The new compaqs (2210, IIRC) do look promising and might be the ticket:
-they have consumer IR (w/Nevo :( ), so there shouldn't be any need for an IR extender
-they come with bluetooh, which, although not as fast as WiFi provides a network connection
-they look pretty slick, are quite small, have a nice screen, etc.

If all else fails you still have a SDIO and CF slots which can add to the built-in capabilities