What I use: March 2015

I confess: I did neglect my blog for the longest time. I figure it's time to resurrect it. To kick off the revival I'm going to go over the hard- and software I use on a day to day basis.

Laptop

Apple MacBook Pro (Retina, 15", Mid-2014)

Specs: Intel Core i7 2.5 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD, GeForce GT 750M with 2 GB VRAM

Wasn't I writing back in 2012 how the price of a MacBook Pro wasn't worth it? Yes, I did. And yet I went for the rMBP last year, spending much more than I should have. I don't regret it either - this is a great little machine which, for all intents and purposes, should last me several years. Its specs are certainly beefy enough to run anything I throw at it and then some.

Software I'm using on it:

• Operating system: OS X 'Yosemite' 10.10.3 
• Web browser: I'm alternating between Safari 8 and the Chrome dev channel builds.
• Email: Microsoft Outlook 15 (part of Office 365)
• Productivity: Microsoft Office 2011. Hey MS, where is the promised beta of Office 2015 for the Mac? Version 2011 is getting long in the tooth.
• Media player: iTunes and VLC, depending on the media type. Spotify for streaming music.
• Virtualisation: VMware Fusion 7.1.1. I mainly use it to test Windows 10, but also to play with the odd Linux distribution or vintage Windows version.
• Messaging: Skype. 
• Other apps: Microsoft OneNote 15, Textual IRC, Twitter, Steam, Minecraft.

Screenshot:

Tablet

Apple iPad Mini 2 with retina display, 16 GB storage.

I'm mainly using it as e-book reader, and for the occasional casual game. On Formula 1 weekends I'm using the F1 live timing app on it – hey, I am the nerdy type of F1 fan after all.

Software I'm using on it on a regular basis:

• Operating system: iOS 8.1.3
• Web browser: Safari
• Email: Microsoft Outlook
• E-books: iBooks, Amazon Kindle
• Media player: built-in Music app for locally stored files, Spotify for streaming.
• Microsoft OneNote as note taking application. 
• The usual social media apps – Twitter, Facebook and the like.
• Games: Dots, TwoDots, Fruit Ninja, Wordfeud, Shades to name some.

Screenshot:

Smartphone

Apple iPhone 6, 64 GB storage.

I'm having second thoughts on this one. Don't get me wrong, the phone is great from a hardware point of view. The operating system works well, the app ecosystem is unparalleled. And yet there are features I miss from Android. Eventually I may just sell the iPhone and get an Android device – we'll see.

Software I'm using on the iPhone:

• Operating system: iOS 8.1.3
• Web browser: Safari
• Email: Microsoft Outlook
• Productivity: Microsoft Office (mainly for quickly viewing documents or minor edits)
• Messaging: built-in Messages app, WhatsApp, Skype.
• E-books: iBooks, Amazon Kindle
• Media player: built-in Music app for locally stored files, Spotify for streaming.
• Microsoft OneNote as note taking application.
• Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Yelp
• Games: Dots, TwoDots, Fruit Ninja, Wordfeud and a few others.
• Other misc. apps: Amazon, eBay, banking app, Wikipedia, public transport apps, BBC News and Spiegel Online news.

Screenshot:

There is a clear trend as to which manufacturer I'm favouring I suppose. Though while I'm intending to keep the laptop and tablet, I'm not 100% sure if I'm not better served by going back to Android for smartphones. iOS works, but at the end of the day it's missing some of the options I've grown accustomed to over several years of using Android phones.

I'm using Microsoft OneDrive as primary cloud storage service, so switching away from the Apple ecosystem wouldn't be a problem in that regard. iCloud really only serves as synching mechanism for photos and Safari bookmarks, not as permanent storage.

So there you have it. A (too long?) blog post to revive my blog and give you an idea of what kind of hardware and software I'm using. I'll try my best to blog on a more regular basis in the future.