Setups - page 20

We don’t run across huge numbers of computer setups online driven by M1 MacBook Air laptops. When a laptop is the main computer, it’s more often a MacBook Pro.

But a MacBook Air powered by an M1 chip is a formidable machine, whether you’re tossing it in your knapsack for work on the go or leaving it on a stand on your desk, jacked into a USB-C hub and external display.

An M1 MacBook Air drives today’s featured setup — located in Germany — which also features some interesting bits and pieces we haven’t seen elsewhere. Those are a nifty Marshall wireless speaker and a foot hammock.

Mia, a software developer from Detroit who writes mobile apps, got in touch with Cult of Mac recently to share her MacBook Pro-driven, dual-display workstation.

“I love your setup articles but sometimes they make me feel bad about myself,” she said.

Las Vegas-based pianist, composer and educator Travis Lohmann reached out to Cult of Mac recently with an intriguing setup that hearkens back to yesteryear but still gets the job done in the here and now. Or in the “hear and now,” if you like.

It’s not every day you see a 9-year-old Mac Pro and an even older 30-inch Cinema Display getting the job done in 2022, but it happens.

Not every computer setup needs to be a visually stunning technological showcase, despite appearances to the contrary on social media sites. The best setup is the one that gets the job done. And, for many people, simpler is better.

Doug, a lawyer from San Francisco, extolled the virtues of his spare but highly functional MacBook-centered setup when he reached out to Cult of Mac recently.

You look at enough computer setups online and you realize people are never really done with them. There’s always something to add. It could be some gear got held up by shipping delays, or the setup’s owner got a sudden urge to try another type of input device or some other gadget. And people often take ages to tame the cable clutter.

So you rarely see people claiming a setup’s done for good. Or it’s the best it can be. Or it’s the proverbial “dream setup.”

But sometimes they say that. Today’s setup got called a “dream setup” by its proud owner. Would you agree?

A cool aspect of both Mac minis and the newer Mac Studio are the platform-like USB-C hubs festooned with ports and added storage capacity that third parties have designed for them to sit on. Satechi was quick out of the gate with one for the mini, but there are other such cleverly designed, space-saving hubs on the market. And many of them also fit the Studio.

Today’s featured setup boasts a powerful new Mac Studio perched on a Qwiizlab hub as it drives an LG UltraWide display, among other gear.

Apple products are famously not cheap. So much so that some people will go to considerable lengths to avoid shelling out for a new MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or iPad with keyboard. Today’s featured computer setup belongs to a traveling musician (famously not rich).

He takes his Mac mini on the road with him. Of course, with a Mac mini, you also need some sort of display and input devices, as in a keyboard and a mouse or trackpad. And you have to find room and set it all up wherever you lay your head.

Is it worth it? For some people, it is. We’ll explain why.

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Recently we wrote about a PC gamer converting to the Apple ecosystem, happily, with an M1 MacBook Pro-based setup. Now we have a lucky recipient of not one but two recently shipped Studio Displays, freshly arrived to replace a pair of gaming monitors.

We usually prefer to feature sunny or exotic or just-plain-fun computer setups on Fridays, but today a dark and brooding one caught our eye. A 13-inch M1-powered MacBook Pro and a 34-inch LG curved ultra-wide display are at its center.

But the “cozy productivity corner” also features excellent input devices, formidable audio and a rather nice standing desk.

“Conversion” stories are fairly common in computing, with people deciding to switch from one “ecosystem” or another. Given Apple’s recent rash of hugely popular products, a fair number of folks are switching from PC-and-Windows-based setups to Apple-centric ones.

An avid PC gamer — strike that, a former avid PC gamer — owns today’s featured setup. In it, a new M1 Pro MacBook drives a couple of big displays. And an Elgato Stream Deck and killer audio components also enter the mix.

Here at Setups Central we love spotting people working with gear we rarely or never see. Today’s featured setup includes rarities in the form of its input devices.

One of the peripherals is a high-quality Leopold mechanical keyboard and the other is an original Apple Mighty Mouse, which first came out in 2005. It was the company’s first mouse with more than one button as well as a trackball.

The setup’s owner called the mouse “kind of controversial.” And it was.

When a computer setup sports massive curved and stacked displays, it can be easy to miss other details. Today’s featured Mac mini setup features a 32-inch curved monitor sitting on top of a super-ultra-wide screen spanning a jaw-dropping 49 inches.

But a tiny object sitting off to the right in the photograph quietly steals the limelight. Look at what the AirPods Max headphones are sitting on.

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You can have a lot of good gear in your computer setup but still feel it falls short somehow. Like with today’s featured setup, you could have a recent MacBook Pro and an Xbox Series X gaming console. You could have a sweet curved gaming monitor. You might even have a kick-ass Lego Technic McLaren Formula 1 Race Car mounted on the wall.

