twatson@pbs.uucp (ThomCat) (05/03/90)
I received a flyer in the mail for an alternative input device called the
UnMouse. It combines an absolute positioning devide, with a relative
positioning device (i.e. you use your finger to either touch a point that
maps directly to a screen position, or use your finger like a mouse), with
a very small graphics tablet (using a stylus) about 3" x 4". It looks quite
promising, but I haven't been able to see it demonstrated anywhere yet.
Has anyone used one of these? Is it as neat as it looks?
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"Oh, I'm bored. And I've only just gotten up!"
_Walk on the Wild Side_ (1962)wallich@wixer.metaphor.com (05/04/90)
In article <8084.263edb34@pbs.uucp> twatson@pbs.uucp (ThomCat) writes: > I received a flyer in the mail for an alternative input device called the > UnMouse. [...] > Has anyone used one of these? Is it as neat as it looks? I played with one for 5 minutes or so at the West Coast MacWorld. It was fairly nice, although not for everyone. They make a really big deal about the virtual function keys which are 16, or perhaps more (I don't remember) logical areas of the touchpad that when used in conjunction with the 'big red button' activate macros. Whoopee... Since this is an alternate mouse, what *I* really care about is how well I can move about the screen. It worked pretty well. There is both an absolute mode (press on the pad, and the mouse goes to the same logical point), or relative mode which lets your finger act like a mouse. These are toggled with the 'big red button' and a user defined position on the touchpad. The touchpad gives a reasurring physical 'click' when you press on it, to indicate a logical button press. You drag things by clicking, moving, and clicking (there may be other modes, but that is how the one I used seemed to work). One issue for me is how the alternate device deals with multiple monitors, especially if their combined configuration is not a rectangle (like with an SEish machine and an external monitor, or in my case a MacII with two different sizes). In the UnMouses' case, you need to be in relative mode to go from one screen to the other, and then you can go into absolute mode. The folks there claimed it would then remap to the dimensions of the new screen. If it works as advertised, this is an acceptable solution. A potential problem arose when the proud salesthing was telling me how you didn't need to worry about absolute remapping because the UnMouse had a resolution of 1 MILLION pixels! He wasn't as proud when I pointed out that virtually every two page display (19" or greater monitors, or the 16" trinitron from SuperMac) has more pixels than that on the screen. I don't know what the *real* resolution is, but I'd hate to not be able to put something in the trash because I was using a big monitor, and the UnMouse didn't address that far down. Of course you could just switch into relative mode, but that would be irritating. The last concern I have is the price. This thing retails for something like $225. Discounted price is around $189. This gives the UnMouse the dubious honor of being among the highest priced mouse alternatives for the Mac. Felix, which has been around for years, and is also a counter culture type of device goes for $120 discounted, and you can get some pretty nice trackballs (for those who like that sort of thing) for around $60. The technology is nice, but it seems kinda pricey to me. I'd rather plunk down my cash on something obviously valuable (like the Ehman 45 Meg SyQuest removable I just got. Nice box, as good as any of the $1000+ boxes, except for the (easily removable) internal terminators, and the fact that the power must be on to access other SCSI devices. No affiliation here, just another satisfied customer). Ken Wallich wallich@amber.uucp walich@metaphor.com