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.

During this holiday season, we will feature our employees’ selections of the best gifts.

Sunga (VP of Sales and Administration):
Donna Summer’s Greatest Hits when I was 11 years old! I think it was my first album that was brand new to me and not a hand-me down from one of my older siblings.

Nicole (Seattle Store Warrior):
Gosh ummm… this is going to sound really cheesy but just being around my family (especially now that I’ve been living away from home) is worth more than any gift ever. If I had to actually pin down a “best gift ever” I’d
have to say the wireless card I got for Christmas a few years ago for my
laptop.

Nicole’s favorite holiday memory:
Yikes, tough one. One year, when I was quite a young one, my family
decided to take us to midnight mass instead of going to church on
Christmas morning. We had dinner at my grandma’s house, stayed up late
(some of the kids took naps) then went to church around 11:30pm. By the
time we left church everyone was a little tired but instead of saving
presents for Christmas morning Mom and Dad let us open presents when we got home. Being up in the middle of the night when it’s pitch black with nothing but the lit up tree to shed light on what was in the packages that were being opened was a really all around cool Christmas experience.
Then… when we woke up on Christmas morning we still had stockings. Fun.

Darcy (VP of Marketing):
I know someone has to be getting me Season 2 of Arrested Development
on DVD this year, and that’s going to be it! Other than that,
gift donations to animal rescue charities have always meant a lot to me.

During this holiday season, we will feature our employees’ selections of the best gifts.

Tom (President/CEO):
Here in the Seattle area, there’s an effort to make the holidays less
about *stuff* called
“Waste Free Holidays”. Unlike the “buy nothing”
movement, it still allows our acquisitive species our seasonal
indulgence, but promotes giving experiences rather than stuff.
Theatre tickets, tours, museums, spa visits — nothing to clutter your
basement, just experiences.

Darcy (VP of Marketing):
As a Salon.com Premium member,
I get access to all the great
writing Salon.com has to offer, and also some Premium member perks such
as magazine (Wired, the New Yorker, etc.) subscriptions. The latest
magazine I’ve been offered a subscription to is called
Green Light.
The preview issue on their Web site has an great section called “50
Great Green Gifts”. I don’t think I’ve ever found a better gift
guide! They have enviro-friendly gifts — cute Koala Bear stuffed animals made in California, beautiful
Japanese wood bath mats, human and eco-friendly diamonds — perfect for anyone on
your list. I think either a Salon.com subscription or one of the great
gifts Green Light recommends would make someone very happy.

Nicole (Seattle Store Warrior):
Hmmm… I’m a busy person. Laundry Service!

Sunga (VP of Sales and Administration):
ACLU membership

Wondering where to put that vital, but easy to mislay digital media for your camera, pda or cell phone? Try the Jimi wallet with optional SD clip. The Jimi is a next-generation wallet — simple, unfussy, and made out of recycled and recyclable materials. Slip out the money clip that comes with the Jimi and replace it with the SD Card clip and you’ll be able to store 2 SD cards as well as 2 SIMM cards, while still leaving room for a few bills.

The Jimi ($14-$16) and the SD Clip ($5).

During this holiday season, we will feature our employees’ selections of the best gifts.

Michael (Inventory Manager) recommends:
I find flash USB drives like the SanDisk Cruzer Micro
– which I prefer mainly for its ultra small size and cool minimalist look — to be extremely handy.

I
carry a couple in my Buzz bag
at all times, and have one loaded with a number of
free “portable” applications
that allow me to do my work my way (and securely) on any available computer with a USB
drive. It’s almost as good as having a computer you can carry around on
your keychain!

Another great gadget gift idea are the inexpensive flash-memory mp3
players that abound these days from reliable manufacturers like SanDisk,
Creative, and iRiver. Units with 1 gigabyte capacity for under or around
$100 are pretty common these days, with smaller capacity units (good for
daily playlists, podcasts, audio books, radio shows etcetera) going for
much less. FM player and voice recording are handy additional features
that are also becoming pretty common in these players.

By the way, Techbargains.com is an great
site to watch for announcements of the best tech gadget deals.

Tom (President/CEO):
The Zojila dish rack.

Sunga (VP of Sales & Administration):
iPod!

Nicole (Seattle Store Warrior):
So definitely ummm probably a navigation system for a car hahhaha (since
I drive…) Nawww, maybe like ummm a blackeberry or something. This is one of those things that I think pretty much anyone could use. I can’t justify the expense on myself but I could see thinking it would be a great gift idea.

OR THIS!!!