I have to confess that I love this thing. This is actually my keyboard. I came across it browsing cool stuff last year and had to have it. It now resides on my desk and I get comments on it from anyone that happens to walk by my workstation at home.

With the Saitek Eclipse II keyboard you can choose from 3 background lighting colors, red, purple, or blue to suit your mood. Mine is usually set to blue or purple most of the time, except when my son is playing World of Warcraft at my desk then he always changes it to red. He insists it makes him play better that way! -lol-

You can adjust the brightness or turn the backlighting off if you need to. If you’re nightowl like me, it’s nice to have the keys illuminated when you look down to get your bearings between sips of coffee!

Break away from your PC and make free or low-cost calls to your friends using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice! The Linksys iPhone Dual-Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo! Messenger comes with the handset, charger, and a USB Base Station that plugs into your PC. Dual-Mode capability lets you choose whether to make free or low-cost calls with the Yahoo! Messenger with Voice service on your PC, or over a regular telephone line. Just select who you want to talk to from your Yahoo! Messenger contact list on your handset and when your contact answers, talk away!

VOIP technology is really starting to spread these days. There are more and more services coming available every day and thanks to that growth in technology we’re seeing newer phone models come out to reflect those. This particular phone model is designed to compliment the Yahoo Messenger service “call a friend” option. Using this phone is as easy as using your Yahoo Messenger on your computer with your microphone, only you now have the freedom to walk away like you might on an ordinary phone call. Of course, it’s not only a Yahoo IM phone, you can dial a standard phone number using the phone as well.

In my opinion, no technology is as reliable as we need it to be, and communication is a key part of our day to day lives. Having a phone in your home that is going to get a call out when you really need it to go through is quite important. I like to keep at least two types of phone service active in our home. I keep a land line (I know, I know, who the heck uses a land line anymore!?!) and we also have a VOIP phone in the office, and recently we added two cell phones into the mix. I have one that I use as my work number, and my oldest son has one as well.

Digital photo frames are probably the coolest things around. Are you tired of having multiple frames on your desk, cluttering this up? You can consolidate all of those frames into one. I own one of these myself and it is great!

Unlike a standard picture frame that you might find on the mantle or sofa table, a digital photo frame can display many photos with only one frame. You can configure things how you want, but on average the photo frame changes photos around every 30 seconds. It’s great if you have a large number of photo frames hanging around, or a large number of photos that you wish you could share but you don’t have room for.

This specific model of photo frames comes in many sizes and types. Choose from 5.6 inch, 7 inch, 8 inch, or 10 inch, and then choose from multimedia, wireless, or standard. I own the standard version, so I’m not really sure what the benefits of the other types might be. I know that with wireless you can update your photos wirelessly, and I believe that multimedia means you can include video clips in your frame as well.

The Kodak Easy Share Photo Frame is really easy to use. You can configure the slide show settings right from the photo frame. It includes a unique touch border so that you can control the frame without actually putting your fingers on the photo, which could possibly leaving a smudge or mark.

I found it really easy to add the photos. I haven’t had the chance of playing around with the wireless model, but I know that with the standard model you just have to put photos on an SD card or a flash drive and then plug it into the frame. If you have a camera that uses a compatible SD card, you can just slip the SD card out of your camera and stick it in the photo frame.

You may have noticed that the Easy Share Frame doesn’t include options for colors – that’s because two colors are included in all packages. These colors are silver and red. You can choose between either color (it’s really easy to change colors). You can also purchase additional accessory face plates to customize your frame even more to match your decor or even your mood.

I couldn’t really find any disadvantages with this particular product. It’s a fun product that’s sure to brighten up your space, and it also would make a fantastic gift for just about anyone that you want to make smile on a daily basis. Perfect for mom with Mother’s Day coming up. Pre-load the frame with all her favorite pictures of the kids, wrap it and add a bow, and you’re done!

I don’t know about you, but my desk tends to get pretty messy. The kids come home from school and pile it up with papers to be signed, and just general stuff seems to accumulate here. I guess you’d say my desk is the hot spot in the house for clutter. Everything ends up here from junk mail to pens to empty containers. I’ll also admit to late night blog surfing with the occasional snack in hand.

All the stuff can lead to dust and gunk in your keyboard fast. No one wants a keyboard full of gunk! Have you ever gotten a crumb or scrap of paper stuck between your keys? It’s a pain in the rear to get that kind of thing out of there sometimes.

Dirt Devil, the king of clean, has come up with a great gadget to solve this ongoing problem. The KWIK desktop vacuum. This cute little vacuum comes with a USB adapter so you can keep it handy right where you need it, on your desk! You can quickly suck up crumbs off your desk and get the dust off your usb devices.

Of course, cleaning the crumbs off your keyboard isn’t all this little gizmo can do. Because this stylish desktop utility vac is specially designed to clean and dust in tight spaces and protect expensive electronics equipment, the KWIK is perfect for dusting out the DVD player, home theater systems, all those pesky little plugs on the side of your TV, and so much more. The included dusting brush and crevice tools make it easy to get into all those little spaces of your electronics where dust likes to hide.

I hope that everyone had a safe and good Labor Day weekend. I was unable to get online to write Monday and Tuesday, so I’ve missed you all. It’s back to school here in our household, and that meant shopping, and more shopping, and as the class teachers send home extra more detailed supply lists for classes like science and math there will be even more shopping still.

I wanted to share with you one of the more fun and interesting things I found while shopping. Of course this cute fellow resides on my desk and not in any of the boy’s backpacks. He’s a little too pink for them. There was a puppy version, but he was purple and they all passed on him as well. I am tempted to go pick up the puppy stapler to keep my kitty stapler company though, just because they are such a cute pair.

My cute feline friend here is a staple free stapler. I love these things. I generally buy my boy’s teachers each a staple-free stapler of some sort as a teacher gift every year. I’m thinking this year they will all be getting these adorable versions instead of the usual plain blue, red, or green ones that I’ve found for them in the past.

If you’ve never used a staple free stapler before, I highly recommend them. They are much easier to use, and they join the paper just as sturdily as a standard stapler. As an added bonus they take up less desk space, and you don’t have to keep those pesky metal staples in your desk drawer either.

When you are sitting at your desk most of the day you may tend to take your keyboard for granted a little. It’s just sort of always there and we don’t really think about it very often. I have a confession to make, my keyboard is my favorite gadget. I know that sounds very strange, but it is one of the most important and most often used things in my entire house.

No matter what your job may be if you’re on the computer during the day it’s worth it to take the time to choose a good keyboard. If you’re on the phone during the day as well, a quiet touch keyboard may be beneficial to you as well. If you’re moving around a lot a wireless keyboard could be just the thing you’ve been hoping for. Just remember to charge the power between uses!

One keyboard that I found very interesting and is currently at the top of my wish list is the Saitek Eclipse II Keyboard. This keyboard gives you a choice of backlighting colors in purple, red and blue adjustable via a dimmer mechanism. Key characters and keypad illuminate in the color you choose. Colored lights such as these are believed by many to improve your mood throughout different times of the day and particularly in the evening when there is no natural sunlight. It also has standard features such as weighted base and large area rubber feet to keep it firmly planted to the desk, and silent keys for those long typing sessions.