pds@leviathan.cs.umd.edu (David Stotts) (03/04/91)
The AEG Olympia notebook is reputed to contain another built-in mouse-like device, which seems to be a small joystick attached to one of the keys, say, the "J" key. You wiggle the key around and this moves the cursor. Any one seen or usd this? It actually sounds more usable than the isopoint device. Other notebook mice... I have seen ads for a device called "mouse pen" that I am hoping to try for use with a notebook. It is about 1/2" or 3/4" square in cross section, and about 5" long, with a small ball roller on its "foot" and two buttons on the shaft. It looks compact (and even better than a mouse for drawing... handwriting...) but requires picking up to use, so does not offer as fast access to the cursor as with a mouse. Any one used one? Speaking of new products, Another notebook product that looks nice is Geoworks Ensemble. It is a windowing, multitasking OS like MS Windows, but runs nicely on even older 8088 laptops (and desktops for that matter). To sell it until the big houses redevelop their applications for it, the makers have created a package like MS Works (spreadsheet, word processor etc... that share data) that is bundled with the windows. Any one use this yet? Cost seems to be around $180 or so. Dave Stotts Univ. of Maryland
graff@mlpvm2.vnet.ibm.com (Michael Graff) (03/05/91)
GeoWorks Ensemble is a very nice package. However, it's not yet a replacement for MS Works. It doesn't yet have a spreadsheet or database. Those are expected some time this year. It does have a decent word processor and drawing program. I paid $130, but it's now available for a little less than that. ...Michael