Recommended products

I’m always reviewing new products to increase my productivity and keep up-to-date with the latest, coolest and the best. Novelty is nice but many times the old ways and solutions are as good if not better. Therefore, you may find also classics!

The products and solutions are in various categories and include products that I have used and tested. There may be affiliate links where applicable.

Books

For non-fiction books, see my book review and recommended books sections.

Audiobooks and eBooks

Audible & Kindle by Amazon

Audible by Amazon is the biggest in the industry. They are especially good if you need to get the latest and most extensive catalogue of audiobooks. It may become expensive if you like to listen a lot. You can test and return titles in case you do not like the title. Audible will refund your purchase and use the credit for another title. Try Audible with a 30-day free trial get two free audiobooks.

Kindle is a classic choice for eBooks and it has many convenient features and cross-device support. There’s a free 30-day trial available.

Flat-fee services

Scribd used to be my favourite audiobook provider in the early 2020s. They have a wide catalogue and they have a flat monthly free structure, which makes them predictable in cost. Even better, they have a referral program where you get an additional free month for every person you refer for a sign-up and they get two free months. Give it a try – no credit card needed for the trial.

Nextory, Storytel and Bookbeat are the Nordic flat monthly free book subscription services that are rapidly expanding. Their catalogues are expanding but so far they have not been a match to Audible or Scribd.

Free services

LibreVox has public domain audiobooks, and Archive.org has a range of audio and e-books. Some libraries use Libby or similar apps.

Productivity

Password manager, 2FA and security key

Strongbox was a good alternative when 1Password moved to the cloud-based approach. The original developer sold the company in 2025, and thus it’s future remain unclear. Keepassium might be the next one to check out.

1Password used to be my favourite password manager for years. There are differences in philosophy and way of building the solutions between different providers. I recommend studying carefully and understanding the differences before committing to any provider.

Yubikey hardens your security to another level. This is a good addition to your password management routine. They are not interchangeable and serve different purposes. Security keys add a different layer of identification similar to one-time passwords that you can do with your password manager. Do not use text messages as a 2FA.

File-synch and storage

Just use Google Drive, Proton or Apple iCloud or similar.

If you want to go DIY way, you can try your luck with Cryptomator, and combine it with Mountain Duck and CyberDuck on the Apple ecosystem. In this setup, you can use Google, Apple or any other cloud storage provider since you’re encrypting your files on the client-side.

Calendar, scheduling and contacts

Apple’s calendar and contact apps are relatively basic. I started using Flexibits‘ products Cardhop (iOS) and Fantastical, and that was a game changer. They leaned heavily on a subscription model, and they stopped working properly for me. Currently, 🤷‍♂️

For scheduling, ~~x.ai avoids you to do email ping-pong and it makes rescheduling a breeze~~. The company was acquired and their service discontinued. Calendly gets the job done even though they are more limited in their offering. Cal.com is an open-source alternative that has many of the features of the Calendly’s paid versions.

Messaging

For messaging, it’s hard to get rid of WhatsApp due to it’s wide usage but you could try to convince your network to use Signal. White Noise is the new Nostr-based encryption solution that is still under heavy development.

Scanning

Canon P-208II ImageFORMULA Personal Document Scanner has been my favourite choice for my scanning needs for years. It’s amazingly fast for business cards (one per second) and it scans on both sides. For text, it also does OCR for searchable files.

Apple Notes or directly from Files you can scan documents, and that’s the easiest.

Mobile headsets

I have used many mobile headsets over the years. For over a decade Bose was my favourite choice with their Bose MIE2I Mobile headset (discontinued) and Bose QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones that I still use for listening podcasts while running.

Update (11/2021): I started to get a lot of complains of using the AirPods Pro outdoors in the last year. Either it was a software update issue, a bad design or the hardware just degraded. I even changed the units under warranty but the issue remained. They also stated to take a long time to connect and occasionally drop the bluetooth connection while on the call. I’m looking for a good headset for loud outdoors use (Jabra Elite 7 Pro was a strongest candidate at the time). Currently, 🤷‍♂️

For indoor use, I went old school: Beyerdynamic MMX 300. They work with iPhone out of the box as well as with traditional audio interfaces. The noise-cancelling is excellent together with more balanced audio signature.

Apple Airpods Pro

My daily headset was Apple AirPods Pro. I could not use the previous Airpods nor the wired standard version for they did not stay in my ears and they were leaking too much outside noise for proper use with traffic and other loud background noise.

