MacBook Air - Thinvelope Beyza Case

If you are lookiong for one of the thinnest cases around for a ultraportable (and ultra-thin) 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air, then look no further than Beyza Cases.

They’ve produced the ““Beyza Thinvelope for MacBook Air” and Judie Lipsett over at Gear Diary posted a review of the Thinvelope for MacBook Air this morning.

Keep in mind (in my opinion) that this is more of a sleeve to fit inside another larger/normal laptop or notebook bag or backpack (although you could certainly carry your MacBook Air in the Thinvelope on its own.

Going by the review, it’s very impressive and well made.

Read: Gear Diary

OQO Model 02 Addon - GPS

Sierra Modro over at GottaBeMobile is talking about a very frequent GPS receiver that’s used with the OQO Model 02, the Garmin Mobile PC.

The Garmin Mobile PC is one of the smaller USB GPS units around, and comes with the unit itself, a mount and the necessary software. It’s not available on OQO’s site yet, but will carry an MSRP of $99.99.

Sierra is taking requests and questions as she writes up a review of the Garmin Mobile PC/OQO Model 02 combination.

Read: GottaBeMobile

HP 2133 Mini-Note, Dell Discussion

This week’s MobileTechRoundup features a discussion about the HP 2133 Mini-Note as well as Dell jumping into the low-cost subnotebook arena.

Also, James Kendrick is calling the 2133 the “perfect writer’s notebook” saying:

The keyboard is great for lots of typing with it’s near full size and the extended battery I’m using provides just the right amount of ergonomic tilt to the device for comfort. It is a real joy to have a “real” notebook this size that lets me get web research done at the same time I am writing an article. The Mini is multi-tasking well and it may be the perfect writer’s notebook for all of the reasons I have mentioned.

Speaking of the HP 2133 Mini-Note, WaterField Designs has announced a new SleeveCase for the Mini-Note.

Review: Booq Boa Slimcase M

MacNN has put together a review of the Booq Boa Slimcase M.

The Boa Slimcase M will hold either the 13″ Apple MacBook or MacBook Air or the 15″ MacBook Pro. It will also hold non-Apple notebooks ranging in size from 11″ to 13″. The price is around $115.

One of the nice features is that when you open it while carrying it normally, you don’t have to worry about the laptop falling out:

The 3-pound bag is made to protect your laptop even when open, so it isn’t made with a square edged zipper that opens the whole bag. Instead the front has an angled edge, and when opened gussets prevent the flap from falling open.

There’s not a lot of room for other stuff, so it’s actually desirable by those wanting to go with a minimal amount of items (although with a 10″ or 11″ I’m sure it’d hold a bit more).

Full review at MacNN.com

Questions and Swapping the Bay Device of a Lenovo ThinkPad X300

Over on Lenovo’s Inside the Box blog, the Lenovo team has posted a video of just what is entailed on swapping devices in the ThinkPad X300 bay. As they point out, it’s not an ultrabay like in past IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads, and it’s not meant to have devices swapped in and out of all that often, but going by the video, it’s still fairly easy to do.

Going the older Ultrabay route would have meant adding thickness to the X300, something they say they don’t want to do. You could swap an optical drive for an extra battery, etc. (I would leave the extra battery in and just do the USB drive thing).;

They also answer several questions:

Why only 1.2GHz Ultra Low Volt Processors? Don’t forget, the magic that makes the ThinkPad X300 possible is a new chip package from Intel which has reduced height compared to other processors. It is only available in one processor speed at this time. And yes, we chose ULV processors for maximum battery life.

What size is the keyboard? This keyboard is a full T Series sized keyboard and not an X Series sized keyboard.

Does the ability to swap the optical drive out of the bay mean that I can use a hard disk drive in the bay for more storage? No. The bay itself is what I believe to be the industry’s first 7mm thick optical drive. Even if we did provide a caddy for a hard disk, mobile hard disks are too thick to physically fit.

Why no docking connector? I’m going to defer this one as I plan to write a larger post on docking in the near future. But a partial answer is that adding a docking connector would have added to thickness significantly.

Full article at LenovoBlogs.com

REI Boarding Bag - Perfect for 7″ and Under Laptops/UMPCs?

jkOnTheRun has a couple of pictures up from John Spinks about REI’s Boarding Bag. The pictures (click for bigger on jkOnTheRun) show a Samsung Q1 UMPC inside the boarding bag, but I can think of a few other devices that would fit perfectly in this, based on the specifications:

- Everex CloudBook
- Asus Eee PC
- HCL Infosystems MiLeap Y Series
- Fujitsu U810

Just about any 7″ or smaller laptop/tablet would probably fit in this.

You can purchase it at REI for $39.50 in either “Carbon” or “Mineral” colors.

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