mySimon Computers Shopping Picks

Dell calls its new Inspiron Mini 9 laptop "your new best friend." The petite laptop is an ideal travel companion if you want to blog, keep a journal, surf the Web, send email, and listen to music while on vacation. The Mini 9 has a 9" display and 4 hours of battery life, and weighs all of 2.3 pounds. Under the hood, the $349 base configuration will get you an Ubuntu Linux OS, 512MB of RAM, and a 4GB hard drive, but of course you can spend a little more if you want additional upgrades (Bluetooth, Windows XP, more memory, webcam, larger hard drive). It's not something we'd want to spend 8 hours a day with, but for vacations it sounds like it has everything we need.