I get a lot of questions about the gear I use, so I’ve collected it all here on a single page.

A couple of quick notes:

  1. Just because I use something doesn’t mean I recommend it to everyone. I make stuff for a living and have been fortunate enough to upgrade equipment over time. If you are starting out, there are many great options that cost less.
  2. This page uses affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Computing

My computer is a space black 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 Max. Everything — including the Pro Display XDR — runs through a CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt dock. The laptop is opened to the left of the screen, sitting on a cheapo stand from Amazon.

Desk Setup

The computer lives atop a Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk. I generally stand for the first few hours of the day or whenever I have a lot of administrative work to knock out.

Under the display is my Stream Deck XL,, and next to it are a set of Kanto ORA4 140W powered reference speakers paired with the Kanto SUB8VMW sealed 8-inch powered subwoofer. My thanks to John Siracusa for suggesting the Kanto gear. This stuff is pricey, but it sounds great, and having both my speakers and podcasting gear attached over USB is pretty sweet.

For input devices, I use a Magic Trackpad, Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, and a Logitech MX Master 4. The trackpad is basically just for gestures.

For a webcam, I’m using the Insta360 Link. It’s an amazing little 4K camera, and I’ve been really happy with it for Zoom calls or the occasional video podcast. I have it mounted on a little arm I designed and 3D printed, so it’s off to the side of my display:

Back of Desk

For backups, I use a combination of Time Machine and Backblaze.

On the mobile front, I use an iPhone Air in Cloud White and an 11-inch M4 iPad Pro. I wear an Apple Watch Ultra 3 in black almost every day and night. I use it to track my steps with Pedometer++ and my sleep with Sleep++. I’ve got an Indigo MacBook Neo for personal use.

I dabble in 3D printing and have a Bambu P2S set up. I’ve mostly made a lot of oddball stuff for organizing my office and the house.

My network is built with a bunch of Unifi equipment:

Unifi Rack

Podcast Recording

I make podcasts for a living. This is my setup at my desk:

Remember when I said I couldn’t recommend my gear to most people? The USBPRE2 is awesome, but it is obscenely expensive. My go-to recommendation is the very good and affordable Tascam US-2x2 USB Audio Interface. On the microphone front, I am a big fan of the Shure BETA 87A. If you need something really affordable, check out this post by Jason Snell on Six Colors about the Audio-Technica ATR2100 microphone.

I record my audio (and what I hear via Zoom) using Audio Hijack, and I edit in Logic Pro.

Writing

I write 512 Pixels in iA Writer and publish via GitHub to Cloudflare. The site itself runs Hugo, a static site generator.

For personal writing and note-taking, I’ve used Field Notes notebooks since 2011:

Notebooks

Software

Here’s a list of a bunch of apps and services I rely on every day:

  • Email: Mimestream on the Mac and iOS (thanks to a private beta), hooked up to Gmail and Google Workspace.
  • Notes: Apple’s Notes app for just about everything; Tot for a quick scratchpad.
  • Task Management: Todoist.
  • Photos: Stock iOS camera app; iCloud Photos Library.
  • Calendar: Apple’s stock Calendar app. Personal calendars are in iCloud; work calendars are hosted via Google.
  • Cloud file storage: Dropbox for almost everything; iCloud Drive for a shared folders with my wife.
  • RSS: ReadKit everywhere, syncing with Feedbin for that sweet send-newsletters-to-my-RSS-reader workflow.
  • Contacts: The stock contacts app. Work and personal contacts all mixed together in my iCloud account. It’s a mess in there.
  • Browser: Mostly Chrome, but also Safari.
  • Chat: Slack for work, Discord for hanging out with Relay members, iMessage for everything else.
  • Read It Later: GoodLinks, which I love.
  • Research tools: I have a lot of computer history stuff stored in DEVONthink.
  • Time tracking: Timery, powered by Toggl
  • Office work: Mostly Google Docs and Notion; iWork when I need more. I really try to avoid Office.
  • Shopping lists: Shared Reminders lists with my wife.
  • Music: Apple Music through my Kanto setup, AirPods Pro 2, or a series of HomePod minis.
  • Podcast listening: Overcast is the GOAT.
  • Podcast creation: Calling in Zoom; recording in Audio Hijack; editing in Logic Pro; MP3 creation in Forecast
  • Password management: At home, 1Password for Families and Teams at work.