aieltokhy
Uses

The tools I actually reach for.

A boringly honest list. Nothing is sponsored; I bought everything below with my own money, and I'd buy most of it again.

Workstation

Hardware

  • Mac Studio · M2 Max — the daily driver. Silent, fast, never thinks about it.
  • MacBook Pro 14" · M3 — travel + couch driver, doubles as the "test on a smaller screen" machine.
  • Studio Display · 27" — colour-accurate enough, single cable, low-effort.
  • Magic Keyboard with Touch ID — yes, the Apple one. Yes, it's fine.
  • Magic Trackpad — gestures, gestures, gestures.
  • Sony WH-1000XM5 — for trains, planes, and meetings I'd rather not be in.
Where the work happens

Coding

  • Xcode — for everything Apple-platform. Yes, all the betas.
  • VS Code — for the web, Python, and quick edits.
  • Ghostty / iTerm2 — terminal of the week.
  • Tower — visual Git for the inevitable rebase that goes sideways.
  • Proxyman — for inspecting whatever I claim is "not making any network calls".
  • SF Mono — still the only monospace I love.
Pixels

Design

  • Figma — for everything that needs sketching first.
  • Acorn — for App Store screenshots and quick image work.
  • Apple's SF Symbols — the secret weapon of every good Mac app.
  • RocketSim + QuickRecorder — for screen captures and demos.
Running the studio

Admin

  • Things 3 — task list of record.
  • Apple Notes — long-form thinking, links, half-baked ideas.
  • Linear — for client-side project work.
  • 1Password — for everything that needs a password.
  • Plain text + Git — for everything that doesn't.
Inbox & talk

Comms

  • Apple Mail — yes, really. With SaneBox.
  • FaceTime / Zoom — depending on who's asking.
  • iMessage + WhatsApp — for everything async.
  • Cal.com — for booking calls without the email tennis.
Tiny upgrades

Mac utilities

  • Raycast — replaces Spotlight, half my muscle memory, runs almost everything.
  • Rectangle — window management without thinking.
  • HazeOver — dim everything but the current window.
  • Bartender — the menu bar's bouncer.
  • PrivacyStage — when I'm sharing my own screen, of course.

Updated whenever I notice it's gone stale. Tools come and go; the ones above earned their place by surviving an Apple-platform upgrade cycle.