Tools I use

Primary devices

• AirPods Pro
• Apple Watch Series 4, 40mm, Silver
• iPhone 11 Pro, Midnight Green
• 2018 iPad Pro 12.9”, Space Gray
  • Apple Pencil
  • Magic Keyboard
  • Smart Keyboard Folio
  • Brydge Pro keyboard
  • Compass Pro stand
• 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, 13”, Silver
  • Magic Keyboard
  • Logitech MX Master (first-gen)
• iPad Pro 10.5”, Silver
  • Apple Pencil
  • Canopy
  • AirPods 2

iPad apps

Code

Tools, the narrated version

Devices

• 2018 12.9” iPad Pro + second-gen Pencil (+ a Smart Keyboard Folio + a Brydge keyboard). I’ve been extremely passionate about iPad since the original, but this iteration is an enormous leap forward. I take my iPad with me practically everywhere.
  • As my iPhones have gotten larger (iPhone 7, X, XS Max), I started doing more work from them because it was less painful, but it slowed me down. iPad is far superior for work.
• iPhone 11 Pro. It’s only a big upgrade from the XS in 2 ways—camera & battery—but those are massive. It’s the first iPhone I never worry about charging, because it always lasts the day. Night Mode & the Ultra Wide lens add fantastic flexibility to photography. Absolutely love this iPhone. I keep it caseless.
• Apple Watch (Series 4). More of a life tool than a creative tool, but improving my fitness + sleep helps me be more creative.
• 2018 MacBook Pro 13” with Touch Bar. I want to get rid of Macs in my workflow for a fully-iPad life, but the developer tools just aren’t available on iPad yet. I find the windows, notifications, customization, filesystem, apps, etc of macOS a distracting nightmare to use & it wastes my time. I want to write Shortcuts, not script a filesystem I wish I didn’t have to deal with. The majority of my meaningful coding still happens at my mac.
• Sometimes, an external 21” display at my desk. While I’m coding, connected to my MacBook Pro. Just as often connected to my iPad—even larger screen for reading, watching stuff. (Idea 100% via Federico Viticci.) Really disappointing how few apps support external displays, & iOS is super limiting here.
• In the past, used a Wacom Intuos, but my iPad/Pencil subsumed all that.

Apps

• GoodNotes, for handwriting. In classes, during calls, to make wireframes/mockups of interfaces I’m designing. It’s simply the best for taking notes in class.
• Figma, for designing assets. I never use design tools like Figma/Illustrator/Sketch for designing my sites/UIs—it’s far too high a fidelity & it’s just rectangles. It’s great for logos, icons, social cards, etc.
• VSCode for Mac, where I spend many hours/week coding. It’s focused on being a great code editor, which it is, not a creative tool, but a huge chunk of my creative output goes through code in VSCode.
• Drafts on iOS, as a scratchpad when I want to write text down super quickly.
• iA Writer (mostly iPad, occasionally iPhone/Mac). For writing anything long + all school-related writing. Markdown is huge for me—it’s my mental framework of text, keeping my words in plain text + having separate “render targets”/templates/stylesheets. iA is one of a few companies that really thinks about thinking & build a tool for that.
• Things, for keeping track of tasks (all devices).
• Timery for Toggl, for tracking my homework/classwork/personal project work time.
• Shortcuts on iOS. I have nearly 200, mostly custom-made, & use them constantly for image processing, file management, Apple Music, school workflows, time tracking, and so much more.
• Apple Music. Use it for hours a day while I’m working, walking, etc.