M1 MBA and the progress toward the "holy grail" of workflows (ramble-y with questions at the end!)

Hardware
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Had my M1 MBA for awhile. Yes, yes, I know I’m late to the party. Feel free to welcome me to 2020. :slight_smile:

But some of the stuff with this is turning out to be significantly cooler than I’d expected.

Setup:

M1 MBA / 16GB / 1TB plugged into (one cable) a HDMI / USB C / USB A hub / adapter that also has the USB C MBA charger. When it’s at my desktop, everything happens with my fancy ergo mech keyboard and giant monitor. Unplug the one cable, and it’s a regular laptop again.

WiFi at home gives me access to my 2012 and 2018 Mac Mini. I originally thought I’d be using the 2018 Mini for my “desktop” and the MBA for “mobile”, but the MBA is good enough that I’m currently using it for everything. The 2012 is currently my “server”, and the 2018’s role is TBA right now, but it’s a 32GB/1TB Mini, so it’ll be good for something.

This will likely sound ridiculous, but being able to have Overcast on my Mac is a game changer by itself. I listen to a lot of podcasts while I’m doing busywork during the day, and having all my audio on my Mac is a Big Deal for me since I don’t have to constantly either change headphones or convince my PowerBeats to switch back and forth.

I’m also exploring the Facetime functionality for phone calls via my iPhone again. In my ideal work-world, I’d be able to sit down to work, put on my headphones, and just handle everything right from my Mac.

And with Safari 15 and Tab Groups I’m giving Safari a try again instead of Chrome.

Lots of workflow upheaval, but I think I’m moving in a good direction.

A few questions flying through my head…

Are there any super-solid Safari ad blocking / anti tracking extensions? I’m coming from Brave, which did a lot of that natively - and definitely better than default Safari. Other helpful Safari extension recommendations would be awesome too!

Should I leave the MBA plugged in when it’s at my desk, regardless of battery level? I remember lots of previous advice about unplugging / plugging rituals, but some seem to say that’s obsolete … ?

Any other recommendations for “M1 crossover” apps (iOS stuff that runs on Mac) that I might want to look into for a content creation / web design / graphics sort of use case?

All input appreciated. :slight_smile:

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I am using 1Blocker on all my Apple devices.

I would say so, once the battery level is high, the Mac works off the charger and leaves the battery stand by.

Here are some apps I use:
Dev & Design
VSCode (Mac only)
Figma (Mac only)
Sketch (Mac only)

Communication
DiscourseHub
Discord
Slack

Writing
Ulysses
Drafts

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Apple’s bettery health feature does a good job of making sure that you can leave it plugged in without worry.

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Not ridiculous at all. I was giddy with happiness when I got my M1 MBP and opened up Overcast on it. Perfect for when you’re waiting for Zoom meeting hosts to sort out their technical difficulties.

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