Cocoon Innovations is about to change how women carry their gadgets. This stylish startup’s selection of sleeves and bags are the nicest I saw at CES and the only ones that come close to being able to hold everything business women carry on a regular basis.

The bags are fashion forward, but what really sets them apart Cocoon Innovations’ bags is the ingenious grid system. Pretty much every other notebook bag I’ve seen has a few pockets and pouches that never seem to fit what I need them to. The grid system is a criss-cross of elastic bands that let you strap down your phone, lipstick, business cards and whatever else you normally toss in your bag.

If you already have a notebook bag you can pick up a Cocoon Innovations portfolio, which starts at just $19. I think the red bag in the video is the nicest bag I saw at the show. I wanted to take it home with me and was surprised that it’s only going to cost $79. Some of the larger leather Cocoon Innovations briefcases will cost up to $290.

Cocoon adds a level of sophistication and style to notebook bags that I haven’t seen before at these price points. The bags will be available at major retailers and at CocoonInnovations.com starting this spring.

Cocoon Innovations: Best Bags of CES 2009 is a post by Amisha from Notebooks.com.

Joao Oliveira won HP’s and MTV’s Take Action, Make Art global design competition last year with his “Asian Odyssey” design. I met Joao at CES 2008 in Las Vegas to check out his design, which will be appear on a special edition dv2700 series notebook.

It’s great to see a young artist’s work featured by HP. Props to HP for not watering down the design and going with something so different. The design is a little too wild for my taste, but I’m probably a couple of years outside of MTV’s demographics.

The Asian Odyssey special edition 14.1-inch notebook will be available this spring on HP’s web site. We’ve also spotted an HP notebook case that features part of the Asian Odyssey design, but we don’t have any word on if it will come with the notebook.

Joao’s design was picked by a panel of judges from more than 8,500 entries.

Xavier: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you do?

Joao: Hey there, my name is Joao Oliveira, I live in Portugal at the city of Oporto. Iâ€â„¢m currently working on a degree of Communication Design at ESAD in Oporto and hope to finish it in the next 2 years. Aside from that Iâ€â„¢m a regular guy with a regular life!

Xavier: How long have you been an artist and what kind of work do you normally do?

Joao: My journey on the world of arts and design is relatively new. Well, like most of artists, I started drawing when I was a kid but only in late 2006 did I start to really invest on this skill by practicing on an almost daily basis, learn anything and everything and develop a style.

Since then I’ve been working as a freelance designer, designing from logotypes to web sites and editorial design, I also am a member of an eclectic group of artists, designers, photographers and musicians called Evokeone.com which releases exhibitions in a bi/trimonthly basis. Each exhibition has a theme which our pieces have to follow so it helps a lot in my development process.

Xavier: How did you hear about the HP/MTV contest and what made you decide to enter? Did you think you had a shot at winning?

Joao: First I heard of it from a friend and later from a newsletter of a design portal, decided to try it since the first time I saw the advertisement, a contest held by two huge names like HP and MTV isnâ€â„¢t something that happens everyday so I had to try. Actually I wasnâ€â„¢t expecting to win, the number of entries was immense and there was so many great designs, it was a shock when MTV contacted me about the prize â€âہ I couldnâ€â„¢t believe it!

Xavier: So, tell us about how you came up with your winning design “Asian Odyssey.” What applications and methods did you use to create it?

Joao: All of my creative process starts with a small research. In this one I gathered elements of the Asian cultures and picked some of them. The design itself started with the initial sketches on a paper, nothing too elaborate. At first, it was just some lines and shapes to have an idea of how everything is structured and connected. This was followed by the illustration of each element like the dragon face, separately. Then I combined them to create the main structure. After that came the detailing and junction of all the different elements; improvisation has its place too, I like to have some random and unexpected strokes on my pieces. The software used on this design were Photoshop and Illustrator — both are the main tools of my work.

Xavier: Maybe I’m a few years too old to fully appreciate it, but kids seem to love it. What’s the feedback you’ve received as to why so may people like it?

Joao: Most people tell me they really like the contrast of styles in the design, it mixes an old fashion vintage style with a modern pop-art one, others mention the colors, maybe it’s a combination of everything, I particularly like the colors, they really add a lot to the design.

Xavier: How did you find out you won? What was your reaction and what did you do to celebrate?

Joao: Like I said before it was a shock. I was in college when I first received an email telling me I was one of the selected finalists but I didnâ€â„¢t get too excited. I thought there were dozens of finalists and I wouldnâ€â„¢t get selected. Hours later I got a call from an unknown foreign number, answered it and there it was, someone telling me I won, followed by the description of the awards! Wow!

Actually I didnâ€â„¢t do anything special to celebrate. I think it took me some time to digest all the amazing news. My parents and friends thought I was kidding when I told them I won and was going to Germany and Japan in a few days!

Xavier: You’ve been a busy guy since you won- Munich, Kyoto, Houston, Las Vegas. What’s it been like to be flown all of the world and see your design go from your computer, into production and then at one of the world’s biggest electronics trade shows?

Joao: To travel to all those cities in such a small amount of time, so early in my life and at the same time see my work being exposed to all the world, not even in my best dreams I could believe such thing!
It was a great feeling to see my design being produced and developed at Kyoto with all those employers working on it. Then seeing the real laptop in Las Vegas close to being released on the market and being shown at CES, well, what can I say? It’s fantastic!

