04. 2.2008

Laptop bag bonanza - best of the best, part 3 (and another giveaway)

LUXURY "MINIMALIST" LAPTOP BAG BY ZEGARI

If you're wearing your Chanel suit and your Manolo's, then this is the luxury laptop bag to carry. The elegant "Minimalist" by Zegari is made of beautiful leather in a classic design, and is loaded with features: lots of pockets, including special holders for your mobile phone, PDA, and MP3 player; organizational features for pens, cards, keys, and olders/papers; a twist-off key fob for your keys; a protected laptop compartment; tiny metal feet to keep it off the ground; wonderful soft-cushioned handles; a removable shoulder strap. And did I mention it's beautiful in a minimalist, understated way?

It costs less than your shoes at $285 but screams success, even if you're doing the old "fake it until you make it." (Fits 15" MacBook Pro and most laptops with 15" screens.) Don't miss this week's Popgadget Drop email - Zegari is giving one of these lovely numbers to one of our subscribers. Not subscribed yet? Sign up here.

COMPUTE WITH COLOR - "FLICKA"

The Flicka story began like most fairytales, with a "big city girl reporter who couldn't find a laptop case that didn't look like it belonged to a boy so she stiched up one of her own." That would be one Alice Cervantes who gave up journalism to make bags full-time when friends asked to buy her colorful laptop sleeves and bags.

As the name suggests, the Flicka "Brief" bags, priced at $80, are just that -- slim and lightweight with just room for your computer. There's an outside zippered pocket for mouse and power cords but I only use that when I really have to, as stuffing it breaks the line of the bag. It's perfect for a day trip or for school.

What's to Love:

- Fanciful patterns
- Weighs almost nothing
- 360-degree padding
- Waterproof, stain-resistant fabric
- Foam-filled shoulder pad for cushy comfort and grip.

Sized to fit laptops measuring up to 15.4", including wide screen displays, but Alice tells us she's working on a 17' model. And btw, "Flicka" means girl in Swedish. Perfect Fairytale ending.

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03.26.2008

Laptop bag bonanza - best of the best, part 2 (one of these could be yours for free)

"CARRY WITH FUNS" (Look for this one as a giveaway in this week's Popgadget Drop email. Not a subscriber yet? Takes only a second to sign up here.)

You can't help but smile when you see an E.Square Bag - the bright colors, the cheeky designs - but hiding under all that fun is a meticulously crafted, functional bag. I've been carrying my MacBook around in it for a week, and it's comfortable (has a padded shoulder strap which I've come to learn is essential for a 13 lb.laptop). It sports padded pockets for all your electronics, plus essential outside pocket for easy access to travel docs.

Kristina Kim, who founded the company with her husband says they "put fun prints on the bags in order to add splashes of colors" into our lives. "We know the designs are very bold and in very eye-catching colors, no one would ever think to have YELLOW on a laptop bag, but we did it and together with some other bold colors and big retro flower prints. AND hey! It's working and actually is very very well received in the market. So, we know tech cases (are) missing some colors, we will continue to put fun prints and bold colors on the bags."

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03.24.2008

March Madness and women's basketball on the Web and elsewhere

It's not exactly news that more and more chunks of our lives are lived on the Internet. But every now and then we get a reminder - of how, for example, the 'net increasingly is taking over jobs that used to be exclusively television's. Case in point: March Madness, a US sports phenomenon that is also a television phenomenon, disrupting regular programming for weeks every spring. It is now huge on the Web as well - and destined to get even more so this year.

Because it eats up a good deal of April, too, we still have several more weeks of March Madness, the NCAA Men's Division annual basketball championship, a tourney with scores of games and a dizzyingly complex playoff structure. That gives us all plenty of time to check out this year's biggest deal, an experiment at Joost, the free video site. Joost is conducting a hugely ambitious live test of its video streaming system, planning to broadcast every single game to anyone anywhere in the world.

