There’s no way to put this gently. The average worker’s desktop has more germs on it than the average toilet seat.
Which bring me to today’s topic: stocking stuffers for computer users.
I didn’t do any cross checking, so you’ll have to join me in trusting the claim about germs cited by Fellowes Inc. to promote a new computer mouse and keyboard embedded with anti-bacterial chemicals. Fellowes also offers germ-killing mouse pads, all under the patented Microban line.
Itasca-based Fellowes maintains a Web site full of its line of accessories that are tailor-made for home computer hobbyists as well as workers at their germ-drenched office desktops.
Fellowes’ trademark yellow and black product cases can be found at office stores and online at Amazon.com. I found it difficult to buy from Fellowes’ online store, but the keyboards are about $18 at Amazon.com and the mouse pads are under $6.
Perfect stocking stuffers or what?
Judging from the products sent my way for holiday season review, the computer and consumer electronics industry is pressing hard to offer these low-price gadgets.
Joining Fellowes in the push are the world’s largest non-biological mousemaker, Logitech Inc., and Microsoft Corp., whose little-known hardware division has gotten deeply into the mouse trade (keyboards, too).
Another mother lode of stocking stuffers is the new generation of low-priced memory cards and what have become known as jump drives–gum pack-size gadgets that plug into USB ports to upload files on one computer and download them elsewhere.
Five years ago we gladly forked over $200 for a bulky Iomega Zip drive or some other brick-size removable storage device. Today Iomega Inc. and many competitors offer larger and far smaller jump drives, mostly under $100 and often in the $30 range.
Iomega’s 128 mini drive holds the equivalent of 92 high-density floppy disks. I particularly like the included Active Disk software that let me load a few programs on a USB drive and run them on any computer from the gadget’s own memory. Got to Iomega.com.
The 900-pound gorilla is SanDisk Corp., a Silicon Valley outfit that bet big on flash memory development and now basks in fat city. Folks are scrambling as never before to get memory cards for their digital cameras, their MP3 music players, their Palm and Pocket PC hand-held PDAs and even their cell phones.
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It has never been easier to shop for techie stocking stuffers. They’re relatively low priced, suitably small and above all, they’re stuff that computer users will lap up like kittens at an overturned milk truck.
Here are the stocking stuffer highlights in the mouse trade:
Logitech offers a slick new technology in its high-end mice that uses a laser beam instead of the common red light in optical mice to sense the movement on a surface. The result is amazing for users of optical mice who often find that a desktop or some new mouse pad is the wrong color or texture and cannot be seen by the sensors.
The top rodent is Logitech’s $80 MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse. It comes with a built-in lithium ion battery that rests in a charging cradle and then uses that laser sensor to work on any surface you care to try–anything from the side of your blue jeans to a granite countertop to a Microban mouse pad.
For many shoppers, the best bang for the buck goes to Microsoft’s new S+ARCK optical mouse designed by the famously quirky Phillipe Starck to resemble a silver egg bisected with a bright blue or orange groove for the scroll wheel. It goes for around $16, and you can find it at Microsoft.com/hardware.
An adage in computer circles is that just as one can never be too rich or too thin, one can never have too much memory.
I saved the best stocking stuffers for last because SanDisk has become a cornucopia of gadgets, including its Cruzer lines of mini drives and micro drives, MP3 players and, most of all, very small cards with very large memories.
SanDisk’s SD and Multimedia cards hold large numbers of photos and can be had starting around $20 for 64 megabytes and up to maybe $40 or $50 for 256 mb. These will be most welcome indeed to digital camera owners.
Now, a drum roll please. I present the hands-down, to-die-for stocking stuffer for techies for 2004: the SanDisk 256 mb Digital Music Player for $90.
It comes in a candy red case the size of two jump drives pasted together. It has a built-in FM radio receiver and plays both MP3 and WMA music files. Batteries, USB cable, arm band and stereo earphones are included.
It holds and plays about 4 hours or 60 songs worth of MP3s and 8 hours or 120 songs in WMAs. Other versions hold 512 mb for $150 and 1 gigabyte for $200.
While $90 is a steal indeed, at $200 you’re too close to the $250 needed for a 20-gb iPod. Now that’s my kind of stocking stuffer.
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Binary beat readers can participate in the column at chicagotribune.com/askjim, or e-mail [email protected]. Snail-mail him in Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611.