Gaming wireless headphones, not for gaming but for videoconferencing. Bluetooth headphones are universally terrible for videoconferencing because the Bluetooth standard sucks and requires downgrading to telephone audio quality whenever the mic is enabled. Plus terrible latency. Gaming wireless headphones that come with their own dongle completely fix these issues and are perfect for videoconferencing. Someday the Bluetooth ecosystem will get their act together, but it'll be a while and you'll have to buy all new devices because it's a standard made by hardware manufacturers for hardware manufacturers.
Also, some of those magnetic USB charging cables to keep them charged without fiddling with plugging in cables. The nice thing about these is that the same magnetic cable can attach to both microUSB and USB-C dongles, so you can charge any small device with one cable. And the dongles are tiny so you just put them into all your devices and leave them there, super convenient.
Don't use magnetic USB adapters. They run a decent risk of frying your device. The USB-C spec was not designed to have the connection broken in that way. You will have no issues 99% of the time, but you will eventually have that time when your device gets fried. It takes a very precise design and a lot of clever engineering to have a high-current power connector with tiny pins be able to break without having the ground be the last connection to be broken.
It is also easy for the magnetic connector to short the power into a data line, and because it doesn't connect in the proper pin order and has no 'mid-plate' it has no mitigation against arcing. See this picture:
Notice how some pins are longer than others? They are designed that way so that they connect first and disconnect last, so that ground is always established before and after other pins connect. This prevents connecting and disconnecting a cable from frying your electronics.
"The mid-plate shall be connected to the PCB ground with at least two grounding points. The mid-plate shall be designed such that plug pins A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, A9, and B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B9 do not short to ground during the connector mating process with an effective 6.2 mm receptacle shell implementation." [1]
[0] USB Type-C Spec R2.2 - October 2022, Figure 3-13, Page 65.
[1] USB Type-C Spec R2.2 - October 2022, Section 3.2.1 Interface Definition, Page 43.
Thanks for the heads up. This is a useful warning, as the magnetic adapters seem attractive, but they are not worth it if they risk frying your device.
They're worth it if the risk is small and the device is relatively cheap and low power (5v charging). I'm not going to use these on my MacBook or phone with fast charging but I'll use them on my gamepad and headphones no problem. And I use them for charging only, not data.
Sure, it will be safe because it won't be able to go above 5V 3.0A (15W) at absolute max since it won't be negotiating PD. Most likely it won't have the proper termination resistors on the CC line and will get a whopping 900mA@5V = 4.5W
15W (and even 4.5W) sound like enough for charging stuff like controllers, headphones and whatever other small battery-powered devices one has.
(Also, do devices like that actually respect that 900mA thing, assuming they're capable of pulling that much power?)
Aside from that: It's obviously not enough for a laptop, but what other devices do you really need that much more for in your day-to-day life? I think I haven't used a USB charger capable of outputting more than 10W in a while (aside from my Nintendo Switch and its charging brick, but because of the dock it wouldn't make much sense to use a magnet adapter anyway). At home, there's always a charger nearby, and when I leave the house my phone usually has enough power anyways, or the trip is long enough for me to throw a powerbank in my backpack no matter how full the phone battery is.
And if you end up in a situation where you really need to quick-charge something, there's nothing stopping you from just taking the plug out for a short while.
The thing is that USB-C was designed to be the universal connector, for both high and low power devices, for charging and data. Should there be a qualification: 'use the specification and standards violating magnetic adapters IF your device is X and not Y or else your macbook might get toasted and btw your warranty is now void for using it.'
Or, just 'don't use shady spec violating components that don't exist in spec for good reasons'?
> Also, do devices like that actually respect that 900mA thing, assuming they're capable of pulling that much power?
USB-C will not 'give it' power unless it conforms to certain parameters like having a resistor on the CC line. This is the reason that crappy devices which merely changed the physical ports from micro-USB to USB-C and come with a USB-C (device end) to USB-A (charge end) will not charge with a USB-C to USB-C cable. The device never got updated to request the power and the USB-C port on the charger just ignores it.
I’m comfortable using the round two pin charging ones for things that only use the port for charging, not data, like mice, headphones, radios and speakers.
The data ones are almost universally sketchy, as they expose pins (and sensitive internal circuitry) that should absolutely be kept away from the outside world.
There is an emerging range that reduce the exposure somewhat, but I’m still wary.
Among the neurotic optimizations I’ve made to my cable setup - retracting USB-C cables and normal cables of any length, adapters for any and all devices I own - I have avoided magnetic adapters for the above reasons.
I stopped using magnetic USB adapters when I noticed some sort of interference from them was causing other USB devices from being properly connected. Windows wouldn't recognize or detect the devices.
It could've also been the USB hub I was using, but the problem disappeared once I changed the USB cable with magnetic adapters to a cable with ordinary connectors.
I use wired. No hassle with charging or dongles. It's not as if I am going anywhere in these since the mic arm is quite awkward looking (but provides unbeatable sound quality).
No dongle? The whole thing is a giant dongle hanging off your computer. Headphone cables are far more annoying than mouse cables IMO, and they even affect the sound because it's quite audible when they hit or rub on stuff. Plus I find it surprisingly useful to be able to get out of my chair to grab something while still listening and/or talking. I can even go to another room.
It's just the typical wire vs no wire trade-off combined with personal situation/preference. I see your perceived disadvantages and advantages, none of which I have had ever issues with which made me want to fix something in my particular setup, and think: as long as I don't ruin the cable my headphones just work on my external soundcard and with my music player (and with every device which has a 3.5mm jack), and I don't have to charge them. Good enough for me. And this might depend on culture or particular job, but if I'm in a meeting I can just say 'brb gonna grab something' and no-one cares.
edit oops there was already a whole comment thread lower on the page essentially saying the same things, sorry about that
I distinguish between a casual voice chat and an important meeting/presentation, casual I often take on the go and use whatever is the most convenient option (definitely not a proper headset... bone conductors more like it). At an important meeting I usually don't walk to another room.
