Essentials Range Cases and Covers
Company: STM Bags
http://www.stmbags.com
SLIP 15″ Laptop Sleeve – $40
Backpack RAIN COAT – $20
Flat Screen 20 inch Monitor MASK – $20
3-Pack SORT Organizer – $25
&
Travel Case
Company: WaterField Designs/SFBags.com
Cost: $35 – $39
http://www.sfbags.com
You don’t need to spend a ton of money to achieve a high standard of protection for your valuable computers and portable digital devices.
WaterField’s TRAVEL CASE comes in three sizes/prices and six colors. Its padded pockets safely and securely hold cameras, iPods, chargers, cables, and quite a bit more. Construction is durable, stylish, washable, and weatherproof. This company is new to MyMac, so we hope to evaluate more of their diverse products.
Here are two photos of my WaterField TRAVEL CASE, loaded with digital goodies.
I intentionally overstuffed this large size $39 Travel Case to demonstrate its capacity. In actual use, I pack it more carefully, so it can zip tightly. In the above pictures, the case has an iPod, charging cable, camera, charging dock and cables, card reader with cable, USB hard drive with cable, plus phone. You get the idea.
WaterField’s Travel Case is a class act. Using it daily for several weeks, I keep challenging it to disappoint. No dice, Nemo. This is a multipurpose product that achieves our highest 5 out of 5 MyMac recommendation.
The company offers a FAQ here.
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STM’s $40 SLIP light weight laptop shoulder bag comes in 17″, 15″, and 13″ sizes. We are reviewing the black 15″ SLIP. It is a spacious compartment for your computer, with basic handle and padded strap, plus a small exterior zippered compartment and a very small interior velcro storage space. There is a large, rear, drop-in space for papers and magazines.
What makes SLIP special is its zippers, which unzip to create a padded lap-top or desk-top work space for you and your portable computer. See the photo below.
I’m typing now, using SLIP to hold my 15″ Mac laptop comfortably and safely. MyMac likes this sleeve. We recommend it with a 4 out of 5 rating. SLIP would achieve a perfect score if the handle and strap were more cushy and ergonomic. If those improvements added $10 or $15 to SLIP’s price tag, that would not be a problem for most purchasers.
I am a hardcore urban backpacker, as loyal readers know. When my computer backpack and I are outdoors during a downpour, we both get anxious. Never again. STM’s $20 silver RAINCOAT offers a one-size “wet weather backpack protection” for all the company’s packs. RAINCOAT will also fit many other companies’ packs. Bravo!
This product has elastic draw strings for a secure, tight fit over your pack, and it comes in its own clever carrying case. I haven’t tested it in a storm yet, but I splashed water all over RAINCOAT and my pack remained dry. Nuff said. Get one today. MyMac rating is 4.5 out of 5.
Without an iMac or Apple Cinema Display handy, I can’t do justice to MASK from STM. This attractive monitor “tea cozy” covers and protects a display from dust and scratches. Fit appears to be comfortable, and not too tight.
I come from the school of behavior where I clean my Cinema Display every year or so, whether it needs it or not. My office isn’t especially dusty, but yours may be filthy. As soon as I return to Arizona from my current assignment in California, I’ll place the padded MASK over my 20″ display for visitors to admire.
STM makes individual MASKS for the different sizes of Apple monitors. Color selection is limited, so consider your decor before placing your order. MyMac says $20 to protect your precious 20 inch iMac or Cinema Display is a bargain that is foolish to ignore.
We’ll award a provisional 4 out of 5 for MASK, until it’s actually in place on my personal monitor.
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Last item from STM is SORT, a three-in-one $25 storage/travel set. STM calls it a “padded cable case in 3 sizes.” One each orange (small) and red (medium) zippered, padded pouch fits perfectly into a black (medium-plus) rectangular tote that has a clear front panel. Each of the three cases has a basic handle and soft interior material.
The trio that comprises SORT first appears to be more of a personal effects or makeup set than storage for techie gear. Guess what: you can use either/all three cases for whatever you want, and STM won’t complain.
I’m planning to place iPod-related items into the smallest, orange piece; camera-related equipment into the medium size, red piece; and as many cables as I can cram safely into the larger, black-with-clear-front tote. The latter has three narrow velcro bands to help keep loose wires in place, which is a nice touch.
In a few weeks I can provide a real life evaluation of SORT. Until then, our provisional MyMac rating is 4 out of 5.
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Below are the specific URLs for the four STM products mentioned above, with photos:
I have a suggestion for STM. This company appears to limit customers’ color choices by dictating which color SLIP or MASK is designed for which size product. I may be missing the obvious, but most people want more choices, not fewer, when colors are offered. My honorary doctorate in Marketing Strategy hasn’t yet arrived, so you can take this suggestion any way you want.
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P.S. What’s a tea cozy?
David Cohen reports from England:
The Tea Cosy (or Cozy) has somewhat fallen out of favour in a Britain obsessed with imported American coffee houses and the Big Mac.
It was an expedient device, usually hand-knitted from wool, that was designed to fit over a teapot to insulate it and keep the tea warm while it ‘brewed’ or ‘steeped’. This was at a time when teapots were fairly uniform in size and shape, and the art of serving tea – giving it enough time to disseminate to correct strength in the pot, and serving at the correct, drinkable temperature – was a practice well understood by British men and women.
The death knell of the tea cosy was sounded in Britain in the mid-to-late Fifties. A post-war Britain, finally free from the shackles of supply rationing (which lasted well after the war ended), and anxiously looking forward to a modernist future, rapidly embraced rampant consumerism and never looked back. That standard teapot was lost in a raft of new-age design, and knitted wool products became outmoded in the wake of space-age new fabrics such as rayon and nylon. Once the swinging Sixties hit, the pace of life began to step up, and the concept of sitting down waiting for tea to brew in a pot became increasingly outmoded, with the tea cosy doubly so.
Most of the tea drinkers I know nowadays use a single mug and a tea bag on a string. And coffee drinkers predominate. How sad!
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