Nobody wants trackballs?

F

fattybear

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 14, 2004
Messages
189
I've been a die hard user of trackballs for years now. I find them better than mice for almost anything I use them for, especially gaming. But I wish somone would come out with a little more technological innovation in these things. Microsoft, Logitech, Kensington all make trackballs but I have never seen any new models (with the exception of Kensington, and that's still stagnant).

What's the deal? I know these are just trackballs, but every year or so mice are improved a little.
 
It's a small market. Probably big enough to justify making products but small enough to not be worth any real investment. I've used a trackball for years myself, and most people just look at me funny when I tell them I use a trackball for gaming. Not once have I heard anybody say "yeah, me too" with the exception of one of my friends who has seen the light.

But yeah, there hasn't been a whole lot in the way of design change for quite some time now. I've got a logitech trackball from several years back and one from less than a year ago and the only difference is that the old one is a bit on the nasty side of things and has not got a scroll wheel. Other than that they are effectively the same thing. Innovation seemed to stop just after they went optical (and thankfully they made it that far).

The only real benefit of this stagnation is that trackballs tend to be a lot more design sensitive than mice are in terms of getting comfortable with them. At least when I replace my trackball I don't have to readjust to the new one as odds are it will be the same damn thing in a slightly different color:)
 
The main reason is that of demand. I don't really know the demand of trackballs, but I would say that because mice are more mainstream than trackballs, and are sold a lot more, they have to play to the conditions, ie update mice/don't update trackballs.

But I am surprised that the trackballs haven't been updated - I thought at least Logitech would update theirs every year, add new features etc.
 
Living / working up north, my boss (the associate director) was a trackball junkie. About once a month she'd call me and say her trackball isn't working right.

This woman was in her 70s, and used a buttload of hand-cream every day.

I'd have to hike over to the building she worked in, break out my trusty baby spoon, and dig about a half pound of crusty, smelly, totally disgusting gunk out of her trackball.

Damn good thing she was paying me well! LOL!!!!
 
HTPC Rookie said:
Living / working up north, my boss (the associate director) was a trackball junkie. About once a month she'd call me and say her trackball isn't working right.

This woman was in her 70s, and used a buttload of hand-cream every day.

I'd have to hike over to the building she worked in, break out my trusty baby spoon, and dig about a half pound of crusty, smelly, totally disgusting gunk out of her trackball.

Damn good thing she was paying me well! LOL!!!!
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Seriously eeewww. :eek: You would need to get paid well to do that sort of thing. Yuk. Had she ever tried a mouse with a cover? :p
 
Dear fattybear,

Howdy I have been a dedicated fan of the trackball mouses since 1995 I am proud to say!

My first purchased trackball mouse was made by Logitech it didn't include a scroll button and you could pop off the ring to clean the dust out from inside the mouse you could even take the steel roller balls out for cleaning!! :D, It was true quality!

My Second trackball mouse purchase was once again by logitech and it was exactly identical using steel balls and a ring to open the mouse for cleaning.

My Third and final trackball mouse was once again... made by logitech but this time the mouse was remade for the worst, it was now grey and no longer had steel rollerballs that one could remove to clean but had integrated plastic balls which always keep dust in behind them making the mouse uncleanable so I returned the mouse and kept getting new ones under my warranty, I must have gone through 10 in under a year until I finally caved in for a new mouse.

My current mouse once again made by logitech is the MX510 Red and is serving me very well. I Never Ever thought I would be able to go back to the hand mouses that regular people use but I did and damn this is one respectable mouse for my first person shooting games such as Medal of Honor and Half-Life 2 Deathmatch. I sure did love those easy 360º spins my trackball mouse offered, it worked real well for CQC Combat (close-quarters-combat).

Though I am still looking to purchase an original logitech trackball mouse!
 
Heh...if it were up to me, I'd have put HER in a cover.

Anyways, that's my reason for trackball avoidance!
 
I dont use trackballs and prolly never will, but i did see one that intrigued me while I was cleaning the carpets of Sammy Kershaw and Lori Morgan. Their son had a handheld trackball type thingy. Any who here is a link to the handheld trackball.
Handheld Trackball
It doesnt look like its of the best quality but it made me double take so I thought I would share.
 
HTPC Rookie said:
Living / working up north, my boss (the associate director) was a trackball junkie. About once a month she'd call me and say her trackball isn't working right.

This woman was in her 70s, and used a buttload of hand-cream every day.

I'd have to hike over to the building she worked in, break out my trusty baby spoon, and dig about a half pound of crusty, smelly, totally disgusting gunk out of her trackball.

Damn good thing she was paying me well! LOL!!!!
Click to expand...


Oh man thats so nasty, its funny!!
 
