Had the software for a few years now and it’s used very frequently. I don’t know if using the app hardwired requires a subscription though as mine was a one-off purchase via App Store.
Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
381–390 of 853 posts
Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
#382I have a heating pad under my keyboard which keeps my hands warm in the winter. Was like $20 on amazon, and I can't even begin to describe how amazing it is, since I was really tired of always having a mug of hot water / tea / coffee to hold and didn't want to keep the heat on my house super high when I could just wear a sweatshirt and be fine except my fingers.
Cars come with heated seats, steering, armrests, mirrors, wipers - why not mats?
Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
#383Gaming wireless headphones, not for gaming but for videoconferencing. Bluetooth headphones are universally terrible for videoconferencing because the Bluetooth standard sucks and requires downgrading to telephone audio quality whenever the mic is enabled. Plus terrible latency. Gaming wireless headphones that come with their own dongle completely fix these issues and are perfect for videoconferencing. Someday the Blu…
Using laptop mic’s fixes bluetooth issue and massively improves audio quality
Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
#384Gaming wireless headphones, not for gaming but for videoconferencing. Bluetooth headphones are universally terrible for videoconferencing because the Bluetooth standard sucks and requires downgrading to telephone audio quality whenever the mic is enabled. Plus terrible latency. Gaming wireless headphones that come with their own dongle completely fix these issues and are perfect for videoconferencing. Someday the Blu…
Using laptop mic’s fixes bluetooth issue and massively improves audio quality
Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
#385An Elgato Stream Deck but for general purposes https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck-mk2 Basically imagine having 15 physical buttons to use with any kind of actions, shortcuts, macros etc. but you have a visual feedback too. It’s pretty great! I know there are alternatives like the Adafruit RP2040 https://www.adafruit.com/product/5128 but the visual knobs make the Stream Deck much better imo.
Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
#386I have a mouse cable bungee. Particularly useful for twitch based FPS shooters such as Counter Strike, but overall ensures never to get the cable in your way. PS: You don't use wireless for competitive shooters. LAN Cable, cable mouse, etc. See: https://www.amazon.com/Glorious-PC-Gaming-Race-Bungee/dp/B07...
Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
#387A Big Knob Passive (not powered), which can toggle audio independently between two inputs (laptop and pc), and two outputs (speakers, and bluetooth transmitter) using tactile toggle buttons with immediate response, and it also has a big volume knob, and a button to turn stereo into mono which has turned out useful for some badly encoded videos having audio in only one channel. The Bluetooth transmitter is used with s…
Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
#388Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
do you have a recommended brand/model?
I'm using a SteelSeries Arctis 1 ($69) and I like it overall. Only minor flaws: the battery life is good but not exceptional (magnetic charging helps), the charge port is micro USB (despite the fact that the dongle is USB-C), the wireless range is good but not exceptional, the shape of the dongle is wide and tends to block nearby ports, but the biggest flaw is the power button which you have to hold down for an etern…
Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
#390I use my iPad as a second screen on my macbook air with Duet [0] Had the software for a few years now and it’s used very frequently. I don’t know if using the app hardwired requires a subscription though as mine was a one-off purchase via App Store. [0] https://www.duetdisplay.com/