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| Atek Super Mini Optical Mouse |
| Atek |
|
Price:
$50 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 10 |
|
| If your mobile workers hate their touchpads or pointing devices on their laptops, and they have at least one USB port to spare, get them this mouse. At only 2.5-in. long and 1-in. wide, the Super Mini Optical Mouse is much more portable than a bulkier mouse, and about 10 times better than said touchpads or nub-like pointers. Even with long bouts of “mousing,” my hands didn’t get cramped. People with larger hands might find it too small, so your mileage may vary. |
| 3M Precise Mousing Surface |
| 3M |
|
|
| A mousepad with advanced micro-groove surface is supposed to eliminate slippage at faster mouse speed. The surface structure improves grip and traction of your mouse ball by trapping dust particles in the valleys of the surface while letting the mouse ball ride along the peaks of the surface, away from the dirt. As a sufferer of repetitive strain injuries, not many products out there dazzle me with their ergonomic goodness. The wrist support on this pad made my hands go numb. But when I turned it to the side and used it without the mouse support, the mouse did slide smoothly across it. |
| DSP-400 mobile USB foldable stereo headset |
| Plantronics |
|
Price:
$63 |
| Coolness
score: 6 |
| Ease
of use: 7 |
|
| If you’ve ever had to use headphones while you’re traveling (such as when you want to watch a DVD on the plane), bulky headphones can be a pain to organize and pack. The DSP-400 is foldable headset with digital sound quality. In addition, the headset comes with a microphone and has some pretty good voice recognition software. You need to plug these into the USB port instead of the headset jack, but you get some good sound for the small change. |
| Cordless Mouseman Optical |
| Logitech |
|
Price:
$60 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 9 |
|
| This mouse uses a laser that beams down on the surface it is moving over to pick up motion. It is very responsive, regardless of what desktop terrain you run it over. No mouse pad is necessary. It has a wheel like the Cordless Wheel Mouse (see next item), but also has an extra key, tucked under the left side and triggered by your thumb. This handy addition can be configured to double click, drag lock, find computer, cut, copy, auto scroll and any number of other useful tasks. |
| Cordless Wheel Mouse |
| Logitech |
|
Price:
$40 |
| Coolness
score: 6 |
| Ease
of use: 9 |
|
| A symmetrically shaped mouse with a wheel mounded between the keys. You can program it so the left mouse takes on traditional right mouse functions and vice versa. The wheel can be set to scroll, backspace, CTRL, delete, Enter, ESC, and perform any F function key. A traditional ball mechanism detects the motion of the mouse, so for accurate cursor control you pretty much have to use it on a mouse pad. |
| Cordless Freedom Optical keyboard and mouse |
| Logitech |
|
Price:
$100 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 8 |
|
| If optical mouse technology made navigation easier, this is the next evolutionary step. With this combination, you can put your laptop on the coffee table and use the keyboard and mouse while you lay back on the couch. It may not be ergonomically correct, but it feels pretty good to do this. Lots of extra buttons on the keyboard let you automatically Web surf, or play music, at the touch of a button. If you’d rather use the keyboard and mouse combination on a more normal desktop, the lack of cords will help clean up the work area a little bit. |
| Sony USB mouse and Memory Stick Adaptor |
| Sony |
|
Price:
$90 |
| Coolness
score: 9 |
| Ease
of use: 9 |
|
| For laptop users who don’t have a memory stick port on their computer, but still want to get a memory stick for use in storage between another Sony device (such as a Sony Clie or music players), this device can kill the proverbial second bird. At the end of the optical mouse is the memory stick port, just plug it in and get an instant extra storage drive. The mouse itself had a great feel to it, it ran extremely smooth over my table without a mouse pad. The third button was also a bit different, it operated like a miniature joystick for scrolling, but you could also push it for third button functions. |
| Iogear 4D Web Cruiser optical scroll ball mouse |
| Iogear |
|
Price:
$30 |
| Coolness
score: 7 |
| Ease
of use: 7 |
|
| When I first heard about the 4D Web Cruiser, I thought the 4D meant I could travel through time (the fourth dimension). In fact, the 4D in this case stands for four direction, which is the different directions you can scroll when you use the little trackball in the mouse. The optical mouse has three buttons (the third button is squeezed below the trackball), and comes with a USB cable and a PS/2 adapter. You can turn the scroll ball into a trackball, though it’s small and may not feel right when you’re trying to move around the screen. Still, the software has enough options so you can customize the actions that each button (or ball) does. Still, it would have been really cool to time travel with the mouse. |
| Cordless Keyboard |
| Logitech |
|
Price:
$40 |
| Coolness
score: 7 |
| Ease
of use: 7 (required
a visit to company Web site for updated software) |
|
| Keyboard works within 3.5 feet of the receiver and sports three unique buttons to call up your browser, call up your e-mail program and search, which defaults to Google's home page. This is a possible remedy for people with ergonomic issues. Untethered from the PC, they can switch positions frequently, potentially avoiding debilitating repetitive stress problems. |
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