Those who're doing one thing in the dark, such as writing the Great American Novel, might want to look into some of the applications that have a full-screen mode, where the application takes over the entire screen. Set the background color to something dark, and all that glare is gone.

If you're a writer of any sort, one marvelous choice is Scrivener, a writing application that gives you a full-screen mode that can be customized for green or amber on black writing. You'll have an almost totally dark screen that's easy to read in the dark or (some say) in bright sunlight. And reducing clutter can get the creative juices flowing.

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html

Scrivener's so handy, I got a MacBook just so I could use it to write away from my desktop.

--Michael W. Perry, Untangling Tolkien

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There are plenty of Windows-compatible illuminated keyboards, but I can't find any decent Mac-compatible ones.

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I reviewed an i-Rock model earlier this year, but it wasn't a great keyboard; I haven't seen many Mac-compatible backlit offerings. That said, I've heard good things about Deck keyboards, and I hope to take a look at one:

http://www.deckkeyboards.com/legend.php



You could also go with a keyboard with large, white letters on black keys:

http://www.visikey.net/index.html

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Dan Frakes | Senior Editor, Macworld