And if you specifically mean the cheapest possible models, yes wired will have cable noise, but wireless will have horrible connection and battery issues, so let's assume we are talking about a good above-average model and in that case you can expect no cable noise.
I once moved to the couch while wearing wireless headphones and accidentally fell asleep at an important meeting. Thankfully I didn't need to speak anymore (I think). A wire anchoring me to the desk isn't the worst idea...
Sometimes you gotta do boring meetings, and sometimes everyone has to be there.
Most of them could be better, have fewer people, be more focused, etc. -- sure, no doubt. But you can't make every meeting into an action-packed saturday morning cartoon.
Like, these compliance forms ain't gotta fill themselves out, and each team has to be there. These JIRA and code-review meets are gonna be lame, but we gotta do em...
For a casual chat I wouldn't necessarily use it. It's when sound quality is important, and then it's also important that I pay attention to what's happening anyway
Came here just to mention magnetic charger adapters!
I bought a cheap set off of Amazon, and then realized I also wanted non-USB-C tips as well. While the brand I bought wasn't selling them, turns out that the same factory manufacturing them also manufactures for other brands, and so on like the third page of Amazon results I found another product using the exact same tips, but this time also including other types!
>Also, some of those magnetic USB charging cables to keep them charged without fiddling with plugging in cables.
I've had MacBooks for two decades. Until my recent purchase of an Apple Silicon model, they all used proprietary power connections (first barrel, then MagSafe) on one side of the computer. Since I needed a power supply in two different places, this always meant obtaining a second Apple charger.
My current MacBook is the first I've owned that also allows charging from any USB-C port. For the first time, I can
* use a small USB charger I already owned (A 27W unit in my case. Yes, the computer does charge under use, albeit slower than with the Apple charger)
* charge on the opposite side of where the Apple charger goes (which is very useful for my aforementioned multiple-location usage pattern)
Headsets with a mic arm that auto-mutes in hardware also have the benefit that you can go to the bathroom, use the kitchen, etc. on mute, but still respond quickly if someone addresses you.
You'll want to be very confident that it actually mutes in hardware.
I thought my old headset (Logitech G930) did, until I found out the hard way that it was in fact just sending a software command to mute the mic at the system level, and that if the headset was turned on while plugged in to external power it would not properly communicate any inputs to the host system.
Audio still worked perfectly, but volume controls, the "G Keys", and most importantly mic mute did not work in this state. The red light at the tip of the mic would come on but nothing actually changed and audio was always being transmitted to the host PC (which I guess was always true, but the host PC now wasn't muting it either).
I found this out during a lunch break on a multi-day training session, where I let out a Barney Gumble class belch with my mic in the up/off position and the background chatter in the conference call fell silent until someone commented about how my lunch must have been good. After figuring out what happened I then wondered how much had been heard on previous days, but never got around to going back and listening through the session recordings to figure it out.
I live by the principle where I just won't say anything incriminating or extremely embarrassing if there is a mic or phone that could possibly be active. Little embarrassing stuff is fine, but for everything else, I assume the mic is hot even if I just muted it and I can see the mute indicator.
In addition to protecting against technical failures like you describe, I also don't get in the habit of saying stuff that one day I could accidentally say on a blatantly hot mic or in front of someone else.
The only mute button I really trust is the one inside my head.
Unless it's a Logitech headset, in which case 90% of the time the functionality of the mic-arm-mute breaks at the software level requiring various troubleshooting dances before anyone can hear you again. How they can be such a leader in the peripheral space but still produce absolutely the worst garbage software will never stop being annoying.
G930 got me too. If it's powered on while connected to external power (like a USB battery) it works as an audio device but none of the inputs work, including the mute command.
Wow, I have a semi-old Sennheiser PC 320 G4ME (with a cable) and the hw mute has never let me down, also I'm pretty sure it's actually in HW, so how would the software fail?
Odd, I went the opposite way -- a full blown high-end Bluetooth headset. I'm also a field warrior as well part of the time, so on-the-road audio is important to me and my callers.
The Blueparrott B450-XT is an amazing headset. Did I buy it at a truck stop? Yeah. But I've been on an audio call where I literally stood in front of a box fan with my face against the fan and nobody could hear the fan in the microphone at all. The noise cancellation on the mics is downright amazing and everyone heard me loud and clear over fans, datacenter environments, the works.
This is a real MVP of the work from home life. Some of them, like the Arctis I have, will present two devices to the computer, so you can have music playing quietly under a meeting, but still have voice for calls at a good quality and controlled independently.
They almost all show up as a standard USB sound card to the OS, sometimes two on particularly fancy ones allowing you to separately balance chat and game, so you should be fine.
Same here. My Logitech gaming headset works great in Linux. I do have to use some third party thing to adjust the goofy LED colors and side channel volume, though.
I'm using a SteelSeries Arctis 1 ($69) and I like it overall.
Only minor flaws: the battery life is good but not exceptional (magnetic charging helps), the charge port is micro USB (despite the fact that the dongle is USB-C), the wireless range is good but not exceptional, the shape of the dongle is wide and tends to block nearby ports, but the biggest flaw is the power button which you have to hold down for an eternity to turn it on or off. Everything else about it (functionality, sound, comfort, reliability, compatibility, etc) is perfect for me.
If you want options, rtings.com does extremely detailed reviews with more quantitative information than you could ever reasonably apply to a purchasing decision.
