Elgato

The new Elgato Prompter XL teleprompter, a significantly larger version of the company’s popular Prompter teleprompter, is designed specifically for professional studio environments. The Corsair-owned Elgato said the new model addresses the most common complaint about the original: size.

“We heard it constantly: ‘Love Prompter, but we need something bigger for our studio,'” said Julian Fest, general manager at Elgato. “Prompter XL takes what creators loved about the original — the versatility, the simple setup, the reliability — and scales it up for studio environments.”

Seems like smallish portable monitors are cropping up more often lately as fixtures in computer setups featuring other display options. Today’s dual-Mac setup sports a massive curved external display with an 18-inch portable just below, front and center.

And those aren’t the only two screens. A tablet mounted on an arm comes into play too, but it’s not an iPad.

Elgato, the Corsair-owned maker of popular content creation tools, announced a major expansion of its Stream Deck ecosystem Tuesday with a new “Stream Deck Everywhere” strategy unveiled at Computex. It includes four significant innovations designed to make the customizable control interface accessible to more users and workflows beyond its traditional creator audience. And that includes a Virtual Stream Deck you can put right on your Mac’s screen.

It’s easy to get addicted to using Touch ID whenever you need to gain password-restricted access to anything. But not everyone is a big fan of Magic Keyboard with Touch ID (not the function, the keeb itself). Today’s MacBook Pro setup user found an odd but practical solution. They use a Keychron Q1 mechanical keyboard as a daily driver and Velcro a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID to the edge of the desk so they can reach the Touch ID button.

Believe it or not, today’s magnificent featured setup includes five computers — each with a job to do, even the ol’ trash-can Mac Pro — and one absolutely huge computer monitor. It’s a 57-inch curved ultra-wide Samsung. What, 49 inches wasn’t big enough for ya?

And the workstation includes other great features. Those include a Rode PodMic, the same great open-back Sennheiser headphones I own, and powerful Klipsch bookshelf speakers paired with a subwoofer that I wish I owned.

I’ve seen a few amazing man caves and she shacks while covering cool computer setups for Cult of Mac, but not many can compete with the home of today’s M4 Mac mini setup. The user converted a backyard shed nestled in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. So now the man shed M4 Mac mini setup doubles as a home theater sporting a gargantuan screen. You can find all the gear in the links list below for both the computer and home theater setups.

In a move Tuesday that should catch the eyes of Mac-loving creative professionals, Logitech unveiled MX Creative Console. The new device aims to streamline workflows and automate repetitive tasks for digital creators. So it could rival the popular Elgato Stream Deck.

“The MX Creative Console is designed to help people redefine their workflow, enabling them to work smarter and faster,” said Anatoliy Polyanker, general manager of MX Business at Logitech.

If you want to sound good on video calls or podcasts, you need a good mic like the Audio-Technica AT2020USB+ Microphone with shock mount in today’s MacBook Pro setup. And the user can move it around easily enough because he places it on a low-profile Elgato microphone arm.

Streamers and podcasters often worry over their choices of microphones and audio interfaces for sound quality. But they shouldn’t forget to select great co-stars for that gear like the Elgato Wave Microphone Arm.

A good microphone boom arm makes working with the mic easy, especially in a computer setup where you need to move it aside to do other tasks. Today’s MacBook Pro and Studio Display setup makes great use of the extremely popular Elgato Wave Microphone Arm supporting an Audio-Technica mic.

And right now you can get one version of the suspension boom microphone arm for 20% off at Amazon ($99.99 $79.99), and it’s the one our user deploys.

If you’ve read much of Cult of Mac’s computer setups coverage, you know we love good audio. And we love it more when it’s high-value, where the sound is great despite affordable pricing. Edifier R1280T speakers meet that mark.

Edifier is a brand that has long lived in that space. And today’s MacBook Pro and PC laptop setup makes good use of a pair of powered Edifier bookshelf speakers that even MacBook Pro’s fine set of six can’t really compete with (outside of portability).

The new Elgato Neo range of devices — condenser microphone, webcam, LED key light, capture card and stream deck — simplifies video calls, content creation and video streaming for newbies, the company said Thursday. The gear also looks good doing it, with a unified white design across all five devices.

All the Neo products are compatible with iPad, making them an excellent choice for creators who use their tablets for content creation.

