Hasta La Gadget!

The Timbuk2 Quickie ($45 direct) is designed for the mobile commuter who needs just enough space to fit a laptop and a few accessories. The bag comes in four sizes: extra small, small, medium, and large. The size I received was the small, which weighs all of .73 pounds and is 9.84 by 13.78 by 1.18 inches (HWD).

The exterior, black nylon with light-gray trim, has a simple, attractive design aesthetic. Outside are all of two pockets, hidden underneath a Velcroed flap. The pockets expand and provide enough room for your power cable and miscellaneous accessories. The red interior is lightly cushioned but also has raised padded dots that serve as shock absorbers.

The Timbuk2 Quickie is essentially the commuter’s bag incarnate. It can hold your netbook, Kindle, or iPad along with smaller daily essentials. 

The Mobile Edge EVO Backpack ($79.99 direct) is quite frankly a beast of a bag. It comes with sixteen exterior pockets in total to cover for all your needs whether that’s for personal items or travel accessories.

Its exterior design is rather plain and simple aside from all the zippers and compartments, but that suits my liking just fine. Personally, I’d be more concerned about the interior of the bag–which happens to be its most appealing feature. It has a snug laptop compartment that holds up to a 16-inch laptop. It also has a work-oriented compartment on the inside that I found to be pretty neat: It contains different slots to hold your memory cards, Flash drives, wallet, IDs, pens and pencils, iPod/MP3 player, and even a hole through the top of backpack to string your headsets through.

The bag itself might appear somewhat cumbersome as it weighs about 2.8 pounds and measures in at 17 by 10 by 18 inches, but even stuffed to the brim it didn’t balloon up to be much bigger than when I was carrying a light load. It took some getting used to on my part, but if you adjust the straps appropriately the bag sits nicely on your back and is accompanied by a cool-mesh padded back panel.

Overall the Mobile Edge EVO Backpack was easy to carry around whether I had a light or heavy load in it. It is definitely something I could feel comfortable recommending, especially to someone who travels constantly or to a student who likes to bring their laptop with them on the go.

BlueAnt Wireless’ Q2 Bluetooth Headset does more than just relay voice. The headset, released yesterday, is more of a peripheral for your mobile phone that accepts voice commands, places calls for you, alerts you to SMS messages and reads them aloud for you (with the help of a companion Blackberry or Android app), and even announces the name of an incoming caller so you don’t have to look at your device. The Q2 also integrates with Bing 411 for quick access to news, traffic, and weather using your voice.

The Q2 doesn’t skimp on audio quality to bring you all of these feature: It has built-in noise reduction so your caller doesn’t hear background noise while you speak to them, and BlueAnt’s proprietary “Wind Armour” technology reduces noise from wind up to 22 miles per hour. The device even supports Bluetooth audio, so you can use the headset to listen to music, podcasts, and GPS information. All of these features will cost you, since the Q2 is designed to be a high-end headset. It’s available now at $129 list. 

Most iPad cases and sleeves look like what they usually are: plastic or polycarbonate shells or zipper-bound styrene and nylon containers that you use only to carry your iPad from one place to another. The DodoCase, on the other hand, is an attractively designed case that keeps your iPad safe while you carry it about but looks good at the same time. Inspired by journals and sketchbooks and handmade in San Francisco, the DodoCase borrows from bookbinding techniques to create a bamboo and faux leather shell that keeps your iPad safe and lets you use it at the same time.

The body of the DodoCase is made from bamboo and carved to give you access to the power button, volume buttons, and the dock connector and other onboard ports. The bamboo tray is then bound over with a fake leather cover with an elastic strap that slips over the tray to keep the case closed when not in use. The cover is designed so you can fold it over the back of the case and prop the iPad up at an angle to watch videos or type on it without removing it from the case. If the design and hand-crafted nature of the DodoCase appeals to you, they’re available now for $59.95, although you’ll have to wait 4 to 6 weeks while yours is made and shipped to you. 

It’s a great day when a tech product comes along that seems like it might be a Think Geek April Fools prank. Meet the iPad Syte Shirt. Made with a large pocket on the chest, this shirt holds your iPad and displays to the world whatever is on its screen. Use it to show off clever messages, the Web site suggests. It’s like being able to create a new funny t-shirt whenever you want one. Kind of.

The Syte Shirt lists for $49.95, a healthy price that takes the fun out of what should be a quick fun purchase. The shirt holds your iPad in landscape mode and only comes in black. A zipper holds the iPad securely in place, and hidden ports let you attach headphones or a charger. The iPad is sold separately, the site cautions.