Whenever people discuss the benefits of working from home, they typically point to the obvious stuff, like being able to dress casually and not having a commute.

But as a techie who's worked at home for over a decade, what I've come to appreciate most is being my own IT guy and office clerk. The only one who needs to sign off on major equipment upgrades is my wife (who, thankfully, approves most of the time), and I can set everything up exactly as I see fit.

With so many other folks now working at home, it seems like a fine time to share some of my favorite home office niceties. These are the things that make me the most comfortable during long hours at my desk; hopefully some of them will be helpful to you as well:

Second screen: Once you realize that you needn't be confined to a single computer screen, it's hard going back. I once had a triple-monitor setup, but found it overwhelming and have since settled on dual screens, with the main monitor for writing or emailing and an off-center monitor for research and reference.

If you don't have a desktop computer with multiple display outputs, How-To Geek has a helpful primer on connecting multiple monitors to a single laptop. As I covered back in October, you can also use a spare tablet as a second screen for any laptop or desktop, either with the Sidecar feature in MacOS Mojave (for iPads), or with the third-party Duet Display or Spacedesk software.

Monitor stand: Unless your desk comes up to your chest, your monitor or laptop is not going to promote good posture. To avoid craning your neck for hours on end, consider using a monitor stand to lift your screens higher. You can splurge on fancy wooden ones, get cheaper ones made of metal or plastic, or just stack up a few inches' worth of thick books. If your monitors are VESA mountable (with four screw holes forming a rectangle in the back), you can even set them up on adjustable arms.

I've mentioned it before, but this wooden tablet stand can also give your laptop's screen a lift. Just connect an external mouse and keyboard, and prop the laptop on the stand at a wide angle like so.

Keyboard tray: While typing, your shoulders should be at rest, and your forearms shouldn't have to bend upward to reach the keyboard. An under-desk keyboard tray will make that possible without having to sit so high up that you're staring back down at your monitor again. You can even get a tray that clamps onto your desk if screwing it in seems like too much hassle.

Mouse pad: For years, I bought the conventional wisdom that mouse pads aren't necessary anymore, because modern optical mice can track any surface. Then I got one anyway to deal with the uneven surface on my keyboard tray, and it was a revelation. A cheap cloth mousepad, like this $8 one from Razer, will spare your desk from scuffing, produce far less noise, and—most importantly—allow you to control the mouse more precisely.

Extra lighting: Last month, I mentioned my use of a $40 lighting kit for product photography and the occasional video chat, but lately I've started using it for room lighting as well. My office doesn't have overhead lights, and the lamp at my desk has a yellow hue, so the room can get dreary on rainy days and in the evening hours. Even pointing away from my desk, the kit does a nice job filling the room back up with white light.

Voice Assistant: The average IT department would probably never allow an Amazon Echo or Google Home speaker on the office network, but at home they can't stop you. I often use the Google Home speaker at my desk to create calendar appointments and set reminders without breaking focus from my other tasks, and it's helpful for playing background noise as well. (Though lately I've been listening through earbuds to drown out other sounds.)

Decent speakers: At this point, I've reviewed enough laptops for PCWorld to say this with confidence: Most of them have terrible audio, and even the good ones are no substitute for a proper set of desktop speakers. For the past few years, I've happily used Logitech's Z533 speakers, which include a subwoofer and a handy desktop module for volume control, bass levels, headphone output, and auxiliary input. They sell for $100 at Best Buy or $50 in refurbished condition from eBay. The Wirecutter has other recommendations, including the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 set that was recently mentioned in Dwight Silverman's very nice Release Notes newsletter.

A TV? As you can see from the above image, my office has a 50-inch 4K HDR TV that I mostly use to review streaming devices, over-the-air DVRs, and other cord-cutting products for TechHive.

No, I'm not suggesting that a TV is necessary for your office. But I am saying that it's pretty nice to have—if you can get the necessary sign-offs.
 

Apple and Google fight the virus: To track the spread of the novel coronavirus, Apple and Google have formed an unusual alliance. The companies have devised a "contact tracing" system that uses the Bluetooth LE radios on smartphones to determine when any two iPhone or Android users have been in close proximity. If a user tests positive, they can opt into sharing that information with health authorities, which can then alert any other phone that's come in close contact over the previous two weeks.

That probably sounds a bit creepy, but the system is built to avoid identifying individual users. When a pair of phones get near another, they only exchange random strings of letters and characters representing their devices. Each phone then periodically downloads a separate list of identifiers that represents infected users, and the system sends an alert when it finds a match. Some privacy nitpicks do exist, but if you take Apple and Google at their words, it won't be possible to track people down, learn who infected whom, or publicize a list of infected individuals.

The bigger question is whether their system will work in the first place. At the outset, Apple and Google are expecting public health agencies to release apps that use this contact tracing system, but the underlying APIs won't arrive until mid-May, and the whole concept falls apart if people don't download the resulting apps at scale. The goal is to eventually build contact tracing directly into iOS and Android, but the timeframe and implementation details for that plan are even squishier. I'm glad Apple and Google are collaborating, but as with everything else in this crisis, how it plays out from here is anyone's guess.

