If you watched my livestream yesterday evening, you caught me putting together a lovely gift from the folks at Elgato: a LEGO set designed like a Stream Deck, complete with unique icons and an angled surface.
Shot with Obscura so I could get the white balance and 2:1 aspect ratio.
The set is 215 pieces and 48 steps – I put it together in a little under an hour. What a lovely little accessory for my favorite accessory – it’s definitely going on my display shelf.
If you’ve ever been interested in customizable keys for your Mac, boom arms for your streaming or podcasting mics, a teleprompter for video calls and recording, or high-quality lights you can control from an app (plus much more), Elgato’s Black Friday sale is your chance to invest in new gear at a more-affordable price.
With sales of 15% up to 30% on select products, you can get the Stream Deck, Wave Mic Arm, and Prompter, plus everything below on sale for this weekend only. Here’s what’s newly on sale, not including all the discounts from their early Black Friday pre-sale1 – I use all of these except the Pro mic arm (because I already gave the LP version):
I’m also happy to answer any questions on social media if you’re unsure of anything – nobody wants to buy something they won’t use, so I can always help assess what’s right for your setup.
I’ve also been sharing posts on my site throughout this year as an Elgato Partner, so check out these stories from today’s products on sale:
For anyone in the US, the folks at Elgato have their pre-Black Friday sale live starting today – you can get discounts from 13% up to 30% on products like the Wave Mic and Arm, Key Light, or Stream Deck Mk. 2.
Here’s a full list of discounts – I have tried and utilize everything here in my setup in one color or another, except the Video Capture cable (only because I simply haven’t needed it):
Even if you’re not using the new Action Sharing, backing up your Stream Deck profiles is just good practice – I will back up my entire setup regularly, plus individual profiles as I finish or update them.
I’ve also long used my shortcut “Open Stream Deck Backups” to quickly access the folder on macOS as well, since I found myself not remembering the location of the default destination where these are saved.
Action Sharing is a game-changer for my Shortcuts Catalog. I’ve never been able to nail down the workflow for updating shortcuts that I’ve added while also sharing them with members, since it required updating at the folder/profile level.
Now, I can attach Stream Deck actions directly to each shortcut!
I’ll have to spend some time updating my workflow, but this may make the difference so I can finally release everything in full.
This is welcome improvement for the Dial actions, which had seen limited developer adoption.
This will still take some consideration for some use cases, though, since there’s left, right, and click options for each Dial – plus thinking through what happens as you continue to spin.
Voice Sync is out of beta for Elgato’s Camera Hub app, plus tere’s a new Camera Preview Quick Look so you can check your shot that’s behind Display Mode, as well as new hotkeys for controlling the Prompter.
Okay, not only can you dictate your scripts ahead of time, but now when you record it’ll match your voice and scroll as you speak automatically. I love the Prompter.
If you’ve just purchased the updated Beats Pill from Apple, you’re probably looking for how to turn it off, since Apple oddly left it out of the packaging and user guide. Here’s how:
Press and hold the Power button for more than 1 second, but less than 3 seconds.
One of my main points of contention with the new Pill is how few buttons it has for its plethora of controls. For instance, the power button has six different functions.
Power on/off (hold for more than 0.8 seconds, but less than three)
Pairing (press and hold for over three seconds)
Voice Assistant (double tap)
Battery status (quick tap, less than 0.8 seconds)
Change charging direction (triple tap)
USB-C audio pass through (press and hold button while plugging in USB-C cable)
This is way too much for one button.
That’s not even including the six functions for the center button as well, which the linked story covers.
Further in the same piece, Brad also highlighted the same issue that I found – Apple never actually tells you how to power down your Beats Pill, anywhere. Here he is again talking about the physical manual:
When you unfold it, there are a few quick controls laid out, but it doesn’t even mention how to turn the speaker off, which as I found out, is more complex than it needs to be.
Instructions for how to actually turn off your Beats Pill don’t come in the manual that comes with the speaker, are not in the user guide linked on the QR code that’s on the manual, and are nowhere online except Brad’s article – hence why I’m writing a dedicated piece to help people discover this explicit.
To help further illustrate the power instructions, I created this custom graphic from an amalgamation of the images in the User Guide and SF Symbols.
Also, to illustrate the USB-C instructions, I created this second graphic as well with SF Symbols – Apple probably wouldn’t label this with the Losslessbadge or the USB-C image, but I find it helpful for remembering those functions.
After reading reviews on Tuesday about Apple’s new Beats Pill, I went and tried to pick one up – only to realize it was on sale on Thursday. So today, I went to the Apple Store and actually picked one up.
The Beats Pill’s streamlined design features a 20-degree upward tilt to help deliver sound waves towards your head, away from objects that might obstruct them.
Enjoy up to 24 hours of battery life for all-day continuous playback.³ The Beats Pill can even be used to charge your phone and other devices via USB-C cable.
IP67-rated for dust and water resistance for outstanding durability on the go.²
Designed for ultimate portability, including the removable lanyard and soft-grip silicone backing.
Dual compatibility for both iOS and Android enables one-touch Bluetooth® pairing, automatic pairing across your other devices, and Find My or Find My Device.
The 3-in-1 Multifunction Pen from Craft Design Technology is like the grown up version of those plastic multicolor pens we all had as kids. Simply twist the barrel to change from black ink to red ink to a mechanical pencil. It uses a unique oil and water-based ink formula that’s long lasting and creates a super smooth writing experience. The metal body is decorated with the brand’s signature graphic pattern which provides a nice, comfortable grip.
This new 3-in-1 pen/pencil from Ugmonk looks fantastic.
The USB-C to SD Card Reader transfers high-resolution photos and videos at UHS-II speeds to your USB-C enabled Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Designed so it won’t block your other ports, it works with UHS-II SD cards and is backward compatible with other SD cards and adapters.
For years, Apple didn’t make these anymore and relied on a third-party model from SanDisk (which I still use). However, since I always lose the dang thing right when I need it most, I figured I should get another ahead of WWDC.
The Suti Magnetic PhoneBack is the perfect solution for the minimalist crowd out there. Bringing you a range of color options with one surprising action!
🛒 PURCHASE LINK: https://geni.us/oJHu
Cool product I hadn’t heard of yet – good summary from TechnicallyTee.
The new Keychron Ultra-Slim keyboards come in ivory white or space gray with a 100% layout with numpad or a 75% compact model without numpad.
One thing you lose compared to Apple’s Magic Keyboard is the option for Touch ID, but you get a number of benefits Apple doesn’t offer like 2.4GHz connectivity, much longer battery life, and USB-C at less than 50% of the cost.
I’ve long had a Keychron mechanical keyboard – might need to try one of these compact models as for a portable setup…
Made from a space gray aluminum that is meant to match Apple devices, the hub supports up to four extended monitors at 4K/60Hz resolution, or one display at 8K/60Hz. With four displays, two can be connected through Thunderbolt 4 and two through HDMI. Satechi says that this feature is designed to address the single display limit of M1, M2, and M3 chips. M1, M2, and M3 MacBook Pro models support up to three displays with Satechi’s dock, while the M3 MacBook Air supports four when in clamshell mode. Machines with Pro and Max chips support up to four displays through the hub.
Yes, it’s $300. But if you read about all the features, this thing looks like it packs a punch.
I have posted before about controlling the Prompter from the Stream Deck +, but now that I’ve had actually had both for a while it’s been excellent to actually use it in practice – the Stream Deck + is basically a must-have for the Prompter because it makes working with scripts so much better.