I own SS Arctis 7 (2 gen) and can't really recommend them. 4 out 5 at most. Despite claiming increased ear space they still hurt my ears after prolonged sessions, and rubber headband is also not comfortable over long time. Another minor thing is that low charge notification is raised very late and while it is on it can't be suspended and very annoying. Dull sound, if understand correctly it's for bigger bass response, but for me bass is irrelevant.
Controls and features are nice though. Microfon and it's controls are very good.
Personally I would not buy Arctis series again, not because it is bad, but because it is not a compelling offer for this price.
Those power buttons have a tendency to pop out just ouf of warranty. A few of my friends have them and its 50/50 as to whether theyve survived 6 months longer than warranty
> Direct USB-C to USB-C extensions are explicitly forbidden for safety and performance reasons because they defeat built-in safety mechanisms.
> All USB-C to USB-C cables should support 60W charging, but there are also cables that support 100W and 240W. USB-C chargers and devices identify a cable's capabilities by reading what's known as an electronic marker (e-marker) inside the cable that explicitly reports >60W charging and/or 5Gbps or faster data transfer capabilities. A USB-C charger will first read a cable's e-marker and adjust its power output based on what the connected cable's maximum charging capacity is.
> The problem with extension cables in general is that they don't (and can't) have an e-marker, since by design, normal cables only have one addressable e-marker. Therefore, neither the device nor the charger is aware of the presence of an extension. If your USB-C to USB-C extension only supported 60W, and you connected it to a charger/device combo that could do 100W or more, you could start a fire. This failure is particularly insidious because it can potentially lull the user into a false sense of security; everything might work as expected until they change something, like upgrading the charger, and then it could fail catastrophically.
> Another reason extension cables don't work well is that the signal integrity requirements for USB-C's higher transmission rates are very strict. Believe me when I say that cable makers would make longer cables if they could.
I swear by my Corsair Void Pro headset. I have recommended it endlessly and everyone is extremely happy. Good price (less than $100 usually), great battery, great sound, the mic mutes itself if you flip it up...
Best thing is that they are quite hackable, and when the battery life starts decreasing you can just change it for a bigger LiPo and be done with it.
Really depends on the laptop. On my work laptop, the microphone is located next to the fans (instead of for instance next to the webcam). You can imagine the audio quality.
This also depends on what service you are using. I have done video calls over Jitsi where nobody reported any issues, but immediately after a switch to Discord my voice got apparently drowned in so much noise nobody could understand me and people could only continue talking after I muted myself.
After working for almost 3 years with a barebones work-from-home setup (standup desk + laptop), I finally invested recently in some equipment to improve upon my crappy laptop camera and a room with little natural light. The difference in my video call quality is night and day. This is what I got:
- A key light (Godox ES45) to throw a bunch of bright, natural white light at my face. Attached to the desk and positioned tilted above my head so that it doesn't blind me. I don't notice it when it's on.
- A mic (Razer Seiren Mini) on a boom arm attached to the desk, positioned above my face, just out of the camera's sight. Nice, clean sound. Would sound even better if I were speaking directly into it, but I don't like having the mic visible.
- Repurposed an old mirrorless camera (Sony RX100 III) into a webcam for that sweet HD quality. Way better than any of the webcams out there. Needed to buy a cam link 4K card and connect it via a MicroHDMI <-> HDMI cable. Required a dummy battery kit to connect to AC and some setting tweaking, but it works beautifully. Connected the camera to the key light stand with a clamp mount.
Yes, I love this. Most people don't realize this setup but I feel it is very important. I have a normal soft & warm light (not flat white) that I can flick quickly (point upwards that bounced off the walls). An additional flood light in stand-by for interviews and other more important meetings.
A well mounted setup with a dedicated microphone is a time saver and no brainer. I'm not too keen on the video and think is lesser important than audio but have been thinking on that too. I invested in an extended mount for a separate display, mic, and lights. I has paid off pretty well.
I didn't realize how much a difference the lighting makes until I got one. I got the Google dLight and it has both brightness and warmness sliders and can change it from computer or app (and has profiles) so it's really convenient.
I got a Seeed ReSpeaker mic array and have been really happy with it. At first it wasn't working at all, but then I did a firmware update on it and it's been great since. It's a 4 mic array with speaker output, and it does some fancy processing to remove the output played from the speakers and uses the 4 mics to detect voice location and "zoom in" on it.
I went from terrible echoy voice to rock solid.
Then I got a 16" MBP, which is what I mostly use now for video conferences because I upgraded my Linux work laptop and switched to Wayland and can no longer do screen sharing.
In terms of camera settings, I think the main ones were switching the file format to XAVC and turning off the display icons so they don't show when I'm on video. Might be worth going through https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00245829 and trying a bunch of these, even though the page is not exactly for the same camera.
After that just plug it in and it's recognized as a USB camera. One other thing I ran into was the camera kept losing settings after being turned off. Turns out there is an internal battery that got discharged after years of non-use. I think I used a micro USB cable with a running camera to get it juiced up.
I tried this approach and the latency was through the roof, easily a second or so off, making it effectively useless for video conferencing. Switched to an HDMI grabber so I could get something that was actually realtime.
You need to dial in the fps. It's a little bit of work to try different parameters and might not work for every camera. But with most cameras I was able to get the latency below 300ms which should work for most use cases.
Not sure this would work with every camera. My particular model does not support remote shooting over USB. Newer models of the same camera do and Sony even provides software to go the USB route.
The native Sony software will only support 720p resolution. So gphoto2 still offers better resolution.
"Shooting over USB" is not a requirement to use this. The camera only needs to be able to output the preview stream via USB, which works with most cameras.
