Go Smaller If Possible
Assuming that you won’t be doing any heavy photo or video editing during your Christmas feast, you may not need to bring along your full-powered laptop. Sure, the regular MacBook Pro and a Dell XPS m1330 might be fun, but they’re not all that necessary if all you’re doing is some basic web surfing. This is where netbooks come into play.
The MSI Wind U100 is a 10-inch netbook with all the standard doo-dahs, including an Intel Atom processor, 80GB hard drive, integrated webcam, and a 10-inch display. You can surf the Internet over a regular 802.11g Wi-Fi connection or, if you prefer, you can nab the new MSI Wind U120 for some crazy HSDPA action. Naturally, you’ll need a 3G SIM card for that.
Personally, I prefer the overall build quality and design of the Asus Eee PC 1000HA netbook. It’s also got a 10-inch display and Intel Atom, but the version I reviewed was rocking a larger 160GB hard drive to boot. It might take a little while to get used to the smaller keyboard, especially with the right shift key so oddly placed, but you’ll thank me for the bigger hard drive and the better battery life.
Plenty of Cheap Memory for Digital Memories
The holidays are about spending time with loved ones and this means that you may want to capture some of those memories with your digital camera or digital camcorder. It also means that you may not always have your notebook or portable photo bank handy to offload your otherwise overflowing memory card. Flash memory is so cheap these days, so it really costs you very little to pack along a few extra memory cards.
The A-DATA Turbo 266X Compact Flash card shown above is a great value for people shooting with CF-using digital SLRs. The speed is a good thing and it’s available in a number of capacities to suit your needs.
People on the SD and SDHC side of things can easily find a wide range of memory cards as well, some offering as much as 16GB or 32GB of capacity. Nab a couple of these cards and pair it with a consumer-ready point-and-shoot and you’ll never forget that moment where little Timmy decided to bury his face in the mincemeat pie.
Memory cards take up very little room in your bag, so pack along a couple extra cards in case you need the extra space you have your memory card go corrupt on you. That would not be good.