Back to School: 10 Great Gadgets for Any Student

Number two pencils and graphing calculators are all well and good. But students going back to school this fall might find that with some high-tech help, they could nudge even closer to the head of the class.

For the student bound for grade school, college or grad school, here are 10 backpack-worthy gadgets.

1. MacBook Pro 13"

The new 2.26 GHz, 13-inch MacBook Pro is a great value this summer for students heading back to school. Along with any new Mac, Apple will throw in a free 8 gigabyte iPod Touch.

It's sleek, thin and light, with a durable aluminum enclosure. And it will easily slide into a backpack or briefcase.

The new built-in battery provides up to seven hours of power and will last up to five years -- which means fewer batteries in landfills.

A new SD card and FireWire 800 makes transferring video and photos a snap. The MacBook Pro includes iLife '09, which comes with Every Mac, a program that makes it easy to share photos, make movies and music, and much more. It also includes BootCamp, which lets the Mac run Windows programs, and iChat, the video chat program. Price: $1,199

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2. Acer Aspire 4810 Timeline 8480

Like a Mac, it's slim and sleek -- but it's $500 cheaper. This 14-inch notebook is less than 1 inch thin at its slimmest point and weighs 4.2 pounds.

With at least eight hours of battery life, it's ready to take in a day of classes on campus.

It offers 4 gigabytes of RAM, a DVD burner, a 320-gigabyte hard drive and a built-in Webcam. Price: $699

3. Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2009

Trend Micro Internet Security Pro offers a feature-filled suite of defenses against present and future threats.

Smart security features safeguard your personal and financial information from hackers and identity thieves. It prevents keyloggers from spying on your passwords, account numbers, and other personal information.

It also defends your computer from the latest spyware, viruses and phishing scams. You can remotely secure confidential files and folders in case your computer is lost or stolen. For mobile users, it automatically checks the legitimacy of Wi-Fi "hot spots."

Price: $69.95