> - A key light (Godox ES45) to throw a bunch of bright, natural white light at my face. Attached to the desk and positioned tilted above my head so that it doesn't blind me. I don't notice it when it's on.
I found a sunlamp aimed away or behind something helped me a lot. So much so that I got one of those kitchen countertop hydroponic kits that's time to go off usually when I start work.
The sunlamp + morning coffee perk me right up. Plus herbs and stuff.
Unfortunately the RX100MIII isn’t supported, but the Mark IV and over 30 other Sony cameras work with its [Imaging Edge Webcam utility](https://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/app/webcam/en/) so you can use the camera directly as a webcam without the need for a capture card or HDMI cable.
I tried using this for a while on my Mac and while it generally works, it just wasn’t reliable enough. Sometimes the camera wouldn’t turn on automatically or it would claim to be in use by another process. It’s also not supported in all programs, and even when it is, it can be a pain to switch cameras due to UI annoyances.
In short, your webcam is one of those things that really needs to work 100% or it’ll end up causing problems at exactly the wrong time. No one wants to have to fiddle with the camera during an important meeting.
> Would sound even better if I were speaking directly into it, but I don't like having the mic visible.
I've found that the sound is better if I keep it off to the side out of frame instead of above. Especially if you have the setting to make it directional and aim it towards your mouth. You can speak directly to the camera and it picks it up.
If you can, sit at a south facing window for natural light, you can also buy a flexible wire rimmed light diffuser used for photography. If you can get the right diffuser for your window frame it should flex into the frame and stay in place (unless the window is open and it cat he's the wind!)
The problem is that all the old digital cameras I have at hand are either too old or not high-price-segment enough to support any sort of looping video through, which is a shame. I have 2-3 of those and while they're not awesome, the video would totally beat every laptop webcam...
I have a heating pad under my keyboard which keeps my hands warm in the winter. Was like $20 on amazon, and I can't even begin to describe how amazing it is, since I was really tired of always having a mug of hot water / tea / coffee to hold and didn't want to keep the heat on my house super high when I could just wear a sweatshirt and be fine except my fingers.
Try out Colima[0]. I saw someone else mention it on here a few months ago and thought to try it and it's been very good. I did encounter my first problem yesterday so I have moved back to Docker Desktop for now but even if it only worked half the time I'd still suggest it, the memory usage is under a quarter of Docker's offering!
Another thing to try is podman. I run it on my mac and my mac is no longer trying to fly away on the strength of the cooling fans alone.
Podman used to be a bit rough on mac but it's gotten significantly better, especially with podman-desktop. docker-compose even works with it as it does something on the backend to swap out the docker socket. I wouldn't recommend doing podman-compose as it looks to be mostly unmaintained? Or at least no new releases have been cut in a couple of years.
Same here! I have no arthritis of any kind, but these are very thin gloves that do not get in the way when typing (unlike most other gloves) and still make a huge difference wrt cold hands. Got two additional pairs for my parents; they love them as much as I do.
Mini heaters are great, the portable ones I have make winter bearable.
But as far as I know, using heat lamps directly in your face can be a bad idea because they can emit IR radiation that can harm your eyes, cause cataracts, etc.
edit: it's actually just a normal lightbulb, nevermind
Why have I never thought of this? I get really cold hands in the winter to the point where I have to take very frequent breaks from typing because my fingers freeze up. I'll definitely get one!
What kind of helps since we all needs breaks for the keyboard every hour anyway is to do clasp your hands and bring your arms up above you and do some movements like turning. Alternatively do some lifts with weights as well for more strengthening and extra bloodflow.
when I lived in Vietnam years ago, my Mac laptop fan broke and there was nowhere to repair it ... there are cooling pads with fans beneath them that you can buy, but my temporary solution was freezing a stack of Wired magazines in the freezer, then putting them under the laptop and changing them every 20 minutes.
This comes with its own set of problems though: I've done something similar and the mechanical stress from difference of temperatures caused the motherboard to crack.
It was one of those Titanium G4 beasts. My gf called it the "war machine" since the keys were worn to the point you couldn't read most of the letters. So it got way too hot before it even throttled down, and I never saw it shut off from the heat. It radiated heat through that metal... it would almost scald your legs.
I could usually control my CPU use so a magazine could last up to half an hour... but basically I'd feel the warmth coming through the magazine, jump up and switch it with another one from the freezer. Easy peasy.
I use a USB fan and a small mister/spray bottle of water. I spray my forearms periodically (top of hands are fine too I guess) and this creates more of a cooling effect from the fan.
It's also nice to have a wet cooling towel for the neck, I find...I tried one of those dual neck-mount fans as well, and while it wasn't bad, when it broke I didn't feel it was good enough to replace.
There are lots of whole-body tricks as well, from extra hydration (at least 100 oz. daily here in summer) to sitting on a cushion with more air flow...good luck.
One of those gel wrist rests, with added cooling, would be perfect. Lots of bloodflow just under the surface of the skin there. Would adding Peltier modules be a practical solution?
I'd just look for what people say in the bad reviews. I generally use mine on the lowest temps, 80 or 90. I don't know what kind of maniac would use them at the higher temps. Every time I turn it on I have to press the button to cycle through the temperatures, a mild annoyance but NBD. It automatically turns off after a few hours which is a feature, not a bug. It used to be that I'd sit down at my desk and my hands would never warm up, now they warm up from the mat and stay warm even after the thing turns off.
That is a much bigger pad than what I've used! Wow. That's amazing.
