If you are a mobile user who likes to carry a lot of peripherals or accessories around your laptop, finding the right bag can sometimes be a bit annoying.  There are plenty of those one-shoulder type of bags that are typically rectangular.  The problem with those is that they have limited space for your extra accessories and they do become bulky easily considering that you are carrying a lot of weight on a single shoulder.  Spire, a laptop bag manufacturer, has taken a different route with laptop bags.  They have combined the typical two-shouldered backpack that is capable of securely carrying a laptop as well as all the extra accessories.  As a more standard two-shouldered backpack, there are several things that come to mind.  First, it makes it less obvious that you're carrying a laptop since it looks like a normal backpack.  Second, already mentioned, is that a two-shouldered backpack can easily hold much more items while still at ease to use. Today, I will be reviewing a two-shouldered laptop backpack from a company called Spire.  It is called the Fuse backpack.  This backpack, according to Spire's website, retails for $140.  This is quite expensive for a normal backpack, but the price is a bit more expensive than the average laptop bag.  Let's find out if Spire has created a product that is worthy for your laptop.

USB flash drives have been around for quite a while now.  Many companies now manufacture their own USB flash drives in common sizes such as 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, or even 1GB.  The difficulty in making a USB flash drive is trying to differentiate it from the many competitors that exist in the market.  It is difficult because there is only so much that you can do to make your own flash drive different.  The main factors involve the size, style, and the speed of the drive. Today, we will be reviewing Sandisk’s flagship USB flash drive that attempts to be different from the others.  From the name of the product, you immediately know it has Titanium of some sort, a very strong metal that you can predict will make the product much more durable.  Although Sandisk makes other flash drives such as the Cruzer mini and micro, this product is supposedly faster than both. In this review, we’ll find out if it has what it takes to stand above the rest of the flash drives. 

Canon is known worldwide for their excellence in digital imaging. This can easily be seen in the quality of their digital cameras and printers. They have been able to bring their technologies into the realm of consumer scanners. Today, I will be reviewing the Canon LiDE 50 Color Image Scanner. At the retail price of $99.99 (according to Canon’s website), this product is aimed toward individuals looking for a non-bulky scanner without the compromise in performance.

With the popularity and success of Apple’s iPod, other companies have come to join in the fun with their own hard drive based MP3 players.  One of the main attractions in owning a hard drive based MP3 player is that you can store tons of music of files on the device.  There are currently iPods capable of carrying up to 40GB of data! Today, I will be taking a look at the 20GB version of JetAudio’s iAUDIO M3.  Although this is the company’s first hard drive based MP3 player, they have had enormous success with their flash based players such as the CW200 and CW300. If you haven’t heard of JetAudio, don’t be surprised.  Based on the Korean company Cowon Systems, JetAudio was established in the US in September of 2000.  The company primarily focuses on MP3 hardware devices such as the one I will be reviewing today as well as their JetAudio multimedia software.

ATI and Nvidia are back in action as they compete for the number one spot with their next generation video cards.  ATI’s fastest graphics card is the X800XT while Nvidia’s is the Geforce 6800 Ultra.  Today, I will be taking a look at PowerColor’s X800XT Platinum Limited Assassin Edition (try and say that 10 times fast)!  This graphics card as the name implies uses the X800XT graphics chip, which is currently the fastest offering by the Canadian company ATI.  In this article, we will examine the new technologies present in the chip and review PowerColor’s graphics card to see how well it performs.  The graphics card will mainly be compared against ATI’s previous generation card, the 9800.  Although the X800XT is meant to be the successor of the 9800 XT, I apologize beforehand that I only had the 9800 Pro to compare with it.  The 9800 Pro is still only slightly slower than the XT version, so you will at least have a general idea of how the new card compares.  

There are hundreds of USB flash drives available in the market today. The downside to most of these flash drives is that they contain a set amount of memory.  It’s up to the consumer to determine how much storage space they need and how much they are willing to spend.  It can be a bit of a disappointment if the amount of space you need is less than what you bought. Today, I will be reviewing SimpleTech’s Bonzai Upgradeable Flash Drive. The upgradeability of the product gives the consumer more flexibility and more of a long-term value.  The user has the capability to increase the storage capacity rather than buying a whole new separate flash drive.

In my mind, the two major companies behind mice and keyboards are Microsoft and Logitech.  Yes, there are other companies that manufacture keyboards and mice, but Microsoft and Logitech seem to compete more closely. Today, I will be reviewing Microsoft’s Wireless Optical Desktop Elite Desktop Set.  This set is a mouse and keyboard combination.  In this review, I cannot avoid mentioning Logitech’s MX 700 Wireless mouse which is the main competition against Microsoft Wireless Optical Intellimouse, the mouse included in this desktop set.  Having used the MX 700 for quite a while now, I will make references when comparing Microsoft Intellimouse with Logitech’s.  The ultimate goal of Microsoft’s Optical Desktop Elite is to combine both style and performance into one outstanding package. 

 In business it pays to be well-connected.
For road warriors it becomes even more important to be able to have access to the Internet and other devices via all available means.
And you want it in the smallest possible package.
Let me introduce you to a close to ideal travelling companion, the Flybook from Dialogue.
If you’ve been attracted to the likes of FlipStart, the OQO or any other ultra-portable notebook, you owe it to yourself to have a good look at the tablet-style Flybook.
You expect it to have WiFi and Bluetooth, but add a SIM card slot for GPRS (there’s even a CDMA model), a CF / PC card slot, 2 FireWire ports and suddenly you have an ultra-capable machine.
Did you say you want it in Ferrari-red?

We had the pleasure of reviewing Pila’s GL3R flashlight kindly sent to us by the Pila Dealer in Western Australia, Harristech Covert Electronics. “So why the interest in ‘flash’ lights all of a sudden?” you may ask. In the Surefire A2 review, our editor sang the praises of having the ultimate illumination tool for the cockpit. But our esteemed editor will not be getting a hold of this little baby as I know that, if he does, I will never get it back! The Pila GL3R is, in my opinion, the cream of the Pila range – a perfect blend of power and portability in a true tactical flashlight. Let me say this: I don’t think I will ever find the perfect flashlight. We all have different needs and wants – even when it comes to a torch, but with the GL3R I’ve come awfully close.  

 Logitech was an unheard of brand name when talking about quality multimedia speakers.  When Logitech released the Z-560 speakers, everyone was amazed at their quality and power with the reasonable price tag.  It proved that the company had potential in making higher end computer speakers.  Logitech has now converged the home theatre realm into the computer realm with the release of the Z-680 and Z-5300.  Instead of the 4.1 setup of the Z-560 speakers, the Z-680 and Z-5300 are a 5.1 setup.  Although the Z-5300 set is second from the top, it doesn’t mean that the quality is diminished.  The main difference between the Z-5300 and Z-680 is the lack of DTS decoding; otherwise the Z-5300 boasts many great features at an affordable price tag.