Spending a lot of time in front of the computer, I try to make that experience as comfortable as possible. That means to me a big monitor, an ergonomic keyboard and a good mouse. When I first used the Kensington Expert mouse (which is actually a trackball) I was hooked. Four keys surround a (billiard sized) ball rolling on three stainless steel bearings. These buttons can be programmed to function like double click, click and hold, etc. Of course I needed to have one like that for home also. While it first worked nicely, one big disadvantage became obvious over time. Due to the way trackballs are constructed, they cumulate all kinds of dirt. The ball transports the grime from your hands onto the bearings where it builds a solid coating. This coating greatly affects the precision of the pointer movement. It is therefore necessary to clean the bearings regularly and even take the housing apart to clean the receptors which transfer the mechanical movements into electrical impulses.
So when the new Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer came out I thought I'll give it a try.
The idea of a closed housing which doesn't need cleaning anymore appealed to me immediately. This mouse not only has the scrolling wheel but also four buttons in total. I set it up so that the wheel scroll about five lines of Word/Excel of Internet Explorer while the two thumb buttons move one complete page up or down. This setup is really cool and makes navigating Windows a snap. The mouse is also fairly ergonomic, all the buttons are in the right place for my rather large hands. Therefore the perfect input device? Not quite! The optical sensor on the bottom looks cool when it glows red, but the precision was not what I expected. The mouse gets promoted as not needing a mouse pad anymore and I used it on our beech wood covered desk. It does work ok, but sometimes you feel that the pointer doesnt go where you expect it to go. It seems that the receptor has problems reading some patterns and doesnt move the cursor even though you move the mouse. In addition youre missing the mechanical feedback of a mouse with a ball in the bottom, which makes for a rather odd feeling. That together with the jumpy pointer gives me the impression that I have less control over this mouse than over a good conventional one. It might be still a good advice to use the IntelliMouse with a decent mouse pad to increase the pointer precision, but I havent tried it.
For me the biggest difference between a trackball and a mouse is that fact that a trackball can be scrolled indefinitely without lifting and resetting the device. With that I mean that you can still spin the ball of a trackball where you would have to lift the mouse from the pad, set it back and start moving it again in the prior direction. While this is almost of no concern during Windows applications, since the pointer can reach each corner of the screen while the mouse is on its pad, it is of major concern for several games
Lets take a first person shooter for example. A combination of keyboard and trackball is the perfect combination for those. Walking (forward, back, strafing left right) will be controlled via keyboard, looking up/down and turning will be controlled via trackball. Your character now can spin in each direction indefinitely, impossible to do with a mouse. This way you can walk in circles around your opponent, keeping him straight in the line of your gun
Ok, now were finally coming to the topic, the new Microsoft Explorer trackball. After I read a good review, I went to our local Best Buy to take a close look at trackballs. A friend of mine had good experience with an optical Logitech device and I wanted to check first hand which one I liked best. I tried several brands and the Logitech was indeed very comfortable. Especially a remote one felt good to my hand. The disadvantage was that the lid of its battery compartment looked very fragile, that it lacked the scrolling wheel and that the ball couldnt be removed for cleaning. Plus it was five bucks more
Since a cable less remote feature is not essential for a trackball anyway, I went with the Microsoft product.
http://www.winmag.com/reviews/hardware/2000/10/1018.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/catalog/display.asp?subid=22&site=10563&x=34&y=13
The Explorer trackball uses the same technology as the IntelliMouse. An optical sensor with a red LED converts the movements of the ball into electric currents. This ball has a funny looking pattern of small rectangles which are easy for the sensor to recognize. As a result, the pointer movements are VERY precise. There are no unwanted hang-ups or jumps anymore! The cursor goes where you want it to go. Besides that the ball spins extremely smooth since it doesnt have to move any bearings. The grime from your hands gets rubbed onto three (easy to clean) tiny steel balls, which keep the trackball away from the housing. There is no physical contact between the ball and the sensor. While I dont have any long-term results, it seems nearly impossible to foul this construction up, short of spilling your coffee over it
But my praise doesnt end here. This device is very ergonomic. The overall shape molds perfectly into my hand and the ball can be easily manipulated with index and middle finger. The trackball has - like the IntelliMouse - four keys and a scrolling wheel. Left and right mouse button and the wheel are controlled by your thumb. But where other trackballs make you press down (toward the table) to activate them, this one lets you press inwards toward the palm of your hand, a much more natural way. The third and fourth button are neatly placed under ring finger and pinky respectively. The whole setup is perfect. Ball and keys are placed and dimensioned in such a way that they are easy to manipulate and cause a minimum of fatigue.
