Phone
I got a new phone recently: an Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3. I'd had my old one for 3 years, and I kept telling myself it was fast enough for the things I used it for, so I didn't need a new one. But it was stuck on the KitKat version of Android, with no hope of getting new versions. I kept looking at Wendy's newer phone, which had the latest version of Android (Lollipop), and feeling envious of the new features she could use. And there were times when my phone ran so much slower than hers. So I caved and bought a new one.
I was quite pleased with my purchase. The top of the line phones these days cost $700, which is an astronomical price to pay for a phone, in my opinion. I kept looking for a solid mid-range phone, and that's what I found with the Idol 3. I was able to pre-order it for only $200, and it has Lollipop, and it is much, much faster than my old phone.
It's also much bigger, which has taken some adjustment. It's a 5.5-inch phone, compared to my old one which was 4.6-inch. It still fits in my pocket, but just barely. I usually take it out when I'm sitting down and set it on the desk/table/whatever's convenient. That means I'm more likely to forget it somewhere, but so far that hasn't happened. (Knock on wood)
Laptop
I also got a new laptop recently, but unlike the phone, I went top of the line. I've been using my old laptop for almost 5 years. The main reason I bought the old one was because it was cheap: it was a Black Friday deal I bought online from Best Buy. It was not all that fast, and the keyboard had an annoying row of buttons to launch default programs (web browser, email, calculator, etc), which meant I kept accidentally hitting those buttons when I meant to hit something else. Then I'd have to wait until the program launched, so I could kill it, and try again to hit the right button. It didn't happen that often, but it was very annoying when it did.
So this time around I decided not to skimp. After reading reviews from Consumer Reports, and talking to a coworker who just got a new laptop, I bought a Dell 17-inch Inspiron 7000 series. It's got an i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB hard drive, and a dedicated graphics card. It also has a touch screen. So far I love the larger screen (my old laptop was a 15-inch), and I absolutely love that it has a backlit keyboard. No more squinting at the keyboard in the dark to make sure I'm hitting the right button. Very nice! And it's also much, much faster than my old laptop!
This morning I finished all the setup: installing Linux, getting everything configured, and transferring over my data. I'm looking forward to developing software with this machine.
CamelBak
A few months ago I reached my 10-year anniversary at work. As a reward, I got to pick a gift from a (very) small catalog. I was fairly unimpressed with the selection. I had to look through it several times before I could find something I was even mildly interested in. Finally, I decided to get a 100-oz CamelBak. It's one of those backpacks with a water reservoir inside. There's a tube that extends out of the backpack and clips to a shoulder strap, so you can easily drink from the reservoir. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was great choice, because I could use it on bike rides to take along far more water than would fit in a bottle. So even though I was briefly tempted by a soft-serve ice cream maker, I got the CamelBak, to encourage me to exercise rather than to eat ice cream.
I've taken the CamelBak on several bike rides now, and it's great. I drink much more water than I usually do when I just have a bottle, and it's easier to drink while riding. 100 ounces is a lot of water, but it's actually not that heavy. The only downside is that the backpack does make my back get much sweatier, but that's fairly minor (and sweating is part of the point of exercising).
When I'm done riding, I take the reservoir out of the backpack, wash it out, and store it in the freezer until the next ride. Several places, including the CamelBak website, recommend that as a way to prevent bacteria from growing.
So that was a pretty good gift after all. I hope to use it for many bike rides to come.