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Navneet Alang

Freelance writer

in mac, writer, windows

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Navneet Alang. I am a freelance writer based in Toronto who specializes in technology and culture, and recently, food and drink as well. I've written for places like Eater, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, and a lot of publications here in Canada.

What hardware do you use?

I grew up on Windows but am now mostly in the Apple world. I have a 7-year old MacBook Air that is my main work computer, and as aggravating as having an old computer is, I don't think I'll upgrade until the new Apple Silicon Macs come out. I also use an iPhone and iPad for reading, finance stuff etc., and an Apple Watch, mostly to track bike rides and get texts on the go. But right now I'm typing this on my Windows desktop PC that I built myself some years ago - mostly because it's comfortable and is connected to an old 32" TV!

And what software?

It's software that makes me want to be Apple-only. The apps I rely on tend to be Mac/iOS-only. For email I use Spark, for calendar I use Fantastical, and for notes I just started using Bear which I love because it's so fast and clean compared to things like OneNote or Notion. I also use Day One occasionally to (sort of) journal. I often use MS Word to write, but lately I've been gravitating toward a Markdown editor called Typora, again because it's so clean and straightforward compared to the feature-stuffed clutter of Word.

What would be your dream setup?

A dream setup! I think about this all the time. I think it would be a 2 or 3 computer set up, which I know is ludicrous, but this is a dream setup, right? In an ideal world, I'd have a high end 27" 5K iMac on a very minimalist desk setup. Then for mobile, I'd love a 13" (or 14") MacBook Pro for working in coffee shops etc. (when we can do things like that again), and also an iPad Pro with a Pencil to sketch out ideas and just write by hand when I felt like it. My actual computing needs as a writer are very basic - hence me mostly surviving on an old MacBook Air! - but it would be nice to just have really fast, responsive hardware to work on.