Update: The giveaway is now closed, and the winner is darktweak! We appreciate everyone who entered, and we’d like to remind you to keep an eye out for many more great Gear Diary giveaways! =)
It’s time to start thinking about the supplies you are going to send your kids back to school with, and we are here to help! We’ve gathered together a collection of goodies that any student would like, and while there are plenty of practical items, we didn’t forget the gear that helps makes time off from studying even better. Whether you are on a limited budget or the sky is the limit, there is something here for everyone … including an 8GB Archos 70 Internet Tablet that we will be giving away to one lucky reader. So let’s get started …
ARCHOS 70 Internet Tablet
Since we are firm believers in having desert before dinner, we’ll start with the giveaway item! The ARCHOS 70 is a 7″ Android WiFi tablet that runs Android 2.2 (Froyo); this is the perfect size for a tablet, as its screen is large enough to enjoy but the tablet itself is small enough to carry everywhere.
The wide7” touchscreen combined with a g-sensor lets you experience a never-seen-before viewing quality. The 800 x 480 pixels high-resolution display is so sharp that you can fully enjoy your pictures’ smallest details. In addition to the HD resolution, the 16:9 format is just perfect for rendering all your videos in the best quality.
You can check out the full list of specifications for the $249 70 Internet Tablet on the ARCHOS site, and you have a chance to win one by doing these things:
• 1. Follow ARCHOS, Belkin and Gear Diary on Twitter.
• 2. Tweet the following: #Win an @ARCHOS_US 70it and go Back to School in style with @GearDiarySite and @Belkin! http://wp.me/peBTd-Ee1
• 3. Leave a comment on the bottom of this post with a link to your tweet and why you would like to win the Archos 70!
The small print: This contest is open to our US & Canada readers only. We will close the contest at 11:59 PM CT on Wednesday, August 3, 2011. I will contact the winner on August 4 through the email tied to the winner’s registered Gear Diary account. The winner will have 24 hours to respond with their real name and shipping address, or another winner will be chosen. We will post the time that the winner was contacted in an update at the top of this post, which will later be updated with the winner’s name once there is a response. Please add judie@geardiary.com to your whitelist, because if you don’t respond, we’ll have to chose another winner.
Stem TimeCommand Clock-Dock
Those 8am classes come way to early, and missing them is not an option. Here’s a way to charge your iPhone or iPad, enjoy your music , and never miss another early class again!
In case you can’t tell, I’m pretty impressed with the Stem TimeCommand. The iOS application is decent and free. It even includes the weather which is a nice addition. The Stem TimeCommand itself would be a good digital alarm clock in its own right even if it wasn’t a clock-dock. It has two independent alarms, an easy to strike sleep button and a battery backup. Put the two together, and you have a really nice combination.
You can use the clock without an iOS device attached, and it will do pretty much everything you need. Attach an iOS device, and you get even more functionality and control — and you get to charge your device.
It’s worth mentioning that the plug on the Stem TimeCommand has an extra input into which a wall or desk light can be plugged. Once a light has been plugged in, you can use the clock or the app to control the brightness of that light. It’s not a needed integration, but it certainly is a nice add-on.
It’s also worth noting that the sound from the Stem TimeCommand is quite impressive. It gets fairly loud, and it has a good 360° surround sound effect. No, the sound produced doesn’t measure up to my latest big purchase (the Sonos audio system), but it’s not intended as a home stereo system; as a bedside alarm clock it’s going to more than satisfy.
Seagate GoFlex Satellite
Here’s a handy way for your daughter to back up her work and maximize the limited space on her laptop or tablet!
With 500GB and Wi-Fi access over 802.11 b/g/n and a rechargeable battery, this latest member of the GoFlex® family provides the ability to carry an entire library of video, music, pictures and documents with you. Devices are wirelessly connected directly to the GoFlex Satellite drive by use of the free GoFlex Media™ app—available now on iTunes and the Apple App Store—or a web browser.
BlueAnt T1 Rugged Bluetooth Headset
You don’t want your daughter driving while on her phone, so get her a headset that sounds and looks great!
If you are looking for a tough bluetooth headset included with some great features, the BlueAnt T1 Rugged Bluetooth Headset is a great option. The same comfort and quality seen with all BlueAnt products are coupled with fantastic features. Text to speech caller announcements as well as voice commands allows users to stay hands free to enjoy driving or outdoor activities. I will gladly give my personal recommendation for the T1 to anyone looking for a quality bluetooth headset.
Applecore Cable Management
Neatness is a virtue, and it doesn’t take much for cables to run amok; halt that nonsense with Applecore!
