The slender Neoprene sleeve offers protection without bulk or added weight. On a recent trip, I was able to slip my laptop into the front pouch of my suitcase until I checked in to get around the two carryon items rule. There is a zippered pouch on the front for cables and chargers. The pocket is very small – my MacBook charging cable barely made it in, and I gave up on getting the mouse in there. I would like a small handle on top for easy handling. Price points are around $40.

As their name would suggest, Designer Sleeves offers hundreds of different prints on their laptop sleeves. I loved the industrial, apocalyptic “Skelestar” style. Another favorite is the inter-office envelope, for the MacBook Air. Others include tie-dyes, animal prints, camouflage, tropical beaches, flowers, waterscapes, and much more. They will even work with you to make custom-designed laptop cases. There are no prices listed for this service, but it is meant for corporate orders.

Sleeves come in six different sizes, but be forewarned: just because the photos on the website portray MacBook Pros sticking out of all the cases doesn’t mean they are sized for MacBooks. MacBook sleeves are in a separate section. Sadly, only six designs are currently available (only three for the MacBook Air – but one of those looks like a manila envelope, like in the commercials).

Designer Sleeves are available at Amazon.com

When we bought our house, I was excited that it had a verdant yard filled with fruit trees, rose bushes, and a myriad of colorful flowers that would bloom seemingly overnight. One problem: I have no idea how to care for plants.

Enter Easy Bloom. This nifty device collects all sorts of crazy info from your soil and provides plant care tips. Simply plug the Easy Bloom into your computer via USB (don’t worry, every computer has a USB port), select the mode, then simply stick the Easy Bloom in the desired location in your yard. Let it sit for at least 24 hours, then plug it back in and upload your data.

The Easy Bloom can be set to three different modes. Recommend mode takes soil, water, temperature, and sunlight readings. It will take this data and recommend different plants that would thrive in that area. Monitor mode is for existing plants. It will tell you what nutrients it has too much or too little of, and gives you care advice. Water mode – best used for indoor plants – can instantly tell you if your plant needs water.

Easy Bloom has a well-designed, easy-to-use website that will store and track your data. Over 5,000 plants are listed on the website with photos and extensive care guidelines. There is no setup, so this is perfect for any gadget-phobe.

A few things that I didn’t like. First, I would like to be able to change the Easy Bloom mode right on the device, rather than having to plug it in to do so. Second, I would like a better way to identify plants. I wish that it could tell you the exact plant just by taking soil readings, but I understand that that might not be possible. I would like a better search method within in the plant library so that I could more easily identify what is growing in our yard – a way to narrow down the library by more options than color, height, and soil.

Just about the only thing the Easy Bloom can’t do is turn my black thumb green. But it does get it closer to an olive green.

The Pros

FiTrainer can be purchased at itami.com

It’s the digital age. Email has replaced letter writing, faxing, even phone calls. And why wouldn’t it? It is immediate, more reliable (although intense spam filters are making that less true), and you don’t have to buy a stamp. I certainly am attached at the hip (literally) to my email. But I am old-fashioned in some respects. I still write with paper and pen for a lot of purposes: scripts, to-do lists and notes to name a few. There is something immensely satisfying about putting ink on a blank page.

Alison McLaurin feels the same way. A writer herself, Alison was frustrated that letter writing has become a lost artform. She created Tikilynn, a line of cards that are young and stylish – these are not your mother’s thank you cards. Inspired by her cat, Tiki, Alison incorporates whimsical illustrations of the feline on most of her cards (funky abstract designs are also available for you dog lovers). The correspondence cards are crisp and smooth; the greeting cards are slick and professional. My favorite part is that all the included envelopes come in a variety of bright colors: gamma green, fireball fuchsia, celestial blue, and more.

Cards can be purchased online at www.tikilynn.com. Prices range between $2.75 and $13.00. Cards sold individually and in packs.