I recently got a Mac Mini (M4 Pro, 512GB SSD, 24GB unified memory) to use as my home server. For me, that means two things: Immich and Clawdbot OpenClaw.

In recent years I've felt the need to own all of my data and rely less on things attached to my Google accounts. My photo storage has been an ongoing saga. I've gone through every stage of grief: I've had multiple NAS setups with cloud backups, cloud-backed up local SSDs, and everything in between. Google Photos never had all of my photos as I didn't upload everything from my camera to it, but it definitely had years of mobile photos.

Some of my previous posts on the topic:

• Storage for Photographers
• Digital Clutter

I wanted to test the waters by trying out Immich, a popular self-hosted media management solution... it's basically exactly like Google Photos. And that's exactly what I was looking for. I've been running it for a while now and it's been perfect. I plan to write more about the setup in a formal blog post later.

But it was the flurry of news around OpenClaw that had me pull the trigger and purchase the Mac Mini. It's a simple way to run your own remarkably powerful agent that can do just about anything you text it, if you let it. I'm still dabbling with it, so don't have much to share about how I use it right now as I figure out what I want it to do for me. I've dabbled with daily digest texts that fetch everything from the gas level in my car to remind me to fill up, to summarizing topics of interest from my recent web bookmarks to Hacker News and Twitter news.

But that's the most boring thing it can do. It can build anything you need and run it for you.

And as you might have noticed, I got the Spigen Classic C1 case to match my iMac G3. I initially thought I'd like the Mac Pro-inspired Ulanzi case but the build quality didn't feel great so I returned it.

Amazon

I've written about my storage solutions a few times in the past:

• 2013: Storage for Photographers
• 2015: Storage for Photographers (Part 2)
• 2023: Digital Clutter

I used to shoot a lot more photos and videos than I do now (my photosets live at photos.paulstamatiou.com). I previously used different Synology NAS solutions with spinning disks. Over time I just started feeling like it was a bulky solution. They weren't exactly quiet or maintenance free. Aside from regular software updates, I also had to replace several hard drives after drive failures over the years.

And recently I've been using an external M.2 NVMe SSD that was backed up to the cloud. It got the job done but I wanted something a bit more robust. It's known that unpowered NAND flash can lose data over long periods of time. It's not enough to plug in the SSD every few months either, you need to access every part of the SSD with an occasional full-disk read.

What I was looking for

My main requirements were:

• External multi-bay NVMe M.2 SSD enclosure with support for RAID
• No proprietary RAID software. I wanted something that could last, so for me that meant not relying on a third-party for RAID management. I just want to create the array directly in macOS Disk Utility.
• Not a NAS. I didn't want to maintain any proprietary NAS software or OS. While having this available on the network at all times is a secondary goal, I figured I'd likely just get a small Mac Mini to run as a server.
• Not too large. I wanted something that would fit on my desk, not take up too much space, and not make much noise.
• No spinning disks. While SSDs have their own reliability issues, I vastly prefer them over spinning disks for performance alone.
• Solid performance. This data would be rarely accessed, and is almost entirely backed up photos and data. I didn't need to optimize for a Thunderbolt 5 enclosure with 5,000 MB/s transfer speeds (of which there are very few options, especially for RAID compatible multi-bay enclosures).

The OWC Express 4M2

After some research, I landed on the OWC Express 4M2. It can house 4 M.2 NVMe SSDs and supports various RAID configurations (but only RAID 0 and 1 if you only want to use macOS Disk Utility and not rely on their SoftRAID software). There really weren't many solid options on the market from reputable manufacturers that met my requirements. OWC is a tried and true brand for Mac gear that I've trusted for decades.

Parts

My plan was to use RAID 1 (mirroring) for redundancy. I needed at least 4TB to give me some space to grow so I began looking for 2 8TB SSDs to give me 8TB of available storage in total with RAID 1. Ideally, I wanted the most space I could afford in this order of preference for NAND bits‑per‑cell type: SLC > MLC > TLC > QLC. The higher the density, the more storage capacity but the lower the reliability. It's remarkably hard to find SLC and MLC in large sizes for consumer use. I wanted to at least avoid QLC. I went with the new Samsung 9100 PRO 8TB SSDs, which use TLC.

• OWC Express 4M2
• 2 x Samsung 9100 PRO 8TB SSDs. It's important to get the version without the heatspreader, as the enclosure acts as a heatsink with fans.
• 2 x 1TB Samsung 960 EVO SSDs (I had these lying around. They're somewhat placeholder until I need more space and will get newer SSDs. For now I'll use them for non-critical data or scratch space).

Setup

Setup was pretty straightforward. Opened up the case, installed the SSDs, applied the thermal pads, put the heatsink on and screwed it all closed. It appeared in macOS Disk Utility ready to format.

Then I ran a speed test with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. I got write speeds around 1,570 MB/s and read speeds hitting 2,897 MB/s. This is expected and I'll say why. The OWC Express 4M2 is a USB4 (40Gb/s) enclosure. It provides a single PCIe 4.0 lane to each of the four NVMe slots, with single-drive performance capped around 1500–1600 MB/s per SSD. This means the entire enclosure with RAID can get close to 3,200 MB/s, saturating the USB4 connection after protocol overhead.

For my needs of purely archival storage, that's more than sufficient.

Encryption, sharing, and backup
I plan to mostly have this array hooked up to my personal MacBook Pro at my desk, but might later switch that to use a Mac Mini.

I encrypted the array and transferred over my data. I then setup Tailscale with their alpha feature "Taildrive" (instructions here) to be able to securely access the array from any device, even outside my home network.

As for backup, I currently use Arq to encrypt and backup to S3. I have certain data stored in S3 while less critical data is stored using AWS Glacier Instant Retrieval. However, I have been wanting to try other backup solutions.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this setup. It's a well-built enclosure that's not too bulky or noisy. If I ever get a dedicated Mac Mini to run it as a server, I'll consider setting up software like Immich to manage my photos and videos, perhaps moving away from Google Photos entirely.

Amazon: OWC Express 4M2
Amazon: Samsung 9100 PRO 8TB SSD

This is my original Apple iSight camera (Rev C) that I purchased sometime around 2005. Its specs don't mean much today with a mere 640×480 resolution, but to me it stands out as a remarkably well-designed piece of hardware.

The best detail was the rotating aperture ring used to turn it on and off which made it very clear when it was off, as the camera lens was completely hidden.

These early iSight cameras are also a bit popular with hackers and tinkerers who have been modifying them to use more modern 4K cameras:

• Today's Webcams are Boring so I Brought Back a Classic
• Rafa's 4K iSight mod

Lately I've been wearing my contact lenses less often and picking up my glasses; less eyestrain and more comfort over a long day looking at a screen. While I already have several pairs of glasses, most recently my Lindberg glasses, I've wanted some variety in my collection.

I've also been learning a ton about the eyewear industry ever since I joined Sesame, where we're building our own lightweight, fashion-forward AI-enabled glasses (read more in this Sequoia announcement).

As you can probably already tell, a lot of my gear is green and my Marmont C frames here are no exception. They're by Mr. Leight, the higher end brand of Garrett Leight eyewear, and I love all the little details throughout from the pattern on the metal in the temples, to the hexagon rivets and the engraving on the hinges.

Garrett Leight

I tend to update my iPhone every 2 years. This year I replaced my iPhone 15 Pro with the iPhone 17 Pro. While the new, remarkably thin iPhone Air was intriguing, I know myself: I want the best cameras and the best battery life. I went with the Silver 256GB model (I almost never seem to use up all the storage with all my photos backed up in the cloud).

The new thing for me this year was not getting the typical clear Apple case I always get. I decided to try out the new "TechWoven" in green. The color is great (if you haven't noticed, a lot of my gear is green) but I worry the case will look really dirty over time. We'll see how that goes.

The only thing I don't like about the 17 Pro is that it's a tiny bit larger than the 15 Pro. Why do these phones keep getting larger every year!?

Amazon — Apple TechWoven Case
Amazon — Apple iPhone 17 Pro

I just updated to the AirPods Pro 3. The AirPods Pro 2 have been may daily headphones workhorse. I use them around the house, at the office, out for walks, et cetera. While I use the AirPods Max for more focused work sessions and travel days, they don't get nearly as much use as the Pro.

While these third generation AirPods Pro have a few notable updates like a built-in heart rate sensor for workouts, support for Live Translation, and improved Adaptive Audio and Transparency modes, I purchased them for the enhanced Active Noise Cancellation (ANC).

Amazon

The G4 Mac Mini was my first personal Mac¹. I got one in 2005 while at college at Georgia Tech. That's when I really got Mac-pilled. I had primarily used Windows computers I built up until then. This was the first time I was really using a Mac for my own purposes.

I have fond memories of that G4 Mac Mini. I used it in my Georgia Tech dorm to host this very website during its early WordPress days 20 years ago. I eventually sold that Mac Mini and got a MacBook before getting the Intel Mac Mini shortly after it came out.

This wasn't that same Mac Mini, but I found it on eBay for less than $50 and decided to buy it. I quickly upgraded the RAM to 2GB and added an SSD. Of course, it's a rather old machine so aside from nostalgia, there's not much you can realistically do with the highest supported OS (10.6 Snow Leopard). It's no longer a secure and supported operating system, so you wouldn't want to use it for anything important. And besides, using it as a file server is slow, even with these upgrades.

I ended up installing rEFInd so dual-boot Linux and OS X. I went with the lightweight Linux Mint Xfce distribution. That being said, I don't use it and it's mostly just a piece of nostalgia now. I think my Raspberry Pi 5 is substantially faster.

1 Aside from a Mac Centris my family got in 1993.

I'm not quite sure where I first heard about the Japanese brand Yoshida & Co., but I've come to appreciate their well-crafted, military-inspired bags. Every bag is handmade by their skilled craftsmen in Japan with premium materials. As such, they're not exactly cheap.

I'm drawn to the more traditional style of this bag, as compared to my other backpacks that are more modern but give a bit of an uninspired techy feel. The Explorer Daypack comes in 3 sizes and is a bit hard to find in the US. Maybe one day I'll consider getting one of those forwarding services that provide you with a Japanese address and forward packages to the US when I want to drop $500 on this bag. It is available on Amazon from third party sellers but not in the medium (21L) size I'd prefer.

Porter by Yoshida & Co.
Amazon

I loved the first Sony RX1R. Owning it was a delight back in 2013. It was the only camera I brought on my trip to Japan and I was able to capture some amazing shots with it.

My absolute favorite camera I've ever owned. Tiny and full-frame. An impressive low-light performer with a solid Zeiss 35mm ƒ/2 lens featuring a fun-to-use, tactile aperture ring. I really could not have asked for a better package. —Sony RX1R (Archived)

The new RX1R III improves on the same formula. However, this time they've drastically increased the price. It's now a whopping $5,000+. That's definitely Leica Q3 territory, and while I would still take the RX1R III (I value size a lot and the Q3 is a tad bigger in every dimension), it's a tough sell at this price point. As such, I'm putting it on my wanted list for now.

Amazon: RX1R III

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I've always admired Palm's take on the smartphone with webOS and the Palm Pre and Pixi. While it was a commercial failure (the hardware itself was rather underpowered), the software and its design patterns were ahead of its time. People forget how influential Palm webOS was... lots of modern iOS uses similar patterns:

• horizontal app card multitasking w/ flick up to quit
• edge swipe gesture navigation for back navigation and quick app switching
• swipe away banner notifications
• swipe down system tray (like Control Center)
• "Just type..." global search bar
• threaded messaging
• magnetic charging puck called Touchstone (like MagSafe)

Palm was also basically the OpenAI of their time and had such talent density that Steve Jobs had to threaten them to stop poaching Apple employees.

The Palm Pre and Pixi originally launched in 2009. I was looking for a good condition Palm Pre, but eventually landed on this Pixi Plus—a model that was released in 2010.

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This is a fun and quirky little LED panel that I use for all sorts of things. I originally got it to add occasional accent and spot lighting when shooting product photography for this site. I have since used it for everything from lighting my grill when grilling at night to helping with tasks like soldering where I want a bit of close-up light. I usually pair it with a Manfrotto Pixi Mini tripod to let me position it as I need.

You can adjust brightness and color temperature for white light, and then for RGB mode you're able to adjust hue and saturation too. It also has some animating modes but I never use them. Battery life is solid too with its 7500mAh battery.

This is such a fun little tool to have around, especially for under $40. And it doubles as a USB-C power bank too. It's decidedly not a color-accurate, professional-grade photography/videography light, but you'd never confuse it for one given the price point.

Amazon

This is my trusty work-from-anywhere laptop charging duo. A heavy-duty 10-foot braided USB-C cable (that supports up to 240W, not that I need that) and this tiny Anker Nano 100W charger. I don't like carrying around the heavier and bulkier Apple charger and shorter MagSafe cable.

My only complaint is that this cable is a bit thick and not as flexible as I'd like. I don't mind it that much as it definitely feels like it will last a long time. Carrying this is the new way to go instead of lugging this behemoth around.

Amazon: Anker Nano Charger
Amazon: Anker 10ft USB-C cable

The Xiaomi Mi LED lamp served me well for many years but I found myself wanting something a bit more substantial after getting my larger desk—something that could also serve as a great webcam light in a pinch too.

I landed on the Edge Light 2.0 by Lume Cube. They make all sorts of professional lighting solutions so it was the first place I looked. You can adjust brightness and color temperature with a nice touch-sensitive slider. It also has a USB-A port on the back, but I don't use it to charge my phone as I found the charging rate to be pretty slow.

The main thing I like about this lamp is how tall it can get when fully extended, which helps spread the light across the desk better without being harsh.

Amazon — Lume Cube

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When the new M1 Max MacBook Pros were announced, they were everything I had wanted. I had been using a 2019 16" Intel MacBook Pro for two years and while it was a great machine, it often left much to be desired in the performance category. I threw everything at that machine from web and iOS development to photo-editing. I had been waiting for an M1-based machine and wanted to see what would be done for the 16-inch MacBook Pro update.

Apple did not disappoint. This machine has uncompromising performance in all areas, even including battery life. This laptop is a bit thicker and heavier than the previous generation but I'll gladly accept that for the added performance. There's 10 CPU cores, 32 GPU cores, more ports, amazing battery life and the SD card slot has returned. They even brought back the MagSafe port and introduced a beefy 140W power adapter that enables a fast charging mode; giving you 50% battery in 30 minutes.

I absolutely love this thing; even the new notch in the display doesn't bother me. I went with the following specs:

• 16-inch: I have my 11" iPad Pro for travel situations where size matters. For everything else I want a larger screen. I may be away from my display and need the extra real estate when designing or programming. I've had the 13" MacBook Pro in the past and I always wanted a larger display when using it alone for extended periods.
• 64GB RAM: This is my first machine to ever have 64GB of RAM. It's probably overkill but I wanted to give it a try.
• 2TB SSD: I've been getting 2TB for all of my machines in recent past. Just feels like 1TB is cutting it a bit too close for me at times. And I may be biased because older SSDs used to have higher performance with larger storage models, but I'm not quite sure that's a thing with Apple's insanely fast integrated SSDs.
• M1 Max: I opted for the top of the line 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU model.

The MacBook Pro spends most of its time plugged into my Apple Pro Display XDR. I usually have it hidden off to the side or behind the XDR with the BookArc stand from Twelve South so I can claim more desk space by having it mounted vertically. That being said I'm still waiting for them to update the BookArc with a new insert to support the added thickness of the new MacBook Pro.

While I love this setup, I primarily use my work MacBook Pro (another 16" machine with an identical config) and wish that my personal Mac was smaller. I'm considering replacing this machine with a 13" MacBook Air.

Amazon

I've been on a mission to downsize. Last year both of my personal and work laptops were 16" MacBook Pros. Now both of my machines are 14" MacBook Pros. I recently did the same with my iPad. I replaced my 11" iPad Pro with the iPad Mini. I absolutely love the iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard case.. but when I'm traveling and stuffing it in an already filled backpack along with my laptop and AirPods Max, the iPad Pro really starts to feel heavy.

I had been eyeing the iPad Mini for a while but always avoided it as there was no official keyboard case. That felt like a requirement after loving my iPad Pro's Magic Keyboard case. I got the iPad Mini anyways, along with a third-party keyboard case. I quickly realized why Apple doesn't make a keyboard case for the iPad Mini. It's too small to make for a great typing experience. I tried to convince myself it was fine but I knew I wasn't going to be happy with it so I ended up returning that keyboard case and sticking with Apple's Smart Folio case.

I realized I didn't need the keyboard that much. I do gain one thing from not having a keyboard case. The iPad Mini by itself is so ridiculously light compared to my iPad Pro setup that I find myself using it differently. And the form factor lends me to using it in portrait orientation more often. It's much more akin to a large phone and that's how I've started to use it: swiping social apps, reading articles, watching videos, etc.

Amazon

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Some days I just get annoyed by the Apple Watch and its constant notifications and buzzing. Or going to put it on one morning and noticing that even though it was on the charging base it wasn't properly aligned and never actually charged. I wanted a super casual, no-frills watch for certain days. Some days that's my Moonswatch, but often I just want a cheap digital watch.

The Casio F-91W is the definition of no‑nonsense and has a cult-like following to match. One thing I only recently realized is how big a modding community there is for this watch. I'm not just talking about changing the strap (for which I have ordered a green fabric band for it). You can replace the entire board with a hackable one called the Sensor Watch Pro. You can modify the screen to invert the colors, or just add a touch of color. You can modify the backlight to be brighter or change the color. You can remove the labels from the bezel. Pretty impressive how much people are doing with this $20 watch.

Amazon

I decided to finally invest in a higher quality pair of glasses. My other pairs of glasses have either been cheap Warby Parkers that never quite fit well over time even after adjustments, or an aging ~15 year old pair (that I once updated the prescription with Lensabl online which was an easy process).

I usually wear contact lenses but have been trying to wear glasses more often for improved eye comfort—even the most breathable contacts don't hold a candle to glasses at the end of a long workday.

I wanted something extremely lightweight and I knew immediately after trying on these Lindberg frames that it was exactly what I was looking for. The front is made of a light, flexible composite material and the temples are ultra-lightweight titanium. There's also no hinge hardware, making it even lighter.

It's really easy to forget I'm wearing them. They weren't cheap at over $1,000 with the prescription lenses (with all the coatings you'd expect like UV and blue light blocking) but I'm loving them.

Lindberg

I wanted something a bit more powerful than my almost keychain-sized Boruit V10. I use my flashlight casually when doing chores outside the house, and when taking my dog out at night as I've seen opossums and raccoons in my yard and coyotes in the neighborhood before. And it's just nice to have a powerful flashlight for emergencies or in the car.

I initially went down the path of looking at customizable flashlights that run the Anduril firmware, such as flashlights from Sofirn, Emisar, and Fenix. If you search the r/flashlight subreddit for Anduril, you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about flashlights.

I decided I wanted something simple I could get quickly from Amazon. Olight has become an increasingly popular brand, so I looked at their models and landed on the 4,600 lumen Olight Seeker 4 Pro. It's one of their medium-sized models—I wasn't looking to spend $300+ on their large 14,000 lumen floodlight.

Pros

• Super bright!
• Great size and build quality
• The jog dial is such an intuitive way to quickly control the brightness without awkwardly cycling the same button over and over.
• Indicators for both battery and brightness at a glance

Cons

• The jog dial doesn't feel super solid, I wonder how it will hold up over time.
• Turning on the flashlight requires a bit of know-how. You have to rotate the dial then press the button. Not ideal that you have to show someone how to use this flashlight first if there's an emergency.
• Charging requires placing the flashlight in an included holster that has a built-in USB-C port. I wish the flashlight body itself had a USB-C port.
• Not an issue for me yet, but the Seeker 4 Pro does not use a standard 21700 battery. It's an Olight proprietary 217C50 battery that has both positive and negative terminals on the same side.

Amazon

A few weeks ago I joined Sesame. It's hard to believe I now work from an office again. It's been almost 5 years that I've primarily been working from home and I really missed being in an office again.

With my new commute to the office I wanted a smaller and lighter backpack. Just something to carry my laptop and not much else. My typical daily backpack is the Aer City Pack and it's not that large to begin with. It just has a lot of compartments and weighs a bit more than I'd like for a simple commuter bag.

I ended up going with the 14L Radius Mini in Forest Green VX21 XPAC material from Inside Line Equipment. They have a shop in Berkeley, CA and I was able to check it out in person. It's astoundingly light. I was sold the moment I lifted it up. There's a single large compartment with an unpadded laptop area and two small zippered pockets.

The laptop sleeve isn't that protective so I ended up getting this Neo Sleeve from WaterField Designs and it fits my 14" MacBook Pro perfectly. Overall really happy with this setup.

My only complaint is that their logo on the bag is huge. It doesn't bother me much anymore but I wish it wasn't there.

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Inside Line Equipment

Update: I ended up returning the Sony XM6s after using them for just over two weeks.

I've had my AirPods Max for 4.5 years now, and I've been happy with them. They have great noise-cancelling performance paired with the typical high quality you'd expect from Apple. They were also the first pair of headphones where the transparency mode was great and felt good enough to use for meetings and taking calls; I never quite liked the feeling of talking on headphones when my own voice is muffled and not easily heard.

However, after several years of use, a few annoyances with the AirPods Max have become apparent:

• The mesh in the headband that provides the actual cushion loses its shape over time, making wearing the headphones extremely uncomfortable. I had to resort to this hacky solution for the time being.
• Since I have the first generation AirPods Max, it has the Lightning adapter to charge, making it the last device I own that uses that.
• Additionally, there haven't been any meaningful updates to its functionality; even the USB-C edition lacks adaptive audio.
• Sometimes I just have issues where I need to restart them to get them to work again. When that happens it's supremely annoying, especially if you just joined a call only to realize they're not working.

Sony XM6

I purchased the $448 Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones on a bit of a last-minute whim before an international flight where the thought of wearing my uncomfortable AirPods Max was daunting. I had seen a few reviews online that were glowing, so I pulled the trigger.

I wanted to return the Sony XM6s after my first 30 seconds with them.

With the price difference between the XM6 and AirPods Max only being $100, I would have expected the hardware quality to be a bit closer. While I expected the Sony headphones to be plastic, the quality is more disappointing than expected. While it doesn't attract fingerprints as much as previous generations, it quickly looks tinged with oils from your fingers. After just my first day they were littered with smudges. They can be wiped away with some effort, but it's not a good look.

Case

The included case is nice, lightweight, easy to open and I had seen reviewers mention how much they liked it... but I'm on a different page. It's so bulky; entirely too thick. I took it on an international trip with an already stuffed backpack and regretted bringing the case. I wish it had a small protective sleeve just for the earcups like the AirPods Max case.

Comfort, controls and ergonomics

Weight is the only place where the XM6s undeniably win over the AirPods Max. They are much lighter. You might actually forget you're wearing them. They are light enough that I might be able to overlook all the other issues I have with these headphones.

Maybe this is just me but while the XM6s are light, and the headband is fairly cushioned, I still find them a bit uncomfortable to wear after about 60-90 minutes. The band feels like it's really pushing into my head. I notice how the cushion on the band is barely helpful. And every once in a while I'll have to readjust them as the headband got into a slightly swiveled position. What I really want is a much wider headband to distribute the weight over more of the top of my head. I'm sure it might look goofy but I'd rather be comfortable.

I wore them on and off for 13 hours of flying and it was a gauntlet. They were more comfortable than the AirPods Max, but I was still glad to take them off for occasional 15-30 minute breaks.

One big reason people tend to like these over the AirPods Max is that the ear cups not only swivel but also fold in, making them a bit more compact for storage. I also find that one of the reasons they're annoying to use: unfolding them, quickly identifying the Right/Left side and putting them on is not as seamless as with the AirPods Max. They have a big knob and dial at the top of one side making them very easy to feel for to know what side is which. Sony attempted to solve this.. by placing a tiny little plastic dot on one ear cup, like the plastic indent on the F and J keys on your keyboard.

In addition, the XM6 ear cups just feel small. I don't have large ears, but I still felt like I had to maneuver them to avoid the cushions sitting on top of my ears instead of around them. I never had that feeling with the spacious AirPods Max.

Then we get to the controls for another disaster.

• ANC toggle button: The ANC toggle button is a dinky, thin little button that provides no satisfying feel. It feels like it is a cheap piece of plastic that directly touches a tiny surface mount tactile switch on the underlying PCB. I also hate the placement of it on the bottom of the ear cups.

• Touch controls: The touch controls are a mixed bag. Swiping to next/previous track navigation works well enough, but for volume? Just give me a dial. Using an up or down swipe to control volume is a slow and imprecise process. For example, if you need to quickly lower the volume significantly, you can swipe down and hold it... but then it only gradually decreases and you need to wait and wait and wait. Again, a volume dial is the solution here.

  The real dealbreaker for me was for plane flights and gaming: you can't adjust volume when using aux input. Seriously, Sony? I didn't realize how often I would use the AirPods Max volume dial. However, I know it's likely a limitation of how aux input can directly run the speakers (which is a plus, you can still use them even if the battery is dead).

Sony should have just had some nice beefy controls at the top of the right ear cup to make controls easier to use and easier to identify left from right without looking.

Sound, noise cancelling and ambient sound mode

All great here. Really zero complaints. You can dial up the bass in the app, along with any other equalizer preferences you may have, too and that sounds great too.

Noise cancellation is great. Not sure I would say phenomenal as I can't quite tell you that they're clearly better than the AirPods Max, but they're great. What is impressive for the Sonys though is that their transparency mode (they call it ambient sound mode) is great. In prior generations of the Sony headphones that was always a horrible experience. I could never use older Sony headphones to take calls or meetings as I never felt like I could hear my own voice well enough.

App

And finally, unlike the AirPods Max, you need to use an app to set it up and configure things. Not a big deal, right? Well, the app experience is painful—horrible UI with endless screens to install and set up. Fortunately you don't have to use the app much.

But here's the thing: they're incredibly light. That alone might make everything else worth it. If you're choosing between premium comfort and weight for long travel days, the XM6s win on weight—and that's not nothing.

Will I keep them?

Honestly, I'm not sure. I've had them for just a few days. I will probably end up keeping them. I love how light they are, even if they're not perfectly comfortable to wear for long hours.

Update: I ended up returning them.

Amazon

I'm the proud owner of a 1999 Blueberry iMac G3. This was a Revision D tray-loading model—iMac G3s are usually called tray loading or slot loading as the significant generation changes can be most easily identified by the optical drive type—with a speedy 333MHz PowerPC G3 processor.

Just take a listen to this glorious startup sound:

It was my Christmas gift from my wife last year; a completely unused, new in box iMac G3 from 1999. Based on the shipping label, I think it was purchased by a school that never used it for some reason. It arrived with original plastic wrap still intact. I, however, don't plan to keep it as a trophy stored in the original box for years to come. I want to use it, upgrade it, and look at it in my office every day.

I plan to write in detail about this iMac G3 in a future blog post. In the meantime I've upgraded a few things, such as the PRAM battery, the RAM, upgrading the hard drive, as well as minor tweaks like applying new thermal paste to the processor.

I've spent entirely too much time looking into power banks for my laptop and this is what I ended up with. It's not exactly what I was looking for but it's the best option I could find and I'll dive into why.

I've got an upcoming international trip and wanted a bit more juice for my 14" MacBook Pro on long travel days. Even with most planes and trains offering power outlets these days, it's usually the case that those outlets are so loose that any charger will just fall out. It's best to be prepared.

Here's what I was looking for:

• I wanted something that could at least fully charge my laptop once without being an absolute behemoth. As such, I was not looking to go for the largest size possible, which would be a sub-100Wh TSA-approved power bank, such as Anker's older 27,650mAh models.
• 140W+ power input so the power bank itself can charge quickly from an outlet.
• USB-C PD 3.1 support for 100W or greater power output. That's the max my 14" MacBook Pro needs to charge quickly. If I had the 16" MBP, that would be 140W via MagSafe.
• No thermal throttling or other issues when maxing out the power output. Some less reputable brands will completely cease functioning if you draw the max power for too long, which really defeats the purpose of purchasing a high power output and capacity power bank if you can't use it as intended.
• At least two USB-C ports for charging my laptop alongside other devices.
• Pass-through charging support so I can use it while it's also charging itself.
• Great efficiency ratings so I get as close to the listed capacity as possible. Some power banks I looked at had horrible efficiency ratings, such as in the 50-60% range.

I looked at various Anker units, as well as from other brands like Sharge and Iniu. The issue I kept running into was not just size vs power output, but also the fact that the power output was not always reliable. For example, I was initally leaning towards the Sharge 140 but reviews mentioned it would shut down if drawing max output for too long. And while the design was interesting with it's clear case, I didn't want to have a power bank that I had to baby so it wouldn't look bad with lots of scratches over time.

I was debating between a few Anker units: The new Anker 25,000mAh I purchased, the older Anker 737 24,000mAh, and the Anker Prime 250W.

The Anker Prime 250W is a flagship model but it's also the largest, heaviest, and most expensive of the bunch. It's also a few years old and not something I was keen on.

The Anker 737 ticked all of the boxes—including 140W power output and input. I also liked that I didn't have built-in cables like the Anker 25,000mAh does, but it is an older model and I had seen some concerns around its battery degrading quickly, lasting 300 cycles or less.

All that being said, I landed on this new Anker 25,000mAh power bank. I think it's the perfect mix of size and capacity for me. It can fully charge my 14" MacBook Pro once from empty. I did have to compromise a bit: it only has USB-C PD 3.0 support, not 3.1. This means the max power output from a single USB-C port is 100W. The max power input to charge the power bank is also only 100W. It takes a bit longer to charge it, about 90+ minutes.

I only just got it and haven't used it too much yet, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Amazon

My desk was missing something. I wanted some backlighting behind and around the desk for when I'm working late into the night and don't want any other room lights on. I began looking for turnkey off-the-shelf solutions but didn't find any that met my needs.

I was looking for a few things:

• No hubs. I wanted something that could connect to Wi-Fi on its own and not require any additional hub.
• Exceedingly bright. I wanted the ability to crank the brightness if I needed and light up more of the room. For this, I needed a high-density LED strip. I also found this meant going with a 12V setup instead of 5V.
• Powered by USB-C. And finally, it had to be powered by a regular USB-C PD power adapter. I did not want some non-standard or barrel jack power adapter to deal with. Using USB-C also means I could use a tiny cable if I needed instead of having extra wires to manage.
• Advanced controls. This is basically table stakes but I wanted to be able to control the brightness, color, and a myriad of effects with an app.

I started searching for a good LED controller first. I found the MagWLED-1 controller and it was exactly what I was looking for.

It's a $30 ESP32-based board that can be powered by USB-C PD, and is flexible enough to be used with a wide variety of LED strips, both 5V and 12V. It can be controlled via its own web interface and app. And it's tiny at just 1.89" x 1.26". A runner-up I considered was the QuinLED dig2go.

Parts list

After getting the controller sorted out, I looked for a long LED strip. It had to be bright. For that reason I knew I wanted to go with a 12V strip, and one with high-density of LEDs. LED strips mention how many LEDs per meter. For example, some Philips Hue LED strips are 54 LEDs per meter. The one I went with has 84 LEDs per meter. Here's a bit more about LED strip density and the pros and cons.

• LED Controller: MagWLED-1 USB-C controller
• LED Strip: BTF Lighting 16ft 12V BTF WS2814 IC RGB+Warm White
• Power Supply: Anker 45W USB-C Power Adapter It's very, very important that you get a USB-C power adapter with PD that can output 12V @ 3A. You'd be surprised how many quality power adapters do not supply 12V, including Apple or other Anker USB-C power adapters.
• Wire: BTF Lighting 3-pin 20AWD wire I wanted to mount the LED strip in three different places that weren't as easy as just adding a right-angle connector, so I needed to get some wire and solder it up myself.
• Miscellaneous: I got some double-sided foam tape to mount the controller under my desk.

Initial Setup

Putting this all together would be really easy if I just wanted to use it as a single LED strip. You flip a switch on the controller to specify that you are using 12V with USB-C PD, plug the controller to the LED strip, connect a power source, and you can access the controller's web interface to get it all going.

But I wanted to mount the LED strip in three different places: one strip behind the desk, one strip under the desk, and one strip on the side of the desk. To accomplish this I needed to measure the length I needed for each strip, cut the LED strips to size, and then solder them together with wire, leaving enough slack to mount them how I like. Since I wasn't mounting each strip directly next to each other, I couldn't use a regular solder-free connector clip.

First I did a dry run just connecting the LED strip and ensuring things worked. For this I followed the official MagWLED-1 controller setup guide. Notably, I had to do a few things:

• Configure the MagWLED-1 controller to use 12V for the LED strip as shown in that guide by flipping the tiny switch on the controller.
• Specify the LED strip type as WS2814 RGBW
• Set mA/LED to 30mA (typ. 12V)
• Adjust the value of Length until all the LEDs I need light up (for me this was 113)
• Adjust Maximum PSU Current (depends on the number of LEDs you use, so start low and ramp up). I have mine at 2900mA. My Anker 45W USB-C power adapter can handle 3A and I wanted to keep it just shy of that.
• Set Color Order to BRG and Swap to W & G (Required for this LED strip)
• Set Data GPIO to 2
• I also updated the firmware, though that wasn't necessary.
• I also configured it to run on my Wi-Fi so I could control it remotely with the WLED Native iOS app.

Assembly

Next, I had to cut the LED strips to the lengths I needed and solder them together. Most LED strips have a specific part of each strip that you are safe to cut with scissors. It's typically marked with some line dashes, and there's 3 solder pads across the strip.

I made a makeshift soldering station with my Pinecil and soldered the strips together with wire. In hindsight I ended up using too much wire and could have gone much several inches shorter, but it was fine and I just had to fold it up and tape it to the desk.

Once all soldered as I needed, I connected the controller again to make sure it worked and I didn't have any bad connections.

Mounting

And finally, I mounted the LED strips to the desk. I used double-sided foam tape to mount the controller under the desk, and then for the LED strips themselves, I just used the adhesive backing that it came with. I've been running this setup for over a month now and haven't had any issues with the tape coming loose.

