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The best office tech for under $50

You'd be surprised at the kind of cool and practical stuff you can get for cheap.
By Rick Broida, Contributor
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1 of 7 Rick Broida/CNET

Wyze Cam Pan

Think you can't afford security cameras for your office? Think again. The Wyze Cam Pan offers 360-degree panning, night vision, motion- and sound-detection and 14 days of free rolling alert-video cloud storage -- all for $30. Seriously. The Pan sounds too good to be true -- but it isn't.

You can read more about it in this Cheapskate post.

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2 of 7 Ace Teah

Ace Teah 3-in-1 pens

What makes a great pen? Comfort, for starters. I like a big barrel, not those skinny ones common to pretty much every ballpoint. While you're at it, put a stylus tip on the other end. Oh, and could you design it to also prop up my phone or tablet so I can read during lunch?

All that describes the Ace Teah 3-in-1 in a nutshell. This is my favorite pen ever: comfortable, versatile and oh-so-cheap: You get a colorful 6-pack for $6.

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3 of 7 Superjare

Superjare portable laptop table

Stand-up desks offer a variety of benefits, but cost a small fortune, right? Not necessarily: Superjare's simple but effective laptop table can also be used as a stand-up desk, and it's currently priced at just $30. (The price fluctuates, though; it's been as high as $40 -- still a good deal.) It's both height- and angle-adjustable, and while it's obviously not motorized, all it takes is a button-push to make those adjustments.

You can read more about the Superjare stand in this post.

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4 of 7 TaoTronics

TaoTronics LED desk lamp with Qi charging pad

You need to keep your Qi-compatible phone charged, but you also need one less thing cluttering your desk. This TaoTronics LED lamp adds a fast-charge Qi pad to its base, quite possibly the best of all possible two-fers. And the lamp itself offers five color modes and seven brightness settings, all accessible via touch controls. It currently sells for $42.

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5 of 7 Fleixmount

Fleximount desk monitor mount

There's something incredibly liberating about getting your monitor off your desk and mounted on an arm. Like this $40 job from Fleximount. It not only affords you lots more versatility for positioning the screen just how you like it, but also lets you move the monitor up and out of the way when you need more desk space.

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6 of 7 Toshiba

Toshiba Canvio Basics 1TB hard drive

Usually on sale at Amazon for $49.99 (though occasionally a few dollars higher or lower), the Toshiba Canvio Basics is a 1TB portable external drive. That means it works equally well on your desk as extra and/or backup storage and in your carry-on when you travel. No power adapter required; it's powered by its USB 3.0 interface.

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7 of 7 Brother

Brother P-Touch Cube label printer

Need a label for that file folder? File drawer? Something to do with files? Whatever the case, quit running to the office manager's office every time you need the label-maker. Brother's P-Touch Cube routinely goes on sale for $39.99 (as it has now, via Office Depot). This is so much better than those big, clunky labelers with the awkward keyboards. It's entirely app-powered, so just tap your phone and print!

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