3. Video Games

Dead Rising, for Xbox 360 - $59.00

From the Xbox web site: "Dead Rising follows the harrowing tale of Frank West, an overly zealous freelance photojournalist on a hunt for a scoop. In pursuit of a juicy lead, he makes his way to a small suburban town only to find that it has become overrun by zombies. He escapes to the local shopping mall, thinking it will be a bastion of safety, but it turns out to be anything but." CNET gives Dead Rising the highest rating of all its "must-have" games this year.

4. Laptop

Acer Ferrari 1004WTMi Laptop - $1,999.00

The Acer Ferrari 1004WTMi gives you a 1.8GHz AMD chip, a 12.1-inch LCD screen, 1GB RAM, a 160GB hard disk, a Super-Multi drive, Gigabit Ethernet, and comes with Windows XP Pro. It's got a camera on top of the screen for face-to-face communication, a 5-in-1 card reader, and a Bluetooth VoIP phone. Also note the Ferrari logo.

5. MP3 Player

SanDisk 2GB Sansa e250 MP3 Player with Rhapsody - $139.00

The Sansa e250 will hold roughly 500 songs, gives you 20 hours of battery life, has an expansion slot for additional memory, and also has a built-in FM radio tuner, with on-the-fly FM and voice recording. Includes rechargeable batteries and headphones. The FM tuner and recording capabilities are great features that you don't get on the iPod.

6. Flat-Panel LCD TV

Sharp LC-32D50U 32" LCD TV - $1,010.00 to $1,295.00

The Sharp LC-32D50U meets the requirements of the most discriminating viewer. It has true 16:9, 720p HDTV viewing that will turn your living room into a high-definition media center. This LCD television delivers 1.5 times the contrast ratio of previous models, plus faster response time for seamless viewing of rapidly moving images. Multi-Pixel Technology gives you rich, natural colors from every viewing angle. And yes, Sharp is the one with the cute TV commercials where the golfer can't find his ball but everyone in the viewing audience can.

7. iPod

Apple iPod 30GB - $249.00

In the last issue we told you about the 80GB iPod for $349.00. But how about the 30GB model which they're selling now for $249.00? This baby, which is 30% thinner than the last generation, will hold 750 CDs worth of songs. You know, I happen to have a prodigious CD collection and this will hold all that and more. Measuring only 4.1 x 2.4 inches and weighing less than 5 ounces, this little powerhouse lets you take all your media anywhere you want to go.

8. Video Game System

Sony PlayStation 3 (20GB/60GB) $499.99/$599.99

While you may lust after Sony’s new PlayStation 3, which launched November 17, getting your hands on one may be difficult – even if you camped out last week. Why the madness? With built-in Blu-ray Disc™, PS3 offers a new generation of HD gaming and digital media storage. It’s available in both 20GB and 60GB hard-disk drive configurations, and the latter has Wi-Fi capabilities and slots for most memory cards.

9. Desktop

Alienware Area-51 5500 - $1,599.00 includes a 17" LCD Monitor

This desktop is one of Alienware's middle-range PCs, but comes with beefy specs including an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz processor, 2GB RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a DVD-R/W drive, and Windows XP Media Center Edition with a free upgrade to Windows Vista Premium when it comes out. Plus, the case looks pretty darn cool.

10. Flat-Panel Plasma TV

Panasonic TH-42PX600U HDTV
42-inch Plasma TV - $2,299.00

The TH-42PX600U (that's a mouthful) gives you 1024 x 768 resolution, with 3,072 shades of gradation (more than 28 billion colors). The realism of a plasma TV comes from its contrast ratio, and this TV has a ratio of up to 10,000 to 1, giving great depth and vibrancy to the colors.