Hasta La Gadget!

The eco-fashion designers at Matt & Nat
teamed up with Apple to create its new line of vegan laptop bags. This
odd collaboration of Matt & Nat, whose mission is to create chic and
beautiful, yet environmentally responsible products, and Apple, whose
goal is to create the most powerful, user-friendly tech products (and
dominate the world?) produced some pretty sweet bags.

The “Apple” collection
consists of four bags: the Motto ($195), Creed ($210), Ritual ($180),
and Mantra ($110). Each bag is made from vegan leather with a gray suede
lining made from, on average, 21 recycled plastic bottles. The bags
have separate compartments for the 15″ or 13″ MacBook, iPod, iPhone,
iPod Shuffle, and the Motto and Creed designs even have a compartment
for the iPad. 

With so many custom compartments, you can say
goodbye to digging around in the bottom of your bag for your iPod. These
spiffy bags are available through Matt & Nat or the iTunes Store, and for a price, you can own your very own trifecta bag to be green, fashionable, and Apple savvy.

Wood. Since the dawn of time, mankind has never had a use for it. Now, thanks to one upstate New York Etsian, wood has finally found a purpose–to charge our Apple products. 

Why use a chord like some cyborg, completely divorced from nature?  Now you can dock the whole Apple family of portable i-products (except the Shuffle) into an actual cedar log. The USB-linked hunk o’ wood can be synced up to a computer or plugged directly into a wall to be recharged.

This great juxtaposition of nature and portable media is available for $138.

It’s what Lincoln would have used to charge his iPhone.

This is probably what it was like the first time the Avengers hung out. World on the street (and by “the street,” I mean Business Insider) is that none other than President Barack Obama is set to meet with Apple chief Steve Jobs this afternoon.

Obama is already on the West Coast, giving a talk at the home of Google executive Marissa Mayer in Palo Alto (for a $30,000 a head fundraiser). Since he’s already hobnobbing with tech execs in the Silicon Valley, why not swing around to Steve Jobs’s place to talk about Flash and turtlenecks and, I don’t know, more presidential type stuff, too?

According to Business Insider, a White House official confirmed the one-on-one meeting. No specifics on what they’ll be talking about–or whether a game of basketball will be involved.

Well, that didn’t take long. Tom Bihn, maker of gorgeous laptop and travel bags, has already announced a sleeve just for the 11-inch Apple MacBook Air. Called the Cache, it’s something that was already in production for the iPad, but the company is making a small modification for this new size laptop. It offers ¼-inch thick foam padding laminated with an exterior of four-ply Taslan and an interior of brushed tricot.

If you’re opting for the larger MacBook Air, Tom Bihn can sell you a Cache for that model, too. The slip case comes in a 13-inch size, as well. All cases come with a lifetime guarantee and are made in Seattle. The 11-inch model lists for $30 and will ship in early November.

As expected, Apple today offered up a preview of the latest version of OS X during its Back to the Mac event in Cupertino, CA. In keeping with the big cat theme that has been present in previous versions of the operating system (including, most recently, Snow Leopard), Apple has christened 10.7 Lion.

According to Jobs, the creation of other Apple products played a large role in the development of this latest version. “We’re inspired by innovations in the iPhone and iPad,” Apple’s CEO told the crowd, “and are bringing them back to the Mac.” Included on the list of features is more support for multi-touch gestures and the introduction of Apps for the Mac.

“Multitouch on a laptop doesn’t work,” Jobs told the crowd. “Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical, like on a desktop monitor. After a while, your hands get fatigued.” The answer, Jobs insisted, is the multitouch that the company has brought to its trackpads and mice.

Jobs called the new Mac App Store, “the best place to discover apps,” adding that while, “it won’t be the only place, it’s the best place.” Like its predecessors for the iPhone and iPad, the store will feature both free and paid apps, with 70 percent of the revenue going to app developers. Like the iPad, the Mac will offer a Launchpad for storing apps.

While Lion is due out in summer of next year, Apple isn’t waiting for the update to roll out the Mac App Store. Users with Snow Leopard will be able to install and access the store in 90 days. The company will begin accepting app submissions next month.