A Dell curved 4K monitor — especially a big 40-incher — can make an excellent external display, if today’s featured MacBook Air and MacBook Pro setup is any indication. The user put the dramatic display together with a 27-inch 4K monitor after trying two other configurations. 

Today’s featured computer setup runs on two powerful MacBooks, which of course have their own keyboards. But the user doesn’t settle for those, except maybe when he’s away. Instead, he chooses to use a mechanical external keyboard with his dual laptops and dual displays. It’s a Keychron Q3 Pro custom keyboard, and it’s a beauty. 

Who doesn’t love a good MacBook? Or maybe two MacBooks, like in today’s setup. The guy has his own M2 MacBook Air, a formidable machine. But he’s lucky enough to add to it an absolutely screaming M3 Max MacBook Pro courtesy of his employer. Nice perk, that.

He can also thank work for his second 4K display. But it doesn’t top his own.

The new Elgato Facecam Mk.2, successor to the company’s popular Facecam webcam for creators and streamers, just came out. Improved picture quality, a new privacy shutter and other enhancements appear to make it a worthy upgrade. And that’s especially true because it carries a lower price than Facecam did at its launch.

Isn’t it great when someone on social media humbly displays a well put-together and complete computer setup that makes yours look like random debris? Well, at least it’s a good learning opportunity. And today’s MacBook Pro setup is an exceptional example, as it doesn’t look like “all that” — even though it is.

At a glance you might not guess that it packs about two dozen components, and the user is happy to explain how he uses most of them.

Sure, you can buy a computer monitor and set it up on the stand that came in the box. But what if you want to easily move the external display around? And what if you want to have multiple screens and move them around?

Keeping monitors up off the desk and mobile can really improve your setup. And the best way to do that is to mount your screens on arms. It takes some effort, but as today’s user points out below, it’s worth it.

After a recent debate over whether dual external displays should be lined up straight across or angled for better ergonomics, a Mac Studio and dual-MacBook setup addresses the question in a different way. It uses three identical displays in landscape mode, placing the center one one straight and one on either side of it at an angle.

And the setup also offers connecitivity tips, running the two MacBooks into two of the displays via a CalDigit dock while the Mac Studio drives one directly.

If Apple’s popular but pricey Studio Display is well-suited to anyone, it’s any type of designer because of the monitor’s formidable graphics chops.

In today’s loaded MacBook Pro setup, a designer sets apart his Studio Display for the highest praise among many items in a remarkably well-equipped workstation. And his Lego collection is epic, too.

It might seem unlikely that a computer setup could take 2 years to build and idealize — until you see just how loaded and beautiful it is. Today’s M2 Pro Mac mini went through many iterations in the past couple of years, its user said, and now they’re finally happy with it.

And they should be. The setup rips through gaming and streaming tasks using an awesome lineup of gear. Read more below and check out that gear list.

When Elgato rolled out an affordable teleprompter recently for video streamers, it included a USB-C cable. No big deal, right? Well, this one got people’s attention.

Perhaps you’ve heard an expression often used in sports commentary — “so-and-so is running a clinic on this,” meaning showing anyone and everyone how it’s done.

Today’s featured computer setup comes from an Apple administrator who clearly knows how it’s done, if “it” is setting up a rock-solid and highly functional workstation.

Video streamers with a lot to say know that working without a script can be challenging, and most teleprompters TV hosts use to read while maintaining eye contact are pricey. But the new Elgato Prompter brings the technology to the masses for $280, the company said Tuesday.

So you can look like a pro on your YouTube video or Zoom call. And Promter’s screen serves as an extra monitor for Mac or PC, too.

Any conversation about “perfect” displays might just start and end with Apple’s Pro Display XDR. But not everyone is rich enough to buy one of those 6K monitors, which cost $5,000 or more. So the popular 5K Studio Display might have to do, along with something complementary.

One option graces today’s featured MacBook Pro setup. It recently swapped out ultra-wide and 4K monitors for a Studio Display and and the eccentric LG DualUp. They seem especially well-suited to certain types of workers.

Just when you thought you’d seen every arrangement of displays known to computer setups, something comes along to surprise you. Today’s featured M2 Pro Mac mini setup puts a portrait-mode display at center and two landscape-mode displays sticking out like wings on either side of it. It’s kind of odd how rarely seen it actually is.

Another rarity is the user’s amazing assortment of audio components, including an unusually big “Schiit stack.”