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The folks at OtterBox have taken on the challenge of keeping our hand-held gadgets protected.   Having recently purchased the BlackBerry Tour and being notoriously rough on cell phones, I was excited to receive OtterBox’s solutions - the Impact and Defender Series - for protecting one of the most important gadgets I own. 

Last May I raved about the OtterBox rugged laptop 7030 case which unfortunately has been discontinued, as OtterBox is now concentrating their product line primarily on hand-held technology.  I can understand the shift in focus, as it further underlines the ever-increasing, important role smartphones are playing in our hectic lives.

I have been a consumer of smartphones since 2004 when I purchased the Treo 300.  Since then I’ve owned seven different smartphones including Treos, the XV6700 and BlackBerries.  With each phone I desperately searched for the perfect case, and inadvertently became what is referred to in the gadget world as a "casewhore".  That’s fine, I wear the badge proudly, and claim pundit status when it comes to protecting my smartphones.

With that said… I’d like to introduce to you two of the best rugged cases on the market for the BlackBerry Tour:

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Sex and the City inspired my wardrobe and influenced my choice of libation for much of my 20s and on into my 30s.  For two weeks after Six Feet Under and The Sopranos went off the air, I wore black and carried a hanky.  And true enough, it wasn’t Sunday…it was HBO.  All the while, Showtime is carrying on in the 300-channel-block of my DishNetwork, but other than a season of The LWord, and a few episodes of Weeds, nothing really maintained my interest like those HBO shows mentioned… until Nurse Jackie. 

Nurse Jackie is a 30-minute dark comedy set in an ER ensconced in the chaos of New York City.  Yeah yeah same show different city, right?  Wrong.  This isn’t a comedy spin-off of ER or House or Grey’s Anatomy or Scrubs or the countless other shows that fall under the hospital genre.  This one is different, as I’ll try to explain.

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One of the reasons we wanted to offer a review of sling bags is because most folks carry their backpacks like a sling, and yet there are so few laptop slings on the market.  There are millions of “casual professionals” toting computers in their daily commute, many of whom would like to be hands-free when mobile but don’t really care for the “backpack look”. The sling is a viable option for these folks, and in our quest to disclose the best laptop bags on the market, we may have uncovered a couple slings you weren’t aware of.

 

All of the bags chosen for this article series were chosen for the quality of the manufacturing, design, materials and functionality.  It’s not always about money, so we didn’t factor cost into our initial round-table discussion about which manufacturers to contact; we just wanted to contact the best.
 
Here at LitCentral Founders’ Blog we wanted to strive to do better than the mundane laptop bag reviews that inundate the web - offering a press kit, Photoshopped image and a cursory review.  In this three-part article series (What Bag Carries Your Geekd’m?) we lay hands on the product, take pictures and communicate the functionality and quality of these bags.  Part I of the series covers the best laptop and messenger bags.  Part II covers the best laptop backpacks, and Part III showcases some of the best laptop sling cases on the market.

Part III - Best Laptop Slings

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In 2005 Michelle and I co-founded LitCentral Inc. and we both needed bags that were professional, durable, and functional.  When your career choice requires that you constantly have access to a computer, you become very familiar with what the laptop bag market has to offer.   One thing is for certain, while quality often equates to higher price, a higher price tag doesn’t necessarily equate to quality.  A few years ago, I paid $100 for a Victorinox backpack and it lasted less than 12 months before the fabric started to unravel and the clips broke off.  You would think paying more for a recognizable brand would equate to quality – wrong!

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This article series is more of a laptop bag recommendation list rather than a laptop bag review.   Allow me to explain…

What does a software company like LitCentral know about laptop bags? Plenty. It’s the equivalent of asking a NASCAR driver what he thinks about tires. We already know who’s the best in the business and we’re dedicating the month of May to showing you what they’ve got.

All of the bags chosen for this article series were chosen for the quality of the manufacturing, design, materials and functionality.  It’s not always about money, so we didn’t factor cost into our initial round-table discussion about which manufactures to contact; we just wanted to contact the best.

Here at LitCentral Founders’ Blog we wanted to strive to do better than the mundane laptop bag reviews that inundate the web - offering a press kit, Photoshopped image and a cursory review.  In this three-part article series (What Bag Carries Your Geekd’m?) we lay hands on the product, take pictures and communicate the functionality and quality of these bags.  Part I of the series covers the best laptop and messenger bags.  Part II covers the best laptop backpacks, and Part III showcases some of the best laptop sling cases on the market.

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I got up early last Saturday with the intention of dropping by Barnes and Noble to grab a cup of coffee and finish my latest issue of Portfolio magazine.  Michelle called to tell me she had picked up a copy of Peaks and Valleys, the latest Spencer Johnson book, the day before; so I thought I’d take a closer look at her purchase while I was at the book store. 

Just a couple hours later the remnants of my coffee were cold and I had consumed all of Peaks and Valleys.  What’s more, the book was so fantastic I bought it (even though I had just read every word from cover to cover).

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I tend to lean toward non-fiction books.  I like knowing the hours spent reading something are beneficial.  If the book is interesting I’m done in a few days - absorbing big mouthfuls like a jumbo-size tub of popcorn.  If it’s not so good I consume it like a slice of holiday fruitcake - with gracious etiquette - laboring over every bite because I feel impelled to finish what I start.  Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book Outliers was not only consumed like a jumbo-size tub of popcorn – it was deliciously smothered in butter.

First of all, I have to admit my bias.  I love Gladwell’s previous books, Tipping Point and Blink.  Both are very insightful.  But Outliers has made me view life, success and most importantly screenwriting and what we do here at LitCentral in a much different way.  In Outliers Gladwell suggests that “genius” or a high IQ has nothing (yes, I said nothing) to do with success… and even more so, extraordinary success (hence the title - Outliers).

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