I like things that can multi-task, and when I was shopping around for a new laptop bag recently, I decided I wanted one with a unique look that could double as a tote or shoulder bag as well, match as many outfits as possible, and not be so much an obvious laptop bag.

I found quite a few fun, chic, stylish and versatile ones, and decided to share my top 6 choices. You may be surprised to see that only one is pink, but again, I wanted something that could match pretty much anything.

These are all laptop bags for women, but I think a few of them could work for men too.

1. The Toffee Sling
This beautiful leather laptop bag from Australian company Toffee can be carried over the shoulder or across the body. It is made from high-quality leather and has a padded lining and an outside pocket. Size: 14.35 x 9.82 x 0.95″

Photo: Toffee

2. The Daiquiri by Basquer
Great colors and a retro look from Swedish company Basquer. This bag can also be carried either on the shoulder or as a messenger bag, and comes in 6 different sizes, from 12×8.9×1.18″ to 16.37×11.8×1.6″ to fit a variety of laptops (and other stuff). It is made from polyurethane and has a padded strap and interior and an outside pocket.

Photo: Basquer

3. The N/S Shopper from Abbi
I have talked about Abbi’s laptop bags before, and you can always trust her to come up with new, stylish designs. I love this almost square giraffe print shopper (it also comes in leopard and zebra prints) and it’s nice to have the option of being able to carry it by your side instead of on your shoulder. It is made from microfiber, fits laptops up to 15.4″, has 3 pockets and a removable shoulder strap. Size: 17×16.5×2 “.

Photo: Abbi

4. The Wow Cow from Moolight
Never mind the peculiar name and odd little “scenarios” on the company’s website (this bag features the phrase “Let’s share a bottle of red in the park”, she cried, while skipping down the road“), the bags from Norwegian designer Karianne Saether are gorgeous. The Wow Cow is made from Argentinean leather, comes in four different color combinations (this one is my favorite), has a padded compartment, several pockets, and can fit laptops up to 17″

On an amusing side note: The entire collection is named “something-cow”, like the “Holy Cow”, the “Hippie Cow”, and the “Me-So-Busy-Cow” (that last one cracks me up!).

Photo: Moolight

5. The KaraB Traveler Tote
This shiny, pink leather-grained vinyl bag designed by Kara Buttimer is an organized person’s dream. It has a padded, zippered compartment for your laptop, inside pockets for folders, computer accessories and cell phones, an inside key ring, and outside pockets for umbrellas and documents. It can fit laptops up to 15.25″ and measures 15.5x12x3.5″ and comes in “tropical pink”, “ocean blue”, “dayglo orange” and “jungle green”.

Photo: KaraB

6. The Imanuela by BeckSöndergaard
Don’t be put off by the material used for these bags – eel skin. It is a surprisingly soft, patterned material that gets even softer with use. Danish designers Lis Beck and Anna Søndergaard make these totes from skins that remain after processing by the seafood industry, and knowing how much eel the Danes eat, they should have plenty to work with!

The Imanuela comes in 4 different colors and measure 11.4x11x3.9″. It is a basic tote – no padded compartments and pockets, but it can certainly fit a laptop and I think it’s such a fun and unusual bag I had to include it.

Photo: BeckSöndergaard

Sooner or later, space starts getting tight on any computer, but there is an easy, affordable fix: external harddrives.

They’re great for backups too – I personally store all my photos and other large files on several external harddrives, and also have them all backed up on a separate one, which I keep off site, just in case something should happen at home (such as a fire, theft or lightning strike).

There are many different brands and sizes to choose from, and everyone has their favorite. I use Western Digital drives and have been very happy with them (knock on wood). Other big, well known names are LaCie, Seagate, SimpleTech, Iomega, Samsung, Transcend and Buffalo.

Prices have come down quite a bit since I got my first one, making it an affordable way to expand your laptop (and much easier than to install a larger internal hard drive) and easily back up your files. These days, you can get a good external hd for as little as $50. And many come in a variety of colors too.

