealthSee all scienceEntertainmentExpandTV ShowsMoviesAudioSee all entertainmentAIExpandOpenAIAnthropicSee all AIPolicyExpandAntitrustPoliticsLawSecuritySee all policyGadgetsExpandLaptopsPhonesTVsHeadphonesSpeakersWearablesSee all gadgetsVerge ShoppingExpandBuying GuidesDealsGift GuidesSee all shoppingGamingExpandXboxPlayStationNintendoSee all gamingStreamingExpandDisneyHBONetflixYouTubeCreatorsSee all streamingTransportationExpandElectric CarsAutonomous CarsRide-sharingScootersSee all transportationFeaturesVerge VideoExpandTikTokYouTubeInstagramPodcastsExpandDecoderThe VergecastVersion HistoryNewslettersArchivesStoreVerge Product UpdatesSubscribeFacebookThreadsInstagramYoutubeRSSThe VergeThe Verge logo.The must-have app for frequent flyersComments DrawerCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...TechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechGadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsStreamingCloseStreamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All StreamingThe must-have app for frequent flyersPlus, in this week’s Installer: A new show to binge this weekend, a nice Notion update, a new-old Mario game, and more.Plus, in this week’s Installer: A new show to binge this weekend, a nice Notion update, a new-old Mario game, and more.by David PierceCloseDavid PierceEditor-at-LargePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by David PierceMar 28, 2026, 12:00 PM UTCLinkShareGiftIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.Image: David Pierce / The VergeDavid PierceCloseDavid PiercePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by David Pierce is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 121, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, good luck in the Elite Eight, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I’ve been reading about Will Wright and sync music and the smartphone theory of everything, picking up The Soul of a New Machine again after hearing that Tracy Kidder died, adding SNL UK to my weekly YouTube clip rotation, watching all my favorite things collide when Hilary Duff went on Hot Ones, moving all my music into Parachord, playing with the NewsBlur Android beta, listening to the new podcast from the Serial folks, playing a bunch of Ball x Pit on my phone, and trying desperately to kick this stupid cold.I also have for you an app to make your travels easier, a bizarre and delightful new show to watch, a new reason to play an old Mario game, and much more. Let’s do it.(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / playing / downloading / vibe-coding this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)The DropFlighty. Ordinarily I’d only recommend Flighty to people who travel a lot — it’s an amazing app, but not cheap, and very much for power users. Right now, though, we could all use a little help navigating security lines, delays, and changes. The new Airport Intelligence feature might pay for itself pretty fast.Bait. The premise of this show — about an actor auditioning to be James Bond, and all the weird stuff that follows — is so thoroughly internet-pilled and meta that it definitely shouldn’t work. But at least from what I’ve seen so far, it completely does. Though to be fair, I’ll watch Riz Ahmed in anything.Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Like my colleague Andrew Webster says, it’s always a good time to get back into this game. The new Switch 2 update comes with a bunch of new levels, boss battles, and characters — it’s not a ton of new content, but for me it was a great reason to basically start the game all over again. Zero regrets.The HTML Review issue 05. This online magazine remains one of the coolest things going in digital literature. This year’s issue is, as always, full of beautiful writing and cartoons and interactive design — the web is so cool, y’all. Dropzone 5.0 for Mac. My favorite apps are the ones that just seem to be obviously part of how your device always worked. Dropzone is like that: it’s just an easy, customizable way to save / share / download / whatever all sorts of things, just by dragging a file or a link. The new design looks great, and the app is just so useful.“The Ten Pounds Episode.” I mentioned this show in passing last week, but there is something about Friends Keep Secrets that I just cannot stop watching. It’s a celeb podcast meets trashy reality show, filmed and presented in the most fascinating way. I don’t even know if I like it! But I’m hooked. Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. I have a list of shows and movies I think could have been hits, except they were ruined by stupid names. (The list is named for Kevin Can F*ck Himself, an incredible show no one watched.) This movie is weird and fun! I’d tell you to watch it if I could remember the name.Notion 3.4. I continue to think Notion is a remarkable piece of software that is just slow and annoying enough to make me constantly want to switch. But these are really nice changes: tabs and heading upgrades, a vastly cleaner sidebar, archives in databases, and more. Hey app developers everywhere? Give me fewer AI things and more updates like this.Screen shareCasey Liss and I are going to hang out in person one of these days. He’s been one of my favorite podcasters for years, as one of the hosts of Accidental Tech Podcast. (Recent episodes are getting me dangerously close to going all-in on self-hosting…) He’s also the developer of Callsheet, a terrific app for finding movie information and the first-ever thing to be featured in Installer. He also lives like 90 minutes away from me. We need to