Keith Shaw's rock and roll fantasy

Cool gadgets are back. A year after the iPhone overshadowed everything else, consumer electronics manufacturers have kicked it up a notch — this year's offerings in the high-tech holiday gift space are rockin'. (Check out the full 2008 Holiday Gift Guide here).

Taking our cue from two of the hottest video games (Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour), we chose holiday gifts that rocked the house. Whether a hot new notebook or a wicked cool iPod speaker system, the gifts on the following pages all have one thing in common — they rocked during our tryouts.

So sit back, relax and enjoy the music as you peruse this year's guide. 

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

Cool gadgets are back. A year after the iPhone overshadowed everything else, consumer electronics manufacturers have kicked it up a notch — this year's offerings in the high-tech holiday gift space are rockin'. (Check out the full 2008 Holiday Gift Guide here).

Taking our cue from two of the hottest video games (Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour), we chose holiday gifts that rocked the house. Whether a hot new notebook or a wicked cool iPod speaker system, the gifts on the following pages all have one thing in common — they rocked during our tryouts.

So sit back, relax and enjoy the music as you peruse this year's guide. 

mStation 2.1 Stereo Tower : $299.95

This may not be the world's largest iPod speaker system, but it certainly comes close. The speaker system has 100 watts of stereo sound with a 5.25-inch dedicated subwoofer, and six docking cradles for various iPod audio players. A 10-key remote control and the ability to synchronize via iTunes (a USB cable connects to your computer) make this a great speaker system for an office, living room or home entertainment area.

Axiom M3-V2 Bookshelf Speakers : $330 per pair

These are one of the best values in bookshelf speakers today. With a crisp and balanced sound, a 6.5-inch aluminum woofer and 1-inch titanium tweeter, these would be perfect for people in the market for music or home theater speakers.

HP TouchSmart PC : starts at $1,300

Taking a page from the iPhone, HP has enabled touchscreen technology that provides a nice overlay to Windows Vista, and created an all-in-one desktop PC that may have families moving their computer from the office or a den into the living room or kitchen. With its focus on hands-on photo viewing, music, videos and handwritten "notes," the TouchSmart is the modern-day equivalent of the refrigerator door. Two sizes are available, a 22-inch and a 25.5-inch widescreen. Two models also include a TV tuner so you can turn your PC into a home media center as well.

Lenovo Ideapad S1 Netbook : starts at $399

It's not often that you hear the word "cute" to describe a notebook, but we got several such comments when we showed off the S1. The 10.2-inch notebook includes an Intel 1.6GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, and runs Windows XP — decent tech specs but not top-of-the-line. The Netbook is no power gaming notebook, but for simple tasks (Web surfing, word processing, e-mail and so forth), this might fit the bill. An integrated Webcam and 160GB of hard-drive space are other nice Netbook features.

Epson P-6000 Multimedia Photo Viewer : starts at $599 

Whether you're a point-and-shoot soccer parent or a semi-professional (or full professional) photographer, if you take lots of photos, the Epson Multimedia Photo Viewer is a great way to back up and store images and view them with a screen that's larger than the display on the camera. With its Premia LCD technology, the viewer can show more than 16.7 million colors, giving you the best color accuracy around. The 80GB hard drive lets you store thousands of photos instantly by transferring them from your media card to the device. The P-6000's download speed is 35% faster than previous models, and its battery lasts longer.