Author: Scott Gruby

I’ve been pretty cheap when buying laptop bags over the years never spending more than $35 on a bag and usually getting one at Fry’s or even Ross. That is, until recently.

My previous laptop bag was a Belkin Backpack and held up pretty well for several years. In the last few months, I noticed that the material on the handle was starting to come off. Considering I don’t use the backpack all that often (I only use when I travel and I go on less than 10 trips a year), I was a bit disappointed. So I started a cursory search for a new bag. Nothing really caught my eye and it wasn’t high on my priority list.

On my last return trip from Portland, I went through the usual pat down at security (I always opt out of the full body scanners due to lack of concrete, non-biased evidence about them) and when the TSA officer grabbed my stuff, he piled my container with my shoes and junk on top of the container with my laptop. This had been done before, so I wasn’t concerned. After my groping, I mean, pat down, I put my shoes on, emptied the top bucket and when I picked up my backpack it felt kind of like. It was only then that I noticed I hadn’t lifted up the bucket and grabbed my laptop. While it wasn’t a truly close call, it was enough for me to speed up my search for a bag that would allow me to leave my laptop in it; I had read about butterfly style/X-ray friendly bags so that is what I wanted to so I didn’t almost make that mistake again.

The choices for this type of backpack were pretty minimal, so I kept searching and comparing styles and weights of backpacks. I came across the Brenthaven MetroLite BP XF Backpack. I had always considered Brenthaven backpacks expensive as I had only previously spent up to about $35 on a bag. I found the backpack on Amazon for $70 and ordered it. I was very excited to get it (don’t ask me why a backpack got me excited as I have no idea). The backpack arrived and I loaded it up with my standard gear. It seemed a little tight, but I realized that was because my last bag was pretty much a pit where I just shoved stuff. My standard gear consists of a 15″ MacBook Pro, an iPad, a power supply, an Energizer XP18000 external battery, some iPhone cables, a cable for the battery, iPhone and iPad charger, noise canceling headphones, and an extra pair of headphones (with microphone). It is a lot of stuff, but I always have what I need for any trip.

Now that everything was in the bag, I was ready to travel. I just got back from another trip to Portland were I used the backpack and didn’t have to take my laptop out at both ends of the trip; I just unzipped the center zippers, unfolded the bag and put it on the conveyer belt. Perfect, it worked as designed.

I did a little bit of walking in Portland to get to the office and my hotel and the backpack was quite comfortable despite the 2.6 lbs for the backpack, 6 lbs for the laptop, and then whatever the rest of the components weighed.

So far, I’m quite pleased with the backpack. It is carrying all that I need, was easy to use at the airport, and was pretty comfortable. With the Brenthaven guarantee for life, this could be the last bag I purchase. I am extremely pleased with the backpack and should have spent the extra money on it a long time ago.

Pros

• X-Ray friendly.
• Adequate storage for power supply, iPad, charger, etc.
• Lots of padding for a 15″ MacBook Pro.
• Comfortable straps.
• Lifetime guarantee.
• Non-fabric covered handle won’t wear down.

Cons

• A little heavy. The weight without gear is 2.6 lbs; I would like to have had it around 2 lbs. The extra zippers and some of the pockets add a little weight.
• Slightly more expensive than the run of the mill backpack.

Summary

I’m not sure why I waited so long to spend a few extra dollars to get a quality product. I am, however, happy that I waited for a version that makes it easier to go through security at an airport as that is one of the reasons I put my laptop in a backpack. There is lots of padding and enough storage to hold all my gear. If you like backpacks and travel even a few times a year, I’d definitely consider this bag. Luckily there weren’t more choices out there or I may not have found such a good back (I would have been cheap and not spent the money on it).

In the last 2 years that I’ve had an iPhone 4 and now an iPhone 4S, I’ve never been able to heavily use it when I travel and have it last all day. I have external batteries that I’ve had to put in my pocket to charge it which is awkward and not convenient. Last month, I decided to do some research and see about buying a battery case for my iPhone. Of course, this has the major disadvantage that when the iPhone form factor changes, I have to get a new case.

