Kensington Orbit Optical
Input Device
MSRP: $29.99USD

5 year warranty. USB; includes PS/2 adapter. http://www.kensington.com/ Requires any host computer that accepts standard USB human interface devices or Mac OS X 10.1.5; works with Mac OS 9 as a one-button mouse, or with USB Overdrive.

Pros: Very inexpensive; ideal shape, feel for mouse users; opportunity to reduce muscle tension and RSI; optical mechanism doesn't require cleaning.

Cons: Lightweight enough to need a bit of help staying put; unit reviewed did not lay completely flat on tabletops.

Alternative. Alternative energy sources, alternative computing, alternative music, alternative lifestyles. Those things are all fine and well, but I will forever wish I had photographed the outbursts of anger, panic and instinctual fear when my peers reached next to my keyboard and accidentally brushed up against the dreaded alternative input device. (Cue shower scene music from Psycho.)

Despite many years of carefree computing, I have somehow dodged backaches, eye strain, migraines, RSI and other ailments that have crept up on other chronic geeks through continual misuse of chairs, mice and keyboards. Trackballs are not inherently less hazardous, but the opportunity for a large decrease in muscle tension is most certainly there. They are designed to stay in one place, ending the need to fish around for the mouse when switching from the keyboard, also putting a stop to the ridiculous drag-lift-drag motion required to move your cursor over long distances.

In spite of these benefits, the mere sight of a trackball is enough to make some people wrinkle their nose. I used to sneer at trackballs too, given the thumb-centric designs that plague other trackballs—why would anyone want to move from exhausting their wrists with a mouse to exhausting their thumbs? Kensington must have read my mind, for the Orbit's contours felt so familiar, relative to my Apple Pro Mouse, that I found myself accidentally grabbing the unit and dragging it around before I realized what was going on.

The Orbit is very lightweight, sporting a fixed, six-foot USB cable. Included in the Orbit box are a quickstart guide, a CD with drivers, and a Kensington-branded USB-to-PS/2 adapter. Kensington offers toll-free technical support and a five-year warranty. You also have the option of returning the product within 90 days of your purchase if you decide that trackballs aren't your thing.

With very thin rubber feet and a slightly asymmetrical shell, the Orbit rocks back and forth ever so slightly on my desk. I found myself wanting to put a small mouse pad underneath the Orbit to keep it from rocking, and to help the Orbit stay in place. It's not easy to accidentally move the Orbit around while using it, but the thin rubber feet on the bottom of the unit don't do much to keep it still. For $30USD, I'm certainly not complaining as Kensington seems to have done just about everything else right.

Cupping the Orbit Optical with my hand and using two fingers to control the centered ball felt very comfortable, unlike the thumb-only or off-center ball placement of competing products. The tracking of the ball is very smooth, only jumping out of control when I made an effort to spin the ball as fast as I could. The ball still operates very smoothly after nine months of heavy use and only minimal (breath-powered) cleaning. The included MouseWorks software for Mac OS X allows you to control how the ball responds to both quick and slow movements, providing a rough graph of the adjustments being made to the pointer's acceleration curve.

MouseWorks not only lets you assign different functions to each of the two buttons, but it will swap in different sets of functions for different applications if you so desire. This is not a first on any platform, but Kensington's implementation of these features is simple and effective. Also present is an option to emulate a third mouse button by what MouseWorks calls 'chording', or pressing the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously.

Chording is particularly convenient for kicking the Orbit into 'scrolling' mode, turning the trackball into a giant scroll wheel. I quickly found this to be even more pleasant than a typical scroll wheel since you are able to use your entire hand to scroll, in addition to freeing your hand from gripping, say, a mouse while doing scrolling with just one finger. Like software from other mouse and trackball vendors, MouseWorks can also used to assign double-clicks, keyboard commands and arbitrary macros to each button.

The Orbit's two large buttons are on opposite sides of the unit, encouraging you to use your thumb and little finger to click either one. This design really allows the user to relax his hand while moving the cursor around. Clicking the buttons is much more effortless, consistent experience with the a trackball since the buttons in the same place all the time. An additional benefit of the Orbit's design is that the distance between the buttons actually seems to make clicking easier than with a mouse—simply tilt your whole hand to the left or right, if you like. You just can't miss either one. This design also reduces the chance of accidentally pressing two buttons together, which is a problem for me on some