Have downloads, will travel

In the blink of just a few hundred thousand years, humanity has left the hunter-gatherer age behind and catapulted into an era when no Sherpa pack is complete without audio samples. And up-to-the-minute Sherpas now can liven up those waits in the security-check lines with the Rolling Luggage Stereo System, which stashes two stereo speakers, an amplifier and an integral subwoofer into its 21-by-14.5-by-9-inch frame, with room left over for your travel wardrobe. Plug in an iPod through its connection jack or put a microphone into the mix and turn it into a public address system.

Cost: $329.95, from Hammacher Schlemmer, (800) 321-1484, www.hammacher.com.