I recently reviewed Shinnoire’s custome iPhone Leather Flip Case.  I had a lot of fun selecting my personal color choices for the case.  It’s not often you get to pick and choose the exact colors which will go into your case and then have it personally hand crafted.

Shinnorie offers the same level of customization for their bags as well and I was also allowed to custom build a laptop bag for review.

The bag I had built is their Skinny Slim Bag.  It’s a slim bag good for short trips, daily commutes to and from work or meetings.  The bag is built from a stain resistant nylon covered EVA hard shell and is generously padded with foam lining.

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How many times have you said to yourself, “if I could make my own phone case or lap top bag, here’s how I’d do it…..”

Well alkr, a new company is doing just that.  They bill themselves as not only marketing and design folks but first and foremost “gadget freaks”.

After traveling the globe and seeing countless plain jane, boring bags they decided lap top cases could use a little more excitement.

The company is getting set to release its very first offering in the form of a colorful new line of lap top cases designed to fit 13″ or 15″ lap tops.  The case comes comes made from 3mm of neoprene cushioned with a soft fleece lining and uses a heavy duty zipper with closed seem construction.

The sleeves will available on November 21st with iPhone cases coming later in the year.

You can check out the entire line here.

Last week I reviewed Timbuk2’s new H.A.L. backpack. I like it a lot. I was impressed with the quality of the workmanship, the design itself, and the incredible utility of the backpack for anyone needing to carry a laptop and assorted other items. My one criticism of the backpack was that the area designed to hold the notebook, while convenient, or for no real fall protection. That’s where today’s review item comes in more than a bit handy.

The ColcaSac is a simple, rugged burlap sleeve that offers excellent protection for your MacBook Pro from the daily bumps and grinds of life. Let’s take a look.

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We have winners for the Neogreen products!

MikeKarr has won the water bottle sleeve and Melvynadam has won the laptop sleeve. Please email questionfear (at) gmail (dot) com with your addresses and your prizes will in the mail!

I had asked everyone who posted in the comments to share some green tips, so here are the highlights:

-Walk to work, around town, etc.

-Use solar powered flashlights.

-Bamboo flash drives

-Winning a neogreene sleeve.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and ideas, and congrats to the winners.

We’re all familiar with neoprene laptop cases, phone slipcases, etc. The slightly rubbery feeling material is pretty much a permanent part of any self respecting geek’s arsenal. And anyone who has spent time around neoprene knows that it has a distinct chemical odor – kind of like new car smell for your computer.
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As many of you tech-loving ladies out there know, it can be very difficult at times to find a nice, feminine looking case for your gadgets.  I love clothes and accessories just as much as I love technology, and I hate putting a gadget in a boring case into a cute handbag.  I just don’t understand why tech accessories have to be boring!

When I saw the CaseCrown Alligator Slim Case, the first thing I noticed was that it was stylish looking and came in PINK…not just soft baby pink, but bright hot pink!  I knew I had to try it out. Continue Reading

CASECROWN is a southern California based company founded by self described gadget lovers.

They make some of the most affordable cases around, and they were kind enough to send me one of their Classic Slim Cases for laptops to review.

Here’s a quick overview of the case from the CASECROWN web site:

- Perfect Fit For Your Notebooks
- Premium Quality Shock-Absorbing Double Memory Foam Interior
- Water & Wear Resistant; Zipper Scratch-Free Exterior Material
- Light & Thin Compact Design
- Internal Supporting Bands To Secure Your Gadgets

How does this laptop case match up?  Read on to find out.

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Some people like shoes while others like jackets. Me… I’ve always had a thing for notebook cases. There is something about the combination of function and style that draws me to a new case when I see one. So when the opportunity to take a look at Rivet’s new Vertical Leather Bag came up I jumped. It looked nice and, perhaps more importantly, it looked DIFFERENT from the other bags available.

Let’s take a look…

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About a week ago I realized that I needed to get organized. My desk is a mess and my notebook bag… well let’s just say my cables have cables. It was so overstuffed and under-organized that I couldn’t find anything. I sent the following cry for help to the Gear Diary Team.