The actual games are the least of March Madness, but the side activities are a Web phenomenon too. There are dozens - probably hundreds - of sites and blogs keeping track of brackets, many collected at the Bracket Project. What's a bracket? As the usually invaluable Wikipedia explains, a bracket is the "diagrammatic representation of the series of games played during a tournament, named as such because it appears to be a large number of interconnected (punctuational) brackets." Got that? A 2006 New York Times article also attempted clarification, with equally opaque results. To me, anyway. See the pic above, which is sort of a help.

Brackets aside, there's another March basketball Madness going on too, although you wouldn't know it from the buzz. That would be the NCAA Women's Division Championship.

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Posted by Tam Category: culture | entertainment | feature | on the web
Tags: basketball joost NCAA
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03.18.2008

Laptop bag bonanza - best of the best

When I started out in business (dinosaurs still roamed the earth), women had no choice in laptop bags; you had to use a "man" bag, a boring black utilitarian-looking thing. Thank goodness that's all changed.

Today we have choices of laptop bags that look like stylish, expensive handbags: fun, flirty ones that weigh nothing yet cradle your laptop, rock n' roll choices, retro bags, functional yet pretty roller bags. Your bag says as much about you as your FaceBook page these days.

In our ongoing effort to narrow down choices for our discerning readers, we present a round-up of road-tested laptop bags. (For those of you taking notes, our scientific study utilized a 15-inch MacBook, with all the peripherals, and unless otherwise noted, all tested fit a 15.4 inch laptop.) And we will be giving away one of almost all these bags, so make sure you're signed up to our newsletter!

MADDIE POWERS by Mobile Edge for Her

No one is going to mistake you for a staid executive with this sassy laptop bag called the "Maddie Powers," which holds up to holds up to a 15.4" laptop. You probably already know Mobile Edge for their superior bags, but recently they decided to start designing for women. As the company spokesman says, "We knew we were missing something. We then decided to break down our collections into two categories, one 'For Her' and one 'For Him.' It is that simple. Our women’s Collection was designed by women for women." As you can see, the Maddie Powers collection (priced at $90) showcases the covers of authentic pulp magazines & digest novels from the 1940s and 1950s.

What's to love about this bag:

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03. 4.2008

The Mobile Digital Scribe uses ordinary paper and ink

Digital pens that can capture handwritten notes, drawings, and memos, store them electronically, and even turn them into digital text are not exactly a dime a dozen, but they've been around for a while. Here's a new and mind-boggling variation that sounds straight out of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Mobile Digital Scribe claims to be the first device that can capture and store handwriting employing only - here's the mind-boggling part - ordinary paper and an ordinary ballpoint pen refill available at your average office-supply center. The company says you don't need a special digital notepad or special digital ink to take electronic notes that you can upload to a computer for display, export in JPEG, or even turn into text.

I'll be fascinated to read the reviews. But if the process is as easy as its promotional material makes it seem, the Mobile Digital Scribe should be heaven for those - medical types, journalists, students - who would rather be wired but must take handwritten notes because they're on the move or in class.

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Posted by Tam Category: devices | feature | misc gadgets
Tags: digital pen
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02.12.2008

Smart and pretty - Pink BlackBerry Pearl 8130

The ad for the new BlackBerry Pearl asks "Are you confident enough to wear pink?" Funny, that's how I've always felt about my pink-hued gadgets - I don't need to have industrial looking (read: black) technology to be taken seriously. I want functionality and style, thank you very much.

I decorated my first BlackBerry with jewel-like rhinestones, and you can be sure no one in the AOL meetings accidentally picked mine up. Much later I graduated to the Curve, a wonderful machine, that I kept holstered in a classic pink leather holder.

But it wasn't until the introduction of the Pearl, its smaller size and "lifestyle" features like television, music players, cameras and Facebook social-networking software that the BlackBerry appealed to a broader audience. Up to this point, my daughter Mackenzie had turned up her nose at my BlackBerry, which didn't pass the most important test for a teenager, which seems to be the ability to put a gadget in the pocket of their jeans. When she saw my spiffy review unit of the Pearl, she had to have it.