Size – Both Physical and Storage
Do you want to be able to take it with you everywhere? If so, you want to look for a portable external harddrive that easily fits into laptop bags. There are lots to choose from, ranging in price from the mid $30s for a 3″x5″ 80GB Cirago to over $400 for Transcend’s 3″x2″ 128GB SSD18M solid state drive. While solid state is ideal for a drive that will be carried around, it is a lot of money. A great, more affordable (as well as colorful and rugged) option, is Transcend’s 3″x5″ 500GB StoreJet 25 Mobile at just under $100 (not a solid state). If you want a ton of storage space and don’t mind lugging around a larger drive, check out HP’s 8″x4.6″ 2TB Personal Media Drive, which sells for around $200.

If you plan on never taking your external hd with you, there are almost an infinite number of choices. One great option is a multi-disk harddrive with RAID technology. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks and comes in several different configurations, the most common being RAID0, 1 and 5. RAID0 splits all the data between 2 harddrives (also called striping), which speeds up write and read times. RAID1 creates an exact copy of everything on the first disk on the second disk (“mirroring”), so that if one crashes, you still have all your data on the second one. RAID5 requires a minimum of 3 disks and does both striping and mirroring. Some will let you switch between different RAID configurations so you can set it to RAID0 if speed is most important or RAID1 if security is your top priority. These types of drives are available from all the major manufacturers (and some smaller ones too).

Having said all that, people have had issues where one disk crashed and they were unable to recover the data from the other(s). I personally feel safer having multiple smaller external harddrives and backing up my data to at least two of them on a very regular basis, even if it’s not as convenient as having one unit, and you have to remember to back up.

Speed
The rpm tells you how fast the disk spins. A 7200rpm harddrive is faster than one at 5400rpm, but the faster disks also consumes more energy and gets warmer.

The Mb/s tells you how many megabytes are transferred per second.

Transfer rates are also dependant to some extent on the type of connection you use. Every mainstream external harddrive on the market has a USB 2.0 connection, but some also have FireWire and/or eSATA. FireWire and eSATA are faster than USB, but not all laptops come with those types of ports (they also need to be supported by your laptop’s motherboard). The first external harddrives using USB 3.0 were recently announced (with super fast transfer speeds), but you won’t be able to use them unless you have a motherboard that supports USB 3.0. A few have already been announced, but Intel says they will not support USB 3.0 until 2011.

I obviously cannot write about any computer hardware without mentioning the pink ones. Here they are:

A-DATA
Classic CH91 (250, 320, 500 or 640GB) in a shiny, classic pink
Nobility NH92 (250, 320, 500 or 640GB) in Cherry Pink

Iomega
eGo Portable – 160 or 250GB in a shiny dark pink, or 320GB in Flamingo Pink

LaCie
Skwarim 60GB in bright pink

Samsung
S1 Mini (120, 160 or 250GB) in Sweet Pink
S2 Mini (160, 250, 320 or 500GB) in Sweet Pink

Seagate
FeeAgent Go 250 or 320GB in Think Pink

SimpleTech (Hitachi)
Signature Mini 250GB in Bubblegum Pink

Verbatim
Verbatim Portable 320GB in a nice muted pink

Western Digital
My Passport Essential 160 or 320GB in Vibrant Pink
WD also sells a pink skin for their My Book Home or Office Edition drives

Those of us who spend the majority of our time working on a laptop eventually start developing aches and pains from repetitive motions and sitting in the wrong position for too long (and too often). But using ergonomic furniture and computer accessories can help enormously. As always, prevention is the best medicine – make sure you’re sitting right before things start to hurt.

I realize of course that it’s not always possible to be in a perfect position while trying to get work done on a train, plane or even in a classroom, but at home, you’re in charge of your environment, and you can find travel-friendly tables and lap desks that aren’t a pain do take along. Instead of hunching over your laptop while squished into an economy class seat or sitting on the couch at home, invest in an inexpensive laptop computer table that allows you to work (or surf) longer.

Laptop tables come in all shapes and colors. Some are more like regular desks, some are U-shaped tables that can also be used as side tables, some are portable and angled, and some are flat boards intended to sit on your lap to provide some stability and protect you from the heat from the laptop. I personally prefer to stand up and work, so I like the more podium-like desks that allow me to do that.

A simple, lightweight, angled portable laptop stand is the Aviator from Keynamics. You have to assemble them yourself, but it’s really easy to do, and when disassembled, they fit easily in standard-sized laptop bags. It comes in several colors, costs $19.99, and when you buy one in pink, Keynamics donates $2 to breast cancer research.

