When I have to work from home, I slip into our comfortable leather chair and place my Sony VAIO laptop on my lap. Of course, this isn't really a comfortable work environment, without a mouse or a keyboard pad (I prefer my huge cubicle at PCMag.com); not to mention the bottom of my laptop gets hot.

Katherine from PopGadget recently purchased the iLap from Rain Design: a cushioned stand that keeps your laptop cool and lets you work comfortably on your lap. Although it's designed to match the Apple Powerbooks, the company says that it's also suitable for other laptops.

The iLap comes in five sizes (12-inch, 14-inch, 15-inch, 15-inch WS, and 17-inch WS) and is made out of aluminum.

Depending on the size you want, the iLap ranges in price from $49.90 to $69.90.

No, a bargain hub is not a man who forgot Valentine's Day.

Between digital cameras, printers, external hard drives, MP3 players, webcams, wireless network cards and other devices, I never seem to have enough USB ports, even with six built into my PC. So I'm always on the lookout for a good deal on a powered 4-port or, preferably 7-port hub. I've bought several hubs over the years and have not found any correlation between price and quality. My advice is to grab a bargain hub but be ready to replace it. It's a shame that that's the state of things. Also, make sure that it's a USB 2.0 Hi-Speed hub, capable of 480 megabits per second throughput.

Here area a few hubs today that are worth a look:

• OnSale.com has two different 4 port USB hubs free after rebate. You'll have to pay $8 for shipping. Search on item codes 446257 and 7000876.
• eCost also has a few hubs on their Free Stuff page.
• Need 7 ports? You could buy 2 free after rebate four port hubs, but that means 2 power bricks. Amazon.com has a D-Link 7-port hub for $19.99 after $10 rebate and eCost has it for a dollar less. And Buy.com has a slick Belkin hub for $25.99 with no rebates.

Happy hubbing.

Here in New York, the sun's out, the snow's melting, and Toy Fair is nearly at an end. I saw more tech-influenced toys this year than maybe ever before (and I've been at each Toy Fair for the past 6 years). I know this because of the pile of work I didn't get to on Monday or Tuesday that I will soon have to plough through. I'll put that off a little longer and post a few more highlights.

I actually got referred to Hong Kong-based Blue Box Toys by another company: "You have to see their iPod stuff!" I'm glad I caught it. The company has a line called B2 MiJam coming to the U.S. in late summer; each of the products is a music-generating device of some sort and connect up to digital audio players so you can jam along to your own music. (Or sing: one is a karaoke-style mic.) Here is a shy demoer playing the miJam guitar; she rocked. The toys will cost $20 to $50.

I always look forward to seeing what LeapFrog is up to. I've been covering the company practically since it launched, and while imitators of innovative products like the LeapPad have appeared, LeapFrog had a big head start and still does it best. And in 2005, PC Magazine gave the FLY Pentop Computer a best-of-the-year nod. This year, LeapFrog is introducing a new line of interactive learning products for babies, called Little Leaps Grow With Me Learning System. Junior can play with console (right) as a standalone "activity center; or parents can hook it up to the DVD player and it becomes a wireless remote for activities onscreen. When the baby becomes the toddler, the top of the device flips over, and it becomes a joystick. At $39.99 ($17.99 for additional disks) this will fly off shelves.

I could write way more, but sadly, I have an actual job that I should really pay attention to. I made up a slideshow of lots of other tech toys, which should show up at PCMag.com soon.

One last (nontechnical) item, for Star Wars geeks (left): Hasbro is reissuing five vintage figurines from the original three movies. If you collect 'em all and mail in stickers from each package, you will be sent, free of charge (drumroll) a George Lucas action figure (shown at top). Ain't he cute?

Last December, the Cheap Geek got out of the gate with a bang on pcmag.com, but then it went on hiatus in January. Part of that was due to the fact that I bought a new car (below invoice, of course) which lowered my shopping drive just a bit. But while I may not be opening up my wallet as often (except perhaps for a few Free After Rebate deals), I still love finding great deals and sharing them.

I'm going to be posting deals here on Gearlog because it will let me tell you about individual bargains as I come across them, rather than wait to gather several and wrap them all together into an entire column. But if you want to save the most money, you've got to do a little hunting on your own as well. (Just make sure you know the difference between a good price and a hunting buddy.) So here are a few places to get started:

In the past, I've mentioned my favorite sites:

1. Techbargains (www.techbargains.com): All tech (well, mostly tech). Constantly updated with great deals, whether through discounts, rebates, or piling on the coupon codes.
2. SlickDeals (www.slickdeals.net): Not nearly as active as Techbargains, but when they get pretty clever to eek out a few more dollars of savings.
3. Ben's Bargains (www.bensbargains.net): Got to love it, if for no other reason than the name. A lot like TechBargains, although not quite as info loaded (or overloaded)

 While the column was away, I still received several e-mails from readers suggesting additional sites. Here are some of the best:

• eDealInfo (www.edealinfo.com)
• DealHack (www.dealhack.com)
• dealnews (www.dealnews.com)
• Dealsway (www.dealsway.com)
• FatWallet (www.fatwallet.com)

And, of course, there's always http://shop.pcmag.com where you can search for the best price on a specific item. But when you find a price you like, check Techbargains or one of the other sites to see if there are coupon codes that could save you a few dollars more when you click through from shop.pcmag.com.

Just a week after I spent my hard-earned money to get an iPod case, Sena Cases sent me their version of check out. Sena offers real leather cases for just about every electronic device on the market. They look great, although I could do without the Sena brand on the front. The case comes with a magnetic closure that keeps the case shut without the bother of a snap.

IMHO, the best feature is that it is low-profile so you can dock your iPod in a speaker dock or attach peripherals like Griffin's AirClick, another one of my new favorite toys, without taking it out of its case. That is awesome.