But do you have stellar audio or just OK audio? That’s the issue our setup’s owner faces.

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. So today’s M1 Mac mini-driven computer setup, with eight smashing photos, must be roughly equivalent to 8,000 words. But instead of burying you in a horrible cascade of text, we’ll let the pictures tell most of the elegant rig’s story.

The newly updated setup has some exceedingly nice touches. Each of the photos below includes a little commentary.

We love serious audio here at Setups Central. But is it possible for the audio gear in your computer setup to be too serious? For example, can your desktop speakers be too comically oversized, as if you’re making some sort of visual joke about your life being all about the music?

In today’s featured setup, a magnificent 32-inch Pro Display XDR actually manages to look puny in between two monstrously huge Yamaha powered studio monitors. And yet, believe it or not, they may not actually be too big.

After Apple rolled out its new Studio Display on March 18, the reviews poured in. Many praised the 27-inch 5K display. But some found faults. Ultimately, after the dust settled, a primary question lingered. It’s good, for the most part, but is it worth the $1,600 price?

Today’s featured setup seems to answer the question in the affirmative. See how the Studio Display in the photo floats in the air? When you think about it, it’s really just a matter of factoring in the value of levitation.

At a glance, today’s featured computer setup appears simpler than it really is. It showcases a Mac mini, a pair of mounted monitors and some typical-looking input devices. A row of water bottles stands to the right because the owner, who lives in India, is big on hydration as summer hits the subcontinent.

But there’s more to the setup than meets the eye. And some of it escapes the camera’s lens.

Ever show off your painstakingly constructed computer setup only to have everybody race past the gear just to ogle what’s showing on the screen(s)? The desktop wallpaper.

It’s kind of like that with today’s featured setup, the brainchild of a graphic designer.

He put together the dual-monitor setup around a 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro with a lineup of nice touches. And he also made the neato race-car wallpaper that got most of the attention.

Anyone who buys a desktop Mac or wants a desktop feel using their MacBook is going to need a decent-sized external display. And wouldn’t it be grand if we all had $5,000 to spend on an Apple Pro Display XDR? Well, we don’t. In fact, scratching together enough cash to buy a new, more-affordable Studio Display can feel like a stretch for many folks.

The owner of today’s featured computer setup figured out a clever way to run a brilliant Liquid Retina XDR Display at much less cost with their new Mac Studio. What’s the catch? Well, it’s only a 12.9-inch display. Because it’s an iPad.

The Mac Studio desktop computer and Studio Display came out on March 18 to (mostly) good reviews. And they’re showing up all over the place in people’s computer setups — especially the displays, according to our unscientific observations, as we scour the internets for interesting gear.

Today’s featured setup is a dual-display workstation. The owner said he’s expecting a new Studio Display to arrive soon. Sounds like it already shipped.

He said he’s going to stick with two screens, so which one of his current monitors is going bye-bye?

Some computer setups just say “slick.” They declare, in their perfection, “I might actually be staged.” They suggest, without a trace of shyness, much less humility, “There’s no way I look this clean all the damn time.”

Neither a speck of dust nor a stray cable to be seen.

But then again, some workstations are cleaned up with the arrival of a major new addition and made ready for the one photo where they’ll look their Sunday best. That’s likely the case with today’s featured setup, with its dark-stained woods and its lights just so. After all, it just got a brand new Mac Studio.

Apple’s newest iPad Air has received some stellar reviews, though murmuring from some quarters claims it’s a bit on the flimsy side. But the owner of today’s featured setup seems over the moon about the new addition to her workstation, centered by an M1 MacBook Air and an LG display.

And she’s eager to get going with the new, much-ballyhooed Universal Control functionality using the new tablet, despite challenges.

Who doesn’t like to have a little fun on a Friday, especially when it’s also April Fools’ Day? Not that today’s featured setup is a joke or fake in any way. It’s real. It’s serious. Not as serious as a heart attack, maybe. But it’s a working setup that likes to have a good time, let’s say.

The seriousness stems mainly from a late-model MacBook Pro and a killer ultra-wide LG display. The good time comes from the super-cool Lego Technic racing cars on the wall — two for now, with a third to come. Each one of these things has thousands of pieces.

We’ve written about storing a Mac mini in an upright rather than a flat position to save space. It’s OK to do if the machine’s intake and exhaust vents are not blocked. But what about using your Mac mini as a stand for a display, as in today’s featured computer setup?

It’s not necessarily quite as cut-and-dried as the upright mini question. Whether it’s totally fine or a little risky depends a little more on the specific Mac mini and the kind of monitor you use.

We haven’t seen a tremendous number of computer setups centered on powerhouse 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pros — much less such workstations featuring both dual displays and paired original HomePods!

But today’s featured setup is an exception. It boasts those impressive characteristics as well as a useful lesson about not judging a book by its cover as well as striving to be kind online.