Track ball, better than a wireless mouse
Written: Jul 14 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great replacement for a mouse without the expense, batteries, hesitation, noise of a wireless mouse.
Cons: Slight "learning curve".
The Bottom Line: This is a well designed, smooth operating, optical trackball that makes me wish I had not spent more on my own wireless optical mouse.
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| cartan's Full Review: Logitech Marble® (904360-0403-EA) Mouse |
After being spoiled by a wireless mouse, not having to drag the cord with every movement, I was frustrated when using the better half's external corded mouse on a cluttered desk. I thought the solution would be another wireless mouse, perhaps a mini-mouse for her laptop. But the trackball caught my eye and would solve three problems associated with the constant use of the corded mouse.
A trackball stays put. No need to have extra space for mouse movement.
A trackball uses no batteries. While my Logitech wireless mouse lasts a long time on a pair of AA alkalines, it is just one less bit of maintenance to worry about.
My wife has been fussing about where to place the mouse since using it for long periods causes pain in her wrist. The trackball, not needing a lot of space, can be placed in the most comfortable position without causing stress on the wrists.
A few more advantages of this trackball over a mouse are noted. When in the standby mode, frequently vibration would cause the wireless mouse to bring my desktop out of standby. This doesn't occur with the trackball. The Logitech trackball provides the option to use the PS/2 port, keeping the USB ports open for other devices.
Scrolling with the Logitech trackball is smoother than the scroll wheel of my Logitech wireless mouse. The trackball also has switches for page up and page down, a very convenient feature when scouring eBay auctions.
The included software provides adjustment of the speed of the cursor related to ball movement as well as many other customizations of the functions of the switches. I would suggest that when installing the software provided by Logitech, that only the MouseWare program be installed and not all the "update" features of the "Logitech Desktop". This additional software is unnecessary to the operation of the trackball, and seems to me that it is more spyware than anything else.
This trackball solves the problem of dragging a cord with the movement of a mouse, without going the wireless route. It requires no extra desktop space and packs a lot of control (cursor movement, selection, scrolling, page up/down, etc.) into one easy to learn and use device. The fact that it is optical is no small issue, as it means that frequent cleaning of the device is a thing of the past.
And if the wife doesn't like it, she can have my wireless mouse and I'll take the trackball.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 22.00
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Epinions.com ID:
cartan
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Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 3 members
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