Gadget bag: Beats Pill, Harman cans, handy duffel and more

• The Pill is a Bluetooth speaker with great sound
• Harman Kardon's Classic headphones exude elegance
• Stylish laptop duffel doubles as a weekend bag

This week's assortment of tech picks include audio gear that shines, stylish gadget protection and an adorable racing game.

What the Dr. prescribed: Beats Pill

When I learned that the Beats by Dre brand had come out with a portable speaker of its own, my first thoughts were bassy and overpriced. Boy, was I wrong.

The Pill has to be one of the best-sounding Bluetooth speakers I've yet to test, emanating extreme clarity and great range — not the heavy bass I've come to associate with Beats. For its compact size (about 7.5 by 1.8 inches), it pumps out sound clarity at extraordinary volumes without suffering from the distortion that's common with similarly sized speakers.

The Pill is unique in that it can pair via Near Field Communication in addition to Bluetooth. With an NFC phone, you can make a connection quickly and simply by tapping it against the speaker. Furthermore, there are ports for both line in and line out; the former is standard in most wireless speakers to listen over hard wire while the latter is one of the Pill's unusual features, letting you connect it to home theater systems (I did, however, notice audio deterioration in volume and quality using line out).

Lastly, at $200, the Beats Pill is very much in line with mid-range Bluetooth speakers, such as Jawbone's Jambox and Jabra's Solemate. With its sound quality and price point, Beats has produced a fantastic little speaker that's hard to ignore.

Go behind the wheel with 'LittleBigPlanet Karting'

On your mark, get ready for an adorably fun racing game.

Sack Boy goes behind the wheel with LittleBigPlanet Karting ($59.99) for PlayStation 3. With the charm of previous LBP titles, the Karting version is Mario Kart-esque but structured loosely like an adventure game. The focus is as much on claiming first place as it is on collecting all the hidden prizes and journeying to new worlds.

One of the biggest draws of the LittleBigPlanet franchise is its dedicated and passionate community. As with previous games, Karting lets users build their own levels, theoretically providing an endless number of tracks for you and your friends to race. Overall, this is a delightful video game for groups and individuals that successfully mixes the racing and adventure genres.

Sleek steel headphones designed for Apple products

Harman Kardon's Classic on-ear headphones ($200) exude Apple elegance with their steel construction and sleek design.

With the CL (as they're known), the audio is balanced, warm and crisp — in other words, music to your ears. Though it doesn't actively cancel noise, the flat earcups provide surprisingly effective passive noise cancellation. But these suave cans excel not just in audio. Designed specifically for Apple products, the headphones feature an interchangeable steel headband to accommodate different head sizes, swiveling leather ear cups that fold flat for easy storage, a removable cord with gold-plated audio plug and a lovely leather carrying pouch that matches the CL's overall aesthetics. Harman Kardon's CL headphones are as stylish as they are rich in sound.

A laptop duffel fit for work or a weekend out of town

Hex's Drake Collection is a gorgeous assortment of tech protection. But beyond the laptop sleeves and messengers, the company has a unique duffel that doubles as a stylish weekend bag.

The Drake Laptop Duffel ($99.95), made of water-resistant blended wool, has dedicated fleece-lined compartments for a laptop measuring up to 15 inches, iPad or comparable-sized tablet, business cards and other office miscellany; external pockets also provide easy access to small items. Though the bag is slim, the main compartment can hold a day or two's worth of clothing as well, making this great for short trips. For the office or for a weekend getaway, this Laptop Duffle will hold it all — and keep it organized.

FinderCodes

Another form of gadget protection comes in plastic tags. FinderCodes is a digital lost and found system that uses QR codes to help recover missing gadgets. The company's electronics kit ($24.99) includes two physical tags on rings, to attach to keys or backpacks, and adhesive tags to stick directly on phones, computers and other devices.

If — admittedly a very big if — a good samaritan finds your lost object, he or she can scan the QR code on these tags to get in contact to return your property. As soon as your code is registered, you get an email and text notification along with a map of the finder's location. If said good samaritan doesn't have a smartphone, he or she can go directly to FinderCodes' website to type in the tag's alphanumeric code to get in touch. Here's to the kindness of strangers.

E-mail Alice Truong at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter: @alicetruong.