The perfect laptop backpack: Booq Cobra Squeeze vs. WaterField Designs Staad

I've been looking for a new, slim, stylish, minimalist, professional-looking laptop backpack that can store a bit more than the Solo Universal Slim - not least because a Dell XPS 13 is slightly longer than a Macbook Air 11" and won't fit.

After an exhaustive search (see the full list of all 33 bags), I narrowed it down to two:

1. Booq Cobra Squeeze ($195, but they often have 20% off codes around US holidays)
2. WaterField Designs' Staad ($319-$329)

Neither bag is cheap, and both are a bit heavier than I wanted. But both companies offer 30 day, full refund policies as long as the bags are unused; allowing you to see them in the flesh.

My standard test contents in the below consisted of:

• MacBook Air 11"
• iPad Mini
• MacBook charger (with US plug)
• Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter
• Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter
• MicroUSB cable
• Small travel umbrella
• Small bottle
• Small lunchbox
• Snack

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  Booq Cobra Squeeze: front view

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  Booq Cobra Squeeze: side view

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  Booq Cobra Squeeze: side pocket with trendy Github water bottle from JavaOne 2015

• 

  Booq Cobra Squeeze: side pocket with umbrella

• 

  Booq Cobra Squeeze: everything from the contents list above inside

• 

  WaterField's Staad: Two models - Stout on the left, Slim on the right

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  WaterField's Staad: Two models - Stout on the left, Slim on the right

• 

  WaterField's Staad Slim: side view when full with the contents above

• 

  WaterField's Staad Slim: everything from the contents list above inside

• 

  WaterField's Staad Stout: side view when full with the contents above

• 

  WaterField's Staad Stout: everything from the contents list above inside

• 

  WaterField's Staad: the addition of some elastic to the straps makes it look even better

Booq Cobra Squeeze

My first impressions were that it's a nice bag, but it wasn't as slim as I was expecting. The curved style was good at providing structure, but also meant it was always the same thickness, regardless of what was in it. The laptop compartment was a little large for the svelte Macbook Air, but the addition of a small elastic corner strap and good padding meant it didn't seem to be a significant problem. The internal organisation was decent and, as you can see in the photos above, you could squeeze in a large water container in a side pocket, if you were happy to leave the flap open. Personally, I also found the grey a little light in colour: a darker grey would look more professional, while still providing a bit of variety over the standard black seen everywhere. YMMV.

Unfortunately, the combination of the depth, and the straps didn't quite lie properly at the top of my shoulders, meant it had to go back. Booq were brilliant about it: 2-day USPS shipping of the bag cost me another $8, but the money was refunded to my credit card straight away; with no hassles.

WaterField Designs' Staad

Everyone who's a customer of WaterField Designs sings their praises, and their Staad backpack seemed to fit the bill. It comes in two variants, Slim and Stout. Most reviews on the Internet are about the Stout, and they're mostly positive (with Carryology's Drive By an alternative take). ZDNet and Jim Kubicek provide useful hands ons with the Slim model.

I ordered the Slim and it did fit my test packing in that the Cobra Squeeze did. Just. So I ordered the Stout as well to see if that'd be a better fit.

After much consideration, I've decided to keep the Slim: it looks more professional, and holds what I need it to on a daily basis. It's also possible to squeeze in a bit more than you expect, but its slimness, and the lack of the extra width, make it the overall winner for me. As with Booq, there were no problems with returns: WaterField Designs refunded the money for the Stout immediately upon receipt (this time, 2-day USPS shipping cost $11.15).

We've also added some elastic around the straps to keep the spare, dangling, lengths tidy; this makes it look even smarter - and perhaps something WaterField could consider adding as standard in future.

Timbuk2 Classic Messenger: how much can it hold?

As with wallets, I'm always on the look out for a good, small, lightweight bag. Day-to-day, I use a Solo Universal Sling which perfectly fits a MacBook Air 11", iPad Mini, some business cards, pens and - when needed - the laptop charger:

The bag's definitely small (a few extra millimeters of length on the MacBook and it wouldn't fit) and weighs only 380g. No extraneous weight: very happy. It looks alright but isn't perhaps as professional as I'd like, and a sleak/small backback would look better and be better to carry for longer periods. But, as a commuting bag for day-to-day travel, it's fine.

