Joshua EatonInterview
Freelance investigative reporter
Adapted from Joshua Eaton's interview on Uses This, published 29 August 2021. The kit is drawn from their answers and each reason is an excerpt, lightly edited. Shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full interview ↗
Is this you? Claim this kit →Hardware
After I was laid off at the beginning of the pandemic and had to ship my work laptop back, I was terrified that my brick of a 2010 MacBook, complete with non-functioning CD/DVD drive, would die and leave me with no computer.
So I upgraded to a pre-owned 13.3-inch 2019 MacBook Pro (2.8GHz) - in space gray!
I used 3M Command Strips to attach a powered Anker USB-C hub to the back of the monitor.
On top of the desk, I have an Anker wireless phone charging stand where I keep my iPhone while I'm working.
Another charging cable runs under the desk to a hook where I keep a pair of pre-owned Bose QuietComfort 35 noise-canceling headphones that I absolutely could not live without.
On top of the monitor is a Razer Kiyo camera that I hate.
The Logitech C920s webcam I wanted - I'd heard great things about them, and they have a physical privacy shutter - was sold out everywhere last year.
I treated myself to a wireless mechanical keyboard last year - a Keychron K6 with a white backlight and Gateron Brown mechanical switches.
I also bought a space grey Apple Magic Mouse 2 to match it.
I'd read great things about the Brother HL-L2350DW monochrome laser printer, but you couldn't buy one during the height of the pandemic.
So I got a Xerox B210DNI monochrome laser printer instead, and I'm really pleased with it so far.
I also picked up some Zebra Mildliners markers in muted yellow and blue tones at a stationary story in D.C.
Freedom is one of my favorite apps.
But I don't trust call recording apps, and I'm always about two second from buying an Olympus TP-8 telephone pick-up microphone and a digital recorder.
Communication
It's designed for PC gamers to stream, so it doesn't work well at all for Zoom calls on a Mac.
I've been trying out a third-party desktop and mobile Gmail app called Superhuman that is visually gorgeous and has all sorts of automation and keyboard shortcuts that have gotten me closer to Inbox Zero than I've been in years.
It won't let me check Twitter or CNN before 2 p.m.
Productivity
I also use the Pocket add-on so I can lie and tell myself that I'll read things later.
I also have Adobe Acrobat Pro DC for doing things like OCR, combining and editing PDFs and signing contracts.
Browser
Security
Media
I was using a free Spotify account, but I'm listening to the same lofi beats 99.9% of the time anyway.
Storage
Other
So now I just play music in a dedicated YouTube window.
I don't have a scanner, so I use the Adobe Scan app on my phone.