I've used a oversized body wrap pad (120V input) and a 24V pad with wall-wart designed for mini-green-house seed planters. The former was comfortable & wrapped in soft, but wasn't a great mousing surface. I do want to point out: in my experience, these are nice for the arm, but notably the keyboard and mouse never really warmed up very much, both remained a bit chill, back when I was in a fairly un-warm draft-y room. It was still really nice to have, but my hands could remain kind of chill, I'd still keep on my nice fingerless gloves. Still, a great addition.
Some of the amazon ones are barely 6 months old and are failing at the 6 month mark. I picked one of those. Be weary of high review counts, and ensure the reviews are all for the particular product.
I'm guessing you want one with a low enough temp setting that it doesn't bake your keyboard. Around 80-90F degrees I'd guess, but haven't tested. Especially important if you have a 'smart' keyboard, which has an actual small computer (more than an i8048) in it.
I have a heated mouse specifically for this same issue. Was experiencing arthritic symptoms in my fingers and tied it back to my extremities getting cold while working. There looks to be only one company that makes a heated mouse, if they ever fold up shop I don't know what I'll do.
Any inexpensive heating pad will work, but there are some things to look out for. Use a few Velcro adhesive dots to keep the pad from moving around on your desk. You will probably need to put a piece of stiff cardboard over the pad since most mice need a very flat surface. Choose a pad that allows you to conveniently adjust the heat. Cover the mouse and your hand with a towel, but be aware that its easy to let the mouse get too warm. Look for a pad with "auto-shutoff". A cheap mouse may stop working if it gets too hot, but let it cool down and it should start working again in a few minutes. My shop is typically about 55 deg F in the winter but this makes it very comfortable to use a mouse. I've done this for many years and never killed a mouse.
I do this but for my feet. They’re always wrapped up nice and toasty under my desk because I have poor circulation in my hands and feet. It’s very nice ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I wouldn't have thought they were lesser-known, but I've been surprised how many people don't know about today's cheap portable external monitors. They're essentially laptop panels with a USB-C+HDMI board. $100-$150-ish and easily found in 15.6" and 13-14", 1080p or 2K. All the ones I've tried have 2 USB-C ports, mini-HDMI, and speakers. This all depends on what USB-C ports your machine actually has and the right USB-C cables, but a single cable can do power and display from the laptop. Or plug the monitor into USB-C PD source and the same cable will charge the laptop and run the monitor. Mine even has a third USB-C "OTG" port for USB 2.0 speed devices. Good for a second screen on the go or debugging single board computers.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned repurposed iPad screens[0]. I just received mine, and it’s fairly nice given the price. It uses a 4:3 aspect ratio, but that’s fine for secondary content when working on my laptop. It also works great for retro gaming as indicated in the link I shared. I only wish it were in the original iPad case and I could use an iPad stand. As it is, it’s housed in a photo frame with cutouts for the new buttons. I selected the USB C option for mine, which is how I connect it to my laptop. Very happy for $80.
I've got a Lenovo Yoga Tab 13 (https://www.amazon.de/Lenovo-2160x1350-WideView-Tablet-PC-Sn...) for "development" purposes. It's a nice tablet with 2k screen and enough power for pretty much everything, Android 13 and the killer feature for me: a micro-HDMI input. It works like a charm with MacOs/Linux as a second screen, but you can also connect a Switch or SteamDeck, grab a controller and you can play everywhere on a 13' screen.
The iPad and Mac have Sidecar which lets you use the iPad wired/wirelessly as an additional display for the Mac but it's so damn flaky that I gave up and got the portable monitor.
I do carry a cheap HDMI->USB adapter (Elgato Cam Link knock-off) which lets me use my Macbook as a monitor for things like Raspberry Pi's but not sure what the capture rate is.
What is the contrast/brightness like with these? I've always wanted one for working with two screens on the go but the ones I've seen in public never seemed to get bright enough.
In a cafe or other bright environment they seem to reflect everything around them similar to the way my MacBook screen does which makes it hard to see anything.
I'm speaking only from limited time seeing them from afar though--I've not actually sat in front of one to use or test out in person.
You might be interested in a "field monitor" over in the photography department, though they are often small.
I have a 2200 nit (not a typo) piece of kit: Feelworld P7, very sturdy aluminum body, either camcorder batteries (multiple sleds) or 7-24V, 1920x1200 7" screen, HDMI in & out. Works well. I've seen larger displays.
It's bad. I have a ASUS MB16AHP (claiming a brightness of 220cd/㎡, contrast ratio 700:1) and yeah, in a brightly lit room viewing can be difficult. It's ok under normal office lighting but you'll be out of luck if you have sunlight flooding in. I've been searching for a brighter option but most (all?) the current offerings seem to be based on the same or similar internals.
Still, it's a useful device while traveling – nice to be able to plop a decent multi-monitor setup out of a backpack. My model also has a micro HDMI port (and an internal battery) which can be handy if you need a temporary screen for a Raspberry Pi or a machine that usually runs headless.
Do you have a specific model you can recommend? I searched a brighter one out especially (300 nits), read reviews, etc. Paid 200€. What I got absolutely sucks, definitely not 300 nits, glitches half the time I try to use it, doesn't remember my settings. When I finally got around to return it, I discovered the company no longer exists lol.
The one I use now is branded YGG. I'd link it but someone already swapped out the Amazon listing to a different model.
I think this is very close to what I have: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099DKQS8C/
It claimed 350 nits. Side-by-side with my M1 MBP, I'd say it might be close to that. A lot of them claim HDR but it's some bullshit definition of HDR - definitely not like the MBP's HDR mode.
I think it's a little bit of a crapshoot as to which panel and board you'll get no matter what the branding so somewhere like Amazon with free returns helps. There are a few more premium brands like Viewsonic and Lenovo.
For people complaining about ASUS offering - it did look bad on paper with it's crappy latency and even crappier brightness, so I never pulled trigger on one.
