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Search for the perfect Messenger Bag!

For many of us, a disconnected holiday is a blessing in disguise. Our lives were never the same, a decade ago. It’s interesting to visualize our lives under the prism of personal technology.

It’s a fact that the internet plays a major role in allowing us to work and play remotely or from different places. I keep meeting a lot of bloggers in the country and it’s fascinating to listen to their stories of travel, work and the perfect blend of both. Often, I am overwhelmed to see the stuff they carry with them all day or during their trips.

My current role doesn’t allow me to experiment too much with my lifestyle, but I do love to carry a lot of stuff with me when I am on the move. And when I say that, I mean a LOT OF STUFF!

The stuff I carry
The stuff I carry

Having said that, I have always wanted a bag that’s made with not just a good material but a good thought process – good design & aesthetics. It’s so disheartening to own a bag which has no zippers above the flap to hold your earphones,  so that you can take them out within seconds when you need them. There can be more ways in which a bag can disappoint you to an extent where you would want to switch to a new bag.

I carry a Targus BackPack which I love for the way it is designed. However, I was looking for a Messenger bag to alternate between days. Some amount of research I did left me with mixed reviews on messenger bags from Timbuk2, Belkin, Victorinox, etc. I trolled in forums having threads with as high as 100 posts discussing messenger bags. It was fun! I thank my friend @ShayonPal who helped me with pictures of the Victorinox messenger bag he owns. I almost bought it!

However, I was confused between a couple of options I had. That’s when I stumbled on STM Velo and it’s review on Cult of Mac. I looked at some more reviews and videos and it was not too long before it impressed me! The Australian brand, STM was not known to me but the product looked impressive. The fact that almost no one was talking negative about it on the inter-webs was a convincing enough reason for me to decide on it.

I approached the company and today, I got my STM Velo Small (Burgundy). The bag is designed to perfection and the quality of stuff, the stitches, the zippers – all fall in the right sweet spot. You’ll be surprised to know that it’s the ‘small’ size that I got and it could accommodate EVERYTHING you saw above!

STM Velo - front

The key highlights of this bag include;

  • Good protection to the laptop with great cushioning.
  • Great design. Very thoughtful!
  • Separate section for the laptop to take it out at the security check without opening the flap
  • Space to hold a Kindle & an iPad.
  • Enough zippers and pouches to contain stuff for survival on almost any day!
  • Comfortable strap to carry the bag, plus a soft handle to hold it.
  • Side pouches with zippers to carry a water bottle & an umbrella.
  • Available in Small and Medium sizes for 13″ and 15″ laptops, respectively.

It’s truly a great everyday messenger bag and I would recommend it to folks who carry a lot of stuff with them, people who travel to work  or those work to travel. 😉

Some pictures of the bag:

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In case you find it difficult to get this bag, you can reach out to Sundar at the following address;

Lucky Star Computers India Pvt.Ltd
17& 18, 2nd Floor, Park Square Mall, ITPL,
Whitefield, Bengaluru-560066
Tel: 080 28026551 / 52 / 53

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Reviews

Speaker Deck = SlideShare minus the Jazz!

Everyday, the Internet continues to (pleasantly) surprise us! Be it the Instagram acquisition by Facebook or stuff like the best of DrawSomething. Sometimes, it’s the coffee bean for the day that gets you charged!

Recently, I stumbled upon Speaker Deck Share Presentations without the mess. One thing I really liked about the product is the simplicity (No wonder, the GitHub team is behind it!). It allows you to upload a slide deck (in PDF), share and embed. Just that! This reminds me about the early days of how Slideshare was. I really like some of the features of Slideshare , but the ads are too intrusive. For someone who needs to share a presentation and limit it to just that, Speaker Deck is not doubt a good alternative.

With some digging around, I found OrderedList and here’s what Steve Smith, the founder has to say about Speaker Deck. It’s been 7 months since it was launched and I hope it continues to be clean as it is, today!

But, does it make sense to switch to Speaker Deck and toss the Slide Share Pro account I have? I guess I would wait for a while before I take that decision. 🙂

For now, here’s my first upload on my Speaker Deck account;