Trackballs take to the road--but why?

(Credit: Dvice)

We've never understood trackballs. Like the folks over at Dvice, we too remember being told that everyone would be be using them in a few years. That was 1995.

We tried our hand(s) at it too, with one about the size of a softball that was attached to an even bigger mouse--both of which were supposed to eliminate RSI forever. Years of physical therapy later, we're back to our old wireless Kensington. But we digress; clearly there are those still loyal to the trackball, for Genius has invented one that can even be used on the road by clipping it onto the laptop itself.

Then again, the maker of the "Traveler 350" never seems to let logic stand in the way of a product idea. Genius is the same company that came up with a camera-speaker combo set. You do the math.

[ghaff]

Work better large

Personally I like trackballs. I use an old Logitech one in my home office. But I've never found smaller ones to work especially well.

[netwacker]

I never understood mice!

I've use Kensington trackballs forever. I never understood why, if the goal is to spin the ball on the bottom of a mouse, one would want to drag a housing mounted over the ball all over physical space to do things. I see people lifting and repositioning their mouse to get the cursor where they want it, and I just glide directly to any place on the screen.

If techno-geeks, especially, are so engineering attuned, mice should be anathema to them.

[gzuckier]

ok if you have 3 hands

i hate both mice and trackballs. my right hand is in a permanent cramp now from mousing around (not kidding). my own choice is that little joystick thingie that sticks out of the keyboard on old ibm keyboards, some laptops, etc. for folks who type a lot on the keyboard, to remove your hand and go over to the mouse and then back is just stupid.

[jimothyGator]

Everything is retro again

My college roommate, circa 1995, had one of these on his laptop (running
Windows 3.1). It clipped on the side of the laptop, just like this one. Ah, nerd
nostalgia.

[EscapePod]

Not a NEW invention

jimothygator is right in his post -- this is certainly NOT new. I'm pretty sure is was Logitech who came up with the one that clipped to the side of the laptop (some actually had a plug-in rather than clip). It was very comfortable, and easy to use. Unfortunately, they weren't very durable. And yet .... I miss it.