lunch, Casey.Anyway, I asked Casey to share his homescreen with us, curious to see how his many lives and occupations coalesce on his phone. Here it is, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:The phone: iPhone 17 Pro, 512 GB, in whatever Apple calls “blue” this year.The wallpaper: Just a blueish gradient I set using Apple’s own tools. Boring, I know.The apps: AnyList, Settings, Apple Notes, Apple Maps, Apple Music, Sonos, Overcast, Day One, Instagram, Indigo, Slack, NetNewsWire, Home Assistant, Callsheet, Due, Photos, Fastmail, Messages, Fantastical, Safari.A lot of what’s on my homescreen shouldn’t be surprising. The most surprising thing to me is a switch I made a while ago: I switched from four semi-organized homescreens (and never using Spotlight) to two homescreens, and using Spotlight constantly. I also turned on big icons because I prefer the aesthetics. The main homescreen has weather at the top, and 16 of my most-used apps. (Speaking of aesthetics, team light-in-the-day-and-dark-at-night.)The second screen has two widget stacks: photos from this day (from the Photos app and Widgetsmith), Fantastical and Parcel, a small Foodnoms widget, and four other frequently used apps. The apps are Pushover, which receives push notifications I send myself from apps like Home Assistant, n8n, and more; Sports Alerts for sports scores, Banktivity for financial tracking, and UniFi Protect to see cameras at home.After being a devout Spotify person for forever, I eventually switched over to Apple Music, since it is part of the Apple One bundle. It’s… fine. I’m also a huge Sonos fan, and have five rooms in the house with some sort of speaker in it. I almost never AirPlay to them, and instead, use the app. They’re mostly through the dark days of 2025 now, thankfully.Since covid, I’ve journaled basically every day. This sounds very fancy, but in reality, it’s usually just a brief entry with some photo I’ve taken during the day. I’ve used Day One for this forever, and have no intention to quit.The purple-ish icon with the lowercase “i” is Indigo, a forthcoming app from my friends Ben McCarthy and Aaron Vegh that I’m beta testing. It’s a unified Mastodon and Bluesky client that interleaves the two timelines as one. It’s really great, and has made it so much less burdensome to keep up with both my nerds (Mastodon) and regular people (Bluesky). I use NetNewsWire as my RSS reader, where I get a ton of both nerdy and local news. Thanks to my The Verge membership, I finally have full-text RSS for here, as well! 🤩The clapperboard is my app, Callsheet! Imagine if IMDB was written and designed by someone who… well… cares. Instead of people who are just trying to funnel you into buying junk on Amazon. Or auto-playing videos. Or begging you to log in again. Callsheet tries to sit in the same space as IMDB, but it’s designed with people in mind. It’s designed to be fast, to answer whatever question you may have, and then get out of your way.Next to Callsheet is Due, which I live by. Due will continually re-remind you of things until you clear that task. It’s as close as I get to any sort of formal task management system.Finally, my wife and I are all-in on Apple Photos, and Shared Photo Library. It’s been surprisingly bulletproof for us.I also asked Casey to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:I’m an unapologetic Scrubs fan, and I was very nervous about the reboot. As I write this, we’re several episodes in, and… it seems really good! They’ve at least acknowledged many of the things about the original Scrubs that didn’t age well, and are also taking characters in new directions.I am a Vision Pro owner — it was for my work, I swear! — and I watched the Raye Concert for One when it was new a couple years ago. I recently played her album My 21st Century Blues; it rules. I feel like everyone knew this but me.I recently stumbled onto the slowest — but coolest — website on the internet. The Auto Catalog Archive, which has brochures from zillions of cars.CrowdsourcedHere’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. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.“I’m playing a bunch of Pokémon ROM hacks (like Eternal X and Renegade Platinum) on my AYN Thor and having the absolute time of my life.” — NEAL“Giving Noteful a try on iPad. It’s good and full of a lot of nice features. But I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to totally ditch pen and paper.” — Nick“Big into the Bambu Printer A2. Looking for good 3D prints!” – Zach“Watching The Capture on BBC iPlayer which is very very good and I recommend. Massively into my MacBook Neo, which I bought sans Touch ID because you can enable sign in via Apple Watch.” — Nathan“I can’t believe I missed the call for notebook comments! For what it’s worth, Beechmore Books is the undisputed champ of paper that doesn’t bleed through. I haven’t found any (other than dedicated sketchbooks) that do it as well. And it’s generally comparable to Leuchtturm1917. I now have one on recurring order with Amazon. “ — Bruce“I wear a Bulova Computron. Specifically the black and red one. It’s glorious. Like a lil ‘90s alarm clock radio on my wrist.” — Aidan“Continuing to play with my Synology NAS setup with things like Plex, Jellyfin, the ARR suite, etc... to be prepared for the subscription apocalypse and re-rise of physical media.” — Jamison“With all the hubbub around the new episode, I FINALLY made time to watch The Amazing Digital Circus. Tons of fun (and psychological torment), I hope indie animation keeps on growing more powerful.” – Hanna“I found a fantastic E Ink reader, the Xteink X4. Its main features are that it’s pocket-sized and it doesn’t support any DRM. Carrying all my books on an e-reader that fits in my pocket is something else. You can even flash its firmware with an open-source project that makes it even better!