Hello, I’m Michael Sliwinski, founder of Nozbe - to-do app for business owners and their teams. I write essays, books, work on projects and I podcast for you using #iPadOnly in #NoOffice as I believe that work is not a place you go to, it’s a thing you do.
Computing platforms and all the types of computers I used to use… together with geeky gadgets I happen to test and buy. I also write more specifically on iPads, iPhones and Apple Watches.
When I bought M4 Mac Mini for my home office I configured it with 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 512GB of SSD storage, which cost me $300 extra over the base Mini (1G Net and 256GB SSD). I didn’t spend extra $600 for the upgrade to 2TB of storage, because I had a 4TB SSD lying around and I didn’t want to spend the ridiculous money Apple was asking. However, when I heard about a Malaysian company called iBoff which reverse-engineered a 2TB SSD module I was both curious and eager to try it out. So I did spend an extra $280 and pre-ordered a module for myself.
Now that I’ve finished setting up My new Home Office for 2025 I’m starting to appreciate the tweaks and improvements that lead to making it my best “recording studio” ever. It’s an improvement to the Streaming setup from 2021 and most gear stayed the same, but with the new things that came in and much better light management this makes the overall result amazing:
I’m in the middle of renovating my home office for 2025 and this time it’s not only about moving some furniture around but also upgrading some hardware. I’ve retired my trusty M1 MacBook Air and bought an almost-base M4 Mac Mini to which I connected an external 4TB SSD drive for storing both all the photos and all of my Dropbox files. Here’s how:
Back in December of 2013 I bought a 13” MacBook Pro which two years later in summer of 2015 I swapped by the iMac 5K which I eventually replaced in 2022 with M1 MacBook Air. As I never sold the old Macs, I decided to give them a new life by upgrading them to the latest MacOS. Turns out it was fairly easy:
One of the recent ATP podcast member-special episodes was about laptops and it drove me down the memory lane of my own history with laptops. I currently own an M1 MacBook Air in my home office but my main computer is the most versatile one ever - 13” iPad Pro. My journey with laptops started back in 2000 when I earned some money as a PHP developer and bought myself a first laptop:
I’ve always liked ergonomic keyboards. I’ve been an early user of the first model of Microsoft’s “Natural Keyboard” in my Windows years and later also had the Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard but it stopped working after only 2 years and wasn’t well suited for the Mac. So I just kept using my solar-powered K760 Logitech keyboard which I bought in… December of 2012 - over 10 years ago! However, I missed the “natural/ergonomic” keyboard layout and decided to try the Logitech ERGO K860 and as I kept using it I also decided to “integrate it” with the Apple Trackpad in my home office. Here’s my review:
Recently I wrote about my new 2023 home office setup where the key part of it is the M1 MacBook Air. Some people reading that article got a wrong impression that I’m no longer #iPadOnly. They thought I ditched my beloved 13” iPad Pro. That’s not true. Quite the contrary, the iPad is still my main computer. In fact, I’m writing these words on my iPad. I’m doing most of my creative work on the iPad. But… the M1 MacBook Air is an important back-stage/secondary computer and that’s why I need it in my home office:
On the last episode of No Office FM podcast my co-host, Rafal, asked me about a lonely display hanging on the wall behind me. He didn’t know why I had this display there. I had no good answer, until the weekend came and I figured it out. I gave my good old trusty, 10-year-old Apple Thunderbolt Display another, actually seventh, life! Just check out its history:
This article was inspired by questions from readers and my discussion with Radek in the 95th episode of “ThePodcast.fm.” In that episode, we were chatting about our new wireless headphones and discussing how they make us feel like we’re living in the future. On top of that, I also believe wireless headphones significantly improve productivity. So, if you’re still using wired headphones, then, to quote Steve Jobs: “you’re doing it wrong.” Read on to find out why.
Now that the iPad Pro is out and I’ve been using it for the last week or so, many people have been asking if it can finally be a laptop replacement. If people can now finally ditch their Macbooks and embrace the new era of touch-devices for most of their computing needs. Well, it depends who you ask:
