As featured on CTV news Channel, here's my selection of hi-tech tools for the new school year - a bit o' science, an old school trick, something designer, and a box that's larger in storage on the indide than you might think.

LaCie Rikiki Portable Drives

$70 - $150

320 GB - 1 TB

LaCie Canada 

It's a good idea to clear out your laptop of all the photos, videos, and music you may have collected over the summer. The more space on your main hard drive, the better your laptop will be able to perform. LaCie's Rikiki drives offer a great deal of storage space considering their pocket size and reasonable price tag. Once you've cleaned out your laptop of unneeded content, you can then keep using your Rikiki drive as a back-up system for all your future school projects and work.

Dino-Lite USB Microscope

$350

ThinkGeek.com 

Connected to a computer, this digital microscope's image can be viewed on your bigger screen. Built-in LED lights make it easy to see your subject while the 200X magnification is ideal for exploring textiles, metals, and minerals, great for medical, scientific, and electronic projects. The best part is that you can use your computer to record imagery from it, saving photos, videos, and even time-lapse photography in order to better see how things grow, gestate, and change.

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse

$60

Microsoft Hardware 

With a touch surface, you can use this mouse to better scrope, swipe, and slide through content on your screen, especially web pages. A wireless mouse powered by two AAA batteries, it connects using a micro-transmitter for easy installation and uses a BlueTrack laser instead of the normal red to work on just about any surface. The design here is a big draw, not just the way it looks, but if you simply push the mouse flat against the table when you're done, it shuts it off, saving battery life.

Twleve South Book Book Cases

$70 - $90

Twelve South

Avaialble in Canada at Computer Systems Centre 

You can never judge a book by it's cover. If you open this old, dusty, hardbacked volume for instance, you'll find an iPad hiding inside. The special disguise cases offer padded cushioning inside and are available for MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones. The iPad version has the ability to fold back to become a stand, using a leather tether (the kind normally for saving a place in a book) to adjust the height of the stand any way you please. And, like any standard book, it fits and looks quite nice on a bookshelf, a handy place to put your iPad when you're not using it.

Wolfram Alpha App

$1.99

iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

WolframAlpha.com 

The ultimate reference tool, give Wolfram Alpha any topic and it will instantly recite a cross-referenced entry of information about that subject. You can ask it specific questions for specific answers, feed it complex math equations, or merely mention the name of an object, place, or person and it will feed you with a wealth of data about. School is a place that likes to ask a lot of weird questions, making it a struggle to even know where to begin for an answer. Wolfram Alpha is an excellent stating place and you try it onlinr for free here.