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Mousetrap.
Sep. 1st, 2011 01:08 pmI need a wireless mouse or trackball for my new laptop. I have a wireless keyboard that I really love, but the wired mouse I'm using (although a surprisingly excellent mouse for under $10) is really irritating.
Parameters: I would prefer it to either be a trackball (and I know those only come in right handed or suitable-for-giants if it's ambi) or if it's a mouse for it to be ambidextrous. I want a scroll wheel and programmable keys. And it should be Logitech Unity compatible (so keyboard and mouse can share the same tiny USB dongle.)
I have tiny hands with short fingers. I normally mouse on the left. I'm willing to trackball with my right hand, but not really to mouse on the right because moving my whole right arm for mousing twangs my shoulder and twinges my forearm. Trackballs that are ambidextrous are meant for people with enormous hands and I can't cope with the big reach-around. A lot of awesomely programmable mice are right-only. That's unacceptable.
My old computer's mouse was a Razer Diamondback. I found the mouse to be very responsive and ergonomically more comfortable than many other options, but the drivers for it are abysmal and unmaintained. I realize that saying I'm going to buy Logitech because they're a big enough company to keep up with things is exactly why tiny companies struggle, but Razer is very unresponsive to user complaints even though they were still selling this mouse at the time of the problems I had. It's my second Diamondback and the first one was vastly superior, driver-wise, which makes no sense. I'm not buying another Razer product because they're 3 times as expensive as any other brand and they're still pretending to be a tiny unprofessional company that doesn't need to do any long-term planning in regard to customer satisfaction. But it is an awesomely programmable mouse that's ambidextrous and that's how I got started with Razer.
I love my solar-charging Logitech wireless keyboard. The only thing that would make it better is if it was also backlit. And Logitech does make a wireless rechargeable backlit keyboard, but it's not solar and is a lot heavier and has a much lower cool factor.
My old computer's keyboard is a Saitek Eclipse 2, which is another of those things that's amazing, but would have been a lot more awesome if it was done by a real company with more resources. There's an Eclipse 3, but it's got a much larger form-factor and won't fit on my keyboard tray. The 2 has backlit keys and I'm thrilled with how that works.... but everytime you pause your computer (sleep, reboot, restart, hibernate, whatever) it loses which color backlighting you'd been using. It's not a huge problem, but I'm pretty sure that if Logitech had made the keyboard there would have been a piece of downloadable software or a driver that would maintain settings like that. There are other people making these kinds of things that do a good job, but Saitek has an awesome product that they just don't do anything to support.
When I bought the laptop, I'm really glad I insisted on getting the nubbin thing because I loathe the trackpad. I wish one could disable it entirely. If I type using the laptop's keyboard, my thumb's "ankle" brushes the trackpad and then the computer loses focus and I'm not typing in the proper box anymore. It's quite irritating. But you can't play flash games using the nubbin thing without wanting to pull out your hair.
Parameters: I would prefer it to either be a trackball (and I know those only come in right handed or suitable-for-giants if it's ambi) or if it's a mouse for it to be ambidextrous. I want a scroll wheel and programmable keys. And it should be Logitech Unity compatible (so keyboard and mouse can share the same tiny USB dongle.)
I have tiny hands with short fingers. I normally mouse on the left. I'm willing to trackball with my right hand, but not really to mouse on the right because moving my whole right arm for mousing twangs my shoulder and twinges my forearm. Trackballs that are ambidextrous are meant for people with enormous hands and I can't cope with the big reach-around. A lot of awesomely programmable mice are right-only. That's unacceptable.
My old computer's mouse was a Razer Diamondback. I found the mouse to be very responsive and ergonomically more comfortable than many other options, but the drivers for it are abysmal and unmaintained. I realize that saying I'm going to buy Logitech because they're a big enough company to keep up with things is exactly why tiny companies struggle, but Razer is very unresponsive to user complaints even though they were still selling this mouse at the time of the problems I had. It's my second Diamondback and the first one was vastly superior, driver-wise, which makes no sense. I'm not buying another Razer product because they're 3 times as expensive as any other brand and they're still pretending to be a tiny unprofessional company that doesn't need to do any long-term planning in regard to customer satisfaction. But it is an awesomely programmable mouse that's ambidextrous and that's how I got started with Razer.
I love my solar-charging Logitech wireless keyboard. The only thing that would make it better is if it was also backlit. And Logitech does make a wireless rechargeable backlit keyboard, but it's not solar and is a lot heavier and has a much lower cool factor.
My old computer's keyboard is a Saitek Eclipse 2, which is another of those things that's amazing, but would have been a lot more awesome if it was done by a real company with more resources. There's an Eclipse 3, but it's got a much larger form-factor and won't fit on my keyboard tray. The 2 has backlit keys and I'm thrilled with how that works.... but everytime you pause your computer (sleep, reboot, restart, hibernate, whatever) it loses which color backlighting you'd been using. It's not a huge problem, but I'm pretty sure that if Logitech had made the keyboard there would have been a piece of downloadable software or a driver that would maintain settings like that. There are other people making these kinds of things that do a good job, but Saitek has an awesome product that they just don't do anything to support.
When I bought the laptop, I'm really glad I insisted on getting the nubbin thing because I loathe the trackpad. I wish one could disable it entirely. If I type using the laptop's keyboard, my thumb's "ankle" brushes the trackpad and then the computer loses focus and I'm not typing in the proper box anymore. It's quite irritating. But you can't play flash games using the nubbin thing without wanting to pull out your hair.
