I love electronics. You name the gadget and I probably like it, own it or would like to own it. From DVD players and Home Theater to Laptops and MP3 players, I devour everything I can on all sorts of electronic equipment. Lately, I've been taking on more assignments reviewing technology so I've been able to purchase more of the latest and greatest in the tech industry. Almost daily, and much to the dismay of my wife, I find a new device to bring home. Yesterday, in fact, I went out and purchased the Logitech Wireless Trackball to replace my mouse.
Trackball? You might think I'm crazy. Most people use mice and they seem to do the trick. Until recently, I never even thought about making the switch. Years ago my brother-in-law had one and I hated it. Rolling my fingers around on this little ball making the cursor run around the screen didn’t feel right. Like many, I liked my mouse. The alternatives weren't much of alternatives. Trackballs? Pen Tablets? Give me a regular mouse. Nothing fancy, just something to move my cursor around and get my work done.
Then my wrist started to hurt. My arm hurt thinking about working on my computer. So, I began to do some research. Wireless. Optical. These two innovations added a great deal to my standard roller ball three dollar mouse. After reading every review I could get my hands on, and spending hours playing at the computer store with every model in stock, I bought a new mouse. Then a second. Then a third.
While they each had their own bit of 'Wow' factor built in, after a week or two of working with them my wrist still hurt.
My wife doesn't quite get my obsession with electronics. She understands this latest Mouse Crusade even less. And she probably won't be excited when I get into replacing our antiquated keyboards. For now, I've just started using the trackball. As with most of the new input devices, it was easy to install and Windows XP quickly recognized it. The Logitech Trackball is USB standard and comes with a PS/2 adapter. Right off, the first thing I found useful was the number of extra buttons, eight in all; each customizable with a wide range of options to program them. Scrolling on the Web is nice, and the page forward and back buttons come in handy.
I'll report back in a couple of weeks on the trackball. Even if it is a trackball, I'd like this one to work so I can get onto changing our keyboards.
I'm lucky my wife loves me.
