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Where have all the trackballs gone!

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Josh:
This is a fairly straight forward question. I am a huge fan of trackballs as pointing devices and I am disappointed by the sheer lack of trackballs available. My wife has been converted after using my old Microsoft Trackball Explorer a while back. Now, I have a Logitech marble mouse which is OK, but it lacks the scroll wheel and the buttons are oddly placed causing some issues using the back/forward buttons.

That said, Logitech has a new trackball available for pre-order which has stuff in logical places. I, for one, cannot wait for this device!

Logitech Wireless Trackball M570

Thoughts?

Perry Mowbray:
I used to use a trackball, but now I use Contour Free... which fixed my shoulder pain within a week  :Thmbsup: and it means I get to use both hands for mouse operations  :)

mouser:
the new logitech trackball looks pretty nice.

Deozaan:
I've been using a Trackman Wheel Optical for a number of years now and loving it. Unfortunately it's slowly been degrading in performance this year and about a month ago I finally got tired of it not clicking when I told it to and am now using a more standard mouse (sensor underneath).

I, too, have been disappointed in the lack of thumb trackballs. It just doesn't seem right to use my other fingers on a trackball.

That said, Logitech has a new trackball available for pre-order which has stuff in logical places. I, for one, cannot wait for this device!

Logitech Wireless Trackball M570
-Josh (September 22, 2010, 07:51 PM)
--- End quote ---

Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Sounds awesome! It will be so nice to finally be able to go wireless with a trackball with stuff in its logical place.

I don't think I'm going to pre-order though. I bet I could buy it new off Amazon when it comes out and get free shipping.

IainB:
Wow! That Logitech Wireless Trackball M570 looks very nice.

The first time I saw a trackball it was of an embedded-in-the-desk variety, on the Warfare Command/Control Deck of the HMS Invincible, when I was given a personal tour of it in about 1984. The trackball moved the cross-hairs on a big Tektronix radar monitor. You clicked on any vessel blip within an approx 70 nautical mile radar range and after a few seconds the screen displayed all the likely details about that vessel (country of origin, charter contract, etc.) - after having searched Navy and commercial shipping (manifestoes) databases via onboard systems and via a satellite link. It gave a probability as to whether the vessel was friend or foe. If it was deemed "foe", then punching a big fat red button off to the right apparently invoked a strike of sufficient missiles to blow it out of the water. The button was apparently disabled when the command deck was not operational.

The only trackball I actually used was a thumb-ball one that clipped onto the side of my Toshiba laptop, in 1992. Since then I became a dab hand at using those nifty TrackPoint/AccuPoint levers placed in the middle of the keyboard, and I later settled for the touchpad as favourite - for its ergonomics and minimal RSI.

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