Audio-Technica ATH-50x Headphones
These are widely known as one of the best headphones for the money, and they’re usually the ones that sit at my workstation. The audio is obviously great, and I prefer them to either earphones or on-ear headphones when I’m spending a whole day working with them on. Highly recommend.
I’ll repeat here what I said in the travel section: these earphones are the single most painful thing for me to forget when traveling – they’re just awesome. I’ve compared them with the best Bose headphones, and the difference in background noise reduction is minimal, and I believe better in some situations.
Between the cost difference and the portability compared with bulky headphones, as well as the lack of need for batteries, I think these headphones are a steal, and I’m now on my fifth pair.
As a small disclaimer, the one weak spot of these is the cords – you have to take care of them, and even then after a couple years they will wear out. That said, Etymotic has never failed to replace them for me, meaning that I’ve only ever paid for two pairs of these. Last time they even upgraded my replacements to the ones with a mic/remote when I asked.
Aukey 30,000mAh Charger with USB-C
I bought this recently as a method of charging my laptop (15” Macbook Pro). Now, it doesn’t really “charge” it, but what it will do is extend the battery life well beyond normal. It’s also a great power bank to have kicking around if you have a bunch of people needing to charge phones (on the boat, going camping, etc.).
I carry this thing pretty much everyday, and it’s a lifesaver when your phone (like mine) seems to die every 4 hours, yet you often have days where you don’t get to a phone charger for 16. It’s small, portable, and if you don’t need it, it’s likely someone around you will.
I wasn’t actually a Macbook user until last year, but I’ve embraced the switch – I use my old PC for very few things now.
I actually used the 12” Macbook for a while last year, but upgraded when the Pro came out. I upgraded for the video & photo processing abilities, among other things, but there are definitely times I miss the portability, weight, and battery life of the Macbook. My advice would be to seriously consider the 12” Macbook unless you really believe you need the extra processing power. That said, I’ve been happy.
Seagate Backup Plus Slim External Hard Drives
I’ve used Western Digital drives but had reliability issues. Seagate hasn’t let me down, I usually just reformat for Mac when I buy them instead of paying extra for the Mac version. I currently use a variety of the 1TB, 2TB and 4TB sizes. Note that the 4TB and above versions are larger, and the bumper cases don’t fit.
Cheap and reliable, I take it with me whenever I’m traveling.
I was skeptical at first, but I love these pens now. They’re not that expensive, but fine point and last a long time.
Oristand Portable Standing Desk
I really can’t stand sitting for long periods of time anymore – it takes a little while to get used to, but I try and make sure I ship one of these ahead of time if I know I’m going to be working somewhere for a while and won’t have a proper standing desk. They’re cheap, in my experience robust, and the customer service is great. I’ve used it with a 28” monitor before with no issues. One of my better office setups:
