The new mini laptops are all the rage right now.  And why wouldn’t they be?  They’re small, lightweight and perfect for the tech blogger on the go.  Can you guess what’s at the top of my holiday wish list this year?  Oh yeah, I want a mini!  So, I’ve been doing a bit of comparison shopping to see who has the best deals on the fun and functional minis.

So, over the next few days I’ll be looking at an overview of some of the most most popular mini models available on the market, and if I can dig up the details I’d like to share a few not as well known models with you as well.  In the meantime while you wait I’d really like to hear from all of you out there who have already jumped on the mini bandwagon!

What model did you buy?  What was the biggest selling point for you on that particular model over others?

The big question of the day is MAC or PC for your mini?

I want to hear all about your mini, what you love, what could be better, and what you wish it came with.  Stay tuned all week for the mini goods to drool over.

The brand new Nintendo DSi was announced and is being released in Japan first on November 1, 2008.   Soon to follow will be release in North America, Europe and Australia in 2009.

I will admit that I’m a bit disappointed it’s not going to be made available here before Christmas here in the states, since we were planning on buying DS Lites for our kids this year to replace their gameboys.  It  seems a little silly of me to do now when the new DSi will be coming out shortly after.  I may have to rethink my holiday shopping plans and come up with a new theme for under the tree.

Enough of my holiday shopping woes, let’s take a look at what the major differences are going to be between the current DS Lites and the upcoming DSi.  The first big difference is extra goodies on board.  You’ll have a built in camera, MP3 player, improved speakers, dual touch screens with the ability to edit photos on those touch screens,  SD card slot, slightly bigger screen size, built in Opera browser, and the ability to visit the DSi store to download games that you can then store in your DSi and play anytime.

Wow, that was a lot of stuff. One thing that is also changing is that there will no longer be a Gameboy Advance slot. You may have heard me complain in the past that they stopped making Gameboy Advance games and all four of my kids still have GBAs. It was frustrating for them that the only place they could get games was in the used section at Game Stop, (which is why I was planning on buying the DS Lites this year over holilday break.)

So, for those who have an extensive collection of Gameboy Advance games, they’re about to become even more obsolete. At least you could still enjoy using them in the DS Lite, if you upgrade to the shiny new DSi you have to start all over with a new set of games. Another thing I should mention quickly is that you’re going to be replacing any adapters you may already have, as that will also be different.

Color is probably not important, assuming that they will make just as many skins and covers for the DSi as they do for the Lite. However, the DSi is only being released in black and white to start off with. I sort of liked the variety the GBA and the Lite had with different colors and special editions, so I’m hoping that’s a tradition that Nintendo will carry on and we’ll see some of those in the future with the DSi.

I’m sure everyone is wondering about the price tag. Back in the spring the DS Lite price dropped from 179 to 149, and I’ve seen it in a few places for 139 and even 129 on mega sale. From everything that I’ve read this morning it looks like the price tag on the DSi is going to be that familiar $179, but I am not 100% positive on that at this moment.

So far that’s all I’ve found about the upcoming DSi, if you know more or come across a good video about it, let me know. Leave a comment or feel free to email me.

And by wired, I mean Wired Magazine, of course. The magazine all about how technology is changing the world every day.

There’s a new gizmo or gadget put to the test in every single issue. This is my favorite part of the whole magazine. I skip right to it every time, like when you were a kid and you got the Highlights magazine and skipped right to the picture find pages. They test the the hottest products on the market, from the newest HDTVs to the slimmest notebook computers, and put them through extreme tests, add a splash of entertainment, a twist of humor, and a rating scale of 1 to 10 to give you a great review.

Everything is Wired is well researched. There’s no hearsay, no gossip celebrity chatter, and no fluff. There is no popularity contest inside this magazine, it’s all about the technology and what it’s doing for the good of the world. Are you wired?

I like to think that it’s more of a woman’s world these days, we make most of the ground breaking decisions. But, some times I’m reminded that it seems to still be a man’s world after all. The New York Times recently published an article titled “Blogging’s Glass Ceiling” about women in blogging and on the internet.

Where would you expect to find this article in your newspaper? The technology section? What’s going on section? Maybe the business section? No, no, my technologically advanced friends, this article was in the Style section… aka the fashion and fluff section of the paper.

Now, I’m not saying that section of the paper isn’t great, it is great, but for different reasons. If I’m browsing the Style section of the paper I am not looking for business topics anymore than I want to read about purse buying trends in the business and news section of my paper. The two really are not interchangeable and that suggests to me that the Times just didn’t have much respect for women online today.

A lot of the article makes reference to the recent BlogHer conference, which sadly I wasn’t able to attend this year. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to plan better so that I can attend more conferences. The article even comments about how women are saying they aren’t being taken seriously in this internet business world. Small details like this are why, for some reason the public can’t get past the stereotype of a mom sitting at home eating bon bons and watching soap operas after she cleans the house.

In my day to day business world women are empowered, we rule the internet on every level, including those that were once dominated by men. We work from home, get in our 8 to 10 hours and still make it to our kids baseball game on time. We can be both a business woman and a mom, and we’re proud of both. We’ve adapted and broken free of those stereotypical roles that working in an office often throws at us. And we used our shiny red PDA to keep it all organized.

What are your thoughts here? Do you think women are more dominant online than offline? Do you think mommy blogging is over rated? (Don’t worry I won’t be offended -lol- I can take the heat.) I’d love to hear from some of you on this topic.