Mead's Five Star school binder with integrated speaker

There are bookbags and knapsacks aplenty with built-in speakers and iPod interfaces, but what about those blissful days where you've just got a single class on the docket and only need a single binder? Mead's latest kit, albeit a bit on the childish side to be proudly used in a college environment, rocks the rugged, paper-holding ability that binders have had for years, but rather than reinventing the proverbial wheel, this speaker-packed Five Star notebook has simply evolved with the times. Featuring those same bright, vivid color schemes that lose their luster with haste, this class organizer reportedly features an iPod / DAP connection (likely a 3.5-millimeter aux input) and a set of built-in speakers, but the RMS rating, battery life, and overall sound quality remains in question. Still, these tune-playing binders should hit your favorite retailers just a hair before your middle-schooler forces you to go "back to school shopping" in the late-summer timeframe.

[Via Textually]

[scott @ Feb 4th 2007 11:42PM]

I don't know about everyone else, but I would beat the ever-loving crap out of those binders over the course of a school year and I really cant see that speaker surviving past September...

[kerunt @ Feb 5th 2007 12:15AM]

Great, so now kids are going to blast music during class...

[Raz 4 life @ Feb 5th 2007 12:31AM]

I could see this being useful in english class. Everyone has "Conjunction Junction" on their iPod, right?

[Andy @ Feb 5th 2007 12:33AM]

Erm, why pay extra when you can use 3 cents worth of solder, a crappy pair of earbuds, and two 25 cent speakers?

[ArielZusya @ Feb 5th 2007 1:08AM]

Ahh... but will this cause a robot from the future to come back to try to destroy it right from under Eric Cartman's nose? Oh... wait... this is a Meade... not a trapperkeeper. Phewww!

[Dixonij @ Feb 5th 2007 2:34AM]

Uh... Meade made the original Trapper Keeper... so beware... it has just evolved...

[theinvisiblemooseman @ Feb 5th 2007 3:31AM]

Its Mead, not meade.

[Ricardo @ Feb 5th 2007 4:15AM]

I thought that the backpacks with speakers on the side where tacky...but now this just totally jumps the whale on any sense of coolness.

[Eh @ Feb 5th 2007 5:39AM]

I would never get one of those in a million years, but I would TOTALLY get a retro 80s/90s trapper keeper and bring it to college. That would be tubular.

[Austin @ Feb 5th 2007 9:12AM]

My brother had a vest with speakers built in over the breast pockets. He would wear it while we biked to a friends house and he would play "Thriller" off his Walkman. Sooooo 80's!

[Lazarus Dark @ Feb 5th 2007 4:54PM]

huh.
When I was in elementary school, trapper keepers were actually banned because they were considered a distraction and also because it was a status symbol for the rich kids. And now they have speakers for ipods. Progress?

[cunje @ Feb 5th 2007 6:43PM]

mines better