Now they've improved on the basic model with the 8130, which is a lovely metallic blush, and features an improved camera (2.0 megapixels), video capabilities, full email and web browsing, a music player (player reads MP3, WMA, and AAC files and displays album art), Bluetooth, AND an expandable memory (up to 8GB.) Like it's predecessor, it features SureType QWERTY keyboard technology - which you either love or hate. (My daughter is a wiz at typing on it, so there you go.)

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Posted by Evan Category: cell phones | feature
Tags: blackberry pink
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01.18.2008

Insignia Pilot MP3 - unpretentious iPod killer

Imagine an iPod that could support subscription music services like Rhapsody, have an FM tuner, built-in Bluetooth, and in-line encoding so you could convert your old cassettes and vinyl or rip CDs on the fly from any stereo. Lately, as much as I continue to love my iPhone, and my various iPods, the player I've been using almost exclusively is the sacrilegious (to the Church of Apple) Insignia Pilot. Combined with a $15/month subscription to Rhapsody, I've been able to download hundreds of songs without paying anything more, as well as having access to Rhapsody's "channels" which are highly customized digital radio stations.

I've been feeling so musically oppressed by iTunes lately, and it's been liberating to listen to whatever I want, even nostalgic hair metal, without having to pay for individual songs or albums. And an FM tuner, as old-time as it sounds, is great to have for news, or finding broadcasts of sporting events, or when I'm just sick of having to think of what I want to download and just want the choices made for me. I'm a complete subscription service convert, even with the knowledge that all my music disappears the minute I don't renew my service. I'd believed as much as anybody that I'd want to "own" my music, but after suffering the loss of tons of music with every iPod generation change due to the restrictive iTunes DRM, I haven't felt that security very much anyway.

A bit more about the player - it's a featherweight 2 oz, and comes with either 4 GB or 8 GB of flash memory but is expandable with SD cards, which is great. It also plays MPEG and WMV videos on the 2.4" color LCD. Battery life is great; the rechargeable goes 25 hours, but I swear it's even better than that - I can easily go a week without a charge even with seemingly constant use. It comes with wired earbuds, but is compatible with Bluetooth. If you're used to iPod navigation, the user interface may be a bit confusing at first, and while it's not that hard to get used to, it could use a simplicity makeover in future generations. Also, the player is so light, it feels insubstantial and flimsy although I haven't had any problems with it so far.

The Insignia Pilot is $110 for the 4 GB model, and $140 for 8 GB and both are available from Best Buy. Rhapsody has various subscription plans, including a limited free account, but you can get a 30-day free trial from Best Buy.

Posted by Mia Category: deals | feature | highlights | portable media
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09. 5.2007

iPods, iPods, iPods- the new generation and Wifi iTunes

After two years of speculation, the 6th generation iPod was formally announced today. For me, the only question I needed answered was "did I get screwed buying a $600 iPhone just two months ago?" Yes, yes, yes!!!!! But also not really. Yes, there is a new iPod, the iPod Touch, which has nearly all the features of the iPhone (big touchscreen, wifi) but it doesn't have anything addititional which would make new iPhone owners want to throw their instantly antiquated phones through the windows of the nearest Apple store. But...the prices of the iPhone (still the same iPhone, relax, no 2G upgrade announced yet- stay tuned in January...) dropped significantly. The 4 GB model is now, $299 (while supplies last, and then gone completely), down from $499, and the 8 GB model is also $200 less, at $399. Bummer for the losers like me who rushed to get the iPhone, but great for holiday gifting and the smart people who waited just a bit.

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Posted by Mia Category: current affairs | devices | feature
Tags: ipods
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07.11.2007

iPhone cases roundup

Okay, you scored an iPhone but what are you going to put it in? Hoping to capitilize on the frenzy, companies geared up to provide cases, power charges and other accessories.

Even before the iPhone was available there was a scramble to be first to the market with iPhone cases. First up is the Bikini from Incipio, which is available in 14, count 'em, 14, different colors ranging from "Randy Red" to Argyle. Classy. That's the "Army Ranger" version pictured up top. They're all leather and cost a mere $19.99.

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Posted by Evan Category: cell phones | feature
Tags: apple cases iphone ipods
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04.16.2008

One-stop shopping for laptop bags at Career Bags - and contest