I started by mounting the controller under the desk. Fortunately my desk already has a power outlet mounted under it so I didn't need to do anything special to hide the power cable. I used a 6-inch USB-C cable.

Then I carefully lined up and began mounting each strip. First underneath the desk, then on the back of the desk, and finally on the side of the desk. This was trickier than it sounds. The strips are so long running the length of my desk that any misalignment would cause them to dramatically veer off course. Between the adhesive backing and the PCB of the LED strip not wanting to bend horizontally, you really have to be precise.

After it was all mounted, I fired up the app to test it out again and make sure everything was still working before moving my desk back into place.

And that's basically it!

Demo

I didn't touch on how much you can do with the MagWLED-1 controller. Here's a brief glimpse into some of the effects you do; though I mostly just use it with a single color when working.

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My desk is the Uplift V2 Standing Desk. When I moved and had space for my own office, I decided that I wanted a much wider desk with a motorized sit/stand mechanism, and a durable desk surface. I previously had a $3k Humanscale Float desk from Room and Board with a walnut top, which I loved but over time my mouse wore off the sealant on the top and it looked bad.

I ended up deciding on a desk from Uplift as they had an immense amount of sizes and options. I got their 72x30" desk with a laminate walnut top and no grommets (I absolutely hate them). I also installed a desk drawer and mounted an 8 outlet surge protector under the desk so there's only one cable to deal with: power.

My last desk was also an adjustable sit/stand desk, but it had a manual lever. I didn't think there would be much difference between a motorized and manual desk, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I find myself making lots of micro-adjustments to the height depending on how I'm sitting or standing throughout the day. A motorized desk makes this effortless.

I'm very happy with this desk and would recommend it to anyone looking for a motorized standing desk. However, there was one thing it was missing: ambient glow lighting. I set that up myself using a 12V LED strip, a Wi-Fi enabled LED controller, and a bit of soldering.

Amazon

The Analogue Pocket is a modern reinterpretation of vintage handheld gaming systems. It's unique from other handhelds (such as those made by Anbernic) in that the Pocket does not use software emulation. It uses FGPA hardware to fully replicate the original game as intended. It can run game cartridges, but you can also use the microSD card slot to run ROMs of games from tons of different gaming systems. I did that with the pupdate project.

It's a joy to use. I only wish I had sprung for one of their higher-end limited edition models made of aluminum.

Amazon
Analogue

I occasionally play my Xbox Series X and prefer to use a headset so it's easier to hear all the details of the sound without any background noise, particularly when playing FPS games like Call of Duty. For the last few years, I've been using my AirPods Max for this, along with a cord connected to my controller. That was an okay setup, but it was rather bulky, and I hated having the cable. I also sometimes wear glasses and hated wearing AirPods Max (or any over-ear headphones for that matter) with them, as it was uncomfortable.

These Arctis Gamebuds are a perfect solution, and they can operate both on a lag-free 2.4GHz wireless connection, using the included dongle that you connect to your Xbox or computer, or via Bluetooth.

That being said, setting them up was a bit of a pain, and then I had to install the desktop app just to update the firmware, as the mobile app didn't do firmware updates. The sound quality isn't as great as my AirPods Max, and the noise-cancelling mode leaves a lot to be desired, but it works for me. But overall, I'm liking them and would recommend them.

Amazon

After a few years with my Amplifi Alien mesh system, I went back to Eero. I had no issues with the Alien setup, but longed for a better mobile app to manage my network and devices. When it came time to move I temporarily needed Wi-Fi at both places, so I opted for Eero for the new place.

I currently have 2 Eero Pro 6E routers and one Eero 6+, though I probably didn't even need the 6+. To get the best speeds across the house at my desk, I have my laptop wired to the router. That's one great thing about Eero APs, even if one is entirely wireless to the primary router, you can plug in your laptop via Ethernet so you can eliminate one more Wi-Fi hop.

I don't have any Wi-Fi 7 devices yet so I didn't feel the need to opt for the pricey Wi-Fi 7 Eero Max 7 ($599 each!). While that would have helped with wireless backhaul between Max 7 units, I'm not sure it's worth it for me right now. But it's easy enough to swap out the 6E's later on.

As for the Amplifi Alien, I might still actually use it as a fallback Wi-Fi network. I have two ISP connections and Eero has a paid feature called Internet Backup that lets you assign a fallback network.

Amazon

Wired earbuds.. in 2025?? Why would I want this? Yes, I know it seems a bit odd. Basically, I wanted these to pair with my Rode PodMic to use as low-latency in-ear monitors so I could hear my voice clearly while speaking in meetings.

Up until now I used my AirPods Max along with the Lightning to 3.5mm audio cable but that setup was not ideal for a few reasons:

• I always had to make sure the AirPods Max were charged.
• On some occasions the AirPods Max would get into a weird state and not boot up, rendering them non-functional until I reset them.. which has unfortunately happened too many times right as I was joining a meeting.
• The AirPods Max aren't comfortable for long periods when I'm wearing my glasses.

I began looking for a pair of wired earbuds that were no-frills. I didn't want a mic on them or any bulky buttons on the cord. I just wanted a pair of earbuds that would plug into my Rode PodMic and allow me to hear my voice clearly. And I wanted to spend under $100.

There were too many options to choose from but ultimately I went with Shure as I was familiar with the brand and the reviews seemed solid.

They do the job, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention a few initial annoyances:

• The behind the ear design is nice in that the cable is snug and out of the way, with no risk of having them accidentally fall out. But that also makes them a bit annoying to put in.
• I don't really like any of the ear tips. It comes with silicone tips, as well as Comply brand foam tips. While the foam ones will provide the best isolatoin, they're definitely more annoying to put in and take out. This is a personal thing, but I'd rather have a bit of sound leakage than have to deal with the hassle of working with foam tips which require compressing before putting in. Nothing like the ease of using AirPods Pro for example.
• The sound response takes some getting used to—it feels a bit more flat than I had expected. I had compared the SE215 Pro to the SE425 Pro and chose the SE215 Pro as it was supposed to be more consumer friendly—Shure calls it a "warm sound signature" with "enhanced bass"—and not a true flat and balanced profile like you'd expect with professional IEMs. I'm using these basically only for meetings so it's not a huge deal (and I am using a third party app called eqMac to tweak to my liking), but if I was relying on these for listening to music I would just use my AirPods Max.

Amazon

I took advantage of a recent refurb sale Peloton had and got a Gen 3 Peloton Bike that I put in the garage. I'm not the best at maintaining a consistent workout routine and got the Peloton to make working out, even in small chunks, easy. I just hop on, scroll through the classes to find something interesting with music I like, and get going. There's even a game called Lanebreak.

It's definitely pricey though. In addition to the hardware (you also need a mat, and either clip-on cycling shoes or a third-party pedal converter), there's also a required $44/month subscription.

Amazon

Our new house gets pitch black at night without much street light seeping in. I went to Amazon to buy some much cheaper and uglier night lights but convinced myself to spend a little more and try Casper's take at a night light. I loved their other light, the Glow, despite having a fatal flaw.

I got a few of these Casper Glow Night Lights to spread throughout the house. And they're absolutely perfect. I know what you're thinking.. uh it's just a night light, what's the big deal? That's what I thought at first too...

• First off, they look nice and understated, with their white round shape and the way the light shines on the wall instead of pointing directly at you. No harsh light is key.
• Second, everything about them is subtle. When the room starts to get dark, they don't just turn on. They slowly brighten up as needed; not just on or off.
• Third, they have a motion sensor so they get brighter as you walk past them in the middle of the night. And of course it does that subtly as well, no instant jump in brightness to blind you. And when the motion sensor triggers, it doesn't immediately turn off the moment it detects you've left the room. It stays on for a moment.
• Fourth, the color temperature of the light it emits is just right.

I didn't know I could have so many thoughts about a night light, but these are great. I've got 4 now, and gifted a bunch to family and they love it as well.

Amazon

The Visor Neo was my favorite PDA. I got it back in 2001. It wasn't nearly as capable as the Wi-Fi-enabled Palm LifeDrive I had years later in college, but it was lightweight, ran forever on just two AAA batteries, came with a nice hard screen protector, and of course came with a great smoked transparent body that I loved.

The Visor Neo was a relatively low-end model from Handspring with a 33 MHz Motorola processor, 8 MB of memory, and a monochrome display running Palm OS 3.5. However, it had one trick up its sleeve compared to other PDAs on the market: the Springboard expansion slot unique to Handspring devices. While I never took advantage of it, there were companies selling add-on modules for camera, GPS, modems, and more.

Compared to today, it couldn't do much. There was no real connectivity out of the box (aside from the IR port). If you wanted something on it, you'd have to put it in the cradle and sync it with a computer.

At the time though, the hottest PDAs to me were always the ones by Sony with their Clie line. They had models with flip color displays, Wi-Fi, hardware keyboards, and cameras.

The P9 was one of my earliest digital cameras. Sony was a force to be reckoned with when it came to point and shoot digital cameras in the early 2000s. The P9 here was just one of their many, many models and somewhere in the middle. Not a super thin model, and not a powerful model with a huge optical zoom, but it was perfect or most poeple. It had a whopping 4 megapixels, a rechargeable battery, 3x optical zoom, 1.5" LCD display, and was relatively small and pocketable.

Before this I had the AA-battery powered 2 megapixel DSC-P31, and then after this I had a lovely DSC-T1.

I've been using the a 5,000mAh Anker power bank for a few years now. 5,000mAh is a good balance between physical size and battery capacity, especially if you're just heading out the door for a long day and want a little extra battery life.

But for long flights and trips I wanted more power. This is one of Anker's latest Qi2/MagSafe-compatible power banks featuring faster 15W wireless charging. And it has a fancy, albeit unnecessary, little display that shows not only the charge level but also the time until it's fully charged, or depleted.

Amazon

After more and more friends started wearing Oura Rings, I finally got one. It was mostly out of curiousity around wearable hardware devices as we're currently building a wearable hardware device at Limitless. The only thing I really find value in at this time is it's sleep tracking—it's comprehensive and the data is pretty interesting.

The ring itself, while a marvel of engineering for all that it can do in such a tiny package, is not the most comfortable thing to wear. It's still pretty bulky for my taste, even with this, their 4th generation model. The other annoying thing is that the least expensive model is also the flashiest, which is the silver chrome one. I really don't like wearing big shiny things like that, nor did I want to shell out another $50 for the brushed silver one.

It's been a few weeks and I've been wearing it pretty much 24/7, but since I only find value in the sleep data (for now), I predict I may only wear it at night going forward. The app has a lot of features I haven't fully explored yet, so maybe I'll find more value in other areas.

Amazon

I've always admired these no-frills Japanese pressed steel toolboxes. I wanted a relatively small toolbox to toss my screwdrivers and related things in, and this was the perfect size. While the brand is Trusco, it's actually made by Toyo, a more well-known Japanese brand you've probably seen before. They make various other containers like this. I also have two small Toyo T-190 containers in the same military green color.

Amazon

I didn't think it would be possible to unseat the Baronfig Confidant as my favorite notebook (I've probably gone through 5 by now), but the limited edition Maruman Mnemosyne x Kleid A5 notebook has done just that. Despite it not being a traditional hardcover like the Confidant notebook, the olive green and gold ring colorway paired with the convenience of a spiral bound notebook make it a great alternative.

I found mine in a store in Marin County, California for $8, but it can be found online at places like Atlas Stationers and JetPens.

