Office in a bag: Basic 'musts' for the digital nomad

The $100 Zip-Thru Air Traveler provides enough capacity to fit a full-sized scanner as well as a full-sized laptop, and it's a remarkably comfy load for such an ordinary-looking case. It features a strap that fits crosswise around the bag's central pocket, which distributes the weight in such a way that it's easy on the shoulder, and there's a little elastic in Targus' shoulder straps that cushions the impact of gravity on your shoulder. All in all, it's a winning combination.

Laptop bags aren't everyone's style. Some people prefer a funkier look to their totes, and for that, a messenger bag fits the bill better. Tom Bihn's Ego line tackles this nicely, and its Super Ego messenger bag ($150) has the kind of monster capacity that makes for an ideal office-in-a-bag, um, bag. It's big, roomy and offbeat -- if that's your style, it's a good match.

Backpacks are another style that works for lugging your workplace around town, especially if you want to distribute all that weight between both shoulders. Skooba Designs has this field covered nicely with its Skooba Shuttle Laptop Backpack, which accommodates notebooks up to 17 inches. At press time, this line was heavily discounted from its $140 list price and available in black/blue and olive/red color combos.

Matt Lake has been covering portable technology for two decades, and qualifies "portable" as "anything I can carry in a bag." He's currently lugging a messenger bag large enough to carry a Newfoundland dog.