The ergonomic curve - and the added 1-1/2” length to the strap - as well as the high quality U.S. made nylon webbing AND the double-plated U.S. made metal snaphooks are all exclusive to us.

As I’ve said many times this strap is an instant upgrade to any bag and is a great gift idea. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t need one. Read more here from the TB blog.

I’ll post comparison pictures of the new and old Absolutes soon.

Out of curiousity I have applied what I have learned reading this website and the kindred www.onebag.com, over the last few days, to my last trip to Hawaii during September.

That was made using an expensive and very lightweight large rolling suitcase, a Rimowa Salsa 29-inch,which costs twice what the Redoxx Air Boss costs. I recall that my case outbound came to 43 lbs. as measured by my Balanzza digital scale, (including the pillow I added to fill out the top of the plastic case, trying to avoid its being damaged) My wife’s Rimowa by the way, came off the carousel in Kahului with a split in one corner.)

By looking carefully at what I actually USED (or needed) during that warm weather trip, including a few alternative choices, I find that it all could have easily fit, for the entire eight or nine days we were on Maui, into something like the Air Boss, an outfit which including that suitcase, which would have come to…17 lbs.

Clearly I have been doing something WRONG. I don’t intend to make the same errors in the future. Interestingly, when I traveled to and from college, and then medical school, 1967 through 1975, the suitcases I had were fabric Boyt cases, with zippers, without wheels, of course, that my late mother bought for my sister and myself.

Plus ca change, c’est la meme chose!

To which we can only say ‘bon voyage’

To enhance mobility, the device offers up to 12 hours of use on a single battery charge with Wi-Fi on, compared with most netbooks’ low- to mid-single-digit battery lives, said John Hwang, who headed up the Booklet’s design and development team. Nokia also pointed to the netbook’s silent-running fan-less operation, combined headphone/microphone jack, embedded 7.2Mbps high speed packet access (HSPA) cellular modem, seamless hand-off from Wi-Fi to 3G, aluminum chassis, light weight of 2.76 pounds and 0.78-inch thickness when closed. - from TWICE

It will be available exclusively at Best Buy (initially) and the $299 price is tied to an AT&T contract. It will come loaded with Windows 7.

Speaking of 7, I’m going to have to decide whether to upgrade from XP or not. This decidedly geeky, multi-page article suggests that 7 may not be a good idea for early netbooks and that 7 consumes battery life more voraciously than the venerable XP.

• The Forum has been very active. Thanks to OBOW readers for being so helpful to like-minded travelers.
• I was without my netbook 10 days or so. The bad news is my display developed a defect. The good news is that Samsung fixed it promptly and free of charge.
• Once you go with a netbook you’ll have a tough time going back. Using my wife and son’s Macs in the meantime was brutal. They seemed to have doubled in weight.
• Don’t fear the loss of the CD/DVD drives with the netbook. I haven’t missed them yet. OK, I’m not a big movie watcher.