Technology Setup May 2024

It's been a long time since my last post. I have been a little overwhelmed with new work, moving into a new rental unit, dealing with four social activities per week (having to cut down to 3) and some temporary mental health issues.. Which are fortunately usually very temporary. I've made blog posts in the past about my tech setups, which devices and operating systems I use, because I'm often switching between them for opinionated reasons that sometimes change. My reasons have changed again but I think I might have settled on a computer setup that might just stay the same.. Might..

Starting with the phone.

I did have an iPhone 12. Which went well with my MacBook Air M1 and iPad Mini 6. But then last year, I bought a Nokia G42 Android phone. Mainly because it's the only user-repairable phone you can readily buy in Australia. I used it for a while but then went back to the iPhone.. because of the user interface design and screen pixel density. But after using both, and comparing the two, currently I'm back on the Nokia G42. It has a few advantages other than repairability. I find the camera is better than the one on the iPhone 12, surprisingly. I'm not sure why, perhaps the glass lens keeps getting smudged, or just using an inferior sensor with less processing? But I notice the difference. The G42 lacks an ultrawide camera, but I can live with that. The other reason is the battery life is great. I can easily get a day of moderate-heavy use on a single charge, whereas the iPhone if I was having one of those days where you end up on your phone a lot, I could drain it to nearly empty. A few other reasons include, USB-C port, headphone port, 90Hz screen, micro SD card slot, and well I think I prefer Android OS over iPhoneOS, subjectively.

For tablets, I have two. A smaller one and a larger one.

I use the smaller one for use in bed mainly, but sometimes carrying out and about. Before, it was my iPad Mini 6, but I bought a Lenovo M9 Tab, which has replaced my iPad as well. Because I was always running out of space on the 64Gb iPad, and it didn't have a headphone port for listening to music on my numerous audiophile-grade headphones. I was always choosing the inferior Bluetooth headphones with the iPad most of the time. The Lenovo is also 64Gb but maybe as Android OS uses less space, it's not running out of space as much. I've always wanted a good 10" tablet with a decent keyboard for the breakfast table and as a general purpose easy to carry PC. I've had Android tablets, Chromebook tablet. And I wanted to get an iPad but I don't really want to spend a lot on something I wouldn't use very often. To follow up with a previous blog post about the Chromebook I made before, I've ditched it. When you want to run Android and Linux apps, it seems to bog down the system to make it slow and unusable. It's also very slow to wake and log in, like a laptop but slower somehow. And, I try to stick to Firefox, but the Firefox for Android is basically an upsized phone app (very limited), and the Linux Firefox was quite slow and buggy. So it was a pretty unpleasant experience. I have a Surface Go 3, but it was running extremely low on storage with my SyncThing files on it. I had an idea, install Linux! Which I did, and it's now a pretty decent solution. It's not perfect, it could be a little more responsive, but otherwise it's good enough for the breakfast table social media scrolling and stuff. And if I want to use it out and about, even for my software and hardware projects, I can do that!

Laptop - not a Framework, sadly.

I bought a MacBook Air M3 with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. I got it because I wanted to have owned a MacBook with decent storage before ditching Macs, and because I still occasionally get requests for software development that requires a Mac. So it's good to have one readily available. I have it and it's alright. I have to say I'm not overly enthusiastic about the minimal design, I think I prefer ASUS, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft Surface design over the MacBook. But for me the only alternative is the Framework, which is okay. And compared to my previous Air M1 with 256GB of storage, it's not really a huge upgrade. It doesn't do anything much new, except the notch and dedicated charging port. So really, the old M1 MacBook Airs are still pretty decent. If it has sufficient storage.. My thinking is eventually I will get a Framework, and keep a Mac Mini around for just in case. But my plans often change..

PC - Now Linux again

My main desktop PC specs are Ryzen 5600G, 32GB RAM, 8TB of SSD storage, AMD Radeon 5700XT and with a Hyte Revolt 3 Mini ITX case and 2x120mm Lian Li Galahad RGB watercooling system. It's pretty sleek. I am considering upgrading the CPU at some point. The GPU is still fine, I haven't run a game that struggles with it yet. I've gone with Linux (Ubuntu 24.04) because I prefer it as a nice mix of developer-friendly OS and gaming capable OS. I was just using my MacBook Air for a while, but missing the ability to quickly play games. I am not a big fan of Windows 11, the UI is not to my liking for reasons I won't go into depth here, and it's not a major step forward from Windows 10 such that it felt necessary to exist.

Other

I have a Meta Quest 2 headset, which I try to use for light cardio exercise most nights, with Beat Saber and Pistol Whip. I have a Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid watch. I think it's pretty great but sadly Fossil have stopped making smartwatches. Just like Pebble.. I have a Fitbit Inspire 3rd gen as well, mainly as it integrates better into my fitness app I use for the gym. And it seems to have more metrics than the Fossil. My current earbuds are the Beats Studio Buds+. I also ditched the AirPod Pros (oof money down the drain) because the AirPods don't have great support for Android. I might sell my AirPods and Apple watch at some point..

So that's my whole setup and I don't see a reason to spend more money on new things for a while.. Though who knows in 6 months I might make another post about what new tech I am using again..