FIGURE D

It's tiny, it's fun, and it'd make you the most popular person at your next party. Click picture for a larger image.

This thing is smaller than the smallest laptops, but has a full version of Windows, along with all the media features you'd expect from a Media Center PC. Frankly, we think the Q1 may be more cool than useful except for certain business uses, but for those of us who live for gadgets. it'd be a heck of a find under the tree.

Wouldn't you like a Pepper Pad, too?
While we're on the topic of teeny PCs, DominoPower contributing editor Nancy Hand found one she thinks is pretty slick. It's the Pepper Pad, a tiny little Linux Web pad, shown in Figure E.

FIGURE E

They come in colors other than pink, as well. Click picture for a larger image.

Not much runs on it, but the Pepper Pad is running a variant of Firefox. Plus, you can download the Mobipocket reader and a program that turns Pepper Pad into a remote control. We're intrigued and you might like it.

Nancy says:

It's Toy Time again. Sadly most of the toys in my cubicle are last year's obsolete and no-longer-loved experiments. A couple of the items I've seen recently might prompt a little house-cleaning to make room.

For less than $700, HanBit America offers the Pepper Pad 3. One source referred to this as a "couch computer" but Hanabit calls it a Web computer. It's 11 inches by 6 inches and weighs about 2 pounds. With a 20GB harddrive, AMD processor, Linux operating system, a full keyboard, touch screen, and lots of built-in features it might replace your iPAQ. If it runs the Domino Administrator Client, it might replace my laptop.

Get NASty with network storage
Freelance technology writer Daniel P. Dern, one of the Internet Press Guild members, checked in with a bunch of truly geeky, hard-core additions to our list. He suggests:

A RAIDed SATA NAS, fully populated with 750GB SATA drives, for me, and for some friends, for (finally) getting a more robust home office storage solution.

He recommends, at minimum, DLink's 2-bay DNS 323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure, shown in Figure F.

FIGURE F

Your hard drives deserve a nice home. Click picture for a larger image.

Now, let's be clear. This $299 box is the case and network connection only. You still need to add drives (which will push this into the $500 range).

If budget permits, Dan suggests Infrant's four-bay ReadyNAS NV+, shown in Figure G.

FIGURE G

The ReadyNAS is a much more industrial device. Click picture for a larger image.

This device brings enterprise-level NAS technology down considerably in price. It's got RAID, gigabit Ethernet, continuous system monitoring and backup capabilities. Without drives, these bad boys of storage are $650-850. If you drop in four 750GB drives, you're talking 3 terabytes of storage for $2,999.

Finally, Dan suggestes:

For a real splurge, I'd add in three 750GB external hard drives, for off-site backups (one to copy to, one to take to the vault, one in the vault).