Some of the software, hardware and gadgets I love and recommend.

Here's a big list of the things I use to keep myself productive, build software and just generally enjoy using. I always find these lists fascinating and insightful from others, so thought I'd share!

Workstation

  • 14” MacBook Pro, M1 Max, 64GB RAM (2021)

    I upgraded from an Intel 13" 2018 MacBook Pro before getting the 14" and the ARM chip speeds are lightning fast - if you're still on the Intel chip MacBook's it's definitely worth the upgrade.

  • LG 27UD88-W - 27" USB-C monitor

    At the time, one of few USB-C monitors with a sufficient output power to provide power delivery to my MacBook Pro. Discontinued but still solid. I find the 27" size, when running 2x monitors to be a good balance.

  • 27" Dell U2717D IPS LED Monitor

    The Dell is my secondary monitor, no USB-C as it's a little older but still going strong after several years.

  • Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad

    I've tried lots of keyboards but always come back to my tried and tested Apple Magic Keyboard. I'm looking at grabbing a Mechanical keyboard sometime soon and the Logitech looks like a good introduction to it.

  • Apple Magic Mouse

    For all of it's faults (charging in the bottom, really Apple?!) the multi-touch controls of the Apple Magic Mouse are so integrated with the Mac OS nothing really comes close.

  • IKEA Markus Office Chair

    I couldn't quite justify the price tag of a Herman Miller Aeron but I've found the IKEA Markus to be a fantastic chair at the price point.

  • iPhone 13 Pro Max

    What can I say, I like big phones. The camera is also exceptional and captures important family life moments.

  • iPad Air w/ Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard

    The iPad Air is my travel device, coupled with the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil it's surprisingly capable at the majority of day-to-day office admin. Don't expect to do any programming on the device though!

Development tools

  • JetBrains IDE's

    Once you've tried a JetBrains IDE, you'll wonder why you've ever used a simple editor. I personally couldn't live without it now and use several of their IDE's: PHPStorm, GoLand, DataGrip, Rider, WebStorm. Strong recommendation from me!

  • Apple Terminal with OhMyZSH

    I've dabbled with iTerm 2 / Hyper but as I often use the JetBrains built-in terminal, now I just use the default Apple Terminal with OhMyZSH.

  • TablePlus

    TablePlus for day-to-day database interaction, DataGrip from JetBrains for more power use. But honestly, TablePlus is great for most daily interaction.

  • Tinkerwell

    If you've ever used Tinker with Laravel, then you'll love Tinkerwell. Great for testing short snippets or running quick one-off batch scripts against your code.

Productivity

  • Alfred

    Alfred is basically Apple's built-in Spotlight on steroids. It's extensible and has a strong community with plugins.

  • Things 2

    Things 2 I use as my day-to-day ToDo list. I follow GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology for managing my todo/action list and Things 2 works well across my devices and is simple no-frills to help avoid procrastinating with ToDo tools!