Picture this, if you will: CES, 2009. All the gadget people are gearing up for the big rush onto the show floor when the CrunchGear posse rolls up in black Navigators. As we walk towards the terrified lesser bloggers in slow motion, the strapping and dangerous John Biggs swings out a single enormous case, marked “Pelican.” Brandishing it like a scimitar, he flourishes and lays it on the ground, undoing the latches while it spins. It opens up and hidden within, in their individual foam slots, are six… Dell Latitudes.
Okay, so it got a little prosaic there at the end. But the idea of a coordinated computer setup using a case like this is attractive to me; scientists doing fieldwork, people doing on-location corporate or government work, and lots of other situations that require security and control would do well to consolidate their laptops in this kind of case. Pelican is a good brand, but slightly expensive. $330 or so will get you one to fit one of several types of laptops, although there’s no Mac-specific version (though they have this cool “Red Apple” package).