Roger Ogden’s Mac and iOS setup

Every week, we post a new interview with someone about what software they use on their Mac, iPhone, or iPad. We do these interviews because not only are they fun, but a glimpse into what tools someone uses and how they use those tools can spark our imagination and give us an idea or insight into how we can do things better.

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Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Roger Ogden, and I’m a software engineer living in Boise, Idaho. It’s nice to meet you.

What is your current setup?

I currently have a 2015 15″ MacBook Pro. It has a 2.5 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM, and a 250 GB SSD.

Where can we find your macOS wallpaper?

I found the wallpaper on Reddit, but here’s a link to the image on Imgur.

What software do you use and for what do you use it?

As a software engineer, I spend a lot of my day inside an IDE and a terminal. I’m currently using PHPStorm from Jetbrains for most of my work. I use Sublime Text for any text mangling that needs to happen. I jumped around between terminal applications for a while, with bouts between Terminal.app, Hyper, and iTerm 2. Recently, however, I’ve decided that Terminal.app does everything I need it to. I also like changing the look of my terminal with the season. Here’s how it looks for winter. I’m a big Disney fan, so I’ve named my computer little-baymax.

Outside of programming, I use a few applications for productivity and organization.

• Things 3 is the most beautiful task manager I’ve encountered, and after a few years of being a lightweight OmniFocus user, I switched to Things. I love every moment I’m in the app.

• Tweetbot is my favorite Twitter application for macOS. I was glad to see Twitterrific make a comeback to the Mac, and used it for a while, but ultimately switched back to Tweetbot.

• I use Mail.app for email. Because I don’t enjoy email, I’ve forced myself to use the default mail application that ships with macOS. This ensures I don’t go yak-shaving by configuring my email application to do things I don’t need it to.

• I use Bear for all types of notes. I have everything from my weight-lifting regimen to my wife’s shoe size in it. It’s an incredibly beautiful and well-designed app, and well worth the pro subscription.

• I use Apple Music for streaming music. I recently switched from Spotify, but I’m convinced that the perfect music subscription service doesn’t exist yet. I prefer Apple’s design aesthetic, but Spotify’s recommendations.

• I use Slack to communicate at work and with groups of friends.

• 1Password manages all my passwords, and has since 2010. I wouldn’t trust my online security to anyone else other than the folks at AgileBits.

• I use Photos.app to manage and sync my photos across my Apple devices, with Google Photos as a separate backup. Photos isn’t the greatest application, but I’ve grown accustomed to it after switching from iPhoto.

• I use Dropbox as a virtual file system. Everything I own is synced through Dropbox.

How would your ideal setup look and function?

My ideal setup would likely be the announced-but-not-yet-shown Mac Pro, with every upgrade possible, connected to the rumored Pro Display that Apple is making to go along side it. It’s more computer than I would likely ever need for the near future, but would ensure that I wouldn’t have to compromise on any front until I had to buy a new one in a number of years.

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What iPhone do you have?

I currently have a 64GB Space Gray iPhone X. It feels like a culmination of every iPhone Apple’s released, and I think it’s really great.

Where can we find your wallpaper online?

You can find my wallpaper here.

What apps do you use the most, and why?

If one of the apps I use on the Mac has an iOS counterpart, I’m sure to use it, so I won’t be redundant here.

I love Carrot Weather not only because it has genuinely funny writing, it’s also a gorgeous weather app. I used Weather Line for a long time, but Carrot won me over.

Halide is the best camera application to ever be released for iPhone, complete with intuitive shooting controls and RAW support. If I want to shoot a photo of consequence, I use Halide and edit in Darkroom.

As I said before, I’m a big Disneyland fan, and I happen to be going there next month, so it’s earned a spot on my home screen in anticipation of my trip. Seeing the icon on my home screen gives me something to look forward to, and I like to browse the queue times the month before I go.

I’ve followed Apollo for the entirety of its development process when I stumbled upon its subreddit r/ApolloApp. It’s been awesome to follow Christian Selig’s development process and see Apollo become the best Reddit app out there. There are minor annoyances, but Christian is dedicated to Apollo’s users and quickly iterates on feedback.

I’ve spent countless hours of my adult life listening to spoken audio, so Audible and Overcast receive tons of use. Audible is…an Amazon app, and that’s all I really need to say. Amazon has done a historically terrible job of adhering to iOS design conventions, and the Audible app is no different. The Audible app serves one purpose: play audiobooks that I’ve purchased elsewhere. I never leave the “My Library” tab.

Overcast, on the other hand, is the product of countless hours of work by Marco Arment, and rightfully so, my most-used app. I subscribe to dozens of podcasts and listen to them whenever I get a chance. Overcast’s audio engine is top-notch, and listening to podcasts in other podcast players feels foreign to me.

Which app could you not live without?

Overcast, undoubtedly. I hope that Marco will find it in his heart to bring Overcast to the Mac one day.

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Which iPad do you have?

I have the very-well-named iPad. That is, it’s the $329 model that Apple introduced last year. It’s closest relative is an iPad Air. It’s the 32 GB Space Gray model.

Where can we find your wallpaper online?

My wallpaper is one of the base colors of my favorite text editor theme: Solarized Dark. It’s hex code is #002b36. I simply fired up Pixelmator and made it in a few seconds. You can find it here.

How are you using your iPad on a daily basis?

For me, the iPad is mostly a consumption device. It’s where I read or watch video. Occasionally, I’ll use it to write a blog post, but I prefer to do that on the Mac.

What apps do you use the most, and why?

Twitch has become an entertainment staple for me. I enjoy watching several Hearthstone streamers, as well as some MMO streamers. If I’m not watching to become better at a game, I’ll often watch with the sound off.

Speaking of Hearthstone, it’s my go-to mobile game. I played Magic: The Gathering for a few years, and Hearthstone has completely replaced it. Blizzard makes incredibly well-designed games, and Hearthstone is oozing with lore references to World of Warcraft, all while maintaining its own charm.

Instapaper, Reeder, iBooks, and the New York Times app hold everything I’d like to read.

Day One is on my home screen to remind me on the journaling habit that I keep starting and stopping…

Working Copy allows me to clone my Github repository that houses my blog, Relativity Transit, which is created with Jekyll. Working Copy allows me to write blog posts from it’s great in-app editor, or something more focused on writing, like Ulysses. Working Copy and Ulysses are fantastic examples of powerful iPad apps that professionals can use to get work done on iOS.

Which app could you not live without?

When it comes to my iPad, I’m not sure that there’s an app that I couldn’t live without. Because it’s mostly a consumption device for me, I don’t tend to get too attached to any one app.

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