Whether you're on your way back to college, or you're the parent or friend of a college-bound Apple fan, there are a lot of great items on the market this summer that are both functional and fashionable.

Back in the prehistoric 1970's when I was a civil engineering student at the University of Colorado Boulder campus, I made the mistake of rooming one year with two high school buddies. One of them, Chuck, was a real stoner and was impossible to wake up (even a stereo with the volume turned up to 11 didn't work). His 2009 counterpart would hopefully wake up on time every morning with an iHome iP9SR iPhone alarm clock (US$99 MSRP).
It's an iPhone charger with shielding to prevent that annoying buzz from GSM transmissions. It's an alarm clock that can play tunes from your iTunes library, AM/FM radio, or just blast out an annoying noise to wake you up. It also has some pretty nice speakers for listening to your music while charging your iPhone prior to your next class.

Being a productivity nerd who happens to love technology has its benefits. Those of us who are happy to spend a Friday night creating and destroying a list of tasks have absolutely no shortage of quality applications upon which to practice and hone our weirdo craft.

For web-based task management there's the popular and venerable Backpack by 37Signals which, up until very recently, was in bad need of an equally awesome representation on our iPhones. I'm happy to say that the clouds have wandered west and the iPhone-toting Backpack lovers can rejoice at the advent of Satchel [App Store].

I know what you're thinking. "Dude, could you be a little more gushy about a freaking iPhone application?" Perhaps I could, but there's a reason that this article is written with such an overt sense of elation and joy. I love this application. It has succeeded where others (most notably, FrontPocket) have woefully failed. So, if you just want to know whether or not I "endorse" this product, the answer is yes. Read on if you're curious as to why.

If the favorite people on your holiday gift list spend more time in hotels and airports than they do hanging out with you, then we can help. This guide to gifts for the frequent traveler is sure to put a smile on the face of your friends or loved ones wherever their travels may take them in 2009.

Power on the go
With rare exceptions, it's almost impossible to find an airport or hotel room with enough power outlets for all of your electronic gadgets. Rather than challenging someone to a duel with presentation laser pointers to see who gets to use the one available airport outlet, I've come up with a more peaceful solution -- carrying a compact multiple outlet with me.

Belkin's Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger (at right, above) can handle three AC and two USB devices simultaneously. It's tiny and light, and fits just in just about any laptop case.

My personal favorite is the Monster Cable Outlets To Go Power Strip (below), which fits six widely-spaced grounded AC outlets in a very flat 8.5" x 2.25" x 1.8" box. This one works very well with those obnoxious adapters that cover two or three outlets by themselves, and is perfect for sharing a single power outlet with five total strangers. If more people carried these in their laptop cases, there would be world peace...at least in airports. It's also available in even more compact 3 and 4 outlet models.

As a gadget hound and productivity freak, I've tried just about everything over the past 10+ years, both hardware and software. My gadgets have included a Palm IIIe, two Handspring Visors, a Newton 2100, a Newton eMate and a Palm Tungsten E2. They were all nice (some more than others), but each shared deficits of one type or another. Graffiti and easily-lost styluses were two biggies.

As for software, I've used iGTD, Omnifocus, Tracks, Midnight Inbox, Things, MonkeyGTD and more. Again, they're nice but share a common issue. Namely, each solution is limited to the author's interpretation of how an organizational system works best. I don't want to learn a piece of software before I can begin managing my stuff. Nor do I want to be limited to the author's ideas, even the great ones. Basically, I want an electronic version of my favorite tool - paper.

I do nearly all of my capturing and organizing with pen and paper, as nothing is more useful, flexible or promising. A blank page is pure potential. You can create a grocery list or sketch a solution to world hunger on the back of a napkin. I was about to give up on software when I tried Backpack. It's exactly what I was looking for.

Backpack offers users a blank page. You can type anywhere, move objects around, add notes, lists, to-do items or photos and files. There's no toolbar, no drawers, nothing. Just a fresh, white surface ready for input. I love it, and today my Backpack account is my virtual right arm.