After reading some reviews, I decided to go with the Mophie Juice Pack Plus as it got pretty good reviews, has a large battery and offers some case protection. The next hard part was trying to figure out where to get it. On Amazon the price was about half of everywhere else. However, a bunch of the reviews were mixed and after pouring through pages and pages of reviews, I determined the issue. Some of the vendors are selling counterfeit cases and it seemed like a risk to get one and have no idea if it was real. Instead, I found a coupon for a company called outfitYOURS.com. After the coupon, I got it for $80 including shipping and it arrived quickly.

I’ve now used the battery on 2 trips; one a week long in San Francisco and a 3 day trip in Portland. During both trips, by late afternoon of each day, my iPhone was down to about 20% charge and I flipped on the Mophie and it started charging the iPhone which let me make it to the end of the day. The case does what it is advertised to do and doesn’t add too much bulk to my phone, however, when switching back to my normal case, I am able to feel the difference in the thickness. The case appears to be well made and my phone easily slips into it.

The case charges via MicroUSB and charges my iPhone as well; I had no problems with the charging. My only issues with the case is that one day after I flipped the case on to charge my iPhone, my iPhone shutoff a few hours later once the Mophie’s battery had depleted. I’m not sure if this was related to the Mophie or not; however, I’m now more careful and when the iPhone reaches 100% charge, I turn off the Mophie.

So far it has done exactly what it was intended to do and I’m going to take it on all my trips.

Pros

• Provides enough extra juice to last an entire day.
• Case adds some level of protection.
• Charges iPhone and case simultaneously.

Cons

• It uses a MicroUSB plug for charging; while I realize that this was done because of space, I dislike MicroUSB as it is hard to get the plug in.
• It adds some bulk to the phone.
• A little expensive.

Summary

If you find that your iPhone doesn’t last an entire day, the Mophie Juice Pack Plus is definitely a good solution. If you decide to buy from Amazon, be careful that you don’t get a knock off. I’d hope that the iPhone could last a day, but if cell coverage is notoriously bad (like San Francisco) or you get a lot of email (push especially), then a battery like this isn’t a luxury, but a necessity.

When we moved into our last house, there was a reverse osmosis system that we used for awhile until I replaced it with one that I could get filters from Home Depot instead of having to goto a speciality store. The water tasted pretty good, or at least we didn’t notice the taste. When we moved into our rental, we quickly realized how bad tap water tastes. Within the first week, we went to pick out a filtering pitcher.

My wife said she didn’t like the taste of the Brita filters, so we looked for an alternative. Wal-Mart had a few choices and we settled on the ZeroWater 8-Cup Pitcher. The marketing gimmick that sold us is that it included a test meter to show us the total dissolved solids (TDS) of the water as the pitcher was supposed to bring the tap water down to 0 parts of million of stuff in the water.

When we got home, we used the meter to test and it read 323. We poured in tap water, let it filter and then after a few minutes, we had a pitcher full of filtered water. We tested it and low and behold, it read 0 ppm. The water tasted pretty good and we started a system of filling up the pitcher and transferring it into another pitcher that we put in the refrigerator. (My wife likes room temperature water, I like cold water.)

Things went well for about a week and then I went to test the output of the filter and it read 60. The instructions said the replace the filter after the water reached 6. Hmmm, if 1 filter lasted about a week and the filters cost about $15 each, it would cost me about $60 per month for filtered water. I drink a lot of water and due to the poor quality of our water, the filters just weren’t going to last.

So what were my options? Buy filters? Get bottled water? Drink tap water? I decided to try the second option and for about $30 per month, we’re getting bottled water delivered. Based on our water consumption, this will be about half the cost of the filters and a whole lot less work.

Pros

• Included test meter is cool.
• Water tastes pretty good.
• Pitcher fits in refrigerator.

Cons

• Filter cost is too high.

Summary

While I liked the concept of the filtering pitcher and the water tasted pretty good, the filter cost is far too high. If you live in an area that has better tap water to begin with, the filters might last longer. I really wanted to like this, and now I feel kind of weird about having water delivered (I kind of always thought that people that had bottle water delivered were wasting money).

If you have bad tasting water, I cannot recommend this product and possibly more generally, any filtering pitcher, due to cost if you consume a large amount of water. I drink 48-64 ounces of water or more a day consistently, so I’m pretty picky about the water.