The ID bag is now in-stock in all colors: Black/Crimson/Steel, Black/Black/Crimson, Black/Black/Steel, Black/Steel/Crimson, Black/Steel/Wasabi, Black/Grape/Wasabi, and Black/Kiwi/Wasabi.

The ID

Who is Rudy (pictured above) and why is he happily resting on a Tom Bihn Brain Bag? He was a lost dog found running along an interstate in Alabama by customer Val M. (owner of the Brain Bag that Rudy is resting on). Val, as a volunteer with In Defense of Animals, spent the Christmas Holiday in the Hurricane ravaged Gulf States rescuing and providing food and water to cats and dogs left homeless by the storm.

Rudy’s story has a happy ending — he was adopted by other IDA volunteers. But there are still thousands of homeless dogs and cats in the Gulf States who need our help. Read the January update posted by IDA to find out where you can send donations of dog and cat food. Also needed are monetary donations to groups such as IDA, the Humane Society, and PETA. These donations will aid the efforts of volunteers like Val, and will help to create more happy endings, just like Rudy’s. (There is another picture of Rudy after the break.)

Leigh, Grand Prize Winner in the Knitty/Tom Bihn “Design Your Dream Knitting Bag Contest”, wrote in with her first impressions of the LUX:

I’ve been using my lux regularly, and love that it stands up by itself. Living in central London there is no point in owning a car, so my it has become indispensable on my weekly shopping trip. I have my vege and milk delivered, so my the ‘Binn Bag’ (as it’s been dubbed by my flatmate) fits all the other essentials nicely, and I’ve finally completely relinquished the use of plastic bags.

The three things I like most about it are:

1 - It’s free standing even when you’re loading it a bit lop-sided.

3 - All the stuff you need to have access to is near the top, keys, wallet, phone. (It’s great being able to find my keys so easily, rather than up ending my bag at the front door.) Most large bags have pockets that go all the way to the bottom – grrr.

The only improvement for me would be with the pocket. My keys tend to rattle as I walk along. If the zip on the pocket ran the other way you could dangle them into the zipped up pocket and prevent jinglage.

When customers call and ask how protective the Brain Cell is, I tell them the terrifying experiences that other customers have shared with us. In one incident, a laptop inside a Brain Cell flew out of a car going 25 MPH.

The extent of my experience of my Brain Cell (in Crimson) protecting my 15″ Powerbook was limited to bumping the case against a wall.

That was, until a few nights ago, when attempting to carry my LUX, two bags of groceries, my Brain Cell, with keys in one hand, in the rain (it’s been raining for 28 straight days here), I dropped the my Brain Cell on the sidewalk. In the horror of the moment, it didn’t seem like it actually even just dropped, but propelled itself with determination towards the hard, wet concrete.

As soon as that happened, everything else — the groceries, my LUX — was dropped to the ground and I picked up the Brain Cell, went inside my house, and opened it to survey what damage there might be. Aside from some easily wiped-off dust and particles of other stuff that had been hiding in the keyboard that ended up on my screen (I forgot to put my Laptop Keyboard Cover on), my Powerbook was fine. Not one dent, scratch or rain drop.

Now I can give customers my personal experience with dropping my laptop while it was inside the Brain Cell. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the Brain Cell (or the Monolith, its vertical version) will protect everyones laptop in every situation. But it gives me peace of mind when I take my laptop to work and back, on the ferry, bus, or a plane, or anywhere I go.

Tom writes:

Guy Bouchard & Laura Sadowsky run a cool little webstore called “Thirty Below” (“Trente Sous Zéro”), specializing in traditional music from Quebec. As you may know, I eschew almost all other music for the sake of this obscure genre, often to the chagrin of anyone within earshot.
However, if you are curious about what makes me tick (or rather, tap my toes), Thirty Below is the source for La Bottine Souriante, Les Charbonniers De L’enfer, Le Vent du Nord, Matapat — the list goes on and on. They also maintain an excellent listing of festivals, dances, etc. Of course, to attend those festivals and dances, you’ll have to go to Quebec!

TOM BIHN – http://www.tombihn.com – designer, manufacturer and
retailer of laptop bags has created the new Size 4X of their hard-shell
Brain Cell and Monolith laptop cases specifically for the 15.4″ MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Pro, introduced today by Steve Jobs during his keynote at
the Macworld conference, requires an entirely new size of protective case designed specifically around its dimensions, which include a very thin
1″ height.

Read More…

High-resolution JPEG images:

The Brain Cell in Crimson,
The Brain Cell in Deep Blue,
The Monolith in Steel.

You can pre-order the Size 4X Brain Cell (Shipping February 15th) and
Size 4X Monolith (Shipping February 28th) today.

The Brain Cell (available in eight sizes, including Size 4X) and Monolith (available in five sizes, including Size 4X) laptop cases take laptop protection a step further. Cradled in 8mm thick soft foam padding, the laptop hangs suspended in a 4mm hard corrugated plastic insert that protects from the front, back, and bottom. The sides are protected by dense cross-linked closed-cell polyethylene foam. This offers the toughest protection you can get for your laptop in a case that is still light and minimalist. The Brain Cell will clip securely inside one of our messenger bags or briefcases, be carried on its own, or slip into your current bag. The Monolith is designed to clip inside our backpacks, slip inside your current backpack, or it can also can be carried on its own. The Brain Cell and Monolith are available in five colors: Black, Steel, Deep Blue, Crimson, and Wasabi.

The Size 4X Brain Cell is in production now and available for pre-order today with a ship date of February 15th, 2006. The Size 4X Monolith is available for pre-order today with a ship date of February 28th.

The Size 4X Brain Cell retails for $50.00. The Size 4X Monolith retails for $45.00.

The Size 4X Brain Cell Product Page

The Size 4X Monolith Product Page

Read what our customers are saying about the MacBook Pro, and the Size
4X Brain Cell and Monolith in our forums.

TOM BIHN has been designing, manufacturing, and selling bags for over 13 years – online at http://www.tombihn.com and with a retail location in Seattle, Washington. Our bags are manufactured in Seattle, Washington where we continue to build bags and jobs. We offer unusually attentive customer service and a lifetime guarantee. We use the best quality materials, superior construction and sophisticated design to build our laptop bags.

If you would like review the Brain Cell, Monolith or any of our other products, or have any further questions, feel free to email us at press@tombihn.com or call us at 1-800-729-9607.