On Sundays, I move all of the week's to-do items to a notebook, which I update from Monday to Saturday. On the following Sunday, I "sync" my notebook with my Backpack and start again. Sometimes, when I'm stuffing my cargo pants with the notebook, iPhone, wallet and keys, I think, "Wouldn't it be nice to eliminate something here?" Since Backpack on the iPhone is a dismal experience, I never did. Until now.

FrontPocket is a native iPhone and iPod touch application for Backpack. I've been using it for the past week and it's growing on me. It won't replace my notebook just yet, but it's got real potential. Click below to read more.

Update: The folks who produce FrontPocket let us know that version 1.1 is pending in the App Store now, and should fix the startup crashes and read-only errors that some users are experiencing.

Cory took a look at Transmissions' Logbook app last week. Designed for your Logbook on Backpack:

The application gives you a simple user interface with which you can update your status and add completed tasks. If you're having a hard time remembering to update your Journal, have Logbook remind you every x number of minutes, and only between certain hours. In addition, you can set a keyboard shortcut for showing/hiding the application in the menu bar.

Now, courtesy Transmissions, you can win one of 10 licenses for Logbook. Just drop them a line at contest@transmissionapps.com to enter.

UPDATE: fixed the email address, sorry folks!

If you frequently use 37Signal's Backpack web software, then chances are you don't like having to open a new web browser tab/window each time you wish to update your Journal. Logbook hopes to ease your woes by updating your Backpack Journal directly from your Mac OS X Menu Bar.

The application gives you a simple user interface with which you can update your status and add completed tasks. If you're having a hard time remembering to update your Journal, have Logbook remind you every x number of minutes, and only between certain hours. In addition, you can set a keyboard shortcut for showing/hiding the application in the menu bar. Your updates are sent using 128-bit SSL encryption.

You can purchase Logbook from the developer's website for $12.99. A demo of the application is also available.

Backpack by 37signals is a terrific online organization and collaboration tool (we've written about Backpack many times). Those wanting a desktop application that works with Backpack have used the popular Packrat. This week, Lars Steiger has offered a solution with more Macintosh style, called Backboard.

Aside from a Mac-like appearance, Backboard also adds a few features to Backpack, like the ability to attach dates and priorities, support for multiple accounts and a nice overview of tasks.

Backboard is currently in private beta, but if you ask nicely, perhaps Lars will put you in the queue.

[Via 37signals' product blog]

Saul Rosenbaum sent us the tip on this one, and he points out that we're a little "Quicksilver centric" around here at TUAW. He's right, we do love Quicksilver, but it's not the only launcher on the block. Launchbar is another good one (and actually, I've been playing with Sapiens a lot lately, so look for a post on that one soon, too).

If replacing Finder with Quicksilver isn't your thing, maybe running GTD apps with Launchbar is more up your alley. Saul has a short writeup on how to get Launchbar running a trigger (he uses "TD") that you can throw short notes into to work with the GTD system. It's a simple process-- since Launchbar already supports shell scripts, you can create a script, hook Lauchbar up to it, and pretty soon you're taking down tasks and notes at a moment's notice.

Rod over at Infinite NIL is looking to test the latest version of Packrat (the offline client for Backpack, 37 Signals' online organization software), and if you turn out to be a "useful" tester, there could be a free license in it for you.

The new version will synch right up with the latest build of Backpack, and Rod says that it will now display your data from Backpack in the same order inside Packrat, a feature much called-for by its users. There's no release date on the new version, obviously, yet, but if you jump in as a beta tester and get issues noticed and fixed, we could be looking at it sooner than later.

Rod's email is over on the site. Drop him a line and be as helpful as you can-- he's offering free license to folks who help him even out the seams in the new software.