I did find some decent options on Ali Express, though.
Got 2 monitors from there - one 15 inch and one 17 inch. Both run in 2k 120Hz. Brightness is OK, never had a problem in a brightly lit room, but I have not tried them out in the sun, like for "working on the beach" type of situation.
When not traveling, I use the smaller one on a VESA arm (the smaller one has screw holes) in vertical orientation for extra screen space next to my 4k larger monitor. And I use the larger portable monitor for sheet music on my piano (connected to Raspberry Pi).
Ordered both from "HDHIFI Store", pretty happy so far.
The wireless second screen feature on Samsung tablets works surprisingly well on Windows for this too! I haven't found the need to use it much though. I don't really bring a laptop when I travel anymore.
as a laptop user due to portability constraints, i definitely get their appeal, especially the ones that make a three-screen setup. but they are still a bit too pricey for my tastes and fiddly with the cables.
An Elgato Stream Deck but for general purposes https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck-mk2 Basically imagine having 15 physical buttons to use with any kind of
actions, shortcuts,
macros etc. but you have a visual feedback too. It’s pretty great! I know there are alternatives like the Adafruit RP2040 https://www.adafruit.com/product/5128 but the visual knobs make the Stream Deck
much better imo.
I have a small Stream Deck (6 buttons), and although I don't have a lot of inspiration, I found a few really useful use cases:
- global mute button (plugin Audio Mute). This is amazing and the most useful action I've setup.
- screenshot tool. I'm on a Mac and always forget the combination for opening the capture tool, so a physical button is nice to have
- iTerm button. It just opens a terminal, or make it appear if there's already one open.
- clock, because when using fullscreen mode, macOS doesn't show the clock
- weather, because it's cool
- specific to iTerm: a "split vertically" button, because after years of use, I can't remember how to split iTerm
- specific to Firefox: a macro to write this text "-method:OPTIONS domain:xxx.com" because I'm tired of typing it again and again in the network devtools filters
I bought one of these a couple of years ago with plans to use it for macros, shortcuts etc, but gave up using it because I found the system for writing your own plugins and generally configuring it was beyond awful, it felt like a designed-by-committee horror show. The complexity to just just set the button image and make it run a bash script when pressed was insane.
But I really wanted it to work, I can think of tons of useful buttons I want to have on my desk. Maybe I will give it another try. Can you tell me, have you got any tips, found any good third party tools for working with it? Maybe I just went down the wrong rabbit holes.
Are you using a mac? If so then the perfect combo is streamdeck + keyboard maestro. There are several great plugins for streamdeck that makes it easy to run keyboard maestro automations
Also honorable mention for the Mac, Hammerspoon. It has a native interface for Stream Deck and can do a considerable amount by itself for the price of a taskbar executable. My favorite is its ability to send keystrokes directly to specific apps. so I can have global a/v mute for Zoom.
I also use streamdeck-ui with linux, but it's fair to say that it's really basic. Nothing compared with the windows-app. And lately it has also some quirks, which made me basically abonden most usage of my streamdeck.
I was looking at getting one but couldn't stomach the price for an unknown benefit since I wasn't sure if I'd use it.
I ended up using Touch Portal[1] and put a phone on an old stand, and it pretty much does everything I want to do. Integrates with teams with mic on/off, hand raise, and reactions, and I created some nice graphs for cpu/gpu/disk load and a UTC clock for when I'm not in a meeting. Desktop app is free and phone app is like $13 or so. Works on Windows/MacOS and Linux support is apparently coming.
It's probably clunkier than a Stream Deck but it's a fraction of the price.
I use a Stream Deck daily to control AV production gear using BitFocus Companion (https://bitfocus.io/companion). I am constantly surprised at the range of supported equipment.
Complex operations that used to take three people can be done by a single person.
For a basic example:
Audio operator fades out background music and brings up video playback audio channels
Lighting operator puts lighting into video state
Video operator switches from holding slide input on screen to video playback input
Is now one button. Same equipment, same production value. One button. Boop. Go.
Admittedly it takes some additional configuration time, but for something like a roadshow where it is the same sequence of actions every day it ends up being a great time saver.
Stream Deck can indeed be nice, but it entirely depends on the environment on what you make of it. With windows the official software is very well-equipped with all kind of integrations and plugins, making good use of the abilities. Under linux, not so much, you are mostly on your own with quirky tools.
That said, if you can't make good use of the display anyway, then you can also just take a normal keyboard or numpad and remap the keys. There is some software around for this, or just write your own hacky script. Repurposing old hardware is such an overlooked solution.
I was thinking of doing something similar, but was never sure what to use that many keys for. Can you provide a photo or list a few examples of what you're doing with yours? Thanks!
I use the JIRA Plugin to have various open issues/tasks/bugs visible.
With API Plugins you can send requests, integrate Gitlab/Github.
Have a look at https://apps.elgato.com/plugins?categories=com.elgato.develo... for Developer Tools.
With the bunch of plugins from BarRaider you can control window layout etc.
I mapped all my IDE’s debug buttons to it, I could never go back. Debugging by hitting sequences of 3 button hotkeys isn’t fun and there’s no alternative without a collision.
It would be nice if it were that simple. You can just look at the default keymap and see there are tons of shortcuts that are not one button, and many are not even 2. Nor could they be, there are too many features. Step debugging alone uses like 10 features.
If you don't care about lcd icons (you can use self-printed ones anyway on transparent caps), there are loads of cheap programmable keypads on AliExpress, some with knobs, some with bluetooth, most with color lcd. The configuration software is not great, but in most cases you'll only have to suffer through that only once or twice. All for a very small fraction of ElGatos.
