⚡️ 2025: My Most Used Tech

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you are enjoying a restful and introspective holiday season. I’m excited to share my annual round-up of my most used tech and gear this year. There’s some overlap with last year’s list, but also a bunch of new stuff and changes. What new gear, gadgets, or apps have you added to your workflows and EDC this year? Drop me a reply, I’d love to know!

I’ll be back next weekend with my usual top five finds of the week!

Note that some of the links in this issue of the Hiro Report are affiliate links and may earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Computer Stuff

💻 MacBook Pro M5 - I upgraded from a 2021 M1 MacBook this year and have been really happy with the upgrade. Apart from photo/video editing and some very amateur music production, I don’t need much power for most of my work, so I really didn’t feel compelled to wait for the M5 Pro and M5 Pro Max chips.

🖥️ LG 32” UltraGear OLED Monitor - I appreciate a good dual-monitor set-up, but they’re just overkill for my needs. Instead, I like having one really big monitor to work with. This is that monitor. It’s super bright, plenty sharp, and works great with my Mac. If Apple ever offers a larger Studio Display, I might upgrade to that, but this is great for now.

📱 iPhone 17 Pro 🟠 - I upgrade every year, almost 100% because of the camera updates. This year is no different. I usually go with Black, but decided to try out the Orange this year… I think I’ll be taking Amy Winehouse’s recommendation next year.

📰 M4 iPad Pro 11-Inch - This is my travel computer of choice. It’s slim, lightweight, and the new updates to iPadOS make it much easier to use it in a way similar to how I use my Mac, meaning I don’t have to completely change my workflows when traveling. The fact that they relocated the front-facing camera to landscape orientation is also a huge boon for video conferencing on the go.

🖥️ Anker 14-Port USB-C Hub - If you don’t need Thunderbolt but have a lot of things you need to power and/or connect to your computer, this thing is fantastic. I particularly enjoy the LED display that shows you how much power your various devices are drawing.

⌨️ NuPhy Kick 75 - I’m far from a keyboard expert, but this compact, luxurious board—with its colorful, retro video-game aesthetic and touches of transparent design—is a joy. I also love that you can swap in either low-profile or standard keycaps to suit your taste. I’ve used it nonstop since it came out back in April.

⬆️ Uplift Desk - I’ve had this powered desk for 4 years now and am still extremely happy with it. At the press of a button, it changes from sitting mode to standing mode, feels rock solid, and looks great.

EDC + Accessories

📷 Leica M10-P - I picked up this dream camera in late 2024 and carried it with me almost daily for the first half of the year. I am not carrying it daily anymore, but it’s still my most-used camera apart from my iPhone.

🎧 AirPods Pro 3 - The best headphones got even better this year. The improvements to active noise cancelling are fantastic, and I find the new ear tips more comfortable for longer wear.

📱 Torras Air iPhone Case - I went caseless for about half the year without any problems and then promptly dropped my new iPhone 17 Pro the first week after it came out and broke the screen. After getting it replaced, I went back to the Torras Air Case, which is remarkably nice. If you have to be burdened with a case, having a built-in kickstand, pop-out grip, fidget ring, and magnetic features are a huge bonus.

⌚ Apple Watch Ultra 3 - I love my analog watches but have been primarily wearing the Ultra 3 since it came out this Fall. I got it in Black and have really been enjoying both the look and the functionality. I still wear my nicer watches quite often, but I keep putting this watch back on. Having Chirp on my watch face is a huge bonus, giving me access to a smart LLM on my wrist at all times.

⚡ Anker MagGo Power Bank - This chunky boi has saved my hide a number of times. It’s about a half-inch thicker than I wish, but it can recharge my iPhone 17 Pro 2–2.5 times. It has a built-in kickstand and a small display to show how long until you’re fully recharged. It goes almost everywhere with me.

💵 Allett Sport Wallet - A dear friend gifted me one of these wallets last year, and I’ve been absolutely loving it. Very slim, lightweight, gender-neutral designs, great looks, and thoughtful touches like an optional micro-pen slot and built-in RFID-blocking materials. I cannot emphasize enough how thin both the leather and nylon versions are, even more front-pocket-friendly than my usual Bellroy.

💧 Owala Freesip - I’ve got like 4 or 5 of these in different sizes and colors. It’s my favorite water bottle, and I always have one with me. Having the built-in option to chug or sip from the straw is super pleasant, and I appreciate the built-in locking loop that allows me to hang it from a carabiner when needed.

🎒 CIVIC Travel Bag 20L / CIVIC Travel Bag 26L - I’m proud of myself. I didn’t buy any new backpacks this year. I’ve stuck with the Civic Travel Bags, which remain my favorite bags for both working from a coffee shop or taking into the woods for a day hike.

🎒 Nomatic/McKinnon Camera Sling - OK, it’s not a backpack, but I did pick up this camera sling this year and used it quite a lot. It’s surprisingly spacious and offers modular inserts for getting the perfect fit for your gear. I do wish it had more storage space for non-camera gear.