Xavier: I’m gonna assume you’re using a Pavilion notebook with your own design now. What kind of notebook were you using before all of this excitement?

Joao: Actually the laptop with my design only arrives when it starts to get manufactured but right now I’m using a HP HDX (Dragon), it’s one of the prizes and I love it.
Before this one I had a common desktop PC, it was old, and couldnâ€â„¢t even handle some bigger Photoshop files and was a pain to play recent games on it so it was a great deal to win this contest. Now I can handle bigger Photoshop files and play recent games!

Xavier: So what’s next? Most artists/designers never see their design taken global by the world’s largest computer company. Have you received any professional offers since you’ve received all this exposure?

Joao: Well, for now I will just continue studying, finish my degree and catch up on new opportunities. I’ve received some job invites from Portuguese companies and some commissions from companies all across the world, so it’s all going pretty well. The future is still uncertain but Iâ€â„¢m really optimistic about it.

Thanks once again!

HP's Special Edition Asian Odyssey Notebook is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

I caught up with Ravi Sood, of HP’s gaming division. Ravi’s brother founded VooDooPC in 1991 to make performance PCs and sold the company in late 2006 to HP.

The VooDooPC guys are still turning out customized gaming notebooks, which can be configured with desktop-like specs. They’re also influencing the future of HP-branded notebooks.

One of the most interesting things I learned about VooDooPC is that about 75% of its customers never play games on their gaming notebooks.

Ravi Sood of VooDooPC at CES 2008 is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Mark Batliner sat down with Notebooks.com to talk about SkinIt’s customizeable service and how customers are changing the look of their gadgets more often than their underwear…err almost. With more than 2,500 designs ready to go and a new online design studio, it’s easier than ever to make your notebook stand out from the crowd.

SkinIt Launches Customize Tool for Easier Laptop Personalization is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Sony didn’t have any brand spanking new notebooks for us at CES 2008, but they did have some impressively spec’d TZ, SZ, FZ and AR series VAIO notebooks on hand. We stopped by the Sony booth at CES 2008 to take a closer look.

The most expensive VAIO notebook on hand was the 11.1-inch TZ298N/X. Priced at $3,600, the TZ298N/X has a 64GB solid state drive and a 250 GB hard drive, for a total of 314GB of storage capacity. Sony put the SSD where the hard drive normally goes and replaced the optical drive with the 250GB hard drive. The TZ298N/X will ship with an external DVD burner.

The VAIO FZ485U Premium Notebook is a relatively affordable HD notebook, with 4GB of RAM, a dedicated graphics card with 256MB of RAM and a Blu-ray burner. The FZ485U will be available for about $2,200.

The VAIO SZ791N/X Premium Notebook comes with the new Intel Core2 Processor T9300, 4GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive for $2,500

Sony Releases Premium TZ, SZ, FZ and AR Notebooks (video) is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Here’s a quick demo of Motorola’s ROKR E8, which was announced at CES 2008. The ROKR E8 uses ‘morphing’ technology to switch its user interface between phone, music and camera modes. The glass plate display features haptic touch, which means it vibrates to simulate the experience of touching a physical keypad.

The Motorola ROKR E8 will be available in North America within the next quarter.

Motorola ROKR E8 Demo is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Don’t want to lay down the cash for a waterproof camera or housing? DiCaPac makes simple, flexible housing for digital cameras, SLRs, cell phones & other gadgets for around $35!

Jamie stopped by the DicaPac booth at CES for a demo of a waterproof DicaPac with a hard lens housing that boasts 90% clarity and that’s been tested in up to 99ft. of water.

DicaPac Waterproof Housings Demo (video) is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

I caught up with Phil McKinney, HP’s Chief Technology Officer for Personal Systems Group, at CES 2008 and we talked about what he’s carrying these days. He uses an iPaq 610 with Windows Mobile and a Compaq 2710p, with an integrated 3G wireless broadband card.

Phil’s known for being a gadget junkie and carrying around prototypes, but he said he’d have to shoot me if I peeked inside his briefcase. He’s probably got some James Bond-esque gadgets in there since he’s got HP Labs at his disposal. When I was in China last year, Phil showed off a WebSigns (point and search) equiped iPaq and an eBook reader.

What’s HP’s CTO Carry in His Gadget Bag? is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

We have the perfect notebook for you if you’ve got a World of Warcraft addiction and about $6,000 to blow. Eric Reichly, Dell’s gaming program evangelist is one of the most enthusiastic guys I’ve met at CES and the ladies love him and the machine he helped build.

The Dell XPS M1730 World of Warcraft edition comes with a ridiculous amount of WoW schwag. You can read about it in this notebooks.com post.

Eric is obsessed with WoW and has spent more than 150-days “in-game.” While I was visiting with him at the Dell booth, the Frag Dolls came and checked out the XPS M1730 and chatted with him.

Dell’s Top Gamer with the World of Warcraft XPS M1730 Notebook is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

The tiny Creative Stone (1GB or 2GB) and Stone Plus (2GB or 4GB) include a built-in speaker, that’s just loud enough to kinda-sorta enjoy your music without headphones. Both models have a FM receiver and can record audio. The Creative Stone Plus has a display so you can navigate through your music collection.

The Creative Stone Plus is priced from $59.

Zen Stone Plus from Creative is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.