After a recent move I wanted a more powerful screwdriver for various chores around the house. My only other electric screwdriver is this Xiaomi model I've had for years. It's not that powerful, so I didn't want to mess around this time with the next step up like an 8V or 12V screwdriver. I debated a few brands like Ryobi and Milwaukee, but ultimately went with a DeWalt kit that had a 20V impact driver, battery, and charger for $100.

Amazon

Gantri specializes in 3D printed lamps. One of the benefits of this process is that their lamps can be made in a variety of colors. While I love the playful look and design of this lamp, I'm not 100% happy with its utility. It uses a smaller E12 style LED bulb and does not output as much light as I had hoped.

The bulb can be changed, so I'm going to try to find a brighter E12 LED bulb that outputs more than the stated 850 lumens the included 8.5W bulb outputs.

Gantri

I never wanted to get a big microphone setup for my home office. They've always felt like a hassle, and a significant use of space. I always either used the mic and speakers on my display, or my AirPods Max.

With a recent move my home office changed and this one has a more open layout without a door, so I became interested in being more quiet in the house. Using headphones was a requirement, and with a microphone in front of me I would feel like I would not need to speak as loudly to be heard clearly.

I didn't need to look far as RØDE was a brand I was familiar with, this particular model had great reviews, and wasn't too pricey at $200. It ended up being a great purchase; my coworkers have complimented me on how much more clear I sound on Zoom calls, and I can tell how my audio feels less delayed.

But the best part is that I can plug my headphones directly into the microphone to hear my voice. Now I keep the noise-cancelling mode on my headphones enabled. I used to hate speaking with noise-cancelling mode on my AirPods Max as I didn't feel like I could hear myself—it felt unnatural. I also purchased the RØDE PSA1 swivel mount arm to go with it (though I strongly considered the DS2 stand instead).

Amazon

I loved my Sony RX1R. It was extremely well-built, small, full-frame, and had a fixed lens. That's similar to the formula Leica has been using with their Q line of rangefinder cameras for years. I've never owned a Q, Q2, or Q3. I've used ones that friends had and always admired their build quality and shooting style.

However, I always found the fixed 28mm lens to be a bit limiting. For context, my Sony 55mm ƒ/1.8 is my favorite lens. So I prefer prime lenses that have a narrower field of view. That was always the reason I never got a Q camera; along with the steep price tag, I'd really have to love the complete package and I never did with a 28mm lens.

Well, Leica released a new version of the Q3 with a 43mm lens. Sounds like a game changer.

Leica

Whenever I work for more than a few hours on my laptop without external display, such as when traveling for work, I tend to get neck pain from looking down at the screen. I was looking for a lightweight portable and foldable laptop stand that would be easy to pack. The popular option in this space is the Roost laptop stand but I didn't feel like spending $90 for this.

I found one called the K2 by the brand Nexstand that did the job. Unfortunately it's no longer listed on Amazon for some reason.

Arc from The Browser Company has been my primary desktop web browser for over 2 years now, replacing Chrome for me. I've been very happy with it. The big question is likely why do I use it over Chrome?

That's a great question and I'm sure every Arc user will have a slightly different answer. For me it's a mix of the following:

• Vertical Tabs - First off, I've grown quite fond of having my tabs displayed vertically. It's a small thing, but makes it easier to deal with a lot of tabs.

• Spaces - Arc Spaces also help with tab organization. The sidebar with your tabs is a "Space", and you can customize each one, and easily swipe over to other Spaces. I have spaces for personal, work, and generally something else I might be researching at a given moment and want separate from my other tabs.

  Spaces can also be visually customized with different colors. It's a small thing but I love it.

• Link Previews - You can get a quick summary of any link by simply hovering over it.

• Ask on Page - Integrated with regular webpage "find" functionality is "Ask On Page" where you can ask questions about the page you're on. It doesn't use the best LLM for this, and it can't work with long pages, but it's fine for some pages.

Arc has a mobile app called Arc Search as well, but it hasn't become my main mobile browser.

This quirky retractable knife is serrated and made just for cardboard. You won't easily cut yourself on this, but it will cut through cardboard like butter. If you rely on Amazon as much as I do, this is an extremely handy tool to have around the house, and much safer to use than a pocketknife or scissors. It's a must-have.

Amazon.

Cursor is my preferred code editor for all my web development work. It's a VS Code-based editor that seamlessly integrates AI with great code completions and other "Ask AI"-like features. What Cursor excels at is how great it is as indexing your codebase and knowing what to include as context when asking AI for help.

While some of the functionality requires a paid subscription to access Cursor's own LLM, you can also use Cursor for free with just about any other third-party LLM and use your own API key (such as from OpenAI and Anthropic).

Obsidian is my primary note-taking app. It's so much more than just a note-taking app though. It's a personal knowledge management system that allows me to keep track of my thoughts, tasks, blog posts, ideas, projects, and more. I take a lot of notes about everything and Obsidian is great at helping me organize and easily access them.

I've used lots of note-taking apps over the years. Previously I used Notion, Craft Docs, and Ulysses. Theere were a few reason I switched to Obsidian and have been continuing to use it:

• Flat files - I love using flat files File over app that I can easily manage, backup, move, and manipulate as I please.
• Highly customizable and extensible - There's a huge community of people making themes and plugins for Obsidian, making it easy to jump in and make Obsidian work just how I need it to work.
• Great sync options - With flat files you can use any service you want to backup and sync your notes, even iCloud. However, I pay for the encrypted Obsidian Sync service.

I've been using Raindrop.io for almost a year now to keep track of all the interesting links I come across online, articles to read later, design inspiration to keep track of, and more.

It's a bookmarking service with accompanying Mac and iPhone apps. I've been using the paid pro plan, in particular because it saves permanent copies of the links I bookmark so they're not lost if the original site goes away.

My favorite way to hold my camera. Just a small wrist strap that screws into the bottom of the camera. You'll also need the BlackRapid Fastener.

Buy at B&H

I've never had a Leica, but this would be the one. The M11-P is a tweaked version of the M11 meant for photojournalists; it's a bit more discrete and lacks the iconic red logo above the lens. I would love to pair it with the 50mm Leica Noctilux-M f/0.95 ASPH lens. Unfortunately those two combined make this a $20,000 camera setup, so it lives in the wanted category forever.

Amazon

The Ressence Type 3 is a watch unlike any other I've seen—and not only aesthetically-speaking—the top part of the Type 3 is actually filled with oil and rotates with magnets from the air-filled bottom half. Alas, it costs as much as a car so it will forever live in the wanted category.

Ressence

When I was looking for a lightweight tripod for traveling I eventually settled on this Sirui T-025X. It's just about the smallest tripod I could find that could extend a few feet and still collapse and fit inside my backpack and not require being strapped outside. This tripod also has a center column that I removed so that it packs down even smaller.

It also has a little carabiner under the camera mount so you can attach additional weight to further steady the tripod. I ended up just attaching a water bottle to it most of the time and this did a good job and keep it steady when shooting in the wind.

One thing I didn't like about the T-025X was the tiny mounting plate it came with. It required using a tool to screw into the camera. Too slow for me and I would quickly lose the tool. I purchasing a larger quick release plate which has enough room to use a D-ring screw so I don't need any tools to mount it to my camera.

While this tripod is fantastic for traveling, it's not without its flaws. The main annoyance for me was stability. Even with a solid weight attached, it was still a bit shaky during breezy conditions while trying to shoot with my heavy 400mm lens. That being said, you just can't expect a lightweight travel tripod to excel in those conditions.

Amazon

This one probably needs the least explanation and just speaks for itself. I got it for my trip to Tanzania where I was shooting wildlife out of a safari vehicle for days. Sometimes we would get fairly close to the animals but often were were quite a bit of distance out. I wanted to avoid having to change lenses too often in such a dusty environment while on game drives and the 100-400 was such a convenient range. The pictures were just stunning.

I also purchased a 1.4x teleconverter for this that I used when shooting the Super Blue Blood Moon we had in San Francisco in early 2018. That made the 400mm closer to 560mm.

Buy on Amazon

Heavy, large, and slow to focus. There's a lot to not like about this lens. It's so heavy I would never travel anywhere far with it. I added it to my lens collection in the interest of portraiture while at team outings and while shooting product shots for this site. One other minor annoyance is the minimum focusing distance is pretty long at 0.8m. It has such great bokeh that I'd love to use it closer up than that.

Buy on Amazon

What else is there to say about the TP-7 that hasn't already been said at large. In typical Teenage Engineering fashion, it's such a uniquely functional and well-designed device. It seems so fun to play with too. That being said I definitely wouldn't use it much—it would be for looking at on a shelf somewhere. And it's pricey at $1,499 so this will forever live in the wanted category for me.

Teenage Engineering

I love collecting older Apple gear. While I never had an iBook G4 back in the day (I had a 2006 MacBook as my first Apple laptop, but really wanted the 12" PowerBook G4 in 2004), I've always loved it. I purchased a pristine 12-inch iBook G4 example on eBay: 1.33GHz, 1.5GB RAM, upgraded to a 256GB SSD running OS X Tiger (though I wish it was running Panther).

These machines are so old that the default browsers don't support newer TLS versions so modern websites won't connect, and trusted root certificates may be outdated. At least with OS X Tiger there is a fork of Mozilla Firefox for PowerPC called TenFourFox that lets you browse modern sites on old Macs. Though it was discontinued in 2021.

The original iPhone. I had one just like it. I'm not exactly sure what happened to it, I probably sold it or gave it to a sibling. I recently purchased one, with a replaced battery, to add to my collection.

Read my post about the iPhone from back in 2007.

A recent addition to my MiniDisc recorder collection. I never had the N910 back in the day but remember it well. It was a higher-end model slightly later in the Sony line-up. It was NetMD, it's possible to hook it up to a computer via USB. There are a few projects online like Web MiniDisc Pro that work today.

However, it was not the most advanced MiniDisc recorder. That is reserved for the devices that support 1GB Hi-MD MiniDiscs. My most sought-after MiniDisc recorder would be the Sony RH1, which supports Hi-MD and has a sleek OLED display. Unfortunately, they are so old now that it's common for the displays on these to continually get dimmer and stop working, requiring a complicated replacement.

The first MiniDisc player and recorder I owned. I don't know what happened to the actual one I owned, but I bought it again on eBay recently.

The MZ-R70 was among the earlier and mid-range generations of MiniDisc recorders. It's powered by a single AA battery. It was not a NetMD variant, so any sort of recording was real-time over an audio minijack connection instead of accelerated over USB.

At the time, it really felt like MiniDisc was the next medium after CDs. I had tons of MiniDiscs and special cases with sleeves to hold them all. MiniDiscs themselves were aesthetically pleasing and lots of different brands had so many different styles and looks. Some of my favorites were from TDK.

Just a quirky little lamp I like. Remember those old glass blocks that were everywhere in the 1980s? Well a Lithuanian design studio called Kismas made a lamp out of them by sticking an dimmable LED strip under them.

While you can change the color, it's not how you might expect. It comes with a few plastic filters you place under a diffuser on the LED strip. The downside is that some of the colors, such as purple and green, significantly reduce the output of the light.

Kismas

I'm a big fan of the Omega Speedmaster but only tend to wear it for special occasions. In 2022, Swatch began had a collaboration with Omega and created the MoonSwatch. It's much more affordable (under $300 USD) and comes in a variety of colors. Unfortunately it was so popular at launch I basically gave up on trying to get one. It was a random visit to a mall in Texas while visiting family that I found one in stock and grabbed it.

