eWEEK Labs’ Holiday Wish List 2009

eWEEK Labs Holiday Wish List 2009By eWEEK Labs Staff

I love the Mac OS X operating system. But Apple hardware? Meh—its nice, but not worth the premium Apple charges for it. So what Id really like this holiday season is a version of OS X that I can legitimately purchase and install on any piece of hardware that I choose. But since that wont happen, Ill have to settle for a hackintosh project or a product like Psystars Rebel EFI to get Mac OS X on a system of my choice.—Jim Rapoza

I love my BreakingPoint Systems BPS-1K network traffic generator, but it is getting a little long in the tooth. Id like Santa to meet me in the lab one afternoon with a shiny new BreakingPoint Elite. The chassis-based architecture can blast up to 80G bps of Layer 2 to 3 traffic and a whopping 40G bps of Layer 4 to 7 traffic through a variety of 1GigE and 10GigE interfaces. Its a network performance and vulnerability testers dream-with the ability to record, amplify and replay real network traffic; simulate a variety of application-specific traffic; and attempt more than 4,200 different security strikes. With all that, one 4U unit can replace a full rack of legacy test equipment. And, it efficiently takes the place of Christmas tree and Yule log, with blinking lights on every test port and the heat thrown by the FPGAs, NPUs and CPUs doing all the work. —Matt Sarrel

You know what, Santa? Id love to be able to make a cell phone call from within my office (or, come to think of it, from my house). Assuming AT&T will launch it in more markets, Id like the 3G Microcell for free in lieu of an apology for the companys continuously lousy coverage in San Francisco and (from what I hear) New York. Maybe, just maybe, in return I wont eat the early termination fee on my contract and run screaming to T-Mobile, Sprint or Verizon.—Andrew Garcia

The iPod Touch that I currently own is, overall, the best handheld computer I’ve ever used. Unfortunately, Apple is absolutely allergic to allowing its customers to do what they want with the Apple hardware they’ve purchased. My iPod Touch is saddled with a cryptographic tether to iTunes, which probably won’t ever run on my Linux desktop (not that I’d choose to run iTunes if it would). I’d like Santa to bring me an Android version of the iPod Touch. The Zii Egg looks like it might fit the bill, sporting an iPhone-ish form factor, as well as the camera and SDHC slot that my iPod Touch lacks.—Jason Brooks

Shortly after I started using a dual-core notebook, which serves as a platform for virtualization for many of my tests, I started longing for extra disk spindles to match my extra cores. I’ve long been a fan of ThinkPad notebooks—I like the keyboards and the buttoned-down black exteriors, and I’m partial to eraser-points for my mousing. So the ThinkPad W700 might just be what I’m after. I’d have the elves spec it out with a quad-core processor, 8GB of RAM and a pair of solid-state disks in RAID 0 formation. Note to Santa: Don’t bother putting an OS on there; I’ll just blow it away in favor of Ubuntu 9.10.—Jason Brooks

I have a 23-inch monitor at work, and now I want one at least that big for home use. I’m hoping Santa brings me a Samsung 2433BW 24-inch LCD monitor so I can have multiple browser and e-mail windows, not to mention a photo processing application, open on the same screen. —Cameron Sturdevant

Knowing that it is better to give than to receive, I’d like to make a stocking stuffer suggestion. As it was last year, my Apple iPhone is the only computer I want or need to carry with me. I’d like to suggest that Santa fill the stockings of like-minded techies with something I got last year—a portable power pack that can recharge the phone from an external battery. Try Xpal or Mizco phone chargers. —Cameron Sturdevant

As a professional writer who doesnt work in a traditional office, I find myself having to lug around more and more equipment wherever I go. Thats why I want this ultra-thin, 3.2-pound Adamo XPS notebook from Dell. Its a low-power-consumption device with a 128GB solid-state drive and 4GB of RAM. Its pretty expensive, starting at $1,999, but it uses an ultra-low-voltage, dual-core CPU with the 64-bit version of Windows 7. With 5 hours of battery life, built-in wireless and Bluetooth, and a cool, shiny black design, the Adamo XPS looks pretty sweet.—Jeff Cogswell

I’m not an eWEEK Labs analyst, but I manage and edit them, so I get to weigh in, too. Like Jeff Cogswell, I don’t work in a traditional office. But I often have to travel to a traditional office. When I do, I lug—and I do mean lug—a 13-pound ThinkPad on a 3-hour-plus train ride and across several city blocks in New York. I always swear I will bring only my smartphone, which I can use to check e-mail. But I can’t effectively edit Word documents or view PDF files on my rickety old mobile device, so I usually cave and risk shoulder injury by bringing my ThinkPad. So what I really, really want is a netbook. I want something small enough that I can fit it in my handbag but powerful enough to let me get some actual work done on my lengthy train ride. I’ve been waiting for Windows 7-equipped systems to come out, and I now have my eye on the HP Mini 110 by Studio Tord Boontje series. (Because, hey, why not be stylish while you’re at it?) The system comes with Windows 7, 1GB of system memory, up to a 250GB hard drive, three USB ports, a nearly full-size keyboard, built-in Wi-Fi and HP QuickWeb, which allows quick Internet access without booting up your Windows OS. Since it’s theoretically a gift, I’d also like the optional Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator, mobile broadband with Qualcomm Gobi technology and external multiformat CD/DVD drive.—Deb Donston