Julian Schrader is the head of one-man-plus-partners web agency Schrader.io Design & Development based in Würzburg, Germany. Besides managing client projects and writing Ruby on Rails, XHTML and CSS, he’s currently studying for a Bachelor of Science in Business Informatics at the University of Würzburg.

Julian’s Setup:

What does your desk look like?

2. What is your current Mac setup?

A 2 × 3.0 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core) Mac Pro, with 6GB of RAM. Unfortunately still with the slow hard drive Apple Refurb put into it, so speed-wise there’s still a bottleneck to bust. To control this machine, I’m using a wireless Apple Keyboard and also a bluetooth Mighty Mouse, which unfortunately sometimes needs a special treatment.

Thanks to eBay, I recently added a second screen to my setup, totaling 2 × 30″ Apple Cinema HD Displays connected to the Mac Pro.

For my audio needs, I’m still using my old Sony stereo—its speakers hide behind the displays, iTunes DJ is shuffling through nearly all genres all day.

Unfortunately this setup isn’t worth anything on-the-go: When I’m working outside or at the university, I rely on my 15″ Unibody MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM) and, of course, on my 32GB iPhone 3GS.

3. Why are you using this setup?

Throughout the day, I’m switching between various setups depending on the task at hand. Whether that means “communication”, “coding” or “designing”, I always need to have multiple applications (and windows) open.

As Shawn put it: I’m “a dude with over 8 million pixels worth of screen real estate” (8.192.000 pixels to be precise), and I found large screens to be way more efficient than constantly switching between Leopard’s Spaces, as I did before.

And the MacBook Pro—well, easy: My iPhone can do a lot, but I need a real computer for lectures and the cafeteria, and it’s great to leave the desk for the garden every now and then.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

• Things combined with Things Touch on my iPhone — a killer task management setup for me. Everything goes into Things.
• Safari — browser of choice.
• DropBox — all my projects live in folders synced with DropBox. This ensures that all my data on the MacBook Pro is automagically up-to-date and everything I do at the university is reflected on my Mac Pro.
• iCal — All lectures and appointments go here. Thanks to MobileMe, this is always in sync on my machines and my iPhone always knows where I have to go next.
• mite. — I’m a web guy, so my time tracking lives on the web. DynaMite on the Macs, web interface on my iPhone.
• Mail — can’t get used to GMail. My Google Apps account lives in Mail.
• iTunes — I’m constantly listenin’, told ya.
• Aurora — wakes me up in the morning.
• Tweetie & Tweetie — my Twitter client on the Macs and iPhone.
• Adium — to log on to my XMPP server, OneTeam on the iPhone.
• Skype — constantly in use with my most regular customer.
• Fever — Shaun Inman’s feedreader immediately knocked out NetNewsWire for me.
• TextMate — I do all my coding with it, sometimes even CSS.
• CSSEdit — Explains itself.
• Terminal — Ruby on Rails and server administration via SSH doesn’t work without it.
• GitX — for version control. I version control everything. If it’s not in git, it’s at least in TimeMachine.
• Transmit — for good ol’ (S)FTP and Amazon S3.
• Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator (both CS3) — to edit pictures, and to check out what the designers did for me.
• Numbers, Pages & Keynote — for my office needs and presentations. So much happier with the iWork suite than with Office (which happens to get dusty on my HD).

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

In the right corner of my desk I have a 1TB Time Capsule to connect me to our WiFi and for backing up with TimeMachine.

Mobile devices:

• A 32GB iPhone 3GS, with me all the time.
• An 8GB iPhone, which is used by my girlfriend.
• I used to own still have a 60GB iPod 5G (hidden in my desk’s drawer, never used again since my first iPhone).

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

Nope. Just updated from an iPhone 3G to the 3GS, everything else is fine for now. Well, maybe a faster hard disk for the Mac Pro?

More Sweet Setups

Julian’s setup is just one in a series of Sweet Mac Setups.

David Appleyard is a freelance designer and blogger based in Manchester, UK. He is the editor of AppStorm, and manages various design-related sites including Design Shack.

David’s Setup:

1. What does your desk look like?

2. What is your current Mac setup?

A 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, with 4GB of RAM. It sits upon a Rain Design mStand which, whilst not the most versatile laptop stand, looks stunning.

I use a 23″ Apple Cinema Display as my primary monitor, along with a Logitech S530 Laser keyboard and mouse. I still rely on a 6 year old set of Altec Lansing 2100 speakers that work flawlessly.

In recent months I have come to love my ScanSnap S300M, a tiny duplex scanner capable of providing a completely paper-free office environment.

3. Why are you using this setup?

I have found that portable Macs offer all the power I require in a far more useful form factor than a desktop. Since purchasing a first generation MacBook I haven’t looked back. Coupling my notebook with a large monitor feels natural and works wonders for productivity.

The original reason I made the move to OS X was for the wonderful user interface. It shunned the brash colours of Windows and appealed to the designer in me. After a few months I began to fall in love with all the other benefits of the platform.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

I use all of the following on a very regular basis:

• Mail – I remain reluctant of moving to a web-based system, and enjoy the simplicity offered by Mail.
• Safari – One of the reasons I originally switched to OS X, and still the fastest browser available for the platform.
• Things – For organizing my life and scheduling tasks to remember in the future. A fantastic user interface.
• NetNewsWire – Great iPhone synchronization makes this my go-to choice for RSS. I’m also experimenting with Fever.
• Tweetie – Having swapped between various Twitter clients, I’ve settled on Tweetie for now.
• DevonThink Pro Office – For maintaining the aforementioned paperless office. It offers incredible OCR for scanned and imported PDF documents.
• Spotify – Being in one of the supported countries, I’m a huge fan of the free streaming music service on offer.
• Pixelmator – For remarkably fast image editing. Not as powerful as Photoshop, but I find myself using it far more often.
• iWork 09 – I completely stepped away from Microsoft Office earlier this year. Pages and Numbers are perfect for my needs.
• Transmit – Still my FTP client of choice, though I also use ExpanDrive from time to time.
• TextMate – For coding and basic text editing.
• Querious – Makes working with MySQL databases enjoyable — no mean feat!

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

I own a 1TB Time Capsule to act as a router and external hard drive for media, along with a 1TB Lacie d2 that mirrors my Time Capsule once a week.

An original MacBook (black) serves as a second machine if my MacBook Pro ever encounters a technical problem or surreptitious burglar.

I also own a few iPhones/iPods:

• A 16GB iPhone 3G, with me at all times.
• An 8GB iPhone now commandeered by my significant other.
• A 3rd generation iPod shuffle for running. Rarely used.

An Apple TV sits in my lounge, though slightly sub-par WiFi reception makes it somewhat of a hassle to use regularly. Plans are in place to run an ethernet cable, but it’s no easy task.

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

I’m thoroughly content with my current Mac setup, though would likely purchase a 30″ LED Cinema Display if Apple ever get around to producing one. I’m also a big fan of the MacBook Pro keyboard, and will pick up a Wireless Apple Keyboard to replace my Logitech at some point in the near future.

More Sweet Setups

David’s setup is just one in a series of Sweet Mac Setups.