This computer mouse doubles as a scanner...

WHEN WE HEAR about gadgets that combine two disparate functions into a single device, we usually keep expectations low. This was especially true of Brookstone's Scanner Mouse, which takes two of the most boring office accessories known to man—a scanner and a mouse—and mashes them into one.

Against all odds, this is an amazing little gadget. In some regards, it works better than a traditional scanner, and it's probably the only scanner that is genuinely fun to use.

For most of the workday, the device functions like any other full-size wired mouse (it doesn't come in a wireless model). Two buttons? Check. Clickable scroll wheel? Check. Moves your cursor around? Check. But pressing a button on the side activates its scanning mode. To digitize printed matter, run the mouse over a page. The document will gradually appear on your computer screen in 1½-inch swaths. The process, which takes only a few seconds, feels like painting a wall with a roller. It's less tedious than it sounds, because the mouse is forgiving about how you wield it: There's no need to keep the mouse oriented at a certain angle; you can lift it and go back over an area that you missed; and if a section scans skewed because of a crease or wrinkle, just rescrub.

You wouldn't want to tackle a stack of legal documents using this approach, but the mouse works well for a pile of receipts or a page or two from a book, even a large-format one. (The gadget has enough memory to capture a 16.5-by-11.7-inch page at 320 dpi, and it scans in full color, too.)

The Scanner Mouse is also excellent at digitizing receipts that are printed on thin paper, which sheet-fed scanners have a tendency to mangle. And the Windows- and Mac-compatible software is surprisingly effective at making pages that are crumpled beyond recognition look perfectly smooth again. Languishing expense reports have at last met their match. $80, brookstone.com