The watch band isn't exactly my style with the bright logo so that was the first thing I swapped out. I went for a casual band similar to my Apple Watch sport loop that I wear daily.

A basic, no-frills backpack I found on sale for $29 in store. It's my go-to for going around the city and running errands. Not protective enough for a laptop without a sleeve though.

Muji

A gift from my wife (then fiancé) on my 35th birthday some years ago.

I love the classic Omega Speedmaster aesthetic and this "Moonshine" variant of green on gold is the pinnacle of Speedmasters for me. Love the color combination. Of course it's ridiculously pricey so it's not something I could ever see myself splurging on.

Omega

For years and years I only ever made pour-over coffee at home with my Fellow kettle and Kalita wave. With my wife and I both working from home a lot more often in recent years I wanted a coffee maker that was solid, was not more than 8 cups, and also wasn't going to take up a huge amount of counter space. I ended up getting this highly-rated OXO 8-cup coffee maker.

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Probably one of my favorite home purchases. I've had this floor lamp for almost 10 years now. It provides lovely ambient light with its two independently swiveling aluminum louvers that let you control how the light casts itself.

Unfortunately I think it may now be discontinued.

I originally purchased a 45L Patagonia Black hole duffel as I needed something lightweight and soft for my trip to Africa, where it would have to be squished the cargo bay of a small Cessna (we had a strict 33lb limit for all bags, including camera gear so I thought the GR2 was a bit too heavy and rugged). The Black Hole duffels are affordable and versatile enough to be worn like a backpack and crumpled down to a tiny size when not in use (they fold neatly inside themselves).

I found myself using the duffel on other trips afterwards and ended up adding a larger 60L model as well. I still use them as carry-ons.

Lightweight, weather-resistant, folds flat. I have this in both 45L and 60L sizes. Great as an extra bag for bulky things when traveling. It seems like they have since updated them so there's a 55L model instead of the 60L.

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This is the workhorse bag. It's the bag I pick when I go on any kind of trip with my camera. It's rugged and the bag has a bit of structure to it (somewhere between soft and hardshell) so I trust it to keep whatever cameras I have inside safe, especially when tucking into a tight compartment underneath the seat in front of me on a flight. I have the 20L version.

I initially disliked the adjustable internal compartment system because I felt it left my lenses too loose and free to roll around compared to my former Incase DSLR Pro Pack but I have came around to it. For daily use I actually remove all the inner compartments so I can just have one big open space.

The handy magnetic flap and waterproof construction makes it great for weathering the elements. I also like that it has some straps that you can extend to attach other gear to the bag, which I commonly use when lugging around my tripod.

I had the original charcoal version but unfortunately after a year or two I had some premature wear on one part of the bag so I purchased a new black version at a discount with the warranty.

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As an all-around electronics nerd and tinkerer, I've always had some sort of soldering iron. I started soldering and building electronics kits when I was 7. Soldering irons today are quite a different beast: much smaller and more portable ones exist, they have screens with advanced controls, and they can be powered via USB-C PD.

I don't need to solder that often these days so I couldn't justify spending more money for something like a TS101. I came across the Pinecil by PINE64, a maker of open source computing hardware, that looks like it can do a lot of what the more expensive soldering irons can do at less than half the price.

My only annoyance is that there's quite a few menus and settings that are hard to get around and I often found my soldering iron quickly ramping its temperature down (I likely just need to figure out the settings for it). I recently used it to repair my Casper Glow.

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This one is strictly in the dreams category, but I've always loved Porsche GT3s. The pinnacle of the 911 is the GT3 RS (well, technically the turbocharged GT2 RS but that feels even more unobtainable). My dream spec would be PTS (paint to sample) Oak Green Metallic with Gold magnesium wheels.

I'm quite familiar with how fun and versatile little Raspberry Pi computers are. Back in 2016 I wrote about how I used a Raspberry Pi 3 to build a digital photo frame with a 10" 1920x1200 display. I recently picked up the Pi 5 and added on a third-party board that lets you connect a fast M.2 NVMe SSD.

I haven't found a dedicated project to use it for just yet, but it's quite a capable Linux desktop.

Adafruit - Raspberry Pi 5
Adafruit - Raspberry Pi 5 Active Cooler
PineBoards - HatDrive

I got this bag many years ago. It's hard to tell from the shot but it's a really small bag that folds flat. I use it for so many random things: hiking, going to the beach, walking around when I don't want to carry a backpack but have some small things to tote. It's a great, no-frills bag.

REI

For a long time I used the 24-70mm f/4 "kit" lens. It did the job and was relatively compact. Sony later added the higher-end 24-105mm G lens. While it's more expensive and heavier than the 24-70, it captures sharper shots. And that extra 35mm of zoom is very noticable and appreciated.

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If I only had one lens, this might be it. It has become one of my most used lenses due to its compact size, sharpness and good low light performance. I find it handy for everything from product shots to general walking around shots while walking around a new city. With the ability to set the aperture as large as ƒ/1.8, you get a lot of control over it's bokeh.

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I've had occasional wrist pain for the last few years. I have been able to get by with a good ergonomic keyboard and mouse. For mice, I've been using vertical mice for years. As for keyboards, I've tried a lot of different setups. First, I moved on from my Apple Magic Keyboard to a Keychron K2 mechanical keyboard with a large wristpad. Then I moved on to the slightly thinner Keychron K3.

I still had wrist pain. In particular, I noticed I happened to be straining a lot when reaching for the delete key, for example, when programming. I would find myself doing an unnatural twist to reach it instead of lifting my right hand from the keys.

I started researching more ergonomic keyboards and kept hearing great things about the Kinesis Advantage2. One person even told me this keyboard saved their career. Another told me they had been using the same Kinesis for 18 years. I was sold.

I used the Kinesis for 2 or 3 years. I really had no issues with it. My only minor complaints were that the Kinesis Advantage2 doesn't really have any features like Bluetooth, USB-C charging, or LED backlighting, which are table stakes at this point. Instead it has a plain black design, and a boring USB-A cable; no wireless.

Moving to the Glove80

Then I happened to come across the Glove80. It retains the same design as the Kinesis: concave, ortholinear, thumb clusters, split design. But it adds a few more things:

• Lower actuation force keys. This depends on the specific model you purchase, but I got the "Red Pro" keys that have only 35gf of actuation force. The Advantage2 keys were 45gf. Small change but makes a huge difference in my opinion. My hands are less tired after long sessions.
• Extreme customizability with the QMK firmware. You can do things like configure different "layers"
• Lighter and smaller. The Kinesis felt ever so slightly too large for my hands.
• And of course the expected LED backlighting and Bluetooth support for multiple devices

I've had it for some months now and I can't imagine going to anything else. It fits me perfectly, there's loads of customization, and there's less strain on my hands and fingers. That being said, if I had to nitpick it would be that the keyboard halves are too lightweight and move around on my desk at times, and that the keys themselves feel a bit too smooth and wish they were a bit more grippy as it feels like my fingers can slide off.

Steep learning curve

If you end up moving to the Glove80 or a similar keyboard (Kinesis Advantage360, ZSA Moonlander keyboard, etc) there's a steep learning curve, so you'll have to give it time. There's a few things to get used to:

• Ortholinear: Keys are stacked vertically, not staggered. For example, the S key is directly under the W key, not staggered off to the side. This took at least a week to get used to.

• Concave: You don't have to reach as much as your fingers sort of go into a well. So reaching a lower key like C feels more natural.

• Split design: Like other ergonomic keyboards, the keys are split into two halves, with a sizable space in the middle. This helps so that your arms don't have to unnaturally come closer together, and thus cause you to twist your wrists.

• Thumb clusters: Your thumbs will suddenly become far more productive with this type of keyboard. Instead of only being able to control the spacebar, now each thumb is given duties like Backspace, Command, Alt, Home, End, Page Up/Down and Enter.

One other thing that took a while to get used to was the key layout itself. For example, the arrow keys are split across the two halves. I had strong muscle memory around using them with just my right hand, for example when moving the cursor around while coding. And the general function keys—I missed having dedicated media keys and keys for display brightness. Fortunately, this is easy to modify with the Glove80 Layout Editor. But there's other popular toools like Karabiner Elements too.

It took me a week to get to a normal typing speed, and a few weeks to feel completely at home with this keyboard. The first few days I spent a lot of time practicing my typing on keybr.com.

Moergo Glove80

My primary device is the iPhone 15 Pro. While I've gone back and forth between Android and iOS over the years, I have been firmly planted on iOS with my iPhone as my primary device for the last 8 years or so. While it's definitely due to my reliance upon the whole Apple ecosystem like Apple Watch, AirPods Pro and Apple Card, I'm also doing iOS development and generally just enjoy the higher quality design and apps available on iOS.

Google Fi is my wireless carrier of choice, having switched after more than decade on AT&T. I have now been using Google Fi for many years and now use it with my phone and iPad Pro. Yes, it works on iPhones and has 5G!

I love Google Fi for a few reasons. First, it's just a super easy to use mobile carrier and since it uses your Google account you get great security off the bat since your Google account can be locked down with two-factor auth, security keys and Google's Advanced Protection Program. Second, it works virtually everywhere internationally with no change in price. That being said I also use Airalo to buy cheap eSIMs for more data when traveling.

That's the general gist but there's more to it, like automatic network switching and automatic VPN if you're on Android. Here's my referral code if you want to give it a try and get $20 of credit. I have sucessfully used Fi on recent trips: New Zealand, Greece, Cayman Islands, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Netherlands and the UK.

I've been using the Kalita Wave 185 for hundreds of pour-over coffees over the years. It does it's job well, and is durable. Not much else to say.

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I purchased the LG C9 OLED right when it came out in 2019. It's ridiculously thin. So much so that you're going to be paranoid about breaking it when you unbox it or try to move it to a new house. It's been amazing and I would get it again in a heartbeat. It's more than 5 years old now and I haven't had any issues at all.

OLED TVs known for extremely high contrast levels, deep blacks and vibrant colors at the expense of not being as bright as LED-backlit TVs. This makes it less than ideal for viewing in bright rooms. OLEDs also have the potential for screen burn-in. I can see that briefly at times when the Apple TV home screen is left on the screen for a while but it is extremely faint and goes away.

From now on, I will only ever buy OLED TVs (well, until MicroLED TVs are more of a thing).

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I have chronic wrist pain and vertical mice help a lot. If you've never used a vertical mouse, it will take some getting used to but I can't imagine not using one now. It becomes natural over time, but you will definitely need to give it about two weeks.

I have been using ergonomic vertical mice for over 5 years now. First it was Evoluent brand mice I got through my office when I was working at Twitter, then I moved to the Logitech MX Vertical when it came out. That was great; comfortable and charged via USB-C. But it was maybe a tad too large for me.

Then the Logi Lift came out and it was exactly what I needed. A tiny bit smaller, and the mouse clicks are much quieter. Unfortunately, it is not rechargeable via USB-C. It uses a single AA battery, but it lasts a long time. For example, 6 months of use got me down to 70-80% battery.

One nice benefit to using Logitech mice is the customization software and the ability for each mouse to switch between three channels. This proves hugely useful when use the same mice between various devices. I constantly switch between using my mice with my personal MacBook Pro, work MacBook Pro and gaming desktop PC.

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My room doesn't have the best natural light and my desk lamps didn't quite light up my face well, so I was in the market for a camera light. I didn't want to do a large setup that would take up even more space. I was looking for something that would just rest on my display and connect via USB-C so I wouldn't have to deal with another thing to plug into an outlet.