Applecores come in three different sizes: small, medium large, and a number of colors. I went for boring and got all of them in either black or white. In keeping with their name cable management systems look just like perfectly eaten apple cores . Using them is quite simple.
You determine how much of the cord you want to leave available on one side of the cable, pushed it through the opening at the top of the Applecore and then wrap the remaining cable around the middle section. You then push the other end of the cable through the top opening and then BAM … You are good to go.
The result is a much shorter cable that gives you the ability to quickly and easily add length when needed.
WOW-keys Keyboard for Mac, PC, iPhone and iPod touch
Space is cramped when you are in a dorm (or a small apartment), so why not combine your son’s iPhone dock with his keyboard?
In all, the keyboard offers some great functionality, some really cool geeky stuff to get excited about, and it saves space on the desk as well. With this keyboard, iPhone or iPod Touch users don’t need to have a separate dock for syncing and charging their device, don’t need to have a separate trackpad or mouse, and don’t need to have a charging cable for their iOS device. Yes, with this keyboard you have all of that right at your fingertips through the simple combination of the keyboard and your iPhone.
The Acme Made Clutch
If your daughter is toting a netbook and she wants a slim and good-looking case, here is one you should consider!
My biggest issue with the bag is the metallic sheen of the designer canvas. It’s quite attractive, but it does give the bag an immediate feminine appeal. At first I wasn’t sure I would want to carry this bag, but after using it for a few days I find that the convenience of it well outweighs any initial reservations I had. Although I should mention that my wife Elana informed me that she just might be grabbing it to use with her 11″ MBA. That works for me, too.
At under $99.95 there are plenty of less expensive bags than the Clutch, but if you want something that is little bit more unique this is worth a look. In short, if you carry your MacBook Air and you want to take a minimalist approach to what you bring with you throughout the day, you should check out the Clutch.
Skooba Design’s Gear Techlife Ultralight Bag Collection
There’s nothing like a set of matching luggage, and Skooba Design has a series with nearly every type bag your kid might need!
Skooba Design has added a unique new “hybrid” travel/laptop duffel to its award-winning line of laptop bags and accessories. The company calls the all-new Weekend Warrior™ a first-of-its-kind tech/travel carry-on bag, ideally suited for leisure travel. The duffel is designed to eliminate the need to carry a separate laptop bag—especially for overnight or weekend trips—reducing the air travel “bag burden”.
The HTC Flyer and HTC Scribe Digital Pen
Taking notes and keeping up with homework will be a breeze if you send your son back to school with one of these …
The Flyer measures approximately 7.7″ tall x 4.8″ wide x 0.5″ thick; at 15 ounces, it weighs just shy of a pound. Unlike the Samsung Tab, which has a thin (and dare I say cheap-feeling) plastic back, the Flyer’s aluminum unibody makes the device feel solid and strong. I like this size; I find it comfortable to hold and just the right size to slip into any bag.
Sony Vaio S Series
If your kid needs a new computer, and you want to make sure that they have one that is fast and has a long-lasting battery, then this laptop is a no-brainer!
,
There is no question that gaming is the most challenging test of a mobile computer system – between the heavy CPU utilization and constant GPU load as well as hard disk streaming new areas and characters and the system working to keep cool from all of this stuff!
I have never gotten more than 2 or so hours of battery life from a laptop while doing high-end gaming – so while 3 hours doesn’t seem that significant at first, consider that it is 50% more than I have gotten from top end Apple Macbook Pros and Alienware m11x systems.
That said, I had hoped for 4 hours of gaming. Imagine being able to complete pretty much the entire Call of Duty: Modern Warfare campaign in a single sitting without any wires attached? It would be awesome!
But I am very happy with what I did manage to do – the computer ran at full speed the entire time, and I never knew it was starting to get very low on power until it gave me a warning. Running a very demanding game like Fable III (if you check the comments on various forums you will see it called ‘unoptimized’ or worse many times) was a great test – I could hear from the fans that Jedi Knight II was a bit less demanding and Realms of Arkania 3 was definitely less demanding.
MacBook Air 11″
And for the ultimate in tote-able MacBooks …
If you’re in the market for one of the new MacBook Airs, my recommendation is that you check out the 11″ MacBook air with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB drive. I don’t believe that 2 GB of RAM makes sense considering the software that is currently available and am a bit surprised that Apple kept it in the lineup. Moreover, although Elana is perfectly happy with 64 GB of storage, I know that it would be a significant issue for me. 128 GB of storage is still not a huge amount, but it is enough for most of us so long as we don’t keep huge video files on our laptops.
Monster iSport High Performance Waterproof Headphones
Whether used while jogging in foul weather or they accidentally go through the wash, these waterproof headphones will keep on working!
