optical mice
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Microsoft Trackball Explorer The following report compares gadgets using the SERCount Rating (base on the result count from the search engine). |
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POPULAR HAT - 2005-03-05 06:30:00 | © Copyright 2004 - www.hat.net () | sitemap | top |
Pros:
Ergonomic shape, nice large ball operated with your fingers and thumb.
4 mouse buttons and a clickable scroll wheel, perfect for gamers. All buttons are reassignable to perform any function, or to do a variety of functions within windows. Note that the bundled software calls middle click "autoscroll," and buttons 4 and 5 are called the back and forward web browser navigation buttons. Good for your average user, but a techie like me likes the buttons to be called what they really are.
It's wired, unlike the Logitech version. Wireless products are a solution looking for a problem for me, and I don't like shelling out the extra dough.
You can reassign buttons to do different functions on a per-program basis. For games I have it assigned to the default button setup so that the game recognizes all the buttons as mouse1, mouse2, etc.
Cons:
Very imprecise at high sensitivity settings. The cursor will actually move in steps of several pixels. This might be because the dots on the ball are rather large, but not certain. The solution for those who like high sensitivity settings is to set it for medium sensitivity and turn on low acceleration. The non-linearity that results makes you feel a bit disconnected from the onscreen cursor, however.
Not pros and cons, just observations:
By default, the left-right-middle mouse buttons are operated by your thumb instead of your fingers, unlike a regular mouse. This can be reassigned, I've reassigned the far right button to right click because it's a bit more intuitive, and I have a button bound to shift so I can use it and the scroll wheel for forward-back navigation in my web browser.
It takes a few days to really get used to, like the transition from a straight keyboard to a "natural" one.
It looks like there's three red LEDs inside, but only one is actually near a sensor, the other two are just there to make it glow an ominous red.