September is here and maybe you or someone in your household–you know, the kid upstairs with the headphones who listens to that demon hippity-hop music?–might be in the market for some back to school technology. Here’s a quick rundown of our favorite picks from the past few months.
Media players have become a staple amongst students. This is an overly congested field, but the iPod Video (about $350) still retains a majority of the market share. With 60GB of hard drive space you can fit quite a few episodes of “The Hills” and still have room to burn. There are some rumors that Apple will be upgrading the iPod in either September or November, so if you simply can’t wait to get one of these, be prepared for a bit of buyer’s remorse.
Creative is also launching a slew of handheld media devices including the Zen Vision W with 4.5-inch screen for movies. It should be available in September and comes in 30GB or 60GB versions.
Another gadget to consider is the Sirius Stiletto 100, a portable media player that picks up Sirius satellite radio signals and, most importantly, Howard Stern. It will cost $399 and will be available this month.
A great feature about most smartphones is that they can also be used as a portable modem for your laptop. Even if you’re out of range of a WiFi hotspot, you can still get broadband-like speeds with EV-DO or EDGE. Some of the newer smartphones even feature real 3G speeds, equalling, or even surpassing, many DSL modems. With subscriptions for these data plans starting at less than most home broadband connections, WiFi almost becomes redundant. Almost.
The Treo, by Palm, has almost become the standard that other smartphones are held to. The easy-to-use Qwerty keyboard makes the learning curve a soft one. From a features standpoint, there’s not much not to like about the Treo, and the fanbase backs that up. The built-in software gives you email, web browsing and MP3 playback. It is also capable of editing documents in Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Add a few (often freely) downloadable programs from the Internet, and it becomes a full multimedia powerhouse. The screen is just the right size for most of the thousands of games available, and there are several instant messaging solutions available to keep you connected to your friends on Yahoo!, MSN, AIM, Jabber, you name it.
There aren’t many things wrong with the Treo, and most of them are related to the product getting fairly long in the tooth. While the camera takes pretty good photos for the web, it’s still sub-megapixel, and has no flash. Most new high-end smartphones are coming with integrated WiFi. Even with an SDIO card, it’s not an option with Treo. That’s probably a good thing, because even without the high-powered radio inherent in WiFi, you’ll be charging the battery at least once a day, if not more. We’d recommend a USB charging/sync cable, so you can take advantage of those unoccupied USB ports to give your Treo some quick juice.
This year, the desktop is dead in the dorm room. With the rise of ultra-light notebooks and convertible laptops that actually pack some power there’s almost no reason to have a hefty computer humming away under a desk.
 a super-thin laptop with a 12.1-inch display. The only problem: it doesn’t have an optical drive, but then again, with the ever increasing functionality of web-based information, CDs and DVDs are quickly becoming optional.</p>
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If you simply must have a stationary computer, however, consider something like the Shuttle XPC X100 (shown here). This tiny PC is about as big as a cereal box and has every audio and video output imaginable. Add an optical drive and build a mini media center that doubles as a homework station. A second runner-up is the Shuttle XPC SD37P2, one of the fastest, smallest PCs out there.
After a grueling three months of working at the local car wash and dealing with your parents’ ridiculous nagging, it’s time to go Back to School! With all that car wash money burning a hole in you’re pocket, you’re no doubt read to treat yourself to an HDTV. But there are loads of options out there and if you find yourself at the impasse of LCD, CRT and Plasma, we can help. First things first though: if you’re living in a dorm, you should check to see if you can get HD–I know many dorms still aren’t HD-friendly.
Finally, no student is complete without the assistance of a good bag. Given the quantity of gear we carry around, we here at CrunchGear have become something of bag aficionados. Top out our recommendations is the Python XM from Booq. This rugged daysack carries a 15″ laptop and conserves enough room for all of your other gear. You can easily fit all of your books and accessories without the bag becoming too bulky.
Those of you with photo gear should consider the Naneu Pro u120. In addition to being able to tote a 15″ laptop, it includes a removable photo pack that can store an SLR camera and several lenses. This bag is as rugged as they come and completely capable of carrying your precious gadgets through battle to safety.
So there you have it, kids. As always, we encourage you to do your own research to decide precisely what gear is best for you. But using our guide as a basis for your research, you should be good to go. Good luck and don’t forget to study regularly, I know you kiddies can get distracted with your sock hops.
“The only problem: it doesn’t have an optical drive, but then again, with the ever increasing functionality of web-based information, CDs and DVDs are quickly becoming optional.”
In this case, there are always the possibility using a USB key when you need to move over data and there’s no wireless available. I can’t say that I agree with you about this point tho, optical medias are still essential, especially if you plan to purchase software that’s not available on the web or if you simply want to look at some DVDs.. That’s not a laptop for everyone.
Maybe the author needs go to back to school.. last I checked everyone in my hall got their stuff from salvation army and bought used TVs for under $100. And in my previous years, I have not seen anyone’s dorm with a nice TV as recommended in this article. However, everyone does have a new iPod of some sort, so you definitely got that right.
I have never in my life read a more worthless list of useless, overpriced garbage. Who the hell needs a backpack that costs $189.95? No no, forget the backpack. Who the hell needs a 55 inch HDTV while they’re in SCHOOL!? Do you know what school is? Are you from another planet!?
Why would anyone by that crappy Gateway notebook over a macbook or macbook pro or even a dell?
I can’t agree more with Ilya, I can’t believe they are actually paying the person that wrote this. I’d love to hear what the author was thinking and which demographic they were going for. If you want to do a review of technology, do it, don’t label it as “back to school.”