So let’s take stock of what we have covered. The headphones are blue. They have a flat cord that won’t tangle. They come with tons of inserts so you can ensure the right fit. They have an unusual system for staying in place that works well. They have an in-line microphone that also includes MP3 controls. They are water proof.
But how do they sound?? In two words they sound VERY GOOD!
So long as you have the right fit with regard to the interchangeable earpieces the sound is excellent. It is full, rush and, because it physically blocks outside noise you don’t need to turn up the volume too much and you will still feel completely surrounded by the sound coming from them.
I think the best way to sum up the iSport Headphones from Monster is through a question.
“If the iSport headphones did not have the extra whiz-bang feature of being waterproof would they still be worth the $199 MSRP?”
My answer is… Yes! There are right up there with other similarly priced headphones AND they ARE waterproof! That makes them a good value and worth serious consideration if you are in the market for a new pair of good headphones!
Belkin Conserve Valet
With all those electronics your favorite student is toting, she’ll need a convenient and energy-efficient way to keep them charged. Well, look no further …
The Conserve Valet is extremely handy. The design allows you to plug-in any USB cable on the side so if you have to swap devices, use the side port and reserve the ports on the back for devices that take standard cables or devices you always charge. It is extremely handy to have up to four devices simultaneously charged.
Olympus VN Series Digital Audio Recorders
This voice recorder is just the ticket for any advanced class; your daughter will use hers to ace her anatomy and physiology course!
With hundreds of hours of recordings, searching for what you need in each file can get tricky. Olympus solves that through its Index Marks system, enabling users tag important points in each recording. Index Marks can be inserted while recording or during playback. They are used to skip forward and backward in recordings to pre-selected reference points to eliminate guesswork on where a particular sound bite resides. The Olympus VN-7100 and VN-7200 can both hold up to 16 index marks per file. Tag the exact location of a speech you have recorded and go back to it with ease at your convenience. The days of searching through a recording for what you need are over.
The DRY-ALL Wet Smartphone Emergency Kit
Accidents happen, and keeping a DRY-ALL kit on hand may wind up saving your child headaches and heartaches.
This is exactly the type of solution that I needed when my iPhone got wet last summer, and I’ll bet that you can think of close calls or maybe even a time when your phone got unexpectedly dunked. A DRY-ALL Wet Smartphone Emergency Kit sitting in a cabinet at home, in the trunk of your car, or in your office would provide a ready solution and peace of mind. The instructions are simple, and the kit is so easy to use that anyone could use it to save their phone.
Click n Drink Bottle Opener
Encouraging your son or daughter to drink responsibly doesn’t just mean waiting until they are 21 to imbibe, it also means teaching them that it’s not cool to leave bottle caps where they fall. Help your kids drink responsibly with a bottle opener that collects the caps as they fall!
How would you like to open your beer and soda bottles without having to worry about where those pointy bottle caps land? The ‘Click n Drink’ bottle opener allows you to do just that. Boasting the ability to hold up to 100 bottle caps with its strong magnets, the ‘Click n Drink’ magnetically mounts to metal surfaces or it can be drilled into others.
DYMO LabelManager PnP
Help your daughter keep her stuff separate from her roommates with this label printer; just think — no more “is that my ____?!” arguments! =)
This is a simple, 21st century update to the traditional label maker. It is fast, east you use and easy to pack away when you are done. If you need to add labels to things this is a great way to do it.
Palette Coasters
If you are tired of suggesting that junior put a coaster under his iced tea glass, try sending along a fun set of coasters that he will be proud to use. Protect that Ikea furniture you bought him and teach him some manners at the same time! Win!
Over the years I’ve collected a nice selection of different barware. Margaritas have their glasses, martinis have theirs and the list goes on. Having the right glass for the right drink just makes everything a bit more festive. Same goes for the coaster the glass sits on. And these “palette coasters”… They look kinda fun. Yes, these simple but amusing coasters do their job but don’t take themselves too seriously in the process.
Revolve Tap Water Filter Bottle
The water in the dorms is nasty! But bottled water can cost as much as a gallon of gas, and besides — the plastic bottles it comes in are not good for the environment. Try one of these, instead! A built-in filter is supposed to clean the tap water and make it taste fab!
The Revolve Tap Water Filter Bottle is a portable water filtration bottle designed for use with city tap water. The Tap Water Filter produces over 100 gallons of water and removes up to 99.99% of all contaminants found in tap water, including chlorine, heavy metals, industrial pollutants, agricultural runoff, microbial cysts, and trace pharmaceuticals.
