Hello everyone and welcome to my Techie Magic blog. This is a very exciting moment for me as this is my first blog post and I’m happy to have you along for the journey and to see how this develops and moulds over time.

I thought that seeing as this is a mostly tech based blog that I would start off by doing my Everyday Carry (EDC). I travel the length of the country virtually every week so the contents of my EDC has to contain everything I might need for up to 3 days away from home, covering entertainment, work and travel.

I think the best place to start is what carries everything I need and currently I have a VINBAGGE Anti Theft Backpack that can hold up to a 15.6” laptop. I haven’t tried a 16” Macbook as I only have a 13” MacBook pro, but I will talk about that later. This is a simple backpack that can fold out 180 degs making it easy to pack.

It contains separate pouches for laptop, IPad and many accessories. It also has a cable to connect to a power bank that goes to an exterior USB post, allowing charging of your phone while on the move.

Overall this is a very capable backpack, especially for the price compared to some elite level bags from the likes of Korin, Peak Design or Gomatic.

My laptop of choice is the Macbook Pro 13” with 8Gb of memory and 512Gb of storage. This is a very capable laptop that can be used by a generic computer user or someone that needs to edit videos or do some programming, although to do these a dock such as Belkin 6-in-1 adapter dock would be required as only 2 x thunderbolt ports are provided. Another good thing about this laptop is the size. It compact and light, so it’s not a heavy to carry around when travelling. When I bought this laptop I was excited to see what the touch bar was capable of, but initially I was very disappointed with the functions that it offered. However after a bit of research I found an App called TouchSwitcher, which has made the touch bar a lot more useful for me. The App is able to show you all the Apps open in the dock by pressing the icon (below), which gives you quick access to your Apps rather than having to use the trackpad.

This is especially helpful if, like me, you hide the dock on screen. Picture above shows what the Touch Bar looks like using TouchSwitcher.

Overall this laptop although on the expensive side (aren’t all apple products?), it allows every level of user to achieve their outputs with ease.

I also carry an iPad Mini 6 that I use for digital notes, reading books and streaming videos. The Mini’s size makes it easy to carry and fit easily into the smallest of bags. Digital notetaking was the primary reason for this purchase and along a PaperLike screen protector and the Apple Pencil you get a very real ‘paper like’ feel (pardon the pun) while writing or drawing.

My notetaking App of choice is GoodNotes5, which is great for taking any rough notes and also being able to turn them into a more organised way or aesthetically pleasing, and also great for revision or downloading a digital planner to stay organised.

My headphones of choice are the Bose QuietComfort 45 Noise Cancelling headphones. I have had these since 2018 and so far see no reason to change them as they have been rock solid for me ever since i bought them. The noise cancelling is very good and the sound quality is second to none (although i am no sound guru).

I also use the Apple AirPod Pros for earphones, which i was very sceptical when they first came out so it took me a long time to come around to buying a pair. Once I did, i was very impressed with both the noise cancelling and sound quality, especially for earphones.

If im using my iPad Mini 6 instead of my laptop, then i have some accessories to help with typing and moving around the screen rather than having to touch it. I use the Nuphy Air60 keyboard and stand (which also converts into a case for the keyboard) and the Apple Magic Mouse, which connect via bluetooth to help me to be more productive with my iPad Mini while on the move.

My daily worker is my iPhone 12 Pro Max, although a couple years old i am yet to feel like an upgrade would actually be worth it for what i do with it. I mainly use my phone for internet searches, using apps such as Notion, Todoist, email and listen to music and podcasts. The phone is in an Apple hard clear MagSafe case and a MOFT MagSafe wallet.

Recently i have upgraded my Apple Watch from the Series 6 to the Ultra. The main reason for this was, i like the size of the Ultra face (I have reasonably large wrists) and when i went to the store to try one on, i loved how it looked. When buying it i looked at a few of the bands and my favourite was the Green Apline Loop.

With all these items i need to carry quite a few cables to allow charging if required and if im away over night then i also carry a UGREEN 65W 4 Port charger Plug that has 4 USB-C and 1 USB-A ports to allow multiple devices to be plugged in at one time.

A few accessories that i carry with me make sure none of my tech runs out of battery. I carry the Anker MagSafe Charger Pack and the Charmast Power Bank. For extra Storage and back ups i also carry the SanDisk Extreme 1Tb SSD. There isnt much to say about these items as do what it says on the tin (Probably showing my age with the Ronseal reference). 

Last but not least to carry all my extra accessories and cables i use a pretty large tech bag from BagSmart that carries all of my accessories and cables with plenty of space left and even has a pocket that can fit my iPad Mini 6 if i needed to.

So this is my EDC that i have built mainly over the last 2 years (apart from the Bose headphones) a will probably stick to this for a while. I am however looking to upgrade my bag, but i will update you once that happens and explain my reasons and what i change to.