The mouse has evolved a lot since its first days, but through it all it has kept its shape basically the same. Is that about to change?

With the long name Flexii Finger 3D USB Optical Mouse, this pointing device is completely different. I’m not sure if it can be called a mouse anymore, since the features that were similar to the rodent’s are gone. Anyway, it’s a device made to be worn on the finger (but not too tight, you don’t want to stop blood flow) and you control the (virtual) right button, left button and scroll wheel with your thumb.

I’m not that excited about this, because I can’t really picture how it works. It sounds kind of complicated to me, but then again, I’ve never tried to use it. One thing that bothers me is that it’s not wireless, so if you forget about it and try to walk away from the PC… oops.

How much under $29.99?
Some: $12.50 on Vavolo.com.

Via Fosfor Gadgets

I bought my laptop without giving every little detail too much thought. It was on sale and the main specs were perfect for me. What I didn’t know was what happens when you try to use a glossy display in the sun: nothing. The laptop becomes unusable and to call it “unpleasant” is an understatement.

That’s why I was very happy to see the MacWorld reports about this nifty invention: the LapDome “Collapsible”. It’s basically a little tent for your laptop, that provides that vital component: darkness. Like the name indicates, when not in use in can be be “collapsed” into the stow bag, so don’t worry about walking around with a tent in your hand.

I loved it the second I first saw it, and I’m very happy it’s cheap enough to be included here. It’s awful to see great products that don’t fit the price bracket.

How much under $29.99?
Exactly $29.95 on LapDome.com.

Via BoingBoing

It’s great that nowadays you can find hotspots everywhere, but what use are they if you don’t know about them? And, of course, you run into bars with wireless access all the time – until that day when you really need to get online, when they all seem to vanish.

For internet addicts (or James Bond wannabes) comes the WiFi Pen Hot Spot Finder. It looks like a pen, it works like a pen, but it has a 2.4G,802.11b/g Wifi hotspot finder built in. The 4 LEDs on the pen show you the signal strength from up to 30 meters away, so you can choose your restaurant with ease. No more “the WiFi worked fine this morning, but now we don’t know what’s happened”.

How much under $29.99?
A lot: $7.92 on Chinavasion.com.

Via OhGizmo!

Every gadget owner who’s ever travelled has at some time or another run into this problem: too many things that need electricity and not enough outlets. I remember one particularly nasty experience when me and my brother had to charge our mp3 players in turns because we had forgotten to bring a power strip along and, being in a foreign country with little time for shopping, buying one was pretty complicated.

I sure could’ve used a Monster Power Strip. It has 3 outlets, placed on both sides, so it’s smaller than most 3 outlet power strips. Great especially for tourists – you might know how a bag that was full to begin with has to be stuffed with souvenirs.

All in all, sounds like a good deal to me. Too bad I didn’t know about it a while ago.

How much under $29.99?
Some: $14.95 on MonsterCable.com.

Via OhGizmo!

There probably isn’t anyone on the face of the Internet who’s interested in IT and hasn’t heard about the new MacBook Air.

While we were fascinated, someone thought very fast (and will probably make a lot of money in the process). Steve Jobs showed the audience how the Air can fit inside a manila envelope and, soon later, there was a real laptop cover in the shape of a manila envelope. The ManilaMac looks great. I think the idea is great and it looks fabulous. If it’s also good enough for protecting your Air, I predict a lot of success.

It can be preordered now and it will start shipping at the same time with the Air.

How much under $29.99?
Exactly $29.95 on ManilaMac.com.

Remember the last time your favorite software manufacturer gave you the new version of his state-of-the-art program (or operating system…)? Only its new features were more like bugs? And it would crash every 2 hours? And the added bufeatures made it run slower? Well, this is for you.

“Now Slower and with More Bugs” Stickers – for having your say about the ‘improvements’. You could even use them on PCs shipped with a certain new OS… Although I wouldn’t suggest doing it in a store when the people in charge can see. They probably wouldn’t appreciate the humor.

How much under $29.99?
A lot: $2.50 for a sheet of 10 stickers, from EvilMadScience.

Via Pocket Lint

Talk about saving trees! This holiday season, why buy a real tree (or even an artificial one), when you can have an… er, tree made out of a motheboard?

Cunningly named Motherboard Christmas Tree, it stands 5 inches tall and it’s made out of motheboard pieces with flashing LED lights for ornaments.

Although I’m not so sure it’s worth 20 dollars, it is awfully cute. What better way to give your desk a Christmas spirit, while at the same time keeping it techy?

(And hey, even though it’s one small bit of one motherboard, you can tell yourself you’re being a true Captain Planet.)

How much under $29.99?
A lot: $19.99 on ThinkGeek.com.

Via Pocket Lint

From the desk of Mr. Useless comes this new thing for old school geeks with too much money.

The Floppy disk CD-R is… exactly that, a CD-R shaped like a 3.5” floppy. They have 200 MB storage space and the producer warns they aren’t compatible with slot drives.

At $10 a piece (plus $4 shipping) they’re way too expensive to use as actual storage media, but they’d make a cool cheap geek present. If he’s into this kind of useless cool-looking gadgets, your geeky boyfriend will probably appreciate it (you could fill it with photos of you two or a favorite holiday video).

How much under $29.99?
A lot: $10 at DesignBoom.

Unlike the last couple of things featured here, this one is actually useful as well as cheap.

The Sabrent USB 2.0 TV Tuner/Video Capture Box is, like the name says, a USB TV tuner/video capture box. What the name doesn’t say is that is has a very sexy design – I’d welcome the addition on my desk.

The producer tells us more:
This USB 2.0 TV capture box provides a video capture solution for notebook PCs. It captures 704 x 480 (NTSC) resolutions, creating high quality video that can be stored on a PC hard disk via USB 2.0/1.1. Users can watch video on the PC, while also capturing video to the hard disk drive of their notebook PC. It also captures stereo audio at 16bits, and at a 24KHz or 48KHz sampling rate. With its A/V synchronization feature, this captures video and audio at the same time. A professional “snap shot” function is also provided, specially, in order to capture 704 x 480 still images from a video source. With other user-friendly application programs, the captured bit stream can be transferred very easily to standard formats, such as MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4 video, for editing and CD burning applications.

This USB 2.0 TV capture box also features a TV/Video Scheduled Recording Function. It also offers users a simple MPEG video editing program that incorporates a powerful encoding /decoding engine with a smart merge process for fast operation. Users can then create home video and record that video, and also TV shows, onto VCD using the USB 2.0 TV Tuner capture box.

How much under $29.99?
A little: $24.99 at TigerDirect.

Via DVICE