Hey! They’ve butched up the man-purse. :)

Peter: It’s not as big as it looks. It is in fact smaller than the Ogio bag I got from Microsoft a few years back but has essentially the same capacity and far more organizer pockets, file dividers, and other organizing goodness.

My experience with these Oakley bags is that they’re made from the same body armor material as Batman’s suit and so, while maybe not as strong as your Superman backpack, still pretty strong stuff. And far more appropriate for walking into a business meeting.

I gave up on backpacks a long time ago – too much work getting stuff in and out when I’m working a conference exhibit hall.

I’m going to give the Oakley bag its first real world test next week at DEMOfall – we’ll see how it fare in comparison to my others.

I’ve been using a BrentHaven backpack every day since I bought it in November 2002 (or 2001? Around the time of the first all-white iBook G3).

$Can200+tax+shipping from the Apple Store. Its very well-made; it shows no signs of wear after all this time. Even though it has two main compartments and a full-height front pouch, its very small and light. The current BrentHaven Duo II looks like I’d need a metal spine to carry it properly.

I’ve used my backpack for a 15-inch Aluminum PowerBook G4, occasionally a 13-inch MacBook and very rarely a 17-inch Dell Inspiron (tight fit as its meant for 15-inch laptops) and now my Motion LE1600.

It also holds my iPod, Treo 700wx, several 2.5-inch portable USB2 & FireWire drives, power cords/cables, a Canon SD400 and my lunch! Its made from the same material as Superman’s suit cos it never gets dirty… it looks like new.

I’ve thought of moving to a hand-held case with a shoulder strap as I’m always trying to lighten my load due to a back problem. (Caused in some way I’m sure by lugging technology around for almost 20 years) I’ve been lusting after one of Samsung’s Q1 models or another UMPC but their vectoring issues (based on reviews by JKontherun and GBM) have kept me from making the jump. Pen-based input is key to my usage, plus the noise of the ASUS would drive me mental. The form-factor of UMPCs is very similar to that of the Newtons I used thru the 90s (all of them up to the last 2100 model). That was the perfect size, in my opinion, and so UMPCs hold great promise.

Anyhoooo, see product shots here:
http://web.mac.com/pnorman/LinkedToPosts/BrentHaven_1of2.jpg
http://web.mac.com/pnorman/LinkedToPosts/BrentHaven_2of2.jpg