By Paul McCollum
Building a better mouse trap may be a phrase nearly lost to time, but building a better mouse has never been more timely. Spending 8 to 12 hours per day at a computer, you really start to develop an appreciation for the tiniest changes in your controls. Logitech, who has made a name for itself subtly tweaking and perfecting the mouse, has made more radical changes in its line of trackballs. Their latest, the M570 Trackball, has moved the almost comfortably placed trackball out from under our fingers. The bright blue, gumball-sized sphere is now exclusively controlled by your thumb.
With the ball out of the way, the rest of the M570 looks like a perfectly comfortable mouse with four conveniently placed buttons and a scroll wheel. Ergonomics aside, the trackball is exclusively made for right handed users and there’s inherently a steep learning curve, especially for first time users. Additionally, the trackball also comes with Unifying receiver so you can easily share the wireless USB dongle with other compliant input devices. Although much better for your wrists, how hard will it be to switch to using your thumbs to ‘mouse’ around? Does the more natural feel of the rest of trackball make up for having to retrain your clumsy thumb? You can decide for yourself after checking out the review at Everything USB.
I dare anyone to draw a decent straight line with a trackball — can’t be done. Still, they’re great when you have limited desk space.
Logitech made this design in 1991, I have had the Marbleman mouse for about 15 or so years. I will not use anything else. As for the learning curve, if you will give this 2 weeks I don’t believe you will push a mouse around a desk ever again.
MS Paint with my new M570. I don’t think i could do better with a conventional mouse.
Still waiting for Microsoft to start the Trackball Explorer line again.