Gift Ideas for the Computer User

Crash protection

My kids go bonkers when they see me drop my iPhone on to the hard tile floor—it makes a good demo! I have no fear there, because the NewerTech NuGard KX ballistic case protects the phone (or iPod or iPad). And it makes a much better grip and adds little weight or bulk.

Add memory

This is a no brainer. OWC memory is a fraction of the price that Apple charges. Go to 16GB (the max) in laptops and MacMini, and 32GB in the iMac, and 32GB or more in the Mac Pro.

Backup or lose it

Backup isn’t sexy, but it decidely bites to lose all your Stuff.

My favorite backup drive? The OWC Mercury Elite Pro 4TB (or 3TB). Get the USB 3 + Firewire 800 version so it works on any Mac.

Dedicate one of these drives for Time Machine use, and another (preferably two) to clone backups of your volumes.

For the Photoshop and Lightroom user

The OWC Mercury Accelsior E2 is an ultra-fast PCIe SSD with dual eSATA ports. Install it into a Mac Pro (tower style) directly, or connect to any Thunderbolt-equipped Mac via the Helios enclosure. It makes Photoshop and Lightroom rock.

OWC Mercury Accelsior E2 PCIe SSD