Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

The easiest way to turn a ho-hum product into something slightly interesting is to just dress it up a bit, in a slick looking case. Here’s an example of notebooks from Dell:

Pretty, no? Same goes for these external HDs, from Toshiba:

One of those drives, you may have noticed, is smaller than the others… It’s a 1.8 inch form factor, packing 120 gigs. Toshiba also had a 160 gig 1.8 inch bare drive, but the biggest one you can currently get in a pretty little USB bus powered case is the 120. Yeah, I’d pay extra for that piano black with the blue and silver stripes… Sooo pretty.

[ CES ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There’s not many things that are more annoying than hearing someone try to do a Chewbacca impression. And I can guarantee if you walk around with this plush Chewie backpack strapped to your person, that’s exactly what you’ll be hearing all day long.

But, while he won’t be helping to repair the hyperdrive on your ‘83 Firebird, he can at least be used to carry books, a small laptop, a blaster and maybe even one of those little baby Ewoks if the need ever arises.

You can find him at ThinkGeek for $39.99.

[ Chewbacca Plush Backpack ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

By David Ponce

When art meets technology, even in a very oblique fashion, we get interested. Particularly when it’s something as beautiful as this PC case made by Mr. Valerie Beetle from Pervomayske in Ukraine. Sadly for us, the page on which this was found is written in either Russian or Ukraininan and details of this masterpiece are shrouded in linguistic mystery. We suspect this image has been around for a while, so we’re not claiming any kind of breaking news here. But we figured some of you might enjoy this.

Few more pictures after the jump, as well as links. If anyone wants to follow through and translate some of that for us, that’d be great.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

I won’t go into much detail about why I like the Brain Cell laptop cases from Tom Bihn. I’ve already written about them in a past review, and I’ll just say they’re a great way to turn any bag into a well protected laptop case.

But in an effort to make the Brain Cell even better, the company has now improved the cases by adding a fifth layer of protection made from 12mm of premium memory foam. If for some reason you were worried about your laptop getting dinged up with the Brain Cell’s previous layers of foam and corrugated plastic, this extra layer of memory foam should be more than enough to keep your investment safe.

The Brain Cells are available directly from Tom Bihn in a wide selection of colors and sizes to fit any laptop for $60. Like I’ve said in the past, if you’re in the market for a laptop case or bag I’d skip the stores and head straight for the Tom Bihn website.

[ Tom Bihn Brain Cell ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Why carry around some heavy backup-battery for recharging your gadgets on-the-go when there’s that giant source of power burning in the sky all day? Now I don’t know where the V-Dimension is, but the company of the same name produces a line of bags with a built-in solar cell for recharging your phone, PDA or other small gadgets without the need for an AC outlet.

The Solar Corporate Travel Case, the Optical Messenger and the HELIUS Backpack are all capable of recharging a single device in about 2 hours. They include an assortment of different adapters that support the most popular devices on the market (iPhone, iPod, Razr etc.) and will even store enough power for 2 full charges when the sun isn’t shining.

The three different bags are all available on the V-Dimension website for $129.95 each, in your choice of black, dark black, night black, space black and black. Additional adapters are also available for $1.99.

[ V-Dimension Solar Bags ] VIA [ Popgadget ]

By Luke Anderson

I have something of a creative streak, so I naturally feel the need to customize everything I own. I’d rather that my belongings stand out just a little, which is why I think this new Laptop Canvas Sleeves are an interesting alternative to the traditional laptop case.

As you may have guessed, the outside of this laptop bag is a bare canvas. This means you can take a marker, paintbrush, pen or any other medium and just go to town on it. Before you know it your case will be bursting with self-expression. The bags are lined with a red satiny fabric and come in three sizes: 12-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch and range from $29-39.

[Think Geek] VIA [Random Good Stuff]

By Evan Ackerman

If you’re as much of an Iron Chef fan as I am, you’ll be familiar with the term deconstructed. Like, a how deconstructed caesar salad would involve serving all of the components of a mixed salad separately. A self-professed “bored tech support guy” made himself this deconstructed computer by suspending all of the components of a desktop in midair via cat5 cables and a couple of hangers. It’s fully functional and offers a number of advantages, including easy hardware upgrading, a tiny footprint, and spectacular ventilation. Not recommended for people who have small children or pet squirrels.

[ Sky Puter ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Even though I always have some kind of bag with me I’ve never carried an actual briefcase for two simple reasons. First, I find over the shoulder cargo bags and backpacks to have a lot more room for cramming stuff in and secondly, I don’t want to look like a pretentious twat. But I have to admit this SUPERslim aluminum model from MEZZI is very tempting.

Besides the slim design the briefcase also includes six interior compartments for stowing and protecting your toys, dual latch key locks, three pen holder slots and a hidden compartment. There’s even a wide pocket for holding documents or magazines which I was surprised to learn that people still actually buy and read.

The SUPERslim Aluminum briefcase is available directly from MEZZI for only $59.95.

[ MEZZI SUPERslim Aluminum Briefcase ] VIA [ Gear Patrol ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While Apple’s latest ultra-thin keyboards might not appeal to everyone (I can’t say I’m that big a fan of the actual key design) there’s no arguing they do look pretty slick. So if you’ve already made the upgrade to the latest models you’ll be glad to know that WaterField Designs quite literally has got you covered. Well, the keyboards that is.

They’ve just announced a new custom-fitted keyboard sleeve for both the ultra-thin wireless and wired models. The sleeves are padded on the inside, wrapped in a water-resistant outer shell and come in 6 muted and tasteful colors.

The sleeves comes in either a short version for the Apple wireless keyboard ($37) or a long version for the Apple wired keyboard ($39).

[ WaterField Designs Apple Wireless Keyboard Sleeves ]