A couple of gadgets that I feel are well worth the money are the iPod Touch (or the iPhone) and the netbook.

First the netbook.

Typical netbooks will have a screen around 10″ in size and are very portable – in fact, it makes the traditional laptop look and feel like a desktop!  I purchased a couple of netbooks over the last two years and use both to the max.

I most recently purchased two different HP netbooks:

HP Mini 110-1030CA 10.1" Netbook PC (1.60GHz Intel Atom Processor N270, 1GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, Windows XP Home Edition) (Black Swirl)

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Retail Price: CDN$ 349.99

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HP Mini 2140 10.1" Notebook PC (Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 2GB Memory, 160GB HD, Windows Vista Business / XP Pro, 3 Cell Lithium-Ion battery)

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Retail Price: CDN$ 709.99

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Both are great netbooks, the differences between the two:

The 110-1030C comes with Windows XP, has 1gb memory whereas the 2140 comes with Windows Vista Operating System and has 2gb memory.  You could upgrade the 1030C for about $50.00 and add an additional 1gb memory.  Running Windows XP 1gb should be enough, but it’s always nice to have more.

Other than that and some technical specs, they are almost identical.  The displays are very clean, and bright and I’ve been able to get anywhere from 6-8 hours of use out of the battery depending on how I use it. 

The one drawback with netbooks in general is that they do not come with a CD/DVD drive.  So you need an external one, here is the one that I purchased:

Sony DRXS70U/R External Portable Slim-Line USB 2.0 DVD Drive

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Retail Price: CDN$ 129.99

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I am really happy with the Sony DVD – it is slim and can fit into the same sleeve that I purchased for the netbooks.

I opted for a slightly more expensive, slim drive – why would you want to lug around a HUGE CD/DVD?  The slim drive is also USB powered so feeds off of the netbook (this is where you may draw more power if running on battery alone).

Although netbooks are only intended for surfing the web and light applications, I’ve really maxed both netbooks out and run full versions of Microsoft Office Professional on them in addition to several other CPU intensive software packages in addition to an older version of JASC Paint Shop Pro (now owned by Corel and re-packaged as a Corel product).

Running graphics intensive applications does suck power and pushes the netbook to its maximum potential but to now I’ve not run into any significant issues.

The 160gb drive is ample, but I have also purchased a new external hard drive plus I have an older external hard drive from an old laptop that I took apart to make a digital picture frame (here is part 2 of the same post – digital picture frame).

Iomega eGo 320 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Portable External Hard Drive 34403 (Ruby Red)

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Retail Price: CDN$ 148.55

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Whatever you decide to purchase, ultimately you want something that helps you become more productive.  I truly find that I can get caught up on personal work with my netbook – I can take it anywhere and combined with internet access I am truly mobile.