WTF? Does he really believe college kids have 55″ plasma’s and backpacks that cost over $200 after tax? This list is laughable and worthless. Did he write this article with a straight face? Does he actually believe this crap?
yea k, the iPod video is not $250…especially not the 60gb one…
How in any way do you justify putting a television on a back-to-school list???
Nothing on this list, save for the backpack, belongs here. Students need pencils, notebooks, and a normal, inexpensive backpack to learn. It’s very hard to do well in school when you’re distracted by all the expensive, irrelevant crap on this list.
Now, if you renamed the article “List of cool electronic gadgets”, it would be fine, but this list has nothing to do with school, except that if you bought all this, you’d flunk out, or at least not be able to afford tuition.
i agree with what everyone says
this list is ridiculous and absurd
this is what you get when you are out of school and have income, not when youre living off loans and your parents
This has to be the worst back to school list I’ve EVER read.
It got me so riled up I actually wrote about it. Man, this guy sucks.
I’m going to have to agree with some of the other comments concerning this post. Who in their right mind, in preparation for college, would even begin to consider purchasing some of these items?! HD LCDs on top of a 32-inch television? Was this cheat sheet for college students going into the dorms, or kids who are going into condos that mom and pop leased for their little angels off-campus? Come on, the average dorm room is a 12′ x 12′ cell (if that).
This “cheat sheet” would have been more realistic had it comprised of the following:
1. sub 1K note book computer
2. mini fridge for the corner
3.
television– isn’t that what the computer is for?4. ear plugs or sound isolating earphones
5. maybe an iPod
6. fan
7. security safe – or something similar
Let’s be realistic here… Unless the author is trying to motivate students to max out their credit cards, read elsewhere.
I think you left the Segway out of the list – you know, so college kids don’t have to lug all their fancy gear around on foot.
man, that list is so unrealistic, give us a break.!
wow you suck
This list is ridiculous for the real college student paying their way through college. But I can say I have seen some students show up with this type if not better to college.
Mommy and Daddy are paying for EVERYTHING with these kids. So for most of us, this isn’t going to fly but for the parents looking at this. .”Yeah sure. . . my baby needs a 32-inck widescreen LCD HDTV” is what runs through their heads.
sadness.
I think it’s a joke…
It’s not a joke because the only thing that could be considered funny is the 3k tv. Everything else is within reach of an average person. Its just the so horribly titled and the material is so perfectly WRONG.
It’s also a little suspicious that the only person trying to save this guy’s face submits under anonymous.
There aint no way in hell, your getting the 60gb ipod for $250… not no how.
This list is beyond ridiculous and indicative of the extremely materialistic nature of so many of today’s youth. This is the final straw and along with the other extremely unoriginal posts has caused me to unsubscribe.
I too have unsubscribed just now.
What is a “4:3 contrast ratio”? Is it nonsensical babble? Because it sure sounds like nonsensical babble to me.
This is a pretty ridiculous list -_-
Poor. V Poor. As to the Booq bag – they are overpriced and poorly made. Awful materials – Tom Bihn every time or TimBuk2!
HA HA HA HA HA! You *actually* think that college students listen to Howard Stern?! BWA HA HA HA HA! What year is this?! Puhlease.
Ha! If you can find a 60 GB 5G iPod, no strings, for $250, I’ll probably buy you one!
Man you dumb
Ok seriously, what the fuck? Is this a 5 months late April Fool’s joke? What kind of _student_ can afford all this expensive junk?
Even ignoring the complete idiocy of suggesting such expensive things for students without any revenue, the choices of the items themselves are incredibly poor.
Recommending an Alienware laptop? Give me a break, Alienware has some of the most overpriced hardware known to man (they leave Apple in the dust in that departement, that’s saying something…).
Gateway NX100, $1600+, NO OPTICAL DRIVE?! And the author goes on to say that’s not relevant. Fine. Oh but wait, what happens if you want to say… reinstall the OS? Or install, say, Photoshop Suite, or games, or any software that is DRM-bound to the optical media they’re sold on? Well yeah, then I guess you’re fucked. Too bad.
And the author didnt even consider that? This guy is a joke. And so is this article.
“It’s also a little suspicious that the only person trying to save this guy’s face submits under anonymous.”
Actually, that was me. I’ll give you all a hint to why it’s a joke. It’s not a very funny one, I admit it, and it isn’t that obvious. This line gave it away:
“All your less financially well off roommates will thank you for it.”
I don’t visit this site regularly, but does it take money to recommend these things? In which case, he must have taken the opportunity to put all of them into one post.
i think you’d have a hard time seeing anything on a 4:3 contrast ratio. if you’re going to make dumb lists, at least learn the difference between “contrast ratio” and “aspect ratio”. even ignoring the lexical gaffe, 4:3 aspect ratio isn’t what you want – widescreen (16:9) is much better for TVs.
you have got to be kidding me. This is the worst back to school list i have ever seen.
That bag is just what I’ve been looking for, would a macbook be swimming around in it though?
This has got to be the most out-of-touch back-to-school list I’ve ever seen. The really important stuff isn’t OMG SHINY, like plasma TVs and iPods. College students really need minifridges, water filters, cheap futons, and bike locks.
fuck
Are you frigging crazy? This list is absolutely ridiculous, what college student could afford all of this unnecessary crap? This is one college student who sure as shit couldn’t.
You sir are an idiot
This list is soo stupid