Santa's making his list and checking it twice, and if you were very good this year, you just might find an iMac under the tree. On the other hand, if you were somewhat "less than good," you might find the computer equivalent of a lump of coal, instead: an eOne. Oh, sure, there may be an injunction against Sotec from making, selling, or exporting any more of the translucent blue-and-white Wintel-based iMac wannabes in Japan, but it appears that U.S. reseller eMachines had their warehouses nice and full prior to the Japanese ruling, because as faithful viewer Russell Maggio points out, they're still in stores here in the States. Which means that the naughty boys and girls wishing for an iMac had best behave, because Santa won't have any trouble dropping off an eOne instead.

And speaking of naughty, we're pretty sure that copying someone else's work falls squarely under that category. So all those copycat manufacturers may well be passed by entirely when Santa's making his rounds this year. Sorry, eMachines-- no soup for you! And Sotec and Future Power are up the same presentless creek. It's all about karma, and Santa's the cosmic judge, jury, and executioner. As for Timex, however, we're not entirely sure whether their iMac clone puts them on the "naughty" list or not. After all, it's not even a computer; it's an alarm clock. If you haven't seen this, hop on over to NoBeige for some nice snapshots. Since it's not a computer at all, we're inclined to consider it an homage, not a rip-off-- and we're guessing Santa would agree. (Apple's lawyers might see things a bit differently, however.)

But while Timex may escape Santa's wrath, you can bet that whoever came up with this GPX clock won't get off so easily-- image courtesy of a faithful viewer known only as Mike. Yes, folks, if the Timex clock is an iMac clone, then this GPX thing is a clone of a clone. And you can bet that Santa won't like that, nosiree. Santa may pass over the likes of eMachines completely, but he'll probably schedule a special stop for the GPX folks. And he'll bring them a nice, big can of Whoop-Ass™. Hey, he may be jolly, but he has his limits.