The MacBook Pro’s clicky little problem

Friday, October 17th, 2008

I’m a self-confessed Apple fan boy, but I still try to be objective when looking at their new kit. At the moment we have a new MacBook Pro in the labs, and, as normal, I scurried down there to check it out.

Unsurprisingly, I’m really impressed. The new chassis is wonderfully neat and tidy, sturdy and not as heavy as I was expecting. It’s certainly a good looking machine. I’ve only got one little criticism (if you exclude the hefty price) – the touchpad. (more…)

Never lose your mouse again

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Ever lost your cordless mouse? No, us neither, but don’t let that put you off Logitech’s latest innovation. The V550 Nano comes with a separate stick-on mouse knob (that’s a technical term) for your laptop.

Choose a suitable spot on your lid, peel off the backing and press it into place, then just slide the groove on the base of the Nano onto it – hey presto! you’ll never lose your mouse again. Phew.

It also comes with a remarkably small receiver, which slots neatly inside the mouse itself – it couldn’t really get much more portable. Check back on Monday for the review.

Trackball RSI

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Anyone else suffered from this? At home I have a 30-inch HP TFT and a Kensington optical trackball (large, which is nice – but with a tiny moulding divot in the ball, which is not so nice), and in the last few months i’ve also had a Logitech Marble Mouse on my primary desk away from home (OK, so my working life is a complicated thing. Are you surprised?)

Since using both of these quite intensively, I have developed what I think is trackball-specific RSI – a sharp pain in the muscle group up at the elbow end of the forearm, when I make certain movements which involve grip with the middle (longest) finger.

Watching what I do when trackballing, it looks as if quite a lot of the fine movement with a ‘ball is done with the arm frozen in tension and the index and middle fingers moving very slowly, also in tension – which gets a lot worse when dragging. It could be that I’ll have to go back to the good old mouse to give my arm a break: at least, it’s that or buy that first sign of decrepitude – a shopping trolley…