Essential Tech for Any Student or Working Professional

We are a fifth of our way into the 21st century, and technology has become a huge part of our lives. We have gadgets for everything we could need, and life has become more and more technologically driven.

With the world being more and more electronics-based, you may not want to find yourself falling behind. Whether you are tech-savvy, or the only thing you know how to do is send emails, or play on your mobile jackpot casino, here is some tasty tech for any student or working professional.

Laptop

A laptop is the quintessential piece of technology for anyone in any field. There are just so many uses for a mobile computer that you can take with you, that they are hard to count.

The first advantage of a laptop especially for students is the speed at which you can take notes. This is a huge advantage especially if you have a teacher that likes to speak very fast.

So, unlike with a pen and paper, you can type as fast as you’d like and you don’t have to worry about missing anything. This was a huge boon in my personal schooling career, and there are a few classes I don’t know if I’d have survived without it.

The second advantage a laptop brings to the table is the bonus of digital storage. Imagine for a moment that you are an average highschool student. You have many classes that you need to take notes in.

Imagine first that you must take all those notes physically. With a pen and paper! Now, you must carry around half a dozen notebooks and make sure you always have pens or pencils on you.

This will lead them to have a very heavy backpack full of all the books and school supplies they would need. Either that or they would have to make trips after every single one of their classes back to their locker to switch out notebooks.

Not imagine the same thing for, say, a lawyer. They have to carry around all of their papers for clients and the like, and there is no backup! If they lose their briefcase, everything they have is gone. This is a huge concern for both students and working professionals.

Now imagine if they used a laptop. Laptops are slim and light nowadays, and even with the power bricks and cables, will weigh much less than all those notebooks and papers would.

In addition, now they have the power of cloud storage at their fingertips. They can backup all their notes and files, so they don’t have to worry about losing them. Now, even if they lose their laptop, they won’t have to worry about losing all their files.

A final thing that might be a bonus to some people is the ability to consume media and play video games with greater ease and comfort than on a smartphone. Laptops have larger screens, and since you would be bringing it around anyway, it’s no extra hassle.

Now, why would someone want to use a laptop for something like gaming instead of a desktop? Well, the key here is the portability of a laptop. You can’t bring a desktop around, so you would have to leave it wherever you live.

Now, this could be a problem if you won’t be having a specific permanent residence for a while. An example would be if someone has to the dorm with other people, or will be away a lot.

This is especially true if you don’t entirely trust the people you are dorming with, or just don’t have room to set up a full desktop computer. It could be rude to your flatmates if there is limited space and you have to take up an entire outlet.

Smartphone

Smartphones are one of the greatest pieces of technology to be invented in recent years. The ability to have a powerful computer and internet browsing device that fits inside your pocket is simply mind-blowing.

There are many reasons a smartphone is an essential piece of technology. This is both in terms of convenience, connectivity, and other things.

First of all, a smartphone is really important if you are somebody who would be expecting people to constantly be trying to contact you. Or, if you are at a time when you are expecting important phone calls from other people.

Or perhaps, you are the person who needs to call people! The ability to have a phone with you to be able to send messages and calls out to people could be invaluable. But, it is the other aspects along with this that make a smartphone better than a regular cell phone.

The second reason a smartphone is very useful is because of data. Cellular data allows you to be able to access the internet anywhere you are. This can be very important if you need to look things up, or perhaps if you need to receive and read emails a lot.

A third reason smartphones are useful is their ability to help you keep track of things. From alarms to calendars, to reminders, smartphones can help you stay on top of things you have to do. This can help you make sure you are never late for something important or turn something in late.

Speaking of being late for something important, the ability to have a digital map with you at all times is absolutely invaluable. I wouldn’t even be able to begin to count how many times using Google Maps, or Waze, or any other map program has saved me.

From times that I have had to go out of the city, to times where I have just been wandering around and gotten lost, to times that I needed to go somewhere specific and be there on time, having a portable GPS and map with you at all times is an absolute lifesaver.

Speaking of lifesaver, that could also be another great reason to carry around some sort of phone with you. If, heaven forbid, somebody were to get hurt, or perhaps you yourself were to get hurt, you would always have the means to call emergency services.

Power Packs

Students and people that work have to travel around a lot. They go from place to place, and won’t always have access to a wall outlet. This is why a power pack can be a really useful tool for anyone.

I know that personally, I have forgotten to charge my phone before I have left my house. This had led me to be low on juice for the whole day. Luckily, I was somewhere I could charge my phone with an outlet, but that is not always the case.

Many times, a school might not let you use a wall outlet. Or perhaps, you are traveling somewhere for business and you can’t plug your phone in on the way. The ability to bring some power with you can be invaluable.

This is especially true if you need to send messages or take calls all the time. That means you wouldn’t be able to turn your phone off to save battery power. So, that extra battery back could be just the jumpstart you need.

USB Adapter

When I talk about a USB power adapter, I am talking about one of those USB Type-A splitters that have every single end on it you could need. From Micro-USB to Apple’s Thunderbolt charger, to USB Type-C, it can do it all.

Why is this so useful? Wouldn’t you have the cables you need on you already? Well, yes and no. What this would allow you to do is carry a single cable for all of your devices.

With the splitter, you could then just switch them out to charge each one individually. This could save both space and weight by not having to carry around multiple cables.

For instance, imagine if you use an iPhone which takes Apple’s proprietary thunderbolt cable, you have headphones that charge via Micro-USB and a laptop that uses USB Type-C. Now, you could have one cable, and just use the adapter for all of your devices.

Imagine all the space you must be saving. That would be three separate cables that you would all have to find space for in your bag. Which would probably be full of all the other junk you need to bring with you to school or work.

USB Type-A/Type-C Thumb Drive

For those of us who aren’t fortunate enough to live in a place with cheap data costs, you aren’t always going to be able to transfer files around through the internet. If your data plan is only 5 gigabytes a month or something like it, then if you need to transfer files around between you and your compatriots, you are going to need an analog medium.

The solution for this is a thumb drive. Thumb drives are a great way to quickly transfer files around between yourself and other people. Not only will it almost always be faster than using the internet, but it will also save your cellular data, and by extension, your cellular bill.

This isn’t just great for those who have bad data plans. Sometimes, you may have sensitive files that you don’t wish to transfer via the internet. Or, your internet is just simply slow. With a Thumb drive, you can transfer a file practically as fast as you can pass it over to the person sitting next to you.

Portable Drive

The last piece of tech I would recommend for any student or working professional is a portable drive. This is literally a hard drive that you can take with you and plug into your computer or phone.

Now, why do I recommend this? Well, many times, you will need more storage than your internal drive in your laptop or smartphone can support. Or, to upgrade your laptop with the amount of storage you want would just simply be too expensive.

This is where a portable drive comes in. This is a full-sized hard drive or solid-state drive that you can simply carry with you! It could possibly double, or triple the amount of data you can store, and it doesn’t need to be transferred over the internet.

This is also great if you like to game. This way, you can store everything you need for work or school on your computer’s internal drive, and whenever you want to play a game, you can just plug in your drive and have some fun! After all, all work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy.