This page serves as a frequently updated list of the computer systems I’m using in and around the house, stuff I rely on and trust for the most part. For more stuff we use around the house, see the pages on computer peripherals, software and web services and other gear. Stuff I’m just messing with is here.
(Last updated March 10, 2024)
The small guy
Worked issued me a bog standard M1 MacBook Air in June, 2021. It is a ridiculously great machine for all the tasks I throw at it, light to carry, and with full day battery life. No complaints. Okay, maybe one–just two USB C ports and both on the left side? Not great.
Very small guy on my desk
At home and for non-work computing, I rely on a 2023 Mac mini powered by an M2 Pro chip and with a capacious 4 TB drive. It is a dream machine, quick, quiet and reliable. It handles my 40,000+ photo library in Lightroom Classic without a stutter and Postbox now runs smoothly despite the tens of thousands of archived messages it holds. (I know you’re wondering–how can I keep playing Civ IV on an Apple silicon Mac? Codeweavers Crossover, my friend.) The new mini is in the boring silver color, the only one offered for that model. I also have a Satechi “Stand & Hub” underneath for quick access to more ports (and my 2024 edition has room for a wicked fast NVMe SSD for convenient backups). I upgraded from an adequate but more enticingly colored “space grey” 2018 Intel Core i5 Mac mini in January, 2023.
Kitchen Computer
Apple’s 27-inch 5K iMac is one of the greatest designs in the company’s history. Totally bullet proof reliability and that big screen remains amazing even many years later. As our kitchen computer, the 2015 model with an Intel Core i5 chip and a 1 TB fusion hard disk is used mainly for email, looking up recipes and directions, and the occasional game of Civ IV.
A Windows laptop
For a while there, Apple was making kind of crummy laptops, what with the execrable butterfly keyboard, the sadly neglected Touchbar, and the general lack of consideration for users and the uses they used most. So in January, 2020, I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon X1 laptop with a (10th generation) Intel Core i7 chip on one of the company’s frequent super sales. I got the minimal 256 TB SSD and swapped it out for a 2 TB drive. It’s super light weight, has a variety of ports, and the keyboard is excellent. The 14-inch screen is nice enough, the battery life is a bit subpar, and the cover is a total fingerprint magnet. It came with Windows 10 and was later upgraded to Windows 11. It’s…fine.
Walking around the house tablet
The iPad is pretty much the best digital content consumption device ever invented. After owning a bunch of models beginning with the 2010 original, in February, 2022, I bought an 11-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation) in silver with 512 TB of storage, running an M1 chip, and including Verizon 5G service. It can do so much–even run the Globe’s CMS if I need to file a story on the go–but frequently is tasked with little more than showing the day’s FT headlines and running a few YouTube videos. On the downside, battery life is meh.
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