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The World's First Interactive Smart Bag

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Marijn Berk flew into at a Rwandan airport a few years ago assuming he could purchase a visa for $10 or $20 just as he had at his previous stops along his spontaneous trip across Africa. When he entered customs, however, an agent informed him that since he had not filled out a required online form, he would be promptly taken to jail.

He wanted to immediately pull up the form on his phone, but he had run out of power. His laptop had died too. "I really realized: here I am, I have nothing with me, all I have a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a suit," he remembers thinking. "But I still have my bag with me. Why can it not do more?"

It all worked out for Berk. He managed to use an office phone to call a friend, who spoke with customs and cleared up the confusion. Berk gained acess into the country and also walked away with a brilliant idea.

Phorce Pro (Courtesy of Phorce.com)

As of today, the Phorce Pro, which Berk claims is the world's first interactive smart bag, is now available for shipping worldwide. Berk designed the bag specifically to store and charge smartphones, tablets and laptops while on the go. "One of the things that’s really stuck in time are bags," Berk says. With traditional offices disappearing and work becoming more mobile, Berk views bags as business hubs. "They are taking a more and more central place in our daily life, especially as we are more and more on the go."

Based in Amsterdam, Berk studied entrepreneurship at Harvard, Stanford and MIT and then designed solar panels for developing countries in Africa and India. With seed money from a Chilean company, Berk made the first Phorce prototype in 2012 and the bag has evolved even more since.

Inside the Phorce Pro (courtesy of Phorce.com)

The Phorce Pro is available in red or black for Mac and PC and retails for $649 for PC and $699 for Mac products. Detachable handles allow carriers to configure the bag in three different designs: a briefcase, messenger bag or backpack. Designed particularly for travelers, the bag slips over the telescopic handles of a trolley bag so travelers can comfortably walk around the airport with the bag secured hand free.

The bag's power comes from three USB power ports, 26,000 mAH battery and 90W laptop charging port. It is outfitted with water-resistant natural fabric, leather magnetic handles and shock-resistant foam. It also communicates wirelessly with your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, telling you how many times you can charge your devices and sending you an alert if you have left your Phorce Pro behind.

We have all resorted to desperate, perhaps shameless efforts to recharge our mobile devices in public. A polite request to a restaurant maitre d' is no longer uncouth, but personally, I have stared longingly at my battery charge while standing near an electrical socket in a public restroom. I have also scoured the walls of airport gates in the hopes of finding an outlet usually reserved for commercial vacuums and linoleum tile buffers. With 700 pre-orders already in the books, the Phorce Pro seems like it will restore some relief and dignity to this scramble for power. Hey, you never know, it could be the one thing that keeps you out of a Rwandan prison.