The other day I received a request from reader John for an update to the digital tech gear I use on a daily basis to run my websites. While I understand not everyone is interested in what I use, hopefully some of you guys will find this helpful… or at least partially interesting. If you feel like it, would love to hear about your setups in the comment section. I myself am always curious as to what people use to run their online lives!
Computer
My computer is a circa-2009 MacBook Pro which still works flawlessly. It is a 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo machine with 4 GB of RAM. I am still running Mac OS X 10.6.8, but I will be updating to OS X Lion before summer. I have never understood the need for anyone to update their machine every year just because a company comes out with a new model. My computer still runs any and all software just fine, works just as fast as the day I got it, and has plenty of storage space left in it. I imagine I will get at least another year or two out of this computer. We aren’t in the old days of computers when they truly got exponentially better each model year; these newer machines can last quite some time before they need replacing.
Computer Accessories
- External monitor is an ASUS 24″ Full HD/HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor, as I can’t stare all day at a 13″ computer screen.
- Keyboard is a wireless Apple keyboard and my mouse is an Apple Magic Mouse.
- External hard drive is a LaCie Starck 1 TB USB 2 drive, which gets backed up to constantly via Time Machine.
- Printer is a Canon iP100, which mostly stays unconnected and in the closet.
- Laptop case is from GreenSmart and is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles.
- Batteries for mouse and keyboard are rechargeables, as otherwise would be constantly buying new ones.
Computer Software
To do everything I need to do every day, whether it’s for my own blogs, someone else’s, or a paying web client I have, I have several go-to applications that get heavy use almost every day.
- Chrome, for web browsing.
- Transmit, for FTP transfers.
- Adium for chatting.
- Reeder, for RSS feeds of my favorite sites. I have this open all day long.
- ImageWell 4 for simple image resizing.
- Spotify and Pandora for music.
- Wunderlist for list-making.
- MPEG Streamclip for ripping from DVDs.
- Echofon for Twitter accounts (which, by the way, I just started one for this site. It’s @simpleolife.
- LastPass for keeping passwords.
- Adobe CS3 Suite for, well, all that stuff.
- Final Cut Pro for video editing.
- OpenOffice and Google Docs for word processing.
- Dropbox for cloud storage
- BackBlaze for automatic off-site backups.
Mobile
Phone – I am still rocking the iPhone 3GS and will do so until the next generation iPhone comes out. I was going to switch to an Android phone, but seriously – it’s the best looking phone that works flawlessly with all my Apple gear. I don’t care about open vs. closed, I am not a hacker; to switch would be crazy at this point. It is definitely on it’s last legs, but it should make it to the next update later this year.
Apps – The homepage of my iPhone contains the following apps: Maps, Safari, Clock, Calendar, TurboScan (for creating PDF’s on the go), Wunderlist, Fahrenheit, Words with Friends, Instapaper, Reeder, Tweetbot, Amazon, Messages, Mail, and Phone. I also have 4 folders on my homepage:
- News – CNN, BBC, News360, LATimes, MSNBC, Dwell Magazine
- Music – iTunes, Shazam, NPR, Ambiance, Remote, NPR Music, Pandora, KCRW, KPCC
- Social – Trillian, LinkedIn, Tumblr, WordPress, Pinterest
- Photography – Hipstamatic, CameraBag, Best Camera, Instagram, Plastic Bullet
I think that about sums up my tech gear and how I live my life online. I work from home and have for nearly 6 years, but unless I can find more work doing some writing, social media, content management, etc, I will be trying to find a desk job to pay the bills within a month or so. (So if you need someone, get in touch!)
Nice and streamlined, David.
I don’t work from home, so my personal set up consists of a Macbook Pro (13″ as well) from about a year ago and my iPhone 4. Honestly, between the two of them There’s nothing I need to do that I can’t. As for work, my current contract issued me a Dell laptop (standard fleet POS) and a Blackberry (shudder). Thankfully I don’t have to take either home so I’m able to draw a nice clean line between work and personal time.
Question: do you leave the Macbook closed and ventilated, or do you have it up on a stand of some sort so you can dual monitor?
I dual-monitor, but I don’t ever use the MacBook screen for some reason. I have a stand, which I forgot to mention (BookArc http://twelvesouth.com/products/bookarc/), and should probably be using it to clean up my desk and give me a little more room.
I love those bookarc stands and keep thinking I should get one. I have access to an old 19″ monitor, bluetooth keyboard and mighty mouse if I wanted. I just find that for my needs the plain old Macbook works just fine. Take right now, I’m sitting at the kitchen table with it watching the birds start to realize that yes, it really is spring despite it being this wet.
David it’s been 8 years and I’m once again curious if you’ve changed up your gear since I last asked you. Back then yours was the article that inspired me to minimalize my office setup.
Stay safe