“ — Alric“I suggest you check out Brad Dowdy at The Pen Addict. (Start with his Top Five Pens list.) He also has a long running podcast, also called The Pen Addict.” — DanSigning offI discovered a website called Obsolete Sounds this week, and immediately fell in love. It is exactly what it sounds like: a trove of sounds you never hear anymore, from a winding pocket watch to a number-crunching calculating machine to melting glacier ice. Fully half of these should be turned into white-noise machines.And actually, to that end: Cities and Memory, the organization that hosts Obsolete Sounds, hosts an (I think) annual event in which it opens up its sound library to anyone who wants to play with and remix them. Listening back to the submissions from last year is a trip. Seeing both what people record, and what others do with these seemingly mundane sounds, is already changing how I hear the world around me. So cool.See you next week!Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.David PierceCloseDavid PierceEditor-at-LargePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by David PierceGadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsInstallerCloseInstallerPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All InstallerStreamingCloseStreamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All StreamingTechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechMost PopularMost PopularSony is raising PS5 prices by $100 in AprilReturning from a humanitarian aid trip to Cuba, Americans have phones seized at US airportRank the 50 best Apple productsMeta gets ready to launch two new Ray-Ban AI glassesAnker’s 160W Prime Charger can power three devices at once, and it’s $50 offThe Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native adMore in Tech8Verge ScoreBluetti’s Sora 500 solar panel is incredibly powerful for its sizeSony temporarily suspends memory card sales due to shortagesThe White House has an app now, and Trump wants you to report people to ICE on itWait, the Trump phone might actually existNuki’s one-touch retrofit smart lock got its first-ever discountThis modular crafting machine can create custom shirts, phone cases, and moldsBluetti’s Sora 500 solar panel is incredibly powerful for its sizeThomas Ricker7:00 AM UTCSony temporarily suspends memory card sales due to shortagesAndrew LiszewskiMar 27The White House has an app now, and Trump wants you to report people to ICE on itStevie BonifieldMar 27Wait, the Trump phone might actually existDominic PrestonMar 27Nuki’s one-touch retrofit smart lock got its first-ever discountCameron FaulknerMar 27This modular crafting machine can create custom shirts, phone cases, and moldsAndrew LiszewskiMar 27Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native adTop StoriesMar 27Rank the 50 best Apple products7:00 AM UTCBluetti’s Sora 500 solar panel is incredibly powerful for its size11:00 AM UTCOppo made the best foldable phone, againTwo hours agoWhy OpenAI killed SoraAn hour agoA classic Zelda-style adventure, but a lot more cozy47 seconds agoMeta’s legal defeat could be a victory for children, or a loss for everyoneThe VergeThe Verge logo.FacebookThreadsInstagramYoutubeRSSContactTip UsCommunity GuidelinesArchivesAboutEthics StatementHow We Rate and Review ProductsCookie SettingsTerms of UsePrivacy NoticeCookie PolicyLicensing FAQAccessibilityPlatform Status© 2026 Vox Media, LLC. 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Flighty offers a novel solution for navigating the complexities of airport travel, aiming to reduce frustration and streamline the often-disorienting experience. As detailed by David Pierce in “Installer No. 121,” the app’s core functionality centers around providing real-time, intelligent guidance through the airport’s infrastructure. Pierce highlights the app’s “Airport Intelligence” feature as potentially a worthwhile investment, suggesting it could offset its cost through reduced delays and improved navigation. The piece further elaborates on Pierce’s own recent experiences – from delving into music sync theory to reviewing the new Mario game – showcasing a diverse range of interests and reflecting a perpetually curious approach to technology. Expanding beyond individual apps, the Installer segment explores a newly released television show, “Bait,” lauded for its meta-narrative and Riz Ahmed’s performance. Additionally, the feature examines the newly released “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” and the enduring appeal of revisiting classic games. The article also delves into the utility of the HTML Review, a digital literary magazine known for its visually rich and interactive content, alongside a critique of Dropzone 5.0 for Mac, and a discussion of the “The Ten Pounds Episode” podcast. A segment introducing Casey Liss and his “Callsheet” app—designed to facilitate efficient access to movie information—further enriches the Installer, alongside showcasing the utility of the “Notion 3.4” update. Finally, the article culminates with a community-sourced round-up of recommended applications and technological discoveries, offering a collection of user suggestions as diverse as the apps themselves. This comprehensive exploration underscores Flighty’s ambition to redefine airport navigation, alongside a broader appreciation for innovative tech solutions and the diverse ecosystem of digital tools shaping modern travel.