I currently have an HTC 8X windows phone on my desk which I think is one of the best smartphones on the market. I also have a Surface tablet. I have a fascinating little device called a Leap Motion sitting on my desk that detects finger gestures. I also have three Kinect for Windows sensors arrayed around my desk in order to capture images from multiple directions, bullet time style.
The thing that is most precious to me, however, is the 16 Gig Lexar jump drive someone bought for my dev/design group. It is the fastest USB flash drive currently available. When I described it to my wife, she said she didn’t realize that thumb drives came in different speeds. After thinking it over, I realized that before using the Lexar, I hadn’t realized it either.
Or to be more accurate, I realized vaguely in my lizard brain that some thumb drives are slower than others, but I had no idea that some were faster than others.
And above all the fast thumb drives, there’s the Lexar, which feels like it is instantaneous. For example, a colleague recently needed a copy of Visual Studio 2012 while we were in Manhattan for a retail show. I put the 1.5 Gig ISO on my Lexar jump drive and he brought his laptop to my hotel room to copy the file over. He thought he could get the copying started, we’d go to dinner, and hopefully it would be done by the time dinner was over. But practically before he’d even touched the Lexar to his USB port … ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip … it was over. The ISO file was on his harddrive.
I have to admit that I now have a problem even letting someone else use the 16 Gig Lexar – even though it is communal property – because I’m not sure I’ll get it back. People in our group are constantly asking for the plastic container where we keep our various jump drives … but of course we all know what they are really looking for is one of the two 16 Gig Lexars we own. Honestly, it’s starting to be a problem, and I’m tempted to just throw these thumb drives into a volcano somewhere. It causes nothing but friction and jealously on the team.
But at the same time, it is so beautiful and precious to me. My colleague from New York was instantly won over and talked about the thumb drive for a half hour through dinner. If you have a tech person you want to buy a nice present for – or if you are someone who needs a little self-care – treat yourself to something special. They’re a little pricey, and even better than you can possibly imagine.