Contour Designs
Company: Contour Designs
http://www.contourdesign.com

While walking the show floor at Macworld Expo San Francisco, I stopped by Contour Designs' booth to have a look. They had a wide variety of very nice looking products. But looks have little to do with how a product actually performs and holds up in the real world. Taking home a collection of some of their flagship products, I set about testing and using them all.

UniTrap (for Apple hockey-puck mice)
Price: $14.99
http://www.contourdesign.com/unitrap.htm

This is a simple idea, and Contour Designs is not the first company to offer such a product. Simply put, the UniTrap is a cover for your standard iMac or PowerMac G3 and G4 mouse. You open the UniTrap mouse, slide in your Mac mouse, snap it shut, and it works. No more hockey-puck mouse!

The UniTrap ships with slap-in color button inserts, so that you can match the mouse color with your iMac. It now ships with Graphite as well, so those of you with a iMac DV Special Edition need not be left out.

Installation was simple, and the mouse cover works very well. I was surprised afterwards how natural the mouse felt. It does not feel like a mouse cover, as some other products do. The UniTrap mouse works, and works well.

MacMice Rating: 4.5
Pros: Very inexpensive, will match your iMac colors.
Cons: Makes the mouse a little bulky for those with smaller hands.

UniTray Mouse Pad
Price: $ 19.99
http://contourdesign.com/unitray.htm

What can you say about a mouse pad? Well, in this case, I can say it works well and is very comfortable. The UniTray sports a nice Gel wrist rest, which for me at least is perfect in size. The area in which the mouse rests is plastic, however, and I wish it had some sort of fabric covering. I prefer a fabric mouse pad over hard plastic over a hard surface one, but not everyone does.

One of the nicest features in this mouse pad is its adjustable gel wrist pad. The Gel pad pops out very easily, and you can insert plastic risers to make the pad more easily fit your preference.

The design is very nice, and you can buy one to match your iMac or PowerMac G3/G4. Even the Contour Design logo at the top of the pad is tasteful!

MacMice Rating: 5
Pros: Nice fit, good selection of colors, works well.
Cons: Personal, but I would like a fabric area for mouse movement.

UniRiser
Price: $29.99
http://www.contourdesign.com/uniriser.htm

This is a product long needed, and Contour Designs comes through. The iMac is known for its small footprint on the desktop, but it still wastes the space right under the machine. The UniRiser solves this, though, in a very neat and convenient way. It is a tray which you put your iMac on, raising it about 4 inches off your desktop. The new UniRiser fits both first generation iMacs, as well as the newer DV models.

The UniRiser is not simply an iMac stand, as you can see from the picture above. It gives you a very convenient tray under the iMac, a perfect place to put your Zip drive, external USB hub or hard drive, or anything else. (I use it to put the case of whatever CD I happen to be listening to.)

The UniRiser is very sturdy and well built, very important qualities for a product your iMac will be sitting on.

MacMice Rating: 5
Pros: Gives your more space, raises the iMac to better eye level.
Cons: Only comes in clear, no colors

The Special Holiday Bundle
I don't know how long this bundle will be available, but it is well past the holidays and they are still selling it on their website. For only $49.99, you can get all the products listed above, saving a good chunk of change in the process. After meeting some of the people from Contour Design at Macworld, such as Tim Donaghy, I feel even better recommending their products. I know the people behind these products, and they really do care that you get quality stuff for your iMac. They are Mac people, not just a vendor looking to cash in on the iMac's raging success.

Tim Robertson
publisher@mymac.com