So what are the disadvantages? The biggest one it that this is a right hand only device. South pawns dont even need to apply, it wouldnt work for them at all. Then there is the size. If you have small hands like my wife you might find this trackball rather hard to operate. It takes longer fingers to manipulate the ball properly. Moving your hand forward wouldnt do you much good, since this would put your thumb in an awkward position for the wheel and keys. Than there is the fact that you have to have decent fine control over your thumb, since this is the finger with which you have to perform the double-/clicking.
If you can live with those peculiarities, than I urge you to take a close look at this cool input device. Im very happy with it and many evil monsters will have to die because of this!
So when the new Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer came out I thought I'll give it a try.
The idea of a closed housing which doesn't need cleaning anymore appealed to me immediately. This mouse not only has the scrolling wheel but also four buttons in total. I set it up so that the wheel scroll about five lines of Word/Excel of Internet Explorer while the two thumb buttons move one complete page up or down. This setup is really cool and makes navigating Windows a snap. The mouse is also fairly ergonomic, all the buttons are in the right place for my rather large hands. Therefore the perfect input device? Not quite! The optical sensor on the bottom looks cool when it glows red, but the precision was not what I expected. The mouse gets promoted as not needing a mouse pad anymore and I used it on our beech wood covered desk. It does work ok, but sometimes you feel that the pointer doesnt go where you expect it to go. It seems that the receptor has problems reading some patterns and doesnt move the cursor even though you move the mouse. In addition youre missing the mechanical feedback of a mouse with a ball in the bottom, which makes for a rather odd feeling. That together with the jumpy pointer gives me the impression that I have less control over this mouse than over a good conventional one. It might be still a good advice to use the IntelliMouse with a decent mouse pad to increase the pointer precision, but I havent tried it.
For me the biggest difference between a trackball and a mouse is that fact that a trackball can be scrolled indefinitely without lifting and resetting the device. With that I mean that you can still spin the ball of a trackball where you would have to lift the mouse from the pad, set it back and start moving it again in the prior direction. While this is almost of no concern during Windows applications, since the pointer can reach each corner of the screen while the mouse is on its pad, it is of major concern for several games
Ok, now were finally coming to the topic, the new Microsoft Explorer trackball. After I read a good review, I went to our local Best Buy to take a close look at trackballs. A friend of mine had good experience with an optical Logitech device and I wanted to check first hand which one I liked best. I tried several brands and the Logitech was indeed very comfortable. Especially a remote one felt good to my hand. The disadvantage was that the lid of its battery compartment looked very fragile, that it lacked the scrolling wheel and that the ball couldnt be removed for cleaning. Plus it was five bucks more
http://www.winmag.com/reviews/hardware/2000/10/1018.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/catalog/display.asp?subid=22&site=10563&x=34&y=13
The Explorer trackball uses the same technology as the IntelliMouse. An optical sensor with a red LED converts the movements of the ball into electric currents. This ball has a funny looking pattern of small rectangles which are easy for the sensor to recognize. As a result, the pointer movements are VERY precise. There are no unwanted hang-ups or jumps anymore! The cursor goes where you want it to go. Besides that the ball spins extremely smooth since it doesnt have to move any bearings. The grime from your hands gets rubbed onto three (easy to clean) tiny steel balls, which keep the trackball away from the housing. There is no physical contact between the ball and the sensor. While I dont have any long-term results, it seems nearly impossible to foul this construction up, short of spilling your coffee over it
But my praise doesnt end here. This device is very ergonomic. The overall shape molds perfectly into my hand and the ball can be easily manipulated with index and middle finger. The trackball has - like the IntelliMouse - four keys and a scrolling wheel. Left and right mouse button and the wheel are controlled by your thumb. But where other trackballs make you press down (toward the table) to activate them, this one lets you press inwards toward the palm of your hand, a much more natural way. The third and fourth button are neatly placed under ring finger and pinky respectively. The whole setup is perfect. Ball and keys are placed and dimensioned in such a way that they are easy to manipulate and cause a minimum of fatigue.
So what are the disadvantages? The biggest one it that this is a right hand only device. South pawns dont even need to apply, it wouldnt work for them at all. Then there is the size. If you have small hands like my wife you might find this trackball rather hard to operate. It takes longer fingers to manipulate the ball properly. Moving your hand forward wouldnt do you much good, since this would put your thumb in an awkward position for the wheel and keys. Than there is the fact that you have to have decent fine control over your thumb, since this is the finger with which you have to perform the double-/clicking.
If you can live with those peculiarities, than I urge you to take a close look at this cool input device. Im very happy with it and many evil monsters will have to die because of this!
