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geekhack Community => Input Devices => Topic started by: Architect on Sat, 08 January 2011, 13:46:18
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Hello,
I'm looking for suggestions for my Mac Pro setup. Here's what I've used so far. Note that I'm having bluetooth troubles. The MacPro's native bluetooth is flaky, and a specialty bluetooth dongle I've used is equally troublesome. Sometimes the bluetooth connection gets 'jerky', making it essentially useless.
- Magic Mouse I love the guestures and internal scroll feature, however clicking has to be done with a physical click, which is probably one of the biggest RSI problems I have. As a bluetooth solution I get the jumpy mouse problem.
- Magic TrackpadIt has plusses and minuses compared to the mouse. More gestures is a plus, but it's harder to use in some subtle ways otherwise. However I'd probably just stick with this if it came in a USB version.
- Logitech Marble Mouse Overall I like this. The problem I have is the cheap buttons, and especially there isn't any scroll option. Click & scroll is a horrible RSI problem for me.
- Kensington Slimblade Trackball This has a nasty problem with the Mac that others have noticed too - you can't sleep a Mac with this device. It sends periodic USB events which OS X responds to. I'd probably pick this if it wasn't for this problem. I can work around the problem by removing the trackball when putting the computer to sleep, but I hate that kind of solution
So there's my dilemma. I want to be wired due to bluetooth flakiness, but I haven't found a device that works for me. Mainly I want a scroll feature, and generally I don't like a regular mouse anymore. Any ideas?
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I really like my CST LTracX with my macbook pro. Works perfectly for me, though I never sleep my laptop anymore due to a dead battery.
It's really great for scrolling, plus you can add additional buttons to it for other functionality. Check out the link in Ripster's sig.
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Another vote for the CST.
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I am rather partial to the Logitech Performance Mouse MX on my Mac. It has just enough easy to use auxiliary buttons that it's useful but not to many to hit on accident.
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- Logitech Marble Mouse Overall I like this. The problem I have is the cheap buttons, and especially there isn't any scroll option. Click & scroll is a horrible RSI problem for me.
- Kensington Slimblade Trackball This has a nasty problem with the Mac that others have noticed too - you can't sleep a Mac with this device. It sends periodic USB events which OS X responds to. I'd probably pick this if it wasn't for this problem. I can work around the problem by removing the trackball when putting the computer to sleep, but I hate that kind of solution
Every trackball has a scroll option. Currenty I am using Marble Scroll (http://simans.net/marble/) to emulate scrolling by holding down the back button and moving the ball up and down like you would do with a common scroll wheel. In Linux you can do the same thing with gpointing-device-settings, but I'm not familliar with a Mac solution, but I'm pretty sure there is something that can be done.
The 'cheap buttons' remark, on the other hand is rather true -- the buttons are wobbly and become notably louder after months of use. But keep in mind that this device is very cheap for a trackball.
Another thing that I'm pretty sure of, is that you can turn off USB devices during sleep.