I'm a diehard trackball fan. :) Been using Kensingtons for years. It really helps, as I have carpal tunnel and start to feel the burn when I have to use a regular mouse for any length of time.

So when I switched from Mac to PC a few months ago, I had to get a new one. One problem I have had in the past is that trackballs tend to be cat hair magnets and every now and then you have to take them apart and clean out the cat hair stuck in the rollers. So hubby thought I should get this optical one. It is smooth like buttah, but I think the scroll ring sucks and don't really use that feature.

Now, hubby has this one with all the nifty launch buttons. I wish they would have made the optical like that instead of with the dumb scroll ring. :(

Recently my cursor just quit moving. Check connections, reboot, nothing. Take out the ball and sure enough, there's a glob of cat hair underneath interfering with the optical tracking. It was easier to clean than trying to get the hair out of the rollers on a non-optical, but it's still pretty amazing how trackballs seem to just suck in cat hair. :p
 
Ive used about three different typed of trackballs over the years. I use them with my laptop, desktop, and server where space and surface texture keeps mice unuseable.

I have a logitec, that has a plastic ball held in by a plastic ring you twist to remove the ball. It has a weird texture with a lot of dots for the optics. Someone who designed this shoved the actual trackball too far left, and I have to strech my thumb out far. When doing precision things (clicking on a folder) my thumb twiches from streching so far, and the pointer moves all over the screen.

My second one is an older logitec. More cube shaped, the trackball is closer to the buttons. Plastic ball, uses rollers just like a regular upside down mouse. I can get CAD-like precision using MSPAINT making diagrams.

My favorite was an macintosh mouse that came with the original macintosh (no HD, just a regular single side floppy drive). It had a HUGE heavy ball in the center, a button on the front, and two on each side. This thing would have been a dream while playing games. I could whip through folders and files on that macintosh, faster than It could open them...

The closest "PC" trackball I can think of was a trackball meant for LITTLE kids. It had a 3 or 4 inch plastic ball in the center and two buttons. The ball was flimsy and was very lightweight. Its easy to do things fast with a sturdier one, by using the weight of the ball, move it fast and let it make the pointer shoot from one end of the screen to the other.
 
bob said:
My favorite was an macintosh mouse that came with the original macintosh (no HD, just a regular single side floppy drive). It had a HUGE heavy ball in the center, a button on the front, and two on each side. This thing would have been a dream while playing games. I could whip through folders and files on that macintosh, faster than It could open them...
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I think i know exactly what trackball you're talkning about.... man, that thing was great. Such a heavy ball with all that momentum. Mmm goodness.
 
I liked Logitech's older trackballs that you moved with your thumb. Those were the shit back in the day. Finally I had to give it up because after about 8 hours of Diablo II my thumb would spasm. With a mouse I'm good all day without issues.
 
HTPC Rookie said:
Living / working up north, my boss (the associate director) was a trackball junkie. About once a month she'd call me and say her trackball isn't working right.

This woman was in her 70s, and used a buttload of hand-cream every day.

I'd have to hike over to the building she worked in, break out my trusty baby spoon, and dig about a half pound of crusty, smelly, totally disgusting gunk out of her trackball.

Damn good thing she was paying me well! LOL!!!!
Click to expand...

Yuck!!!!!
 
I'm currently using a Logitech Trackman Wheel (optical, scrollwheel).

Back when I still used a mouse, I would often have a somewhat painful feeling in my fingers and wrist. After I switched to a trackball I no longer have this issue.

It took me a few months to become somewhat decent at using a trackball, but it was worth it :)
 
I have an old Logitech Trackman Marble FX that i've been using for about 5 years and still love it. I can game with this thing for 14 to 16 hours and get zero hand cramping or fatigue.
But, alas, they no longer make this model, and the succesive replacement just don't fit my hand (like a glove) the way this one does. I also have a Cordless Trackman Marble (also discontinued) and it just doesn't fit right.

I think that is one of the problems with trackballs. It's difficult to adapt to a trackball that doesn't fit, and the manufacturers would have a hard time making a profit if they tried to accomodate all the varying tastes in trackballs. Mice are not quite so dependent on fit to please the masses.

If you are using a trackball which you think you'll never be able to switch away from, you might think about stocking up on a couple extras so you'll have a replacement when your current one wears out. I wish I had. :(
 
I still use the original Kensington Trackball with the BIG WHITE ball in the middle of 4 buttons. Great for gaming. I tried the OPTICAL VERSION that KENSINGTION came out and it was horrible. I returned it the same day I bought it, and now I just make sure my trackball rails are clean. Those things collect dust like my vacuum. :)

It so much better to run your fingers on the ball to look like SNIPERS in HL2 deathmatch :), than trying to use a regular mouse to do 360 degree head turns. :)
 
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