Upwardly Mobile: What's on my Christmas list

Dear Santa,

I've been really good all this year and after giving it a lot of thought, I've decided I'd like some presents. Really good ones. Don't skimp. I've had enough of getting the coal; the bathmat and blank cassettes last year didn't cut it.

So, this year, please can I have:

• Wire-free charging. My silicon.com colleague Gemma Simpson recently wrote an article about physicists investigating the potential to charge up devices such as phones wirelessly. I'd love to do away with all the leads littering my floor - can you sort out a research grant for these guys to get things moving a bit? Thanks Santa. And if you could sort out a universal charger that worked across all makes of phones, that would be great too.

• Longer battery life. I like gadgets as much as the next nerd but can you sort out some decent battery life for me? You know, phones and MP3 players that can go for days without touching a charger, whatever whizz-bang functionality they have inside. O2's got the idea with the Jet phone. Something like that - that sort of battery life but with all the bells and whistles of a Nokia N95. Cheers Santa.

• Location-based services. While we're on the subject of bells and whistles, can you get location-based services to be as ubiquitous on handsets as cameras? If I could have Streetmap on my mobile and then my position triangulated onto that, that would be ideal. I could leave my London A to Z at home - which I do when I shouldn't anyway. And if you could concoct a mash-up showing me the location of all the nearest Wimpys, that would be helpful too - settle a lot of arguments.

• Contactless payments. I have seen the future and it is contactless payments. Earlier this month, I was in Hong Kong, covering the ITU conference and had the chance to use an Octopus card. It's like the Oyster card is over here but as well as paying for your transport tickets, you can buy all sorts of ephemera, like cans of drink or newspapers, by placing your card on readers in shops and vending machines. No more shrapnel-bloated pockets. It worked flawlessly - so, Santa, if you can convince all the big retailers and banks to get a similar project working in London, I think it would be a winner.

• Cheaper data rates. If you could see your way clear to getting data bundles in the realms of not-necessitating-a-second-mortgage, I'd really appreciate it. I'd start with roaming costs, if I were you, and then work out how to convince operators to make using a 3G data card a little less costly. How you're going to get that under my tree, I don't know.

• Free wi-fi. I'm talking great big clouds of the stuff all over the major cities and towns - and let's throw in the villages for good measure. What's the point of dual-mode mobiles, VoIP phones and laptops with built-in wireless cards when wi-fi on the hoof is so expensive no one gets to use them? Wi-fi should be like mobile coverage - ubiquitous and affordable.
• 21CN. I have to wait to 2011? 2011? Can you wave your magic wand and get things going a bit quicker? Ta.

Failing that, some rum truffles, a subscription to one of those online DVD clubs, a Wii - and make sure there's some dance mats in there too - a MacBook, a Studio Ghibli boxset, a Solio gadget charger and an LG Chocolate phone wouldn't go amiss. And if you're still stuck for what to get me after all that, feel free to double up on the rum truffles.

Thanks,
Jo