I used a Stream Deck XL for a long time, mostly as an app launcher, but the most useful feature was a "universal MUTE key". I used Keyboard Maestro to set up macros that would mute/unmute the microphone in any videoconferencing app, with the same physical key that also indicated the current status. This worked for Zoom, GoToMeeting and Google Meet.
I sold the Stream Deck XL for two reasons: I didn't need that many keys, and I found out that if you are to use a device like this at home and in the office, you really need two. The setup needs to be the same in all your work places, otherwise you won't bother learning to use the accessory.
As for some other less typical accessories: I use a 3DConnexion SpaceMouse and can't imagine doing any 3D CAD work without it.
Oh, also: for many years now all my monitors are on arms. The supplied stands are always too low, and arm mounting has the additional advantage of freeing up lots of space on the desk.
Does a 16-port USB-A hub count? (in addition to the CalDigit thunderbolt dock)
I upgraded from regular stream deck to the XL and haven't used a lot of the space yet. The folder actions really make it unnecessary for me - but I still love it
By far my most used actions for triggering Dell Display Manager to switch my monitor inputs. I don't have a full kvm set-up (separate keyboard, mouse but shared monitor) for my home desktop, work laptop.
I also have media control buttons to control music playing on my desktop throughout the day without having to toggle the monitor. A mute button to silence things for calls is also frequently used.
Finally, extra buttons to toggle some smart lights if I need to override some pre-programmed schedule.
I got Stream Deck mainly to control Teams on my work computer, which is Windows 10. Teams does not have global hotkey for mute and video toggle (or on/off) and that would be compatible with the status. (You can use Windows global mute and control video, but that status is not updated if you use Teams mute). The Teams video conference must be active for the mute button to work. The whole point of seperate keyboard is that I don't need to switch to the application. So I never got this to work well enough.
I got one to play the DJ air horn sound effect in meetings but between google hangouts, my m2 xlr device, and the stream deck something doesn’t work quite right.
I used to have a control panel [1] with physical switches for various tasks on my desk. I built it mainly to switch between multiple VPNs and switch bluetooth audio mode between high-quality unidirectional A2DP and low-quality bidirectional HSP for meetings, mounting network drives.
But once I moved from XFCE/xubuntu to KDE (on gentoo, later opensuse), I noticed I don't need it anymore. Bluetooth switching works automatically and NetworkManager has nice widget, SMB/SFTP works out of box.
Now it become a toy space rocket control panel for my kids.
Rearview mirror at the top of my 52" curved widescreen monitor. I work at home in limited space with family around and there's always activity behind me, doors opening, etc. I also work with noise cancelling headphones. Hard to explain why, but the mirror stops my constant need to turn around to figure out what's happening. It took me a minute to hang, with fishing line and zip-ties. Way less cognitive overhead and fewer self-made interruptions since implementing this. $13
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MFD7BT7
I've got a simple bike rear-view mirror, like $10 off of amazon. has a clip on thing, fits fine on my monitor stand.
Same goal -- I've got big ear covering headphones w/ noise cancelling, so you feel crazy isolated and it's hard to tell if/when people, my kids, the dog, etc. is around until basically they're on top of you.
Oh boy, I found/invented a tweak that I can't live without anymore. I use an MX Ergo trackball, not sure how it'd fare on a mouse, but here are the magic runes:
Where you'd change 8 to a chosen mouse button and the mouse device id to its appropriate value from `xinput list`.
What this does is make it so that as long as that button is being held, moving the cursors scrolls instead. It's hard to describe how much better of n experience it is vs. using the scroll wheel. It's much faster, much more precise, and less finger-tiring.
wow that's neat! I use and love the same device and while it feels a bit odd at first it also feels better than using the scroll wheel. btw in case anyone wants to try a different button (8 is "Page back") you can use `xinput test <device id>` to listen to events and see which number each button is. Good news: it seems like the Back button still works when using this. Thanks!
edit:
Putting this in ~/.xsessionrc seems to work fine for me on Ubuntu:
X-Mouse for windows lets you do this and it's a godsend for RSI since most mouse manufacturers have a heavy trigger weight on the middle mouse click for some reason. There is also scrollAnywhere browser extension for similar thing.
Wireless headphones. Because sometimes I really have to go and it's literally no problem to walk to the bathroom. Or to go make tea. Or to do whatever. Freedom to not be chained up is amazing. Try it.
I too don't feel like I've had to mess with audio settings. I have some SteelSeries Actis Pro's I bought a long time ago. They have bluetooth, but there's also a nice usb-based head-unit I use with higher quality, lower latency, and no pairing concerns. It shows present battery level quite clearly (which is highly enduring). The head unit also has a battery charger built in, and the headphones come with a secondary battery. I don't feel like I have to think about charging batteries either; if I have a slammed day of non-stop talking, it's easy to see at the end of the day I have half a battery left & I swap it (which takes <10s). People selling you Fear Uncertainty and Doubt about batteries seem misguided & silly to me. The freedom is amazing. Letting yourself get bothered & concerned enough to trap yourself into a narrow situation is dumb: be skeptical, at least.
I have some mid-grade Rode Wireless Go and nice >$100 Samsung lavaier mics I can use when needed, which is faultless, reliable, amazing prosumer gear no one could conceivably gripe about, but honestly the Actis Pro headset I have is probably a better choice for both cases.
The Actis has better microphone positioning by far, which counts for so much.
I'm interested to test the range versus the Rode, but given that I can be 3 floors away & the Actis still fine, I'd be surprised if the Rode really had shockingly better range/reliability/interference-resistance.
I continue to think there's a paranoia & level-of-concern that does not match what modern hardware can do.
> I continue to think there's a paranoia & level-of-concern that does not match what modern hardware can do.
