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The proliferation of digital photos has, naturally, lead to a similar proliferation of useful and fun gadgets to make working and playing with your favorite shots easier than ever.
A keyboard with photos in mind
The Wireless Optical Desktop 5000 from Microsoft is one of the coolest digital photography devices we've seen in a while.
This ergonomically designed keyboard, which will be in stores in September, features five dedicated photo-related hot buttons located on a rounded outcrop. With one touch of a PhotoCenter button, you can create a slideshow, edit a photo, send it in an e-mail, print it or even reach your entire photo library.
The convenient Zoom Slider lever on the PhotoCenter outcrop allows you to enlarge, say, glowing red eyes and edit them away with ease.
The keyboard also has five customizable "favorites" hot keys to take you with one click to your favorite Web sites or photo files. There are also buttons to control video playback.
But as easy as the keyboard is to use, the package doesn't stop there. For $105 you get everything you need to perfect your pictures and share them with family and friends: a Microsoft High Definition Optical Mouse and Digital Image Standard 2006, photo editing software that is a slightly scaled-down version of the excellent Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006.
The wireless mouse includes a magnifier button that allows you to zoom in on just the part of the photo you wish to improve. It also a has a four-way tilt wheel that makes scrolling from left to right as easy as scrolling from top to bottom.