Nike+ SportWatch
This SportWatch is just the thing to keep your son or daughter from forgetting the good workout habits they discovered in high school athletics. No need to pile on the “freshman 15″ when they can exercise with such an advanced bit of kit!
Get the extra push you need with the Nike+ SportWatch GPS powered by TomTom. Not only does it track what you do, it tracks how you do it, then makes you want to do it again and again. Here’s how:
It’s accurate.
The Nike+ SportWatch GPS combines the accuracy of GPS with the shoe-based Nike+ sensor to track time, pace, distance, calories burned, and heart rate. So you have your whole running history in the palm of your hand.It’s award winning.
The watch just won two CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Innovation Awards in the Health and Wellness and Personal Electronics categories. Which is kind of a big deal considering that CES is the world’s largest consumer tech tradeshow.It’s motivating.
Onscreen run reminders help get you out the door. You also get props for personal records.It’s inspiring.
The watch connects to NikePlus.com so you can view completed runs, set new goals, and interact with a community of almost 4 million runners around the world.
Tokyoflash Kisai Satellite
No need to sport the Seiko or Timex that they wore in high school; now your kid can show that they have advanced to higher education and a higher standard for telling time!
The Satellite is similar to the RPM in that it is the second user submitted design to emerge from the concept blog. From looks alone I have to say the Satellite is one of my favorite designs from Tokyoflash. It almost reminds me of the wrist computer the Predator has that he used to set off the timed explosives in the movie. Ok well it’s not a full wrist computer with an internal nuke, but it has much cooler LED’s than the predator did anyway. They are available right now in a stealthy all black or bright white strap and casing, and you even get the option of Green or Blue LED lighting. The matte finish casing provides a great contrast against the brightly lit smoked lens. Reading time seems to be less than that standard encrypted coding we’ve seen in the past.
Beard Head Knit Beard Caps
You don’t take yourself too seriously, and neither do your kids! Your son or daughter will have fun keeping warm and looking unique in a knit cap or full-face covering Beard Cap!
Like the hair on the top of your head, a beard does a great job of keeping your face warm while you brave the outdoor elements. If you don’t have what it takes to grow out a mangy beard or the wife won’t let you etc. you might want to check out the entire line of Beard Head products.
Beard Head knit beard caps combine the comfort and warmth of a traditional knit cap with the styling of having a massive beard and mustache growing on your face.
You can choose from a variety of different styles, from the “Pirate” to the “Viking”, the “Grandpa” (seen above) and more.
Each Beard Head hat is one size fits all and sells for $32.99 and they’re all made from 30% Wool, 70% Acrylic. The mustache on each hat is attached via buttons and can be easily removed or interchanged with other mustache styles that are also sold on the site.
Cgear Sand-Free Multimat for Camping
Nest time there is a concert in the common area, your son won’t have to use grandma’s quilt as his groundcover. You’ll get bonus points when he heads to the beach for spring break!
The material looks like a solid fabric from a distance, but if you look at it closely it has holes that are just big enough to let sand grains and dust pass directly through it. I also tested it with a handful of fine soil with a little mulch mixed in. The mulch wouldn’t go through, obviously but all of the dirt fell right through the mat.
So what would I use this for? I’d lay it out on the beach so the scratchy stand stays away from you. On a car campout, I would stake it down in front of my tent using the convenient built-in d-rings. You could even use it to cover the floor of your tent keeping the dirt away. This weekend we are having a fall campout and we’re sleeping in a non heated cabin. I’ll probably lay my sleeping bag on this and out my boots at the foot of my bag on the mat. Basically, you can use this wherever you need to keep dust and sand away from you and your stuff.
Morning Chicness Bags
These may say they are for morning sickness, but the Morning Chicness Bags will also come in very handy when you [immensely responsible] daughter is the designated driver! Help protect her car and her delicate nose!
Morning Chicness Bags are compact, disposable, affordable, and yet stylish vomit bags. Now you can carry a chic morning sickness bag everywhere you go. You no longer have to use airsickness bags from the airplane, leaky plastic shopping bags or bulky garbage bags. You can stop searching for the nearest toilet bowl everywhere you go, and no more sticking your head in a disgusting, smelly garbage can!
Morning Chicness Bags are excellent gifts for your pregnant friend or wife. Help her make this difficult time a little easier for her. She will love this thoughtful, practical and unique gift!
These bags can also be used by people suffering from motion sickness or from taking a medication. It’s a great idea to keep them in your glove compartment or purse.
While you may not be ready to rush your kid back to school, we hope that we have given you an idea or two on things he or she might enjoy. Don’t forget to enter our giveaway, and we hope that you child has an excellent 2011 – 2012 school year! =)
This Back-to-School Gift Guide is brought to you by