My favorite offline synching client for Backpack, the web-based personal information manager, is 40% off today at MacUpdate Promo. Whether you toss a few snippets of your daily information into Backpack or you're a heavy user with 20+ pages for all your projects, PackRat is a killer desktop client that allows you to work with your Backpack information while offline, then synchronize it all once you get back on. PackRat even offers a number of features that Backpack doesn't, such as deleting all completed items at once, a visual calendar when creating reminders and AppleScript / Automator support and more.

I have to admit, while I was happy to buy a license at $24.95, I've always thought PackRat's price would hit home with a lot more customers at $15. If you agree, today's your chance - the MacUpdate Promo 40% off sale for PackRat places it right at $14.95, making it an even better deal for Backpack users.

Unfortunately, a few of the Backpack updates - such as reordering items anywhere on the page - haven't made it into PackRat simply because 37signals doesn't allow external applications to do this through their API. Rod urges users to contact 37signals and request this ability, and hopefully in time the company will listen and open up this functionality. Other new Backpack features like search are probably coming with a future PackRat update.

As with the the recent change to PackRat's trial period, a 30-day demo is available, while a license costs a mere $24.95.

Going on vacation to see your just-born nephew and family will do funny things to you, like missing a handy update to a dear, dear application. Rod Schmidt's PackRat, the killer desktop client for the online PIM Backpack that we've mentioned once or twice, has been updated to v1.2 with some great new list management features. First up is yet another feature even Backpack itself doesn't have: a new 'Delete all completed items' option that appears below lists with items you've checked off. Second is another PackRat-only feature: condensing of your completed items. Instead of allowing checked items to take up more room than they should below a list, PackRat will automatically hide them and only reveal the top 5, with the option to reveal all just in case you need to double-check or recover a few.

In addition, Rod has also switched to a 30 day trial period (instead of limiting to only 4 usable PackRat pages), after which PackRat will restrict access to 5 pages until the user purchases a license. At $24.95, PackRat is an easy purchase for anyone who needs a powerful, feature-packed offline and synching client for 37signal's exception Backpack service.

Author Nils Werkmeister (great name!) writes in to tell us about his QuickPack, a Quicksilver Action that makes it very easy to add entries to a page on 37Signals' Backpack online organizational tool. We've mentioned a number of Backpack tools in the past, including various widgets and Packrat, but Nils' solution has the nearly insuperable advantage of integrating so well with TUAW's favorite utility: Quicksilver. After entering text mode in Quicksilver (generally with a period) you're able quickly to insert calendar entries, ToDos, notes, and reminders to any of your Backpack pages by prefixing your entry with one of the various supported tags (e.g. "+todo" and "+note"; see the QuickPack page for full details). Once you select the QuickPack action it will bring up another dialog box asking on which page you want your new entry placed.

Rod Schmidt, developer of PackRat, has issued a call for AppleScripters who are interested in automating his rocking Backpack client. PackRat, to my knowledge, doesn't have AppleScript support yet, but that does seem to be at the top of the request list and would mark another powerful feature PackRat has over Backpack's own web UI: OS integration. I would love to be able to, for example, right-click some selected text in a Cocoa app and click "Send to PackRat," which would then sync up to Backpack all without me ever having to touch an actual webpage.

If you have some AppleScripting skills and are interesting in making PackRat even cooler, be sure to drop Rod a line by heading over to his announcement post or contacting him from his company's site, infiniteNIL.

PackRat, the killer syncing and offline Backpack client that does even more than Backpack itself, has reached an official 1.0 status. After more than a year in the oven, developer Rod Schmidt posted an understandably excited announcement on his company's blog, complete with some new features that round out PackRat's abilities. New in v1.0 are Growl reminder notifications, printing pages as well as searching them (via the Find command), a revamped 'add item' dialog, contextual menus and a full-on Help file. Of course, you can't forget about features that are already baked in, like Reminder creation, re-ordering items within and between lists on a page and automatic syncing.

As a thoroughly satisfied customer, I highly recommend PackRat if you've been looking for a way to take your Backpack account with you. A fully-functioning demo limits you to editing 4 pages is available, while a license costs $24.95 from infiniteNIL.