Facebook's couples therapy: Facebook has released an experimental iPhone app called Tuned that acts like a social network for couples. You can set a mood to indicate how you're feeling, share music via Spotify, and of course swap messages in various media formats.

The couples messaging concept has already been done before by other apps like Between, and while some folks seem to like them, they've always seemed kind of gimmicky to me. Using existing communication channels like iMessage (or, you know, face-to-face discussion) is more natural than shoehorning everything into a separate app, and besides, a "private space for your most important relationship" is not something I'd really entrust to Facebook anyway.

Chromebooks' web app revival: As The Verge reported on Monday, Chromebooks will now host web-based versions of YouTube TV and Twitter in the Google Play Store, replacing the Android versions that were previously available. These "Progressive Web Apps" will behave similarly to their Android counterparts, with push notifications, app tray icons, and no browser menu clutter, but they'll occupy less storage space and require less compute power

It's too early to say whether this is the start of a trend, so I probably shouldn't read too much into it, but part of me wishes this was the path Google took from the start. Chromebooks were once ahead of the curve in promoting apps built around web technologies, but then Google spent years bringing Android apps to Chromebooks, and never quite getting them to work well. There's an alternate universe where Google held firm on making Chromebooks the best place for web apps and had a thriving ecosystem for them by now.
 

This week, I was reading about a new app called Bar None, which disables the Touch Bar on certain MacBooks for everything except Function keys. That in turn led me to discover another Mac app called Little Fingers that seems perfect for our current moment.

With Little Fingers, you can press Shift-Ctrl-Option-Cmd-L to toggle off your Mac's keyboard and mouse/touchpad. If you have young children or needy pets, locking the inputs is a great way to let them visit your desk or sit in on video chat sessions without causing any disruptions. (It might also be helpful for those moments of personal anguish where you just need to mash the keys without consequence.)

Naturally, I had to see if a Windows equivalent existed, which led me to Kid Key Lock. Instead of using a toggle command, Kid Key Lock activates automatically when you launch the program. You can then type a sequence of keys ("kklquit" by default) to exit the app and unlock your inputs again. Just make sure to type "kklsetup" and disable "Show Balloon window" once you've got the hang of it.

What happens if you forget the unlock combination with either app? You'll just have to restart your computer, so maybe write it down until it's ingrained in your memory.
 

Tweak your Apple Watch faces: A new app called Watchsmith sounds like a neat way to customize your Apple Watch faces. It includes a collection of complications for things like calendar, weather, workouts, and activity data, all of which have customizable colors, accents, and fonts. More notably, Watchsmith can automatically swap out complications at different times of the day, so you might switch your calendar view in the morning for a workout view in the afternoon.

The only catch here is that weather and tide complications require a subscription at $2 per month or $20 per year, but that seems fair given that such data costs money. You can read more details about Watchsmith here.

Ableton explains music: This is a little off the beaten path, but I love these interactive lessons from Ableton on the fundamentals of making music and synthesizing sounds. Both lessons let you touch, click, and drag onsemina widgets that demonstrate various musical concepts, and each interaction builds upon the last with concise, explanatory text. Even if you know a bit about music production already, you'll probably learn something.

The lessons are not new, but Ableton is re-promoting them as yet another thing to do when you're stuck inside. And if you want to experiment further, it's offering 90-day trials and 30% discounts for its esteemed Ableton Live music-making software.
 

• Curious, indeed: New iPad Pros lack Apple's space-tracking U1 chip.
• A pro photographer is shooting portraits through Facetime.
• Don't say "14" to Siri (unless you want to call emergency services).
• Please don't "tip bait" Instacart shoppers.
• My PCWorld pal Brad Chacos rounds up some Windows 10 productivity tips.

Once again, Staples is taking $25 off orders of $100 or more when you use the coupon code 66122 at checkout, which opens up a bunch of possibilities: Get those Logitech Z533 desktop speakers I mentioned earlier for $75, or Logitech's luxurious MX Master 3 mouse for $75. You can also get a pair of of 2 TB Seagate portable hard drives for $87, or get two of Roku's Streaming Stick+ devices for $75.

If your item falls just short of $100, you can add a cheap filler item like this $0.50 paper notebook to take it over the top. And keep in mind the lower price won't show up until you hit the checkout page.

Some other notable deals this morning:

• Amazon's third-gen Echo Dot speaker is down to $25 at Woot.
• The full-sized Echo is down to $60 at Best Buy and Amazon.
• Daily Steals has Logitech's MX Master 2S (nearly as good as the MX Master 3, and the mouse I'm using right now) for $55.
• I love this portable battery from Charmast, which is $5 off, bringing the price to $45. The 26800 mAh capacity can charge an iPhone seven times, and it can charge or accept a charge from pretty much any type of cable.

Notice anything different about Advisorator this week? I've added another section to the newsletter ("Now try this"), which will host the kind of timely tips I used to just stick inside the news section ("Need to know"). I've also moved that news section up, so it sits directly beneath the week's feature topic. My hope is that this creates a clearer distinction between actionable advice and newsy perspective, and to make the newsletter more digestible overall. Let me know what you think!

Got any tech questions I can answer for you? Just reply to this email to get in touch.

Until next week,
Jared