LapWorks’ “Painted Futuras” come in 12 colors (Passion Pink is one of them) and can both be used as a lap tray and folded up into a wedge (providing an angled stand).

If you’re looking for a super cute lap desk, check out the ones from Room It Up. They come in a ton of great colors and designs (lots of pink) and even have built-in cup holders!

Speaking of built-ins, Philips’ laptop cushion, a comfortable beanbag with a non-slip flat hardtop surface, comes with with built-in speakers (it hooks up to your laptop via a built-in usb cable). At the moment it’s only available in Europe, and sadly does not come in pink.

For those who, like me, prefer to work standing up and need an adjustable laptop table, the fuchsia laptop podium (also comes in other colors) from Walmart is perfect. While not exactly something you take on the road with you, it works great at home: takes up very little space and has adjustable height and tilt.

The folding laptop table from purple-Faye’s store at eBay is a really smart and handy little desk. It comes in several colors (including bright pink), weighs only 2 lbs and folds up so small you can fit it in a laptop bag. You can adjust both the height and the angle any way you want it, so you can use it just about anywhere.

So what is the perfect working position? Sitting up straight with both feet firmly on the floor (on a chair that supports your back), head and neck upright, top of monitor in line with your eyes, upper arms and elbows close to your body, wrists and hands straight, resting comfortably on the keyboard. A lot to keep in mind, and easy to forget, especially for those of us who spend long hours in front of our gaming laptops, where in the heat of the moment it’s easy to contort yourself to anything but correct posture, but well worth remembering nevertheless.

While some may consider pink a spring and summer color, I think it’s fabulous year round. I personally tend to choose either richer (almost purple, brown or burgundy) or more subtle shades of pink in the fall, and the great thing about laptop bags is that they are inexpensive enough (many of them anyway) that you can switch them every season.

Many of the leading fashion color forecasters are including shades of pink in their fall/winter color trend forecasts.

Just look at these gorgeous pink(ish) palettes from CIFF (Copenhagen International Fashion Fair), PremierVision, Stahl (the left one looks gray on screen, but it’s actually a nice, pale lavender) and TFL (whose description of their pinks I just love: “drunken scarlets”):

I have selected some my favorite bags and cases this fall and hope you find one you like among them.

Mango Tango has three different designs of their stylish pink laptop bags: 2 in faux suede (one quilted, one plain) and one in canvas with grey, brown, green and pink stripes. Sounds a bit garish, but it’s really cute. And they’re all on sale at the moment!

The dark pink faux crocodile laptop portfolio from Mobile Edge is just adorable. It fits laptops up to 14.1″ and comes with a matching shoulder strap.

Another Mobile Edge bag that I really like is the Maddy Powers-designed “Sheba” in black and pink with a cool 50s pulp magazine picture on the flap. It comes with a removable laptop sleeve (in pink & black) and lucky seven dice.

The shiny hot pink laptop bag from Ice Red has lots of compartments and pockets, fits laptops with screens up to 17″ and is so very cute.

If eco-friendliness is important to you, you have to check out the bags from Urban Junket. All the bags in their T.O.T.E. line (To Observe The Earth) are made made with 100% organic cotton and natural dyes, and the linings are made from recycled plastic water bottles. My favorite is the magenta convertible laptop tote, which can be used both as a tote and a backpack and comes with an adorable separate clutch. The bag fits larger laptops, up to 19″, and is expandable, so you can even fit a MacBook Pro in it without problems. They donate $1 from each sale to carbonfree.org.

If you want something custom made, look on Etsy. Not only are there a huge number of pink laptop bags, sleeves, totes, etc. to choose from, but many sellers will gladly make a special one just for you.

If you have extra cash sitting around and want to spend it on a laptop case, check out the pale pink, oval hard shell polycarbonate X2 Flash 18″ from Titan Luggage. It fits laptops up to 15″, weighs only 3.3 lbs, and comes with a lifetime warranty. A few of the colors (pink among them) are currently on sale for $309 (regular price is $445).

And last but certainly not least, the brown and pink hand beaded vintage-looking tapestry bag “Phoenix” from Mellow World is understated, elegant and practical. It’s currently on sale at eBags, AND they donate 10% of the price ($79) to Susan G. Komen.