I found the Logi Litra Glow and it's been great. With its software it can also turn itself on and off when you use your webcam. The build quality isn't amazing, and the clip it uses to attach to your display leaves a lot to be desired but for the ~$50 price point it doesn't bother me too much.

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I got this 5000mAh wireless, MagSafe-compatible battery when the iPhone 12 mini was (briefly) my primary phone. The battery life on the phone was horrendous so I used this quite often to get by. It served its purpose; it's very small and light. Even with my iPhone 15 Pro I always bring this battery on trips and don't need to worry about having a cable with me. Anker has since made some newer versions, I'm linking to the latest one below.

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I love Anker gear and always travel with at least one of their chargers. This one is my primary one with its dual USB-C ports and 47W. I usually have it hooked up to charge my iPad Pro and iPhone or Apple Watch.

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You've seen this cord before. You probably have it in a closet somewhere. But this is an absolute must when traveling. A long cord combined with a long MagSafe or USB-C cable really gives you more room when trying to work from various offices and WeWorks with unpredictable power outlet setups.

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Not much needs to be said about the Eames Lounge Chair. I've always admired it, especially after learning more about it's history in an industrial design course in college. When I purchased my house and finally had a place of my own I ordered one. Almost 10 years later it's still in pristine condition and still extremely comfortable.

Herman Miller

Herman Miller

It's not the most powerful screwdriver but it looks great, charges with USB-C, and has LEDs on the front. Great for assembling furniture.

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I have a few of these smart location tags that use Ultra Wideband technology for precision. I put them on keys, in bags, suitcases and more. I have a few Belkin holders/straps for them, and a TagVault.

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I'm a fan of Fellow's products and their Carter mug is no exception. I have a few of these. They're too wide to put in a backpack side pocket so I mainly use them around the house. For on-the-go I have my Zojirushi mug.

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The Heroclop is basically a regular carabiner clip but with a foldable hook attached. And that makes is remarkably useful. I'm always finding new uses for it. My most common uses are using it to attach things to my suitcase while rolling around the airport, and using it to attach a small bag to a beach umbrella.

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I love this lamp. Simple, pleasing design, affordable. You can adjust the brightness and color temperature. The only thing it could do better is use USB-C PD instead of a traditional barrel jack power adapter so I didn't need to take up a plug near my desk.

I've had this for about 5 years now and would buy it again. I purchased it for about $40 when I got it, but it seems a bit harder to find online these days.

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While Zojirushi is probably best known for their rice cookers and water boilers, they have quietly been making some of the best insulated mugs and water bottles for years. I've had the previous generation since 2017 (still working well!) and recently got their newer model. The best part about these mugs is the locking top so you don't have to worry about any spills, no matter where you shove this thing in your bag. I also love that it's fairly slim so I have no issues putting it in any backpack side pocket.

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A handy little multi-purpose flashlight. It's way brighter than the iPhone's flashlight and I bring it along on various trips where it's always unexpectedly useful.

It charges via USB-C and has tons of modes: between two powerful front-firing LEDs to several side-firing ones (blue, red, green, cool white, warm white), and even a UV LED. The case is also glow in the dark. It also has a magnet on the end so you can attach to things. The only downside is that everything is controlled via multiple taps so it's not a bit annoying to turn on and off.

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I have become quite fond of the little Casper Glow as my bedside light. It's a rechargeable and wireless smart light. You flip it over to turn it on, twist it to adjust brightness and use the app to have it automatically turn on slowly in the morning at a time you set to naturally wake you up. It also slowly turns off in the evening as you get ready for bed.

I ended up getting a second Casper Glow after liking it so much. It's so convenient to use and the fact that you can pick it up and use it anywhere ends up being really handy.

That being said over the years (I've had them for 4-5 years now), both of them stopped charging. The spring-loaded pins on the charging base stopped making contact. I opened them up, desoldered the pins, and replaced them with new ones I found online and they are working again.

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My first macro lens. I use it exclusively for close-up product shots.

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About 16 years ago I became interested in larger DSLR cameras from Nikon and Canon. In 2008 had the Nikon D90, then a Canon 7D, and a full-frame Canon 5DMk3. They did the job well but were so large and bulky that it was hard to resist the migration to mirrorless cameras as they became more capable. I had become familiar with old Sony point and shoot digital cameras in the early 2000s, then moved to an APS-C Sony NEX-5 camera in 2010. The draw of mirrorless was strong. Eventually I went back to Sony with the full-frame RX1R, Sony α7S, Sony α7R II, Sony α7R III and now the Sony α7R IV.

The Sony α7 formula is simple: use a high-quality sensor with extremely high dynamic range and built-in sensor stabilization then pack it with features rivaling or besting larger DSLRs. It's a fantastic travel camera system. I love the size, build quality, image quality, insanely high resolution (42MP 61MP!) as well as the Wi-Fi connectivity to Sony mobile apps for sharing photo previews on the go.

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My absolute favorite camera I've ever owned. Tiny and full-frame. An impressive low-light performer with a solid Zeiss 35mm ƒ/2 lens featuring a fun-to-use, tactile aperture ring. I really could not have asked for a better package.

The only downsides I could remember were subpar battery life and slow auto-focus.

I've had this 2nd-gen iPod Shuffle since it launched, in orange. While I like the much smaller 3rd-gen more, this one holds a place in my heart. Here's my original review of it from 2007.

I have the now-discontinued soft-shell varsion of their expandable carry-on suitcase. I've had it for 5 years now. It works well and I've had no issues with it. That being said I'm not exactly in love with it. It gets the job done but I feel the Away brand is a bit too common and not particularly high-end.

Update: Away recently re-launched the soft-shell carry-on. They call it the Softside Carry-on

Love the translucent dark green on these. They're Warby Parker which to me means decent, but not great, build quality. They need tightening every so often. I had an another pair in clear (since discontinued I think) before but lost them on the beach in Wailea, so I find it hard to spend more on a pair of sunglasses.

Warby Parker

My favorite mugs. Large, heavy, well-made. I've been using mine for a decade now.

Heath Ceramics

Burr grinder with 60 settings. I've had this grinder for over 9 years and have had zero issues. It's still running great. If I were in the market for a burr grinder today though, I would also consider the Fellow Ode Brew Grinder.

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I've had the first-generation Fellow Stagg electric gooseneck kettle since all the way back in 2017. I've definitely made over a thousand coffees and teas with it. I've even dropped it from a height by accident causing it to dent the bottom and it's still going strong.

While I haven't seen what the more recent versions of this kettle are like (including the nicer ones with wood handle and accents), I was initially a bit put off by some aspects of the build quality of this kettle:

• The cable used for the plug looks very cheap and far too thick compared to the nicer cable with plug handle on my Breville gear.
• The gap between the metal and plastic on the lid wasn't ideal
• The base build quality felt a lot to be desired

But despite those minor annoyances, which again was from the very first generation, I still highly recommend it. If I was in the market for an electric kettle today, I'd probably get their higher-end model, the EKG Pro Studio.

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I spent a long time looking for my next backpack. I had been using the Peak Design Everyday for many years but found myself wanting something a bit different:

• 20L or less
• Can fit a 16” MacBook Pro
• An easily accessible zipper pocket on the top near the handle
• A side pocket for water bottle
• Ideally no visible logo

Lots of different brands came up in my search like Goruck, Evergoods, ILE, Aer, and Boundary, but eventually I landed on an Aer bag. In particular the X-pac material (waterproof) 14L City Pack. Build quality is great, albeit I don't exactly love that the interior fabric is neon orange, and there's tons of pockets.

I only have one qualm with this bag and it's more of a personal preference: I wish there was just one large section instead of 2 zippered compartments. I sometimes find it hard to stuff a few things in there when the space is split between two compartments. Aer has other bags like that, though I like the look of the City Pack and smaller size.

Aer

Here were some of the other bags I considered.

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The AmpliFi Alien router and MeshPoint kit (basically two of these towers) comprises my home networking setup for the past few years. I had never used any Ubiquiti or AmpliFi products before but heard great things. One of the main reasons I was intriguted in this setup was its support for WiFi 6.

While WiFi 6 supports a much greater theoretical max (9.6Gbps vs 3.5Gbps for WiFi 5), the main benefit of WiFi 6 is better performance when dealing with many wireless devices on the network.

The AmpliFi Alien is unlike any other router I've had. It has a touchscreen so you can keep an eye on network status, run speed tests and see connected devices at a glance. It has an internal fan which is nice to see as I know my previous Eeros always got super hot.

Peformance with the new setup has been great and honestly had me questioning if I even needed more than one unit for my place. When setting up the MeshPoint you have some options for how to connect it to the main Alien router. You can either wire it with Ethernet if you can (what I do) or wirelessly. Here's where the main downside with the Alien comes into play: the Alien doesn't have a dedicated wireless backhaul band for the router and MeshPoint to use to communicate between each other. You can, however, select what band is used for the backhaul: 5GHz for faster speeds or 2.4GHz for extended range.

One of the most useful parts of this AmpliFi setup for me is a feature called Teleport. With zero setup you can immediately begin using your home internet connection as a VPN on your devices when you're out of the house.

Amplifi Alien on Amazon

I have gone through a myriad of personal audio setups over the years. I used to have studio monitors (Previously Audioengine A5s and Rokit RP5G2s) for my desktop alongside larger circumaural headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro and Sennheiser HD 650).

I began to prefer having a simpler setup and cleaner desk. While I definitely play music over the Sonos system, I opted to simplify my desk setup when I got my Pro Display XDR. Initially I began looking for speakers that matched the XDR aesthetic but couldn't find any I liked. They were all huge and unsightly. Eventually I figured, why not only use the AirPods Max? So that's what I did and I love them.

The AirPods Max easily replaced my older Sony WH-1000XM3 headset. I love the look, comfort and features. For one, it has both a stellar transparency mode, which is a requirement for me as I use that extensively when on calls/Zooms, and a great noise-cancelling mode. The battery life is also much better than the AirPods Pro, which I use to rely on for attending video calls all day.

I've now had them for almost 4 years and only have a few minor issues:

• I wish it was USB-C
• I wish it supported the Adaptive Audio feature (it doesn't have the necessary H2 chip) like the latest AirPods Pro
• I wish it was possible to replace the headband. The fabric on mine is beginning to show its wear and not be as springy as it used to be.

Update May 2025: I recently purchased the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones.

I had a 4GB iPod Nano in college and absolutely loved it. Who doesn't remember when Steve Jobs pulled it out of his tiny jeans pocket on stage? I took the Nano everywhere with me. I have 4 at this point, some from eBay, all in working condition. For a while I tried to actually use it and load it up with podcasts but that didn't last long before I went back to my phone.

Why on earth do I have both the Pro Display XDR and the Studio Display? Well..

When I moved back to San Francisco from New York I didn't want to ship my XDR over or have it sent with the movers. It was too pricey to trust with that kind of shipping and I didn't have the time to figure out a safe way to package and insure it to move. I also wasn't sure if it was going to be a long-term move, so I kept the XDR in storage with family on the East Coast. I used my old 4K Dell display for a while, but eventually got the Studio Display for my home setup.

I opted for the tilt and height adjustable Apple Studio Display with the standard glass. While the display is nowhere near as expansive and impressive as the 32" 6K Pro Display XDR, it's still an impressive 5K display with integrated webcam and speakers.

