I got my “PowerSleeve” for my 12″ Powerbook today. It was shipped ground FedEx, which I have to say seems painfully slow when you’re anxious to get something!

I’m very impressed with this sleeve. It has a couple cosmetic blemishes, but I view it as the cost of ordering through the mail, you don’t get to dig through a rack of identical bags looking for the one without any nicks or scratches. This sleeve is made particularly for the 12″ Powerbook, so of course it fits like a glove. It is hardly any larger than the Powerbook itself, which is perfect for me because i want to be able to put this sleeve in my bookbag and messenger bag to protect the Powerbook from any other objects that may be flying around inside.

The bag has two zippered pockets… one on the flap and another that opens along the top of the back, going down the whole length of the bag. I could just barely fit a Newsweek magazine into the back pocket, which looks more apt to carry CDs and papers folded in half. While it may not hold everything I have, it does exactly what I got it to do, which is hold my Powerbook and be as slim as possible. The Powersleeve also came with a nice shoulder strap that is made out of the same strap they make seatbelts out of. It also has a large pad that runs along the strap, making the bag very comfortable to wear even with the 4.5 pound laptop in it. There were two color options, black or grey and white. For some reason I was compelled to get the grey and white, where I feel like I would have usually gone for the black. I don’t know… I just felt like the Powerbook deserved something different and distinctive. Maybe I’m thinking about it too much, but I really like the looks of the bag as much as the functionality.

Here’s a picture of the bag with a DVD case on top of it. I did this because the bag looks a little large in pictures, but in first person it is really quite small. I’m also sorry for the crappy pictures. My Sony Clie just doesn’t like the lighting in my room at all.

This is a bit of software that got me pretty excited today. Not because I have a dire need for this technology to get my own work done on the computer, but just because it’s so simple, and perfect for it’s purpose.

Programmers at UNC at Chapel Hill have written a bit of code that allows them to create a transparent desktop in OSX, with a video feed imposed behind. The idea is that people would colaborate on computer based work such as programming or writing, and give feedback through an A/V conference. Because the video is positioned directly behind the work at hand, the remote user can easily point and gesture at the work, making communication much more natural.

The story states that prototype code was writen up in less than an hour, because OSX uses the same graphics system for everything displayed on the screen. The Quartz rendering engine can make anything on the screen transparent. Another reason this got my attention is because I plan on getting a 12″ Powerbook very soon, and I love to see much innovation happening on the platform.

Find the whole story here from Wired.com: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,64129,00.html?tw=wn_3techhead



It has many details I left out!