However, sometimes I have to take overnight flights. Usually I try to travel with just a small carry on roller suitcase and my laptop bag, but when big suitcases are in the hold or I want to be able to quickly stash/access a hoody or sweater, a larger travel bag is useful. After some Googling, I decided on a Timbuk2 Classic Messenger Bag (medium). This isn't a full review, there are plenty of those on the Internet, but I had real difficulty trying to find out how much it could store. The answer is "plenty":

Certainly the medium size would be far too big for a day-to-day laptop bag for an 11" MacBook Air; but for convenience in having only a single bag on a plane (change of clothes, some toiletries, laptop etc.) whilst also having it be smart enough to use as a laptop bag on its own when I arrive, it seems to be just about spot on. It's also not too heavy at 880g.

MyFord Touch: LCARS wallpaper

I'm not (too) ashamed to admit to being a sci-fi geek and, in particular, Star Trek. On my current assignment, I've had a few rental cars with a Ford Fusion (a Mondeo in the UK) being the latest.

With a large touchscreen, running "SYNC by Microsoft", the MyFord Touch software is generally regarded as pretty poor with a litany of upgrades breaking or removing functionality, and long promised items - such as the "AppLink" available on the non-Touch system - being undelivered.

However, it does have one nice feature: you can provide your own 800x384 pixel wallpaper for the home screen. Googling turned up a few nice ones, but none provided the look I wanted. So, an evening spent with the GIMP produced:

Which, in place, looks really effective:

The phone is mounted using a Mountek nGroove Snap and Google Nexus charger, and is running 6 LCARS (available for both Android and iOS) in this screenshot, though it tends to be running Ulysses Speedometer and Google Maps when actually moving.

Council election time again

Voting has now opened for the next Maemo Community Council and, once again, I'm standing.

Last year I won, and the council chose me as their chair (hence the quietness of this blog compared with the Council blog, or even MWKN).

Please vote, the Council this next term will be very important in setting the tone of maemo.org, and the way the Maemo community can work with (and, where desired, transition to) the MeeGo community.

You can read my declaration, my response to EIPI's set of questions covering numerous topics. Then, don't forget to vote. Contact Dave Neary if you have not received your voting token.

Running for the Maemo Community Council... again

The election period has started for the next Maemo Community Council election and we have a number of excellent candidates, including - even if I do say so myself - me ;-)

Before I decided to run, I asked each candidate a series of questions - the answers we've given are linked to from the candidate summary page. I'd also encourage other community members to come up with questions for the candidates.

My full candidacy announcement is in the thread. The main point is that the last six months, having stepped back from the council, have given me a new perspective. The biggest issue I've seen is one of communication and clear facilitation. We need to reduce the overhead and streamline community action. Therefore, if elected, I will push for:

• A clear cooperation with the growing MeeGo community through MeeGo's Community Working Group and develop a transition plan to ensure the level of collaboration the council has with Nokia isn't lost in the new world.
• A Moblin/Maemo/MeeGo summit which looks to the present as well as to the future.

• Appropriate support and resources for existing device owners as Nokia transition to MeeGo. Exactly what form this will take will depend on whether running MeeGo is a day-to-day reality for N8x0 and N900 users:

  1. If MeeGo provides a comparable experience, without any loss of functionality, the resources around Maemo can be slowly redirected.

  2. However, if MeeGo for existing devices is - at best - of developer interest only, the existing Maemo community must continue, and must continue to provide support, help and resources to Maemo users.
     

  Mer^2 should help with the final point, and I'm proud to have been on the council which approached Nokia requesting a distmaster role; and suggesting that Carsten (Stskeeps) was the right man for the job.

• Increasing the visibility of the maemo.org sprint process and reducing the burden on volunteers. Niels Breet (X-Fade) being made the maemo.org team leader will help here. Having been involved in the running of an agile project for over 2 years, I believe:

  • Niels should chair the sprint meeting.
  • The meeting participants should be responsible for setting their priorities and what will be included.
  • Input should be provided by Nokia (Tero Kojo) and the community (the Council chair) on their issues and priorities before the meeting which should be taken into account within the prioritisation.

  This will reduce the workload for the volunteers on the council, increase the ownership of the tasks and provide greater accountability of the paid contributors.

• A summary table listing the high-level issues facing the community and who on the council will act as a point of contact for them. An example for the current council could be:

  Extras QA process         VDVsx
  Optification              gcobb
  Community outreach        Texrat
  

• Support for Randall Arnold's community outreach programme, which is trying to grow the Maemo community rather than just the Maemo platform. With the launch of the Ovi store for Maemo, much focus is given to that rather than the community provisions such as Extras.
• Empowering of community members to lead initiatives such as Google Summer of Code, conference attendance etc.
• A monetisation/donation framework for community-provided downloads.

