10. Kensington Wireless Presenter With Laser Pointer

By: Ed Tittel

At some point or another in everybody's working life, a presentation in front of one's peers, colleagues, or customers is inevitable. Kensington offers a very nice alternative to remaining tethered to a PC while cranking through the PowerPoints. In fact, as the product name so ably illustrates, the Kensington Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer not only gives presenters the ability to walk away from the PC showing their slides, it lets them highlight key information items on their foils with an intense spot of bright light.

The Kensington wireless presenter fits nicely in the hand, and is a snap to operate.

To its never-ending credit, the wireless presenter's controls are completely obvious: red for laser (top center), right and left to advance or reverse the slide deck, and on-off (bottom center). You need only plug the USB dongle into the PC - this small device stores inside the remote itself when not in use - turn on the unit, and start driving your presentation from start to finish.

Kensington's goal in delivering this product is very well realized: the company wants to "free you from distraction and allow you to focus on what matters most - your presentation," and so they do, very nicely indeed. We wish that all products with such simple and noble goals delivered on them as ably as this one does.

Even better, the Kensington Wireless Presenter will not cost you an arm or a leg. With an MSRP of $60 - we found it discounted for as little as $39 at The Nerds - it's not going to inflict much pain on the giver, but should certainly be quite a boon to the receiver. To read more about this great little product, check out the Kensington product page. We think that just about any grad or dad (or any of our other readers, for that matter) will find this to be an affordable and usable productivity booster, and a very necessary and portable notebook accessory.