Old joke: what do you give the person who has everything? A really, really big bag to put it all in.

I kept thinking about that while I was looking at accessories for iPods and digital music players, and again when testing an Apple PowerBook and other notebooks. There are a lot tech accessories and gadgets to schlep around these days, and you need a good bag to carry them in. San Francisco's WaterField Designs probably will have what you need.

The company rates highly with me on two scores: First, it delivers high quality goods at a fair price. Construction features copious use of ballistic fabric, neoprene, fleece, and other top-grade materials. And second, WaterField understands that you also need bags just to organize your gizmos.

Pictured at the top is the Large Cargo bag that I sampled. Like Henry Ford, I like things in any color so long as it is black. However, WaterField also offers four other colors for those looking for more oomph. This is their biggest bag and if your stuff doesn't fit in it, you have too much stuff.

Under a buckled front flap (it's a metal airplane seatbelt buckle; no wimpy plastic here), are zippered and Velcroed compartments to hold pens, glasses, phones, paper, whatever. The massive main compartment opens to a reveal a long pocket secured with a Velcro strap into which you slip one of WaterField's "Sleevecases" containing your laptop.

There are 21 different sizes of the padded sleeves, tailored for popular Apple, Fujitsu, IBM, Compaq, Gateway, Sony, Dell, HP, and Toshiba models -- and pretty much anything else. This approach means (a) you get the full protection of a sleeve that snuggly fits your portable computer and (b) if you get a new notebook, you replace the sleeve not the whole bag.

Cool feature: you can get your sleeve outfitted with an envelope flap, "D" rings and a strap so you can use it by itself to carry your notebook when you want to keep your load to the bare minimum.

WaterField is big in the Macintosh market, and its "RacerX" model (second picture) is especially suited to take advantage of the sleek lines of the PowerBook. One padded compartment holds the computer (no sleeve needed for this model), while another compartment holds a few gadgets. Because the PowerBook has most major accessories, from Bluetooth to dialup modems, already built in, space for other components can be held to a minimum, making for a compact, easy to carry bag.

The company has two other bag designs and more on the way. Plus, it makes a line of "Gearbags," which are rectangular pouches designed for your, duh, gear. WaterField does the baby bear, momma bear, daddy bear thing -- small, medium, and large sizes -- one of which is sure to be just right for your components. Actually, you probably will want a couple to better organize your stuff -- one for your power brick and cords, for instance, and another for PC cards.

These are not simple pouches, by the way. All three have a large main compartment, with organizing pockets inside, plus an outside zipper compartment with still more pockets.

WaterField has extended the concept to the iPod, with a Gearbag for that. It is about the size of the medium, but with more thickness so you can store an iPod or other music player, power converter, headphones, and a couple of other accessories into one handy bag.

New to the line-up is the "inMotion Case," which is designed to hold all of the above plus the Altec-Lansing's very cool inMotion portable speaker system and its power supply. This is a must-have for anyone who owns an inMotion. If you ever have tried to organize all those components to take with you on a trip, you know what a plus it is to have a place to put them all.

WaterField also makes an iPod player case. It's a nice design that secures your iPod in ballistic fabric and padding, gives you easy access to the player's controls and ports, provides a pocket for ear bud headphones, and comes with the "Ultra" swivel clip, which snaps off but only if it's in a specific position so it doesn't come off by accident. But the design only has slots top and bottom for access to the headphone jack, docking port, etc. That's fine for headphones, but you cannot use accessories such as the iTrip or iTalk with the case.

Oh, yes, one other thing, WaterField makes the bags in the USA ("designed and made in San Francisco, where rent is high, labor is expensive and competition is intense." to quote the company") in itself a novel feature these days. If you are looking for a new bag for your tech goodies, surf your way over to WaterField's web site.

(c) 2004 Al Gordon.

In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a principal in the Boston-area strategic consulting firm, Mary Fifield Associates, www.maryfifieldassociates.com

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You can reach Al Gordon at:

al@tnpcnewsletter.com