Best Stuff for Back to School

Believe it or not the back to school season is upon us. Here's some of the best stuff for kindergarteners to college students.

LL Bean Super Deluxe Book Pack
Poorly designed packs combined with heavy textbook load can cause back and shoulder problems especially with the younger set. Be sure to spend a little extra and get an ergonomic pack. We like LL Bean’s Super Deluxe Book Pack. Designed for kids ages 10 and up its packed (literally) with features including an ergonomic padded shoulder straps, hideaway waist strap, cushioned lumbar pad, water resistant material and room for all your stuff including water bottles, cell phones, CD players and of course books and file folders. It also has a safety reflective material making it easy to spot at night. $49. Or kids can spend about ten bucks more and go online at llbean.com and design their own pack. Over 350,000 design options for $60. www.llbean.comwww.llbean.com

Gateway’s M320 Laptop
The hottest trend in PCs for college students is wireless. Most college campuses now have wireless networks that let students use their PC to connect to the Internet and send email from anywhere on campus. Gateway’s new M320 is a great choice for college students for several reasons – including the fact that it has built-in 802.11g wireless connectivity, so it’s ready to connect to a wireless network. www.gateway.com

Here are six good reasons that make this laptop a smart choice:

• thin and lightweight (5.5lbs, just over an inch in thickness)
• affordable (just over a thousand dollars-$1,099)
• long battery life (up to 4 hours)
• large 15 inch display
• choice of DVD-ROM/CD Burner or DVD Burner
• has a 4 in 1 media card reader for easy access to digital picture

Sony Flat LCD Monitor
Flat panel monitors not only save space in cramped dorm rooms and home offices, Sony’s new LCD monitor will save your vision too. Sony's new state of the art 17-inch LCD is super thin sleek and designed to enhance your PC experience whether its gaming, surfing, watching movies or writing a report. Other features include flexible viewing angle, digital and analog inputs for simultaneous connectivity and 500:1 contrast ratio. A bit pricey, but considering this technology was well in to the $2,000 mark a few years ago its remarkable. The model number SDM-HS74P sells for $600. www.sony.com .

HP PSC 1315 All-in-One
Speaking of saving space H-P’s new all -in -one color ink jet printer, scanner, copier combines everything in a super small footprint. But what’s really unique about this product is it sells for only $99.99 after $30 rebate. Users can streamline creative, photo, and school projects with a compact, reliable machine that can do them all:

• Get lifelike color printing, scanning, and copying: use the optional 6-ink color* for richer tones and detail
• Organize, edit, store, protect, and share your photos and video clips with one convenient software program: HP's exclusive Image Zone software
• Print directly from your camera to the HP PSC 1315 by connecting your compatible HP PictBridge-enabled camera to the front USB port
• E-mail photos to pals and loved ones without burdening them with large file attachments via HP Instant Share
• Print and copy fast-at up to 17 pages per minute in laser-quality black, 12 in color
• Get borderless 4 x 6" photos that look like they came from the photo lab
• Easily scan color photos and documents up to letter size using the flatbed scanner (600 x 2400 dpi optical resolution, up to 19,200 dpi enhanced (depending on computer memory, disk space, and other system Factors)
• Maximize your desk real-estate when not using your all-in-one with the fold-up paper tray
• Know when a print cartridge is running low via on-screen warnings

ALL for $99; www.hp.com

Money Saving Phone
Sending kids off to college with a cell phone automatically triggers the cash register in every parent’s brain. But there is a new technology called Voice over IP (VoIP), that allows high-speed Internet connections to deliver phone calls over the Internet. One of the biggest players in this business is AT&T with its new Call Vantage VoIP technology.

Most colleges are equipped with broadband Internet access so all junior has to do is plug his VoIP telephone adaptor (TA) into his modem laptop and start dialing (compatible with PC and MAC). The service works with a standard corded or cordless phone.

The user controls this feature rich (Find Me, Voicemail, Conference Calling, etc) service from their own computer. The most attractive feature to students is that they can take their number and service with them (as long as they have broadband service) at the end of the academic year. CallVantage won’t break the bank either. Monthly service is $34.99, and if you sign up by August 31, 2004 it’s $19.99 a month for the first 6 months! Monthly service includes all local and long distance calls (refer to their website for international rates-they’re a bargain, too!). www.usa.att.com/callvantage/home.jsp

EPSON Stylus C86
For perfect photo printing, check out the Epson C86. It prints with great detail with up to 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi and borderless printing for frame-ready prints in 4" x 6," 8" x 10" and letter-size. The C86 also features Epson’s award-winning DURABrite inks, for fade, water and smudge-resistant prints to preserve photos and important documents, even on plain paper. And for easy photo printing, the C86 comes with a new photo kit, which includes 20 sheets of photo paper, Epson Software Film Factory for photo storage, printing and organization, as well as a free membership to Epson’s photo craft and photo sharing Web sites. $99; www.epsonstore.com.