Bose had amazing fit and there was no risk of dropping the earbuds, ever. This is pretty much the same with AirPods Pros. The biggest factor is yet the convenience. They work seamlessly with Apple products. No other bluetooth device has been as smooth and reliable with pairing. I missed most of the incoming calls due to connectivity delay with other headsets. Sorry!

These are no high fidelity devices but they work well with consuming audiobooks and talking to people indoors if you can stand the connection issues that re-appeared after one year of usage. I would not recommend them for recording audio (e.g. podcasts) nor talking outside with loud background noises.

Publishing

Content management systems

Website

This website is build on a self-hosted WordPress platform. Each use case is different but DIY gives the most versatile options. You can practically do whatever you can think of thanks to the large ecosystem.

My hosting is on Namecheap. I have tried numerous shared-hosting companies over the years. Most of the time you get what you pay for so more expensive services may results better service levels and products.

My domain-name hosting was on Namecheap for years. Now, I’m using Cloudflare. They don’t add any mark-up so it’s the cheapest option as well. Their offer a generous free plan for basic domain protection and performance needs among others. I have used them pretty much since they started.

Podcasting, video and live-streaming

Hosting

There are plenty of hosting providers for audio files. Spotify (ex-Anchor) is my current choice. It’s free and have a decent basic offering. Redcircle was something I looked into but did not made any moves while I was active on podcasting.

AWS is a solid option since it works with the byte-range requests feature that is required by Apple iTunes (allows to stream the file without downloading it entirely) but requires more technical skills to set-up and maintain.

Recording software

I did most of my remote pod recodings with Zencastr. It records each source locally and saves them to separate tracks. It can also do post-production. Riverside.fm is an alternative that has very competitive offer. (I haven’t kept up with either lately.)

Podcasting, video, and Clubhouse audio setup

I did some podcasting around the financial crisis. Ever since Blue Snowball served me well and I was using it for my podcast recordings for a few months in 2020.

I would consider checking also Blue Yeti that is a later model with some variants or Rode NT USB (or similar products from Rode). Don’t go cheap on the mic, save on the headset or other parts of your setup if you’re on a tight budget.

Above are condenser mics that have a nice tone but they tend to pick up other noises around your environment. Unless your room is sound treated dynamic mics can be a better option. For example, Shure’s MV7 podcasting mic was released in 2020 and it does not require a separate audio interface but works with simply plugging in the USB-cable.

Shure’s SM7B is the classic radio mic that many podcasters are using. For to drive it properly, you need either a Cloudlifter (or similar amplifier) or a powerful audio interface. Dynamic mics do not require phantom power (48v) but de facto preamp is often needed for driving them properly so you need additional equipment for your setup. Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is a popular budget option but it comes with several limitations.

My current setup is Shure KSM8 and Sound Devices’ MixPre-3 II for podcasting, video and Airchat ~~(and Clubhouse)~~ audio. The Clubhouse iPhone setup requires an additional adapter (Belkin 3.5mm audio + Charge Rockstar; test at your own risk – might not work in the future or with other variants of the same adapter) for iPhone to recognise the audio interface (add a 3.5mm cable to the plug but leave it unplugged from the other end; h/t for Garry Tan for discovering this) when you’re a speaker in a Clubhouse room.

(~~If you would like to use Clubhouse with your computer you should try Clubdeck. I have been using it frequently. They product development and support is bar none.)~~

My audio headset is Sennheiser HD 660S but they are not optimal for recording because of their open back structure that leaks sound in louder volumes. They also require a slightly more powerful audio interface to drive them.

Editing and transcription

Descript is a cloud service for editing your audio and video files. It does transcription and is packed with additional features. No more direct audio wave editing even though Audacity is not a bad choice, and it’s free.

Headliner makes your audio look good and they have a transcription service to make captions for your video awesomeness. The free tier is extra generous so no harm done by checking them out. My audiograms were done with Headliner. Now, I use my app, Lappaa.

In autumn 2021, I switched to a video and audio format in my podcast. My workflow changed. First, the audio is treated with Izotope products (e.g. RX) removing echoes and other distractions. The actual editing for both is done in Davinci Resolve Studio. The free version is amazing and it’s more than enough to get your basic workflow working. If you want to switch to the paid version, check out for a Resolve Speed Editor bundle (or similar that has the license included).

Services and music

For music licensing, I used Premiumbeat (with codeSELSDSAS you get 25% off your first track purchase). You could commission someone from Fiverr or Upwork to do custom music, jingles, transcripts, editing or other services for you as well.

Gemini Music can create you a solid track in minutes. Google Vids has stock music and footage if you’re doing videos.