That’s a mouse.

No… that’s a mouse!

The name of Taiwanese electronics maker Sysgration may not trip off too many metropolitan tongues, but those in the know are very excited about the company’s new ASG 142 Skype mouse phone.

This tiny gizmo looks, works and feels like a laptop mouse, and it uses a now-standard 800 DPI optical sensor and USB connection. But then you open it up, and… yum.

Inside you’ll find a diddy Skype phone. The 1.3in backlit LCD displays the names of your Skype contacts and their status, and the number keypad allows you to make SkypeOut calls to landlines and mobiles.

So, how do you get one of these fantastic things? Hm. I don’t know. Google can’t find them for sale anywhere in the UK, or indeed anywhere in anywhere. The product page on Sysgration’s website says “patent pending”, which sounds ominous. I’ve seen enough episodes of Dragons’ Den to know that patents are kind of important. But I won’t rest until I’ve got one of these things on my desk – so stay tuned.