There are two different gear patterns for me these days when I leave the house. One has me only bringing my iPhone. Simple.
The other has me with way too much stuff- notebook, charger, iPhone, extra battery, pulsepen, bluetooth headset etc. So much little crap that throwing it loose into my bag is a mess. Any suggestions for keeping all my on-the-go semi organized?????

I got some excellent suggestions. Among them was this from Judie-

Can’t recommend the AcmeMade Courier bag enough…just sayin’!

Well, that was a pretty strong endorsement from someone for whom I have the greatest respect so I did the only reasonable thing- I looked at the AcmeMade site.

Long story short, although Judie reviewed the Courier just recently, ACME MADE was kind enough to send one to give a second opinion. What do I think?

Can’t recommend the AcmeMade Courier bag enough…just sayin’!

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I had the opportunity to review Noreve’s case for the MSI Wind here on this site, and one of the company’s cases for the iPhone 3G over on What’sOniPhone. As a result I have become a huge fan of their products.

Today, I have the opportunity to review the Noreve leather sleeve for the MacBook and MacBook Air. At just over $75  (base price) the leather case falls in the mid range when it comes to price. Where does it fall with regard to quality and aesthetics? Let’s take a look –
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For those times when you don’t want to carry a full sized laptop bag, Speck has introduced a simple and fasionable solution: the TuckPack Notebook Sleeve. Created to hold and protect up to a 13″ laptop, the TuckPack can be carried in a variety of ways: as a messenger style laptop bag with its included shoulder strap attached, as a folio when the strap is removed and the sleeve is tucked under the arm, or as a laptop sleeve when the strap is removed and the TuckPack is placed in a larger bag or backpack.

Available in either “speakeasy black pinstripe” or “coffeehouse brown plaid”, it should be pretty obvious which version I received…

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Far be it from me to say anything to anyone about what they spend on their accessories, but doesn’t it seem silly to spend more for the case than you did for the laptop?  Just sayin’…

The MacBook Air is a beautiful piece of electronics. It is sleek, stylish and… well, just plain cool. But while its aluminum construction is certainly more durable than, say, the current (and soon to be phased out) version of the MacBook, without too much difficulty the Air can get pretty banged up and scuffed. Within a short period of time “beautiful” can become “beat up”.

And that is a problem on a device like the MBA.

On the one hand you want to protect it while on the other, while on the other you don’t want to lose the sleek beauty that drew you to the MBA in the first place.

That’s where Agent18’s amazing Shield comes in.

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If you’ve been patiently waiting for the Skooba Design Checkpoint Friendly laptop bags to appear, your wait will soon be over. We’ve just received word that Skooba Design is now taking pre-orders for their Checkthrough (checkpoint-friendly) bags, and the bags are scheduled to begin shipping in about 8 weeks. Here’s the latest…

Based on the e-mails, phone calls, retailer and consumer order requests we’ve received since the original announcement of the product–now well into the thousands–we will have our hands… and our sewing machines… full to make sure we produce enough to keep everyone happy through the holidays and beyond. So, we have set up the pre-order option as the best way to insure that those who want these bags can “lock them in.” We also are offering some incentives for early action (info on the order form).

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I tote two different laptops between locations these days, switching them out (or sometimes bringing both) depending upon what my needs will be once I’ve arrived. For the most part, I’ve been content to slip my MacBook Air into a bag, a sleeve, or the Agent 18 shell that Dan recently forwarded to me, but I hadn’t yet found a similar slim and protective MacBook Pro shell. Bear in mind, the type of transport I usually do involves grabbing my laptop, throwing it into my Louis Vuitton Alto tote (along with a couple days’ worth of clothing), and then driving to my destination (and back). This is what I do days when I am traveling as lightly as possible, and I don’t want to bring a full-sized laptop bag.

When I first saw the DecoCases EcoDesign Case for MacBook Pro, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the hard-shell aluminum cases I have long enjoyed on my PDAs. I’d never really thought about using something similar on a laptop, but I would soon have the opportunity to see if I’d like it…

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