Gadget Guide: Back to School Essentials 2006

As we move into August and September approaches, many students are getting ready to head back to school. Though you might have a back-to-school outfit picked out, you could very well be ill-equippedtechnologically. Let’s face it, your 128MB MP3 Player and Pentium II laptop aren’t cutting it anymore. Luckily we’ve got the latest products every student needs packed tightly into a guide for you.Whether it’s a new notebook and a bag to go with it or a digital audio player with voice recording capability, you’ll be sure to have the advantage over the rest of the class by reading on.    Essential Computing 
      Apple Macbook For those of you unaware of anything Apple-related lately, the company has broken new groundby switching to Intel-based processors – significantly increasing performance and giving people more options. With the Macbook replacing the iBook, one can hardly call even the basic configuration a”low-end notebook”. Users now have the ability to run both Mac OS X and Windows XP (as well as the upcoming Vista), integrated 802.11g wireless, and Bluetooth 2.0. If you’re looking to make theswitch but still need Windows for your schoolwork, this is the way to go. Read the Digital Trends Review      Gateway CX210 Convertible Tablet PC If you’rean artist and an paintbrush makes more sense to you than a mouse, consider the Gateway CX210. This Tablet PC is packed with powerful processing, built-in wireless, and come with a beautiful 14-inchtouchscreen. You can either use the built-in keyboard and mouse like a regular notebook, or you can kick it up a notch and unleash your creativity with a stylus and your favorite design programs.Read the Digital Trends Review       Portable Professor 
      Apple iPod The most popular portable music player is now in its 5^th generation and sports athinner design, a bigger display, and video playback. With schools offering downloads of lectures off the iTunes Music Store, students will find themselves with a wealth of information at theirfingertips. You can easily go from listening to your favorite band to watching a video lecture in seconds. Plus you can pretend to be rocking out when you’re secretly enhancing your creativity andimproving your GPA. Read the Digital Trends Review       Griffin iTalk So maybe by now you’ve already got an iPod but your school doesn’t provide lectures online. Whybother carrying around a portable voice recorder that can’t easily export files when you can just record right to your iPod? Griffin’s iTalk does just that and does it quite well. You might even beable to swindle your professor into speaking directly into your iPod throughout the entire lecture. Plus at $40, you won’t have to break the bank too much either. Check Prices Alterntative for Apple iPod Video: Griffin iMic        Keeping In Touch
      Motorola Q Those in the market for a phone that has Windows Mobile5.0, a full QWERTY-keypad, and plenty of other rich features should check out the Motorola Q. What is the Q? Take one part Windows Mobile, another part sleek, thin design, and throw in a littleBluetooth, mini-USB, and mini-SD and you have yourself a powerhouse of a phone that also doubles as a PDA. Oh did we mention it also comes with a 1.3MP camera for taking pictures of babes? Yeah itdoes that and lets you fix reports on the go. Try doing that with a Blackberry. Read the Digital Trends Review      Samsung T609 Though the Motorola Q is apowerhouse PDA/phone, not everyone needs that. Some people need a phone that does calls and texts right. Samsung’s T609 has plenty of cool features to impress your friends like a 1.3MP camera andBluetooth, but it’s designed to be a phone first and foremost. Calls come through crystal-clear and the phone is at an angle when opened to allow your mouth to actually come in contact with themicrophone. If your parents want to check up on you constantly, they should throw you one of these to ensure they’ll be able to. Read theDigital Trends Review       Hauling Stuff Around
      Crumpler – The Considerable Embarassment Bag Having a durable bag is an essential part of yourschool year. It has to have enough room for your books, notebooks, pens, papers, and other junk. If it can also carry a laptop, consider it a plus. Luckily, Crumpler makes bags that range from funand bright laptop sleeves to serious storage bags that could fit a Desktop PC, a chicken dinner, your books, and still have room for more. The best all-around bag they offer is a bag called TheConsiderable Embarassment. It holds a decent amount of books, a laptop, and whatever else you might pick up along the way. You can go bigger or downgrade depending on your needs, but one thing youwon’t have to worry about is your stuff getting destroyed. Crumpler Website       Fast Storage 
      Sandisk Cruzer TitaniumUSB Flash Drive We all know you’ll be in that Library for a good 10 hours pulling an all-nighter, so you better have a quick and simple way to back up your data periodically. The first thingthat springs to mind is a USB drive, but which one is good for a student like you? Try the Cruzer Titanium USB Flash Drive from Sandisk out for size – sizes of 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB to be exact.These are affordable USB flash drives that are “virtually indestructable” and have been put through multiple tests to ensure that even a college student with a nasty beer habit can’t mess one up.Plus they look great and come with free software that’s actually useful. Check Prices