🖊️ Studio Neat Mark One - I have a ton of pens, but this one was easily my most used this year. It’s always on my desk either nestled at the top of my keyboard above the function keys or in the beautiful wooden pen block my father-in-law made me. It’s the perfect size for my hands, and the lack of a pocket clip makes it effortless to use in any orientation. It looks great too.

🔅 Govee RGBIC Smart Table Lamp - My wife and I each have one of these on our nightstands—they’re good-looking, highly customizable lights that I automate via Apple’s HomeKit to turn on at bedtime to just the right tone of warm light. I’ve tried 3 or 4 lamps like this and these are by far the best.

📷 Insta360 Link Webcam - I’m two years deep into using the Insta360 webcam. There have been several newer devices released that look like great upgrades, but I’ve not felt compelled to jump ship yet. This offers great video quality, easy integration on the Mac, and a nice built-in privacy mode. Just make sure you get some good lights; otherwise no camera can save you.

🎮 Nintendo Switch 2 - After not playing many games in 2024, I wound up playing a lot more this year thanks to picking up a Nintendo Switch 2. Totally love this device. Donkey Kong and Cyberpunk 2077 have gotten the most play time.

Home Tech

🚽 Toto Washlet C5 Bidet - I’ll spare you the details, but man is this thing nice, and one of those things you come to miss when you travel. Apart from the medical benefits of using a bidet, having a warm toilet seat alone is worth the price of admission.

🍚 Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker - We make a ton of rice in our household, whether it’s for side dishes or impromptu onigiri nights. This machine makes it dead simple to get perfect, consistent rice every time.

Apps and Services

👨🏽‍💻 Raycast - This is still my most used app every day on my Mac, and was the first thing I downloaded on my new MacBook this year.

💬 ChatGPT - I’ve played off and on with Claude, Perplexity, and others, but ChatGPT is the only AI subscription I’ve maintained all year.

🔍 Kagi - Apart from being privacy-centric, not running ads, and not selling our information to advertisers, Kagi’s search engine results are easily the most accurate and helpful of all the engines I’ve experimented with.

✉️ Fastmail & Gmail - I transitioned from Proton to Fastmail last year and have been thrilled with the switch. That said, I wound up moving my small business email from Fastmail over to Gmail this year simply because there are so many great productivity integrations for Gmail that just have not come to Fastmail (yet).

📥 Notion - I switched from Obsidian to Notion this year and found it to be a huge level-up for my needs. I use it as a personal CRM, an inbox for all my meeting notes, an organizer for my work stuff, and more. There are a million more things I could do with it if I had the time to really get it organized, but one of the things I love is being able to just throw everything into it and let the built-in Notion AI find and organize whatever I need.

🗣️ Granola.AI - This is easily my favorite AI meeting note-taker app. It runs in the background on all of my calls without needing to invite a bot to your meetings, takes meticulous notes, formats them exactly how I like, and then drops them into Notion or anywhere else I need them. The iPhone app is very handy for capturing in-person meetings. I have been using it happily for months and only recently discovered I was somehow still on the free trial version. I leapt to pay for it as soon as I figured that out, because it’s totally worth it.

⌨️ WisprFlow.AI - I tried out a bunch of AI dictation apps this year, and this one was my favorite. With the press of a hotkey, I can easily dictate highly accurate text into any app or text field. With the press of a second hotkey, I can also dictate commands like “Please proofread this text” or “Change this to all caps,” etc. They just raised a bunch of funding, so who knows if it’s going to enshittify or accelerate its awesomeness, but for now I’m a happy subscriber.

🐻 Bear App - Bear remains my favorite writing and note-taking app. There are a ton of great options out there, but it’s the one that best fits how I like to capture information. I still write the first draft of all my weekly Hiro Reports right here.

🎵 YouTube Music - I’ve never been a Spotify user, and my Apple Music algorithm has been completely taken over by my kids’ music choices, so I set out to find a music service that could just be mine. I settled on YouTube Music because it’s included for free with my YouTube Premium subscription. It’s been surprisingly great! I particularly like that you can listen to songs from their catalog as well as obscure indie music that users have uploaded as YouTube videos.

🔗 Plinky - You might be shocked to learn that I collect a lot of links over the course of the day, and Plinky is my strong favorite place to do it, thanks to its delightful user interface and hard-working indie developer, Joe Fabisevich. My only gripe is that it doesn’t have a full-featured Mac app yet, though I understand one is in the works.

🧊 Ice Menu Bar - I switched to Ice after being a Bartender user for years. This app does a great job at hiding all the menu bar items on the top of your Mac’s display until you need them.

That’s it for this year! Thank you for all of the support, feedback, and cool discoveries you’ve sent my way. May you be happy, healthy, and find peace in the year ahead.