Whether you vote for me, or someone else, I'd encourage you to vote! The transition from Maemo to MeeGo means the community's representatives to Nokia are more important than ever. Voting is open to anyone with a maemo.org account which is older than 3 months, and has accrued more than 10 karma points.

Why I'm not standing for the council... but you should still vote!

As those of you who read maemo-community might know, I've decided not to run for the council this time.

I'm really proud of being a part of the first two councils, and the level of trust Nokia placed in us with the recruitment of the debmaster; chairing the sprint meetings for the gang-of-four; the decisions over the summit and inviting us to the launch of the N900 at Nokia World.

My enthusiasm for Maemo is not diminished; indeed, with the launch of the N900, I'm as excited now as I was waiting for the launch of the 770 back in November 2005. However, after a year on the council, I'm now looking forward to six months as "just" a normal community member. I've not come to this decision easily, and I'm very happy to have had such warm words of encouragement. My reasons are two-fold:

1. There are many other members of the community who should have a chance to represent us. In particular, I'm very happy that Stephen (sjgadsby), Valério (VDVsx) and Graham (gcobb) have chosen to accept my nomination of them. The fact they're joined by the likes of Alan Bruce (qole), Gary Birkett (lcuk) and Jay Carter (zerojay) - and others - is even better.
2. The vitriol and nastiness spewed by a very vocal, but tiny, minority of people on talk.maemo.org - especially regarding the transition of internettablettalk.com to talk.maemo.org - took a lot of the fun away. Given the massive investment of time my role as chair required, taking the fun away removed one of the main motivations for me.

I still plan on being an active (and vocal) community member both as a developer, a community evangelist and as a user. I hope that if you would have voted for me, you consider voting for one of the excellent candidates we have standing (and we have many). In particular, Stephen, Valério and Graham have all been long term contributors in many different ways and are tolerant, helpful people. I will struggle to cast my single transferable vote for them, Gary, Alan and Jay.

However whomever you vote for, please do vote (once you receive your voting tokens)! I think that the Community Council has been far more effective than I ever imagined it could be when I suggested it back in 2008 and I look forward to seeing where this community will go in the next six months

Announcing my standing for council membership

I've set the ball rolling, and put myself forward as a candidate (the first) in the second Maemo Community Council election.

I'm proud to have been a member of the inaugural Community Council. In the last six months, we've seen a sea-change in the way Maemo is progressing:

• the first Maemo Summit, paid for by Nokia;
• community ownership of maemo.org;
• better use of Bugzilla by both Nokia and the community;
• the realistic vision of a community-led "hacker edition" in Mer;
• a webmaster, docmaster, bugmaster and now debmaster all being paid for for us;
• open communication and - importantly - progress indicators like the Maemo 5/Fremantle pre-release SDKs, which would've been unheard of back in 2006/2007.

The Council has been involved in many of these, but would claim credit for few. I believe we've truly fulfilled our role as facilitators and would like to continue my role there. We've not got everything right, but I think we've proved the idea; and that it can be a cohesive force within the community.

I think there's still work to be done, though. Nokia are being more open, and projects like Tracker and Rygel are being developed openly. Yet, Modest has slipped back into internal development; some patches to Application Manager have been merged, but the community's vision for application management in Diablo - and Fremantle - looks unlikely to have been realised. The system as a whole, and the application environment which so clearly defines the Maemo brand, are architected internally. Design decisions are taken internally.

Slowly, hopefully, we can change Nokia management into utilising the enthusiastic talent at their disposal in a way which is truly ground-breaking in the industry; with a root-to-tip collaboration between us all.

Thanks for reading this, and I'll happily answer any questions anyone has.

maemo.org Community Council elections

The call for nominations for the first maemo.org Community Council elections has been open for a couple of weeks now. But I wonder if the wider maemo.org is aware of just how important this could be for the future of the platform.

So, this post'll be syndicated on planet.maemo.org in the hope that we get more candidates putting themselves forward, and interest drummed up in the wider community in terms of asking the candidates more probing questions. Hopefully we can avoid the nastiness associated with the US presidential election :-)

Of course, I'm biased. I've thrown my hat into the ring: my candidature announcement has been sent to maemo-community. I recommend you subscribe if you're interested in shaping the future of Maemo, rather than "just" developing with it.