William's desk surface hasn't changed in years, but almost everything on it has recently. From a new Mac Studio to a totally unnecessary third Stream Deck, here's how he works.
About 05:00 most weekday mornings, I will come into my extremely dark office, turn on the Mac Studio — and then blind myself with an Elgato Key Light. I've got two of these, one for front and one for back lighting in videos.
But at that time of the morning, I can use one to give me a gentle start to the day — once I turn it down from whatever brightness I had it the day before. And I now turn it down using a knob on my third Elgato Stream Deck, which is ridiculously and extremely handy.
Stream Decks, if you don't happen to know or have yet to relish them, are collections of buttons or now knobs that you program. You program them very easily, and the buttons are really miniature screens that you also very easily put images on.
My third Stream Deck is officially the Stream Deck+, though it's also known as a dust magnet
Usually when someone says something is ridiculously handy, they really just mean "very handy," but in this case I think the word is right. Because I do not need three Stream Decks, and you can argue that no one needs any.
You'd be wrong, though, as I vow to you that every Mac should have one. Later on in the morning I can push one button and every app I use for AppleInsider, every document, and every folder is launched, arranged on my 49-inch widescreen display, and sites are logged into.
A year ago I'd have said this to you and then folded my arms like I'd proven my case. But this year, something happened that I promise took my Stream Decks from ridiculously handy to supremely useful.
Actually, it's one of the Stream Decks, and in fact it's the smallest, it's the first one I ever got. It's now stuck to my desk, just to the left of my Apple Magic Keyboard and it is essential for when I'm doing audio editing.
When Logic Pro is open, this Stream Deck switches to all the controls I need for it.
The moment I launch Logic Pro, the Stream Deck recognizes that I have and switches all of its buttons to a set I've created just for that app. One press jumps me to the end of a track, for instance, while another makes a cut.
Yet another is a play/pause button and when I press that, it really just launches a Keyboard Maestro script. That script actually looks at the screen to see if Logic Pro's Play button is there, and if it is, it clicks it for me.
If it isn't, the script looks for the stop button and clicks that.
Keyboard Maestro can look for a Play button on screen and click it. Lets me have one Stream Deck button that is both Play and Pause in Logic Pro
All of this can be done from the keyboard and menus in Logic Pro, but having everything I need — and sometimes whole sequences of what I need — under a button is transformative
Stream Decks are also very brightly lit, which gives a Christmas-like feel to the desk all year round. The rest of the desk is dominated by that monitor and that keyboard, plus I have an Apple Magic Trackpad.
There's also a HomePod which I just now realise I forgot to plug back in after moving something around months ago. I've a Belkin charger for my iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods Pro 2.
I've got a metal tumbler that I accidentally — accidentally — borrowed from a Five Guys restaurant at Gare du Nord in Paris. That now has two Apple Pencils in it, plus some short USB-C cables that I kept losing.
There's a mug celebrating BBC Ceefax, a news service I wrote for, and HidrateSpark Pro 2 smart water bottle. Plus a microphone, a loose change pot in the shape of an oversized typewriter head, and some "Blake's 7" props that we needn't go into.
There's also an Elgato Facecam which brings my number of devices from that firm to six. That's actually more on this desk than I have from Apple.
Most of the time, the items from Apple on the desk are the keyboard, trackpad, and Mac Studio. From time to time I also have a MacBook Pro and I now have two iPads, so it evens out.
It's even wider than my monitor. This is an OYAYO folding piano.
But the very latest addition to my desk — or at least temporarily until I can find a permanent spot — in 2025 is an OYAYO folding piano. A year ago I bought a Duolingo piano and have been teaching myself to play with a whole 30 to 40 seconds of practice every day.
Now I'm planning to take actual keyboard lessons, and I'll be rearranging my L-shaped desk so that the piano fits in nicely. I figure if it can stay out all the time, I'm more likely to practice on it.
Possibly not at five in the morning, though.