Don’t miss my latest post on laptop bags where I talk about my most recent fabulous finds!

Happy bag shopping!

Every year it’s the same: one moment you’re walking around in shorts and flip flops, basking in the warmth of the sun, and the next, Christmas is a few weeks away and gift buying-panic sets in. Here are 11 items that’ll give you a head start on your holiday shopping:

Noteworthy Notebooks

With the look of a chic evening bag, suitable for any dressy event, the yet-to-be-named Vivienne Tam-designed clutch notebook from HP is the cutest laptop I’ve seen in a long time (perhaps ever!). The outside is dark red with painterly pink and purple peonies, the national flower of China where it is considered a symbol of riches and honor, and inside, the return key sports the Chinese character for double happiness.

It comes with an embroidered sleeve (also designed by Vivienne Tam) and the only downside to this fabulous laptop is that it won’t be available until 2009. But why not ask for a homemade gift certificate for it for the holidays, and you’ll be all set once it hits the market. Newsflash! I just found out that this gorgeous little digital clutch will in fact be available in time for the holidays. It will be priced around $699, and you can reserve one by calling HP.

I’ve written about Ego’s laptops before, but it bears repeating. They are so ultra-fabulous I just can’t help myself. They currently offer 4 different pink designs, but they keep adding new, fresh looks continuously, so if you don’t like what you see now – just keep checking back with them. They were previously only available in the US from Avant Gallery in Miami Beach, but now, Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC also sells them.

Awesome Accessories
It somehow feels like a shame to put your Ego laptop in a bag, but I have to say that their pink leather “Enrichment Bag” is too cute to resist. It looks like your Ego but with pockets and a shoulder strap (which can also be detached from the bag and put on your laptop directly).

Abbi New York makes adorable laptop bags and keeps coming out with new fabulous collections. I absolutely adored the dusty pink Sienna messenger bag, but alas, it is no longer available (bring it back, Abbi!). However, Abbi’s new collection, Erin, is equally delightful with its retro styling. Erin is available as a briefcase, slim carrier or clutch and is made with water-resistant nylon and patent leather trim and adorned with Abbi’s four leaf clover logo. Note: This bag is no longer available, but check out my latest post on laptop bags for Abbi’s new designs.

Cool Gadgets For Kids
For the kids (and who enjoys Christmas more than they do?), I love the Tag Reading System from LeapFrog. Intended for 4-8-year olds, the specially printed storybooks (currently over 20 titles to choose from, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Olivia, and The Little Mermaid) come with a pink and white (or green & white) “Tag Reader”, a pen-looking device that when moved across text in the books, reads them out loud to your kids.

The Nintendo DS Light in Metallic Rose is super stylish, light, and features two bright screens, wi-fi, surround sound and touch-screen technology. It’s backwards compatible too, allowing you to use Game Boy Advanced games as well.

Sweet Stocking Stuffers
Mice
The pink leopard patterned G-Cube Lux Mouse (wired) is an inexpensive way to add some sass to your home office.

HP’s wireless mini mouse (in metallic dusty pink) is the perfect “travel mouse”. It’s tiny, works on almost any surface, is designed for both left- and right-handed users (great for situations when you can’t use it on your “regular” side), and the USB receiver fits into the bottom of the mouse when not in use, making it a bit harder to lose.

External Memory
Kingston’s 8GB Traveler flash drives are pocket sized, cute, affordable, and come with an attached cap. The accompanying software lets you create a “privacy zone” on the drive – a password protected area only you will be able to access. A great idea, since flash are one of those things that people inadvertently leave behind in various places.

To store a bit more data, consider iOmega’s eGo 250GB portable hard drive (it comes in several colors, metallic Flamingo pink being one of them). At 3.5×5.2″ and 7.7 oz, it can easily fit in a pocketbook or laptop bag, and it also has what they call “drop guard”, so it can handle being banged about a bit.

If you need a lot of external memory on the go, check out Western Digital’s My Passport Essential. It’s compatible with both Windows and Mac, has a 500GB capacity, and is actually even smaller and lighter than the iOmega above: 3.1×4.9″ and 0.4 lbs.