Geeks.com sent over three nice gadgets for a review, two of which will be reviewed here. The third item’s review, the Kodak Z1012 IS, will be published in a few days at FreshDV.com.

* Micro Innovations PD5230LSR 3-Button USB Laser Travel Mouse w/Retractable Cord

A travel mouse is an ideal companion to use with the Acer Aspire One netbook, and at first glance this Micro Innovations mouse sounds like a good deal. It is a high DPI laser-based mouse, has 3 buttons & a wheel, and a retractable cable. It feels pretty good in the palm, and after using it for hours didn’t made my wrist hurt. Unfortunately, I can’t qualify it exactly as a travel mouse. This mouse is not very long, but it’s very tall! It is taller than my regular mice in my office! And when you pack gadgets in your laptop bag, you mostly care about their thickness, not so much about their length. Given these realities, this mouse is just too thick to fit nicely in a laptop bag and this takes away a lot of its value.

* Made-Always-On camera cases

This is a great little cheap addition for yourself and for sharing with your family. The package includes three cases for digital cameras. The more serious-looking black and blue, and a pink one that feels softer to the touch than the rest two. These cases feature a thin metal bracelet at the bottom that has a tripod head-sized screw on it. You screw this on your digital camera’s tripod hole to hold it steady, and then you wrap the case around the camera to secure it via the provided Velcro. What I like about this case is the fact that you never have to fully remove the case from the camera, you just unwrap it, shoot your picture, wrap it back. This is much more convenient than having a traditional case where you remove the camera from within, place the case in your bag, shoot, take the case back from your bag, put the camera back. Now, you are probably thinking that not having the tripod hole available is not a good idea when using a tripod. That’s true, but these cases only fit the “thin” consumer cameras (e.g. Kodak’s V- and M-series), the kind of cameras usually people just point and shoot. The Canon A-series, Kodak’s Z-series don’t fit, for example. So this product is useful and well-thought, for its intended audience.