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Many of my design explorations (and various todo lists) start on paper so I've always got a pen and notebook on my desk. I've gone through a few Moleskines, Public Supply notebooks, Baronfig notebooks, Fabriano notebooks and Dot Grid notepads over the years. I've found myself continually returning to the Baron Fig Confidant notebook.

Baronfig

I have several of these pads around on my desk at all times for sketching out designs and concepts.

Baronfig

My pen of choice is the Stainless Steel Baronfig Squire. I love it so much I wrote about it a while ago. The ink flows so smoothly, the pen is heavy, sturdy and well made. I also own it in black.

Baronfig Squire - Black
Baronfig Squire - Stainless Steel

I've had the Dyson HP04 for years and it works great as a fan, purifier and heater. I regularly change the filters as recommended but I usually go for a third-party brand that's much cheaper for the replacement filters.

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Probably my most-used and favorite household appliance. Extremely powerful and versatile, I find myself using it a few times per week.

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I never check my bags when I fly anymore, and try to fly with only a backpack when possible. I've always wanted to pack lighter and fit everything into one backpack. After a bit of research, it seemed like this Goruck was the one for the job. Extremely durable, tons of compartments and add-ons that can be strapped into the MOLLE webbing system.

I also have the padded GR2 field pocket add-on. I've taken this on countless short work trips and I lived out of it for a month while traveling through New Zealand. The GR2 is fairly no-frills, heavy and rugged.

Goruck GR2

I game fairly casually—I might boot up the Xbox once a week for 30 minutes or an hour at most. I used to prefer gaming with a keyboard and mouse on my previous desktop PC but I never had enough desk space to keep it always connected so it was a bit of a cable juggling to connect it so I never used it that much.

Eventually I decided to get an Xbox (quite a while after it launched) and it's been perfect. I tend to play car racing and FPS games; for the latter not having a keyboard and mouse was annoying at first but I got used to it.

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A few years ago I wanted to try to read more. I gave myself a challenge to read 24 books in 2017 and got the first generation Amazon Kindle Oasis. I loved that Kindle. I still have it but really began to hate that it did not use a USB-C port for charging.

I eventually got the Paperwhite SE which has USB-C and a better display with an adjustable warm front light. It does the job, though I have yet to find a cover for it that I like and does not add much bulk—nothing beat the first-gen Kindle Oasis there.

All that being said, if I were in the market for an e-reader today I would probably heavily consider the Boox Palma, a phone-sized device with an e-Ink display running Android.

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I'm not a watch person. Haven't been for a decade. Always felt it was annoying to have on my wrist and annoying to have on while typing.. but I became more and more intrigued with all the health tracking functionality that the Apple Watch brought to the table. I got my first Apple Watch in 2018, a 40mm Series 4. I've been wearing an Apple Watch ever since.

I now have the 41mm Apple Watch Edition Series 7 with Cellular. The primary value I get out of the Apple Watch is that I don't have to pull my phone out as often. I can see at a glance if a notification or alert is worth interacting with.

I also use Apple Pay on it all the time. Now I maintain a small collection of various straps to keep it interesting, but my daily driver is the sport loop band.

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Previously I had the Herman Miller Embody when I moved. It served me well over the ~7 years I've owned it but I was up for something new, in a different color, and ideally lighter. Everything about the Embody felt heavy and hard to maneuver.

I ended up going with a newer Herman Miller model, the Cosm. It's a fairly simple task chair with almost no controls—just height—making it a huge departure from my previous Embody chair that had tons of adjustment knobs.

The Cosm also feels much, much lighter. It's a breeze to move around. I opted for a custom order: low back in Glacier fabric color with a white chassis, no armrests and a polished base.

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I had a 2nd-generation iPod (the main difference was the wheel being updated to touch instead of the mechanical scroll wheel which frequently broke or needed cleaning) in high school. It was a huge purchase for me at the time. It had FireWire. It had fancy neodymium transducer magnets in the earbuds. And it had the best user interface.

I broke mine after it dropped on the headphone jack with headphones plugged in and disconnected the jack from the circuit board. I opened it up and soldered it back to working order, though I eventually sold it to a friend shortly after.

Years later I found a pristine one on eBay and purchased it. I wrote more about this iPod in my post Revisiting the Apple iPod.

I haven't owned a printer for many years. And I was doing just fine without one. If I ever really needed to print something I could always do it at the office.

That was before Covid. Now I have been working from home for a few years. Not having a printer turned into a slight annoyance, especially when returning various online purchases and needing to print out return labels.

Given that I didn't need to use this printer daily, I wanted something tiny and portable. A printer I could tuck away in a cabinet when not needed.

The Canon Pixma TR150 was exactly what I was looking for. Setting up the Wi-Fi was easy enough and I've never had connection issues since.

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Easily one of my best purchases. I've taken this thing on countless trips, written countless articles on it, watched hours of TV and tons of movies. The Magic Keyboard with trackpad really makes it shine.

I opted for the LTE model, which I use with a Google Fi data-only SIM card. I wrote an article about how I use the iPad Pro.

It's so good that I truly have not felt the need to upgrade to the latest version. This is not even running M1, this runs an older A12Z Bionic chip. It still has ample power for what I use it for. Though in recent years the battery life has gotten noticably worse. If I were to upgrade in the near future, that would probably be one of the main reasons.

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I've had a Windows PC for some years now. Originally it began as a desire for a prosumer machine faster than Apple could provide, with a beefy overclocked CPU and cutting edge graphics card. I wrote about this at length in my article Building a Lightroom PC (PetaPixel, DPreview).

When I moved to New York in 2019, I wanted a much smaller computer and decided to build a mini-ITX small form factor (SFF) PC. I fell in love with the Louqe Ghost S1 case and set out to build it with some of the best components I could find at the time, including an 8-core Intel i9 9900K processor that I delidded as well as a hefty Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.

Eventually I got interested in iOS development and also got an Apple Pro Display XDR, both things that required a Mac. So I now basically use this PC exclusively for gaming.

It has a watercooled 8-core delidded Intel i9 9900K processor as well as a hefty Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti graphics card but for me the real masterpiece is the lovely and expandable Louqe Ghost S1 case.

Depending on your needs, you can add so-called "tophats" to provide more room for things from storage to watercooling radiators. Building in the confined space was definitely a challenge but it was made manageable with some custom-length sleeved power cables.

But the biggest surprise is just how quiet this thing is. During regular use the PSU and graphics card fans are completely off and it's just the large radiator fans spinning slowly. I have been extremely impressed with this setup and haven't had any issues in two years now.

Parts

• Intel Core i9 9900K - CPU, delidded
• NZXT Kraken X52 AIO liquid CPU cooler - CPU cooler
• EVGA Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti XC Black - Graphics card
• ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac - Motherboard
• 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3000 CL15 - Low-profile RAM
• 2TB Samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD - Storage
• 1TB Samsung 960 EVO M.2 SSD - Storage
• Corsair SF600 Platinum - PSU
• Louqe Ghost S1 (MkI) with large tophat - Case
• Custom paracord sleeved cables - PSU cables

For several years I relied upon my Dell UP2718Q 4K display; originally described in my 2018 article, Building a Lightroom PC. At the time it was a great 27" monitor with both Mac and PC support, 4K resolution and impressive color accuracy. It served me well.

I had always kept my eye on the new computer displays ever since then but the options for non-gaming displays continued to feel stagnant. There weren't any new traditional 5K panels, just lots of ultrawide 5K displays being introduced. The LG 5K remained the only other good contender if your machine could run 5K over Thunderbolt 3 and you didn't mind the ridiculously glossy, reflective display and dull aesthetics.

Then the 32-inch Retina 6K Apple Pro Display XDR was announced. I could rattle off the long list of specs but I'd prefer to just keep it simple and only mention the ones really important to me: 6K resolution, nano-texture matte glass, 1000/1600 nits with full P3 wide color gamut, as well as the stunning design and simplicity of it with just one cable to charge and run from my 16" MacBook Pro.

The problem with running 4K on my prior 27-inch display was that I always had to be running a scaled resolution to be able to see things large enough to interact with. Running at the native 3840x2160 was possible but everything was impossibly tiny. With the XDR, there's more resolution and a physically larger display, so this is less of a problem.

Of course, the Retina 2x mode is only 3008x1692 on the XDR, so when I find myself wanting more screen real estate and am okay with sacrificing some sharpness, I use SwitchResX to move to a 3840x2160 scaled resolution. That was all fine and great while I had an Intel-based Mac. Unfortunately, it does not seem possible to use a custom scaled resolution like that with my new M1 Max-based MacBook Pro. I'm back to running at the native 3008x1692 resolution.

First impressions

• Size: After the typical lovely unboxing with Apple's insane attention to detail, I found myself looking at a huge XDR display on my desk. I had never been in front of such a large computer monitor. It honestly took about a week to get used to the size. It felt like I more actively had to move my neck around to look at the whole screen.

• Simplicity: Setup was a breeze and I can't stress how refreshing it was to take down my older monitor and all of its required cables. The XDR just needs power and one single Thunderbolt 3 cable. The integrated USB-C hub in the XDR takes care of accessories I need like my webcam, security key and Logitech USB dongle for mice.

• Nano-texture glass: My Dell display was matte but I still couldn't use it in my living room when I had a light on behind me. The glare was too annoying for doing any real work. That's not an issue at all with the nano-texture Pro Display XDR. I'm incredibly impressed with its performance in a variety of lighting conditions.

There were, however, some concerns as well. First off, I did notice a kind of vignetting with the display and have heard this directly from a few other XDR owners. Not a traditional vignetting where the corners are darker, but more so stemming from my field of view. Looking at parts of the screen that are not directly in front of my field of view felt slightly darker but appear normal as I move my head closer to them or moved further back.

Another significant concern is with the nano-texture glass. It requires a special cleaning cloth and cannot be cleaned by any other means. I'm just very worried that one day I will accidentally splash coffee on it, sneeze on it or something else and it won't be easy to clean and will leave permanent splotches on the screen. The manual says nothing about ever using any liquid to clean the display so I'm not sure how I might safely remove any liquids that splash on it. So for now, I remain 100% paranoid about using liquids near the XDR.

That being said, the special cleaning cloth is very effective. I had one fingerprint on the side from adjusting the position of the display that I was worried it wouldn't be able to clean (fearing my finger oils maybe seeped in) and the cloth instantly cleaned it with one light swipe.

Overall, I'm thoroughly impressed with this display and it's exactly what I was looking for. Is it overkill for someone that uses it for hobbyist photography and design and development needs? Definitely. I'm not putting it to its full potential as I rarely have a use for things like its reference modes, though other functionality like True Tone is incredibly convenient and easy on the eyes when not doing any color-sensitive work.

It's not possible to talk about the Pro Display XDR without bringing up the price. Yes, it's ridiculously expensive when comparing it to what an all-around good computer monitor usually costs: $800-1200. With the nano-texture option, the stand, Apple Care (with a display like this, you absolutely want it) and tax, the XDR weighs in at just over $8,150 USD.

I was able to purchase it for considerably less with the help of an employee friend discount as well as receiving 6% back from using my Apple Card during a holiday promo. I think it's worth it—especially for something I will hopefully be using for the better part of a decade—but that's understandably a very personal decision. I also, admittedly, place a lot of value in its physical aesthetics.

I also needed to get a webcam since the XDR, meant for professionals that would likely be mounting several of these together in a studio, does not have one. I had an old Logitech webcam for many years and used that for a bit but it wasn't great: the mounting bracket was too deep for the XDR's thin bezel and would touch and hide part of the screen. I got the 4K Logi Brio made for the XDR with a magnetic base.