The most annoying part of using a laptop is the mouse, no question. It is something that the industry has always struggled with.
In the early days of pointing devices on laptops, it started with an in-built trackball, and they were horrible. Placed just below the keyboard or in the LCD bezel itself, they routinely started to fail in as little as 3 months of use.
Then came the joystick, which is the ‘eraser tip’ mouse – and it was good. Really good. It allowed for much better control, it took only minutes to get used to it and they lasted a very long time.
Only three problems were common with joystick mice.
The first is that the tip got dirty easily. It didn’t matter if you washed your hands 10 times a day because the tip would still find a way to dirty itself up. Laptop OEMs wised up to this and started shipping a "bag o’ mouse tips" with every new laptop sold; it usually contained 3 replacements when you needed them.
The second was the ‘drift’ problem. Something would get messed up with the sensor, you’d take your hand off the stick and the pointer would s-l-o-w-l-y drift to a corner of the screen. As the problem got worse, the pointer would snap to a corner every time you let go of it.
The third was the ‘crazy cursor’. Instead of drifting, the pointer would just wildly jump to different parts of the screen.
All of these problems were eliminated years ago – save for the dirty tip that can still happen because, well, we’re humans and we’re gross.
Can you still get a joystick-style mouse on a laptop today?
Yes. Look no further than the ThinkPad; they still have that very-familiar red joystick mouse right where it’s supposed to be. And yes, the trackpad is also obviously there as well.
What about other makes/models?
They exist but they’re not easy to come by. Believe me, if you want the joystick, go Lenovo and don’t think twice about it.
Will the netbook/ultrabook ever get the joystick?
It’s my belief the subnotebook should have had a joystick mouse from day one. The way in which netbooks and the upcoming ultrabook are design are with "squat" trackpads that everyone hates, and forces the keyboard keys to be made smaller into chiclet-style – and people hate those, too.
All subnotebooks in my opinion should ditch the trackpad completely for the joystick mouse. Want to know what happens then? The space given back from that trackpad being gone allows to fit in full size keyboard keys – and everyone would cheer for that.
Laptop OEMs should make laptops like Lenovo does, offering both trackpad and joystick.
Should the joystick mouse come back for more notebooks and be introduced on subnotebooks?
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I am so use to it. I love the TrackPoint so much, I bought the USB keyboard version for my desktop. It saves so much space and my muscle memory is fixated on one hand. I think the precision is excellent, even in artistic graphics programs. I nice bonus is that people do not mess with my computer because there is no mouse sitting next to it.
I don’t mind them but I like mice more
I don’t mind using a trackpad for basic computing tasks. The only thing that can be annoying with them are the touch gestures and clicking with them. Thankfully, those things can normally be turned off if they get too much in the way.
Just give me a wireless mouse and I’ll be happy.
I agree. A joystick may be better than a trackpad, but a wireless mouse is $20 well spent.
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Sorry, I disagree. If you want to completely mess up your finger, use an “eraser joystick.”
I have no problem with it and for someone who uses the command line a great deal, it is a blessing.
I use a IBM T-60 and love the trackpoint. One cool thing about it on the Thinkpads is the middle button for scrolling. You just hold the middle button down and then put slight pressure up or down to slide the page. It has the ability to recognize tapping for drag and drop or select (left click) but I don’t use that at all since the “mouse” buttons are within easy reach of your thumb.
I think the original reason for placing the mouse trackpoint where it is was to make it quicker for you to navigate a document or webpage since you don’t have to move your hand off of the keyboard to move the cursor around.
IBM did make a keyboard that has the trackpoint and a touchpad built into it, the model M-13.It’s one of those highly sought after buckling spring type ”clicky” keyboards and it came in black too. Bad thing is they routinely go for over 100.00 on ebay if you can find one in decent condition.
Here’s the wiki page if anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_keyboard
DOS_equis
Those are rare for sure. I use the Lenovo 55Y9003 now but it is not the same as the industrial clicky
Im thinking a larger tip and place it between the number and qwerty pad.
I hate trackpads. I love the old IBM/Lenovo “cow tongue” joystick. I don’t like the Dell Latitude-style soft joystick as well.
Do you have a link to a picture of that? The slang name makes it sound interesting. I tried to look it up but I couldn’t find anything except a mouthpiece that has a joystick pointing device built into it for the disabled.
IDK maybe that’s what you were takling about.
Have a look at the Acer W500 tablet’s keyboard dock. It also has the eraser style trackpoint, or whatever you would like to call it.