App Defaults

Inspired by Robb Knight’s post here on the app defaults they use, I thought to list the software/hardware I currently prefer as default for my daily workflow.

This isn’t exhaustive by any means and in the last year, I have started to experiment with various alternatives or moving back to old ways of doing things. I assume I will keep hoping around this year as well especially since the culture of renting things seems to be on the rise.

General (Work & Personal)

• Mail Client: None, I prefer using a web browser instead or mobile clients for Gmail and Proton Mail
• Mail Server: Gmail and Proton Mail (paid)
• Calendar: Calendar (Apple), Google Calendar and NextCloud Calendar app
• Contacts: Phone (Apple) and Google Contacts (for cloud backup)
• Word Processing/Spreadsheet/Presentation: MS Office 2019 (I have a free lifetime license that I got when I purchased my laptop)
• Text Editor: Sublime Text 4 (paid)
• Browser: Firefox and Safari
• Chat: WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal (I do have accounts on more services like Discord, Matrix, etc but I prefer to access them via a web browser)
• Music/Podcast: Spotify
• Password Management: Bitwarden, Authy and YubiKey 5ci (I prefer using my security key in place of 2FA where possible)
• VPN: Proton VPN (paid)

Reminders

• Notes: None, usually sticky notes on refrigerator
• To-Do: Reminders (Apple)

Media and Storage

• Photos/Videos: Camera (Apple)
• Photo Management: Photos (Apple) or Google Photos (though I have come to dislike Google Photos recently and started using File Explorer like old days)
• Storage: Proton Drive (paid) and SanDisk SSD

Misc

• IDE: Android Studio, VS Code, and Sublime Text 4 (paid)
• API Testing: HTTP Toolkit (I used to like mitmproxy but HTTP Toolkit seems better) and Postman