Solargoods's Blog

Whether you’re a bright-eyed freshman or a super senior, summer vacation will be over before you know it–so you’d better start your shopping soon. Check out Gearlog’s Back-to-School Essentials list pronto for the gadgets you’ll want on hand during the best years of your life.  Here are 5 essential gadgets for you back to school:

1. Laptop solar charger : You may genuinely care about saving energy; or maybe all your electric outlets are taken. In any case, you’ll find the laptop solar charger very useful, especially when your battery is low and you’re locked out because your roommate is…being tutored. This laptop solar charger with a powerful 16,000 mAh battery and 31 unique adapter tips will power and charge just about any portable electronic device, including your phone, GPS, camera, and MP3 player. $105 list.

2. Droid Incredible by HTC (Verizon Wireless): Stay in touch with friends and family with the Droid Incredible. It’s a splurge, but this Droid is a powerful smart phone whose pristine 3.7-inch OLED touch screen and terrific call quality make it well worth the price. Just make sure your professor doesn’t see you texting in class. $299.99 list.

3. Robot vacuum cleaner: Between studying and socializing, who has time to vacuum? The Jetsons have robo-maid Rosie, and you can have this robot vacuum cleaner. This vacuum is smart enough to avoid doorways and  automatically sweep, vacuum and mop the floors at the same time. When its battery runs out after an hour, it can direct itself to its charger and power up. $315 list.

4. Skullcandy 50/50: Drown out the sound of people “studying” in the library, or pump yourself up while jogging with these headphones from Skullcandy. Priced at just under $50, you get a lot of bang for your buck: They’re excellent for bass-lovers and work wonderfully with your iPhone to take or end phone calls. Your ears will thank you. $49.95 list.

5. LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen: If you’re a budding reporter for the school newspaper or just trying to keep up with your chemistry professor’s auction chant, you might consider getting the LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen. The pen’s built-in camera picks up the microdots on custom paper notepad and digitally transcribes your notes. It also records audio while you write, so when you tap the pen anywhere on the page, you can hear exactly what was being said at the precise time you were writing. $199 list for 2GB, $149 for 1GB. Notepads are $19.95.