What I Use: June 2020 (Premium)

It’s been a while since I last wrote about the hardware, software, and services on which I rely every day. But with pandemic and its stay-at-home requirements emphasizing what’s really important, I thought this might be an interesting time to take another look.

As you may recall, I do write up a What I Use post for each of our home swaps; the last two were from Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 2019 and Stockholm, Sweden in 2018. But assuming our site search is accurate—not a good assumption—I don’t think I’ve published an all-up What I Use post since the end of 2018/beginning of 2019.

So let’s see what’s changed.

Note: When I’ve written about or reviewed a product mentioned here, I link to that article. But there are some affiliate links too. I literally only earn tens of dollars per month with these links and use the money, such as it is, to fund tech purchases that, yes, I almost always write about on this site.

Computers

As always, I have a core set of daily-use PCs—typically a desktop PC and one or two laptops—that I use aside from whatever products I happen to be testing. With the COVID-19 pandemic making travel impossible for at least several months, however, testing portable PCs, in particular, has been more difficult. And I find that I’ve returned again and again to a core set of devices that I trust and prefer.

Desktop PC

I’ve been using a new-generation Intel NUC 10—a fully-configured NUC10i7FNH with a 10th-generation “Frost Canyon” Core i7-10710U processor, 16 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of SSD storage—for over three months now, and I love it. I love it because it just works, and while this shouldn’t be unusual or unexpected, even the PCs I usually use and prefer don’t always meet this requirement.

(If you listen/watch First Ring Daily, you may recall some self-inflicted issues I had with the NUC a few weeks back. I won’t hold what I did against it.)

I still use the same basic set of peripherals, which of course move from desktop PC to desktop PC. These include a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Wireless Desktop Keyboard and Mouse, which I highly recommend, a Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920, which definitely needs an upgrade, and a Focusrite Scarlett Solo (2nd Gen) USB Audio Interface and a Heil PR 40 microphone with PL2T Boom Mount that I use for podcasting.

New to this setup since the last write-up is an HP 345495 Business Z27n G2 27-inch LED display that I purchased from Amazon.com in August 2019. This is a 1440p (2560 x 1440) display with a nice range of inputs—USB-C 3.1, DisplayPort 1.2, DVI-D, and HDMI 1.4—plus an outbound USB-C 3.1 port that can be used to power a smartphone (with 15-watts) and 3 USB 3.0 ports for connectivity. It’s bright but not at all glossy, so it’s perfect for work. I’m really happy with it.

Also new, and required by the new display, since it doesn’t have any built-in audio, is a pair of Edifier R1010BT bookshelf speakers. I bought these because of my previous success with the Edifier R1280T bookshelf speakers, which you may recall I used to have paired with a Chromecast Audio. These aren’t as good as their more expensive (but not actually expensive) siblings, and I wish they were smaller. But they do the job.

Portable PCs

While I often find myself switching between a variety of laptops for review purposes, two have really stood the test of time, and I use them both regularly. They are the HP EliteBook 1040 G5, which is about 18 months old, and the Microsoft Surface Book 2 13, which is about two-and-a-half years old.

The EliteBook 1040 is powered by an 8th-generation Intel Core i7-8650U processor and an unnecessary 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of SSD storage, and I love its 14.1-inch 4K/UHD display. If I had to pick just one laptop, this would be it.

That said, the Surface Book 2, with its 8th generation Core i7-8650U processor, 16 GB of RAM, 256 GB of SSD storage, and 13.5-inch 3:2 3000 x 2000 is also quite excellent. It’s a tough call, and I love the taller Surface Book 2 display; it makes it seem bigger than it is.

PC software

I install the same basic set of desktop applications, web apps, and Store apps on every PC I use. You’ll find Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Word, Microsoft OneNote, Notepad, Adobe Photoshop Elements (Microsoft Store version), Microsoft Paint, Visual Studio 2019, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Skype pinned to the taskbar on all of my PCs. I also use Microsoft OneDrive extensively, and ensure that certain work folders are synced to each PC.

On the web, I pinned Gmail, Google Calendar, and Twitter to my main Edge window so they are always available.

Online services

When it comes to paid and free online services, I’m usually looking for cross-device and -platform availability, with as little lock-in as possible. My Microsoft and Google accounts are my key online identities, though my Apple account is important for content and when I use Apple devices. I subscribe to Microsoft 365 Home, and everyone in the family is attached to that. I use Microsoft OneDrive and Google Photos for cloud storage and Grammarly for spelling and grammar checking.

Beyond the video services mentioned below, I buy or subscribe to content through Amazon Kindle, Audible, Google Play Music (for me), and Spotify (for the rest of the family).

NAS

My WD My Cloud EX2 NAS (network-attached storage) with 4 TB of total storage in a RAID 1 configuration has been going strong. As always, it serves as a local, secondary backup for work and personal documents and photos, plus my old ripped DVD collection that we still never watch.

Smartphone and wireless service

There have been some big changes here in the past few months. First, I dumped Google Fi for Mint Mobile, saving hundreds of dollars per year (but leaving an open question about how I’ll handle international travel going forward).

And bored with the Pixel 4 XL, I revisited my favorite smartphones of 2019 and landed on the Huawei P30 Pro, which is fantastic once you replace the launcher (in my case with something called Lawnchair, which looks/feels like the Pixel launcher, but with better customization capabilities).

While there are different ways to highlight the smartphone apps I rely on most, in my case, what I pin to my dock and home screens are perhaps the most telling.

In the dock, I’ve pinned Camera, Google Messages, Phone, Microsoft Edge, and Google Maps.

On the first home screen, I’ve pinned the apps I use the most often: Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Skype, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft OneNote, Fitbit, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google Photos, and Google Play Store.

And on the second home screen, I’ve pinned media, reading, and home apps: Audible, Pocket Casts (podcasts), Google Play Music, YouTube Music (for the coming transition), Sonos, Google News, Pocket, Medium, The New York Times, Philips Hue, and Google Nest.

Tablet

I’m still using a 128 GB iPad 9.7 (2018) to read every day, and, if I ever travel again, to watch videos. Apple’s iPad is the only consumption tablet I’d ever consider.

My app selection is minimal here, and I delete/hide as many of Apple’s apps as I can since I don’t need or want most of them. I’ve pinned The New York Times, Google News, Pocket, Medium, Amazon Kindle, and Microsoft Edge in the dock. And I’ve pinned Clock, App Store, iTunes Store, Apple TV, and Google (for the feed) on the one and only home screen. (There’s also an Apple folder for Apple apps I can’t delete.)

Xbox

I still use a Microsoft Xbox One X just about every day, mostly to play Call of Duty, and if anything, my usage has gone up during the pandemic. I subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

I also still use the customized Xbox Wireless Controller that I designed using Xbox Design Labs, but it’s falling apart due to abuse and needs to be replaced. (The top of the left thumbstick is about to come off and I keep dropping it and temporarily sticking one of the bumpers stuck shut.)

I’m also still using the same older 32-inch HP 1440p display which is large and looks and has built-in speakers that work just fine. It’s to the left of my PC’s display so I can access both simultaneously. See, I do use dual displays! Sort of.

Headphones

I don’t use headphones at home. But I do use headphones when I travel (not possible today), go to the gym (also not possible today), and go for walks. The big change since last time is that I use different headphones for each.

I would still rely on my trusty Bose QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones if I could travel. But they’re wired headphones and use a headphone jack that is increasingly uncommon on phones, and that requires a dongle, and they don’t always work well in that configuration. So I’ll need to figure this out one when travel resumes. For now, it just doesn’t matter.

When I was going to the gym, I was using a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds+, which I love.

When I walk, use the inexpensive (and wired) Google Pixel USB-C Earbuds because they don’t block outside sounds as effectively as the Buds+ and I like to know when a runner or animal is coming up behind me while I walk. They sound good, too.

Internet and TV

We still get Internet access via RCN because it is the only decent choice in this rural area. As I wrote last time, our service is supposed to be 300 Mbps down and 30 Mbps up, but that’s on a good day when there’s a full moon. It’s been mostly reliable. But I would switch to FIOS instantly, at any cost, if that were available here.

To get the Internet out to the far corners of our overly-large house, we use Google Wifi, which provides mesh wireless networking and has always worked quite well. We have a three-node setup, but I could see adding a fourth node for the sunroom (or perhaps using powerline networking there, which I’ll experiment with soon). I’m also temporarily running Ethernet into my home office over the floor, but plan to install it permanently in the walls soon.

As for the TV, we’ve been cord-cutting for years and will never look back. We use several services, and rotate through some just to watch certain shows, but the mainstays for now are Netflix (Premium Ultra HD plan), Hulu (No Commercials plan), YouTube Premium (which we get free because of my Google Play Music subscription), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Disney+. We buy and rent movies from Apple usually. But we use an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K as our primary TV interface now. It’s attached to a 2016-era Samsung Smart TV with 4K and HDR capabilities.

Smart home

We’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with various smart home technologies and we’re honestly not that excited by most of it. We got rid of all of our Google Home smart speakers this past year, but we do still use a Google-based Lenovo smart display in the kitchen, which we love.

We have many Philips Hue smart lights inside and outside the house. And we have several Sonos smart speakers, which we only use with music/audio services: Two Play:5’s in the sunroom, two IKEA Symfonisk Wi-Fi bookshelf speakers in the kitchen, a Sonos One in the master bathroom, and three older Sonos Play:1s elsewhere.

We recently installed one of the two Google Nest Cam Outdoor cameras facing the back yard, and will soon put the other in the front. This isn’t for security, it’s to see the wildlife that traverses our yard each night.

Home office

My basic setup here hasn’t changed at all: I use a cheap IKEA SKARSTA standing desk that I never use standing, and a Herman Miller Aeron chair, which is now almost 20 years old but still works well.

I also organize my many little gadgets, adapters, and other small peripherals in what used to be a kid’s toy organizer.