I think this is related to the fact that most wireless headphones people have experience with are Bluetooth.
BT headphones have lag, and, when used in duplex mode, have terrible quality. And this lag adds to the one introduced by the conferencing software.
I've got myself a Jabra headset that communicates over DECT. This thing is spectacular. No discernible lag (as tested with games) and the mic quality is better than what I hear from people rocking Bose and Sony BT headphones. The range is great, too. Much better than what I get from my BT headphones.
Agreed! I also use DECT based headset (Poly i.e. ex-Plantronics - recently acquired by HP) and it is amazingly good. Range up to f*ckintillion meters (anywhere within the house or garden basically), up to 8 hours use on a single charge (I regularly forget to charge it overnight and I can still use it the next day), no delays, no weird disconnects in the middle of a call, great mic quality and it works both with my PC and home landline.
I have a Philips SHP-9000 headphone with a vmoda boom pro mic, which plugs into the 3.5mm jack on the headphones. On the other end, I sometimes attach a cheap Chinese Bluetooth receiver, which can be plugged into any 3.5mm jack, so any wired headphones can be made wireless as needed.
I use wireless headphones because cords get in my way, but the “step away to make tea” seems like an unlikely use case to me. It isn’t as if you don’t have to see the screen anyway… more than half the time someone is sharing a window and saying things like, “what do we do about THIS?” while waving their pointer over something.
Your meetings must be much better than the average. It's been quite a while since I had meetings regularly, but I'd guess that on average I needed to see (or think about) maybe 20% of the meeting.
Wireless headphones with the option of plugging them in when the battery dies. Best of both worlds. I use an industrial pair with passive noise canceling since I work on a treadmill.
I’ll add moderately high quality mic to this. If you’re spending a lot of working hours on calls, putting the resources into providing clear, intelligible voice for the people you’re working with will definitely be appreciated.
I have a Plantronics (now Polycom, or Poly?) wired headset. Makes me look like a call center worker but the audio and mic are great quality. Sometimes I’m on a call and can’t hear someone well over the bad speakers I have in my monitor. The headset always clears it up.
I second that device, but it even though it says it has a directional cardioid polar pattern, it is fairly omnidirectional, only use it when you have little background noise next to you (other people, animals, etc).
Sadly with today's auto-detecting OSes I've more than once found my audio output setting itself to speakers, or worse, to my monitor (which doesn't and has never had speakers, but that doesn't seem to matter).
I joined a meeting one day, couldn't hear anyone, turned the volume up before checking the output device (because I rarely ever change them) and ... it was connected to my kitchen Bluetooth. I had been blasting my wife with a meeting room full of people shouting "CAN YOU HEAR US NOW??"
This. Never had any issue with my wireless headphones, but Teams insists on picking random outputs and inputs even from one call to the next.
The only logic I've found is that it prefers devices that handle both input and output. So, it works OK with my combined headphones + mic, but if I want to use my external dedicated mic + headphones without mic, I have to fiddle with the settings whenever I join a new call.
We have webex and Teams at work. Neither one of them are great but unless I'm missing something Teams lacked a precheck feature where I can test my Mic before actually joining the meeting which is easily the main reason I despise it. Teams also occasionally just refuses to work with part of my audio setup until I rejoin so it also the one that I need the precheck for most.
Dual arm monitors to free up lots of space on my desk and more easily hold displays at eye level so I don’t get pain.
A split ortho homebrew keyboard (helix) that I can program with qmk so that I have shift esc enter space and special keys on other layers right where I want them. Or a dedicated Ctrl-a key for tmux. It virtually eliminated my pain. The OLED screens are useless though and I retrospect I should just have skipped them. I should also have put the two arduinos in it on sockets right away because that USB port will of course break and it’s a pain to desolder it.
A “clearly superior technology” (CST) trackball in the middle of the split keyboard that I try and use most with my left hand to give my right hand a break. It’s chunky, well made, uses standard pool balls as the trackball, and can be easily taken apart for cleaning or servicing. Wasn’t cheap though.
I tried getting a couple arms for my desk, but they required 8 inches of clearance behind the desk for the monitors to be at a reasonable distance from my face and my desk is backed up to a wall
Just mount the pole off-center, then you can get around the clearance problem somewhat. I only have one monitor mounted centrally, and my laptop to the side on the second arm. The desk is almost flush to the wall at 2cm (~1 inch) and the monitor and laptop are around 15cm (~6 inches) away from the wall.
Yeah, I had 3x 32" monitors mounted on arms (one twin arm and one single arm) on a desk pushed almost right up to the wall this way. The arms can go sideways in one direction and then sideways in the other right behind the monitor, as long as the base is not centred.
This is my problem also. I have a shallow desk (2') and then the mount intrudes the displays enough that I can't push my laptop back or tilt it as far as I sometimes need. Further, the riser isn't tall enough so my screens hang about an inch below my laptop display.
If I was more confident that my work area wouldn't change in the future, I'd try an extendable wall mount. I probably should do that anyway.
Clearly Superior Technologies (CST) is the brand :) After a quick search, I think they're being manufactured by a different company now: https://xkeys.com/xkeys/trackballs.html
I used to use a USB hub and have the two cables next to one another on my desk, manually unplugging replugging it to transfer keyboard and mouse at once. With USB extenders so both machines have their plus right next to another.
But I saw in this thread there are USB switchers so maybe that’s a solution?
Also, some of those magnetic USB charging cables to keep them charged without fiddling with plugging in cables. The nice thing about these is that the same magnetic cable can attach to both microUSB and USB-C dongles, so you can charge any small device with one cable. And the dongles are tiny so you just put them into all your devices and leave them there, super convenient.