Think of the Kensington FlyLight 2.0 ($19.99, there are three models) as a book light for your notebook computer.  It plugs into a USB port and provides instant illumination via eight bright, energy efficient LEDs.  The long, flexible gooseneck design makes it easy to direct the light to your keyboard or anywhere else you need it.

Whether you're giving a presentation in a darkened room, using your computer on a red-eye flight, answering e-mail from your patio after dark or attempting not to disturb a sleeping significant other while surfing the Internet in bed, the FlyLight is a great, unobtrusive keyboard illumination solution.  One other use for it: if you're not sure a USB port is working, the FlyLight also makes it easy to find out by just plugging it and seeing if the light comes on.

Kensington claims the FlyLight draws less than 90 seconds of battery power per hour of use; I have not noticed any noticeable battery drain from it.  It's also light and durable for travel. 

A newer version, the FlyLight 3.0 ($24.99, shown right) lets you screw off the LED light and attach it to a special flashlight  (included) that will attach to a key ring.   The flashlight can be recharged via a computer USB port, but only offers an hour of continuous use light. This seems to me to be an easy way to lose the LED portion of the FlyLight,   If you're like me and tend to misplace things, you would probably be better off just buying the FlyLight 2.0, plus a small LED flashlight.

(The above was submitted by Lisa Halliday, who helps me with various writing projects).

I have owned one of these for a number of years and always carried it around, never needing it, until recently when I removed it from my briefcase. You can already see where this story is going: We were out in the camper van, the laptop was connected to DC power and the interior lighting was hard to get pointed at the keyboard unless you turned all the lighting on. I didn't want to do that (to save battery power) so I looked for the FlyLight and it was, of course, not in my bag. It is now, but I am thinking about putting a second one in the van so I don't have to worry about my briefcase.