schools

We're not going to lie. The backpack is a tough look to pull off, especially if you're a both-straps-on type. Anytime we see an adult wandering the streets or coffee shops of Manhattan looking like a harried high schooler, we cringe a little bit. That said, the one place you can get away with it is when you're actually in school--hence our perfectly timed collection of back-to-school laptop backpacks.

We may mock the backpack a bit, but despite years of bag evolution, they're still the best way to carry a laptop, books, and other assorted gear … Read more

A Pennsylvania school that was caught secretly snapping photos of students via laptop Webcams will not face criminal charges in the case.

Triggered by complaints and a civil suit by Harriton High School student Blake Robbins in February that he was photographed at home without his knowledge, the FBI and local officials launched an investigation to determine if the Lower Merion School District illegally misused the Webcams.

But federal and local prosecutors looking into the incident were unable to prove criminal intent on the part of school employees and therefore could not prosecute the case, according to U.S. Attorney … Read more

Need a spare printer for the den? A cheap inkjet the kids can use to print their pictures? Something affordable for a cash-strapped student?

Buy.com has the Lexmark Z2300 color inkjet printer for $29.99 shipped. It's about as entry-level and no-frills as printers get, but if you have light printing needs, it should get the job done.

The dual-cartridge Z2300 promises 22 pages-per-minute (ppm) for black output and 16 ppm for color. It can produce borderless photos as large as 8.5 x 11 inches, and it supports 6-color printing (if you replace the black cartridge with … Read more

Though budget and surprisingly affordable laptops are all the rage lately, there are still quite a few high-end models out there that aren't exactly cheap. Even so, many of these "high-end" laptops offer far more for the money than ever before, making for potentially compelling buys for people looking for big screens and superpowered processors offering desktop-replacement-level performance.

Our high-end laptops from this year's 2010 back-to-school retail roundup are actually a pretty affordable bunch, including an $829 Toshiba Portege R705-P25 that offers an executive feel for less than the white Apple MacBook. In fact, only one of these laptops breaks $1,000: the $1,349 Sony Vaio F126FM/B. In fact, the two Vaio models here are virtually identical, designwise. The more-expensive version has a faster CPU and better graphics card, but the $999 Vaio F12A may be a better overall deal, offering a big screen, Blu-ray, and mainstream/casual gaming graphics for $350 less than its big brother.

Editors' note: See our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

Back to school shopping doesn't always mean things you can hold in your hand. Downloads of all kinds are out there to make the student's life smarter, better, and cushier. And they run on a wider variety of devices than ever before. Brian Cooley runs down the hottest in the Top 5 device categories of back to school downloads.

For everything back to school related in tech this year, head over to CNET's Back to School 2011 guide.

Blu-ray, Intel Wireless Display, HDMI--there are a lot of ways laptops can make themselves killer TV-friendly media machines. In fact, for a reasonable price, there are a lot of options out there. Between Blu-ray playback and wireless streaming of online video, it's easier than ever to get your laptop to effortlessly play nicely with a big-screen HDTV. The trick is knowing which machines have these features. While Blu-ray laptops are often heavily plastered with stickers, Intel's Wireless Display technology is often invisible, and sometimes not even mentioned as a feature at all.

For your convenience, we've rounded up notable media laptops from our back-to-school 2010 retail laptop guide, focusing on the features in each. We've also noted whether these laptops have discrete graphics for gaming (it's not always a given). Whether or not they're gaming friendly, they're all well suited for video. Our roundup came up with several laptops from Sony and Toshiba, including a Sony Vaio EA24FM/W that offers an affordable Blu-ray/Wi-Di one-two punch for $799.

Note: we've seen some other compelling Blu-ray and Wi-Di laptops recently, including the Gateway NV5933u, but our list below focuses on retail configurations from our recent guide.

Editors' note: See our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

In our current roundup of retail laptops for the back-to-school season, we noticed that the most common price was $799. Halfway between the bargain basement single-core systems and the high-end desktop replacements, there was a surprising amount of variety, with Intel Core i3 and i5 CPUs, and screen sizes from 13.3 inches to 15.6 inches.

At that $799 sweet spot, you can get a very capable mid-range system that should be fine for any kind of schoolwork, plus reasonably heavy multitasking and HD video playback. Harder to find are features such as Blu-ray or discrete graphics, although we did find a couple of models with these high-end extras.

Two of the standouts were the HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx, which was one of the top performers in the category thanks to its Intel Core i5 CPU; and the Toshiba Portege R705, a slim 13-inch model that includes Intel's Wireless Display technology.

The picture is muddied somewhat because several of these laptops were originally listed at $799, but within the past few days, they've been bumped up to $829. But because they were (and may be again) widely available for $799, we're including them here.

Besides the Toshiba R705, two other notable laptops that hover between $799 and $829 are the Sony Vaio EA24, which adds a Blu-ray drive, and the Samsung Q430-11, which offers discrete graphics for gaming.

Note: Also see our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

Sometimes when people do crazy things, you just look at them and think: "You're crazy. You should be locked up, the key thrown away, and the meals to consist of only tofu."

However, there are times when people do crazy things and have such beautiful, persuasive explanations that you can't help but be disarmed to the point of wanting to be that crazy yourself.

Such is the case with Paul Stender, an Indianapolis man who, together with his friends at Indy Boys, Inc., decided to equip a nice yellow school bus with an engine from a … Read more

In our back-to-school 2010 roundup of retail-specific laptops, we've divided our 25-plus systems into four different price categories. We already took a look at Netbooks, and now it's time to take a peek at mainstream machines with a little more juice.

When we say "mainstream," for the purposes of this roundup we mean any laptop costing roughly between $600 and $900. That's a range that fits what most people are generally willing to spend for a full-featured computer. It turns out that some pretty great all-around laptops slot into this category, too, with very few compromises to be made.

Though we tend to find one or two most-deserving retail laptops in previous roundups, we found several winners in this back-to-school batch. To change things up a little, we listed our favorite features of each machine. Our favorite laptops were the Blu-ray/WiDi-enabled Sony Vaio EA24FM/W, the beautifully built and full-featured Samsung Q430-11, the slim and powerful HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx, and the Toshiba Satellite A665-S605.

Editors' note: See our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:

Top laptops:

Sony Vaio EA24FM/W (4 stars) The bottom line: Comfortable, feature-packed, and boasting an eye-catching design, the Sony Vaio EA24FM/W and its combination of Blu-ray and Intel Wireless Display make it an affordable multimedia winner. Read the full review.

Samsung Q430-11 (4 stars) The bottom line: An impressively designed surprise, the Samsung Q430-11 is a feature-packed, fast laptop that looks more expensive than it is. Read the full review.

Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 (4 stars) The bottom line: The Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 is a smart choice for home use thanks to its outstanding audio output, Intel Wireless Display, and roomy 16-inch display. Read the full review.

HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx (4 stars) The bottom line: HP's slick and powerful Pavilion dm4-1065dx offers great core performance, long battery life, and an eye-catching design at a very competitive price, making it a very attractive back-to-school laptop. Read the full review.

Other very good laptop bets:… Read more