It may be early August but we at Wired are already hitting the books. This week we kicked off our two month longBack to School product review extravaganza where we'll be wrangling gizmos geared for students, teachers, or just the academically minded. Here's a taste of what debuted this week:
We started off by pointing out the merits of the Kindle DX — a device Jeff Bezos aimed squarely at college students overloaded with insanely heavy, expensive textbooks. (Where was this thing when I was lugging a lumbar shattering org-chem text across campus?)
Wired.com senior editor Dylan Tweney got in touch with his inner art student by reviewing the Olympus Pen EP-1. The first micro four thirds camera from Olympus, the shooter features a dead sexy retro design we hope will carry over into future camera creations.
Our new intern Kelsey Hazlewood found three high tech green backpacks and crammed them full of essential student gear ranging from MacBooks to six packs. Her findings? Let's just say it was a tight race with the Timbuk2 Swig coming out on top.
And Bryan Gardiner became the Anthony Bourdain of dorm room nuclear cooking with areview of Panasonic's new induction microwave.
Next week we'll be hitting core electronics hard. Expect reviews on netbooks, notebooks, transportation, and media players.
*Images: Wired.com/ Chud.com *
