Yesterday, I told you I’d let you know about a device that I’m hoping all touchpads will soon offer as standard equipment.

That would be the Synaptics SecurePad, a hardware module that integrates the Synaptics TouchPad with the Validity fingerprint sensor into the design of your notebook computer. No, you won’t find this anywhere in PriceGrabber, because it’s something the vendors that make your laptop will need to design their machines around.

According to Synaptics, here’s how it works:

“SecurePad uses a high frequency Pulsed RF technology that looks beyond the skin surface, past dirt and other contaminates and images the subsurface live layer to capture a fingerprint. By sending radio waves through the finger, and measuring how the signal is changed as it travels to the sensing array, SecurePad synthesizes an image of the fingerprint structure. SecurePad works in conjunction with leading software solutions, which provides a simple way for people to use their fingerprint to secure their hardware and software assets, as well as conveniently provide password replacement.”

The company doesn’t say how much it hurts when those little radio waves pierce the skin surface to get to that subsurface live layer.

At any rate, imagine a day when you no longer have to remember a single login name or password. (I dedicate fully a fifth of my current brain mass to that activity.)

Of course, nothing’s as easy as you think it will be. Once the hardware vendors have bought into the idea of biometrics, the application vendors — including online services — will need to build in the capability to recognize this form of security. And I suppose the most nefarious among us could steal thumbs, like that Tom Cruise character did in Minority Report a few years back.

But other than that, this one’s brilliant. I give it a thumb’s up — I mean, thumb’s down.

Here’s a gizmo I’d like to try: the Yoggie Pico, a USB key-sized computer with 12 security applications. The device just received a Best of Innovations - Computer Accessories award from the Consumer Electronics Show.

The Pico connects to your PC or notebook, blocking Internet threats outside the host computer. Here’s the gimmick: Even though it’s the size of your thumb, it’s a full-fledged computer with its own processor, memory and operating system (based on Linux).

According to the company, people running the Pico no longer need to run software-based security suites, which supposedly increases performance for the computer because you’ve offloaded those bottleneck applications. Plus, it isolates your PC from public networks.

If you’re looking for a way to impose parental control over where online your kids can surf, you can configure the device such that if it’s yanked by somebody wanting access to off-limit websites, Internet access will be totally denied.

The security functions provided by the Pico include:

• Anti-virus
• Anti-spyware
• Anti-phishing
• Anti-spam
• Intrusion detection
• Firewall
• Web filtering
• Transparent email proxies
• Transparent web proxies

There’s more, but you get the idea.

 Devices run between $100 and $160 through PriceGrabber, though it lists for $179 from Yoggie itself. Plus, you’ll need to add in the cost of subscriptions for those security applications, which seems to run about $30 a year (first year free!).

If easy security is what you’re looking for, tomorrow, I’ll share the details of a new product that I hope to start seeing become standard issue for touchpads.