Laser Sensor. MicroScroll. 1600 DPI, silky-smooth tracking, comfortable feel, reasonable price, what’s not to like?

Before Apple sits down at the table this Thanksgiving for food and festivities, they better give thanks to Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO) for the HomeDock Deluxe, which easily connects your iPod to your television via an AV or S-video cable. The benefit of the HomeDock Deluxe over most other iPod to TV devices is that it actually displays the iPod information on your TV. Kind of.

SteelSeries is making it quite clear to shoppers that the SteelSound 5H v2 headset is an "...optimized version of the original SteelSound 5H headset," featuring "...improved microphone quality, a longer microphone cord, bigger (and more comfortable) ear cushions, additional frame pressure and numerous other technical design improvements." Fair enough, I suppose. I never tried the previous version, but if it took SteelSeries the mistakes of v1 to get here, then it was worth it. For gaming purposes, this is one of the best headsets I've ever used.

Plus the theoretical and practical case for thumb-actuated, Bluetooth trackballs

Before you read this review, I want you to go to Blue Microphones' website and took at look at their microphone designs. Tell me those aren't some of the coolest looking gadgets you'll ever see sitting next to your Macintosh. Apparently, Apple agrees, as they chose Blue's Baby Bottle Mic to sit in front of Bob Dylan in their latest iPod commercial. Of course, aesthetics wouldn't amount to much if the microphones didn't deliver good sound, but that's not a worry here. The Snowball mic captures great sound and detail. Not stellar, but for the $150 price tag, great.

Elegant solutions to TV on your Mac Desktop; possibly a digital replacement for your VCR

A top-quality mic can make a big difference in your level of satisfaction with dictation software, VoIP, podcasting, interactive gaming.....

Flash drives continue to become more popular, bigger in size and cheaper in price. However, the fact that a flash drive can carry 1, 2 or more Gigabytes in not necessarily good if the data transfer is no better than from a CD. That's where Verbatim's Store 'n' Go Pro flash drives make a big, big difference. If you are in a hurry, you can't afford to not have one of these.

Mini and standard size 3-button/5-button scrolling mice with 800 dpi resolution and Bluetooth wireless with USB cable recharge feature

Is it because Apple's so concerned with aesthetics that they hide the USB ports from plain view? Maybe, but I like to think it's because Apple simply prefers to encourage third-party development, and have they ever with the slew of available USB hubs that match the Macintosh. Gone are the days when these were just rectangular chunks of plastic that sat under the Apple 17" CRT Studio Display. USB hubs now have (gasp!) designs to them, and they're varied enough to ensure there's one out that that serves both your needs and your tastes.

Razer has long been known for their gaming mice, and they now are taking their experience to expand into a greater Mac market. While there are a number of features in the Razer Pro mouse that will please many, it would not be my first choice for the ultimate mouse. And this is a pity because I found the ultra high precision capabilities (1600 ppi resolution) of this mouse to be very useful.

To give this machine a fair review, I have to do so from the point of view of my mother, not me. I didn't run Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Toon Boom Studio on it. I didn't play Quake 4. Instead, I surfed the web. I checked e-mail. I played some CDs, imported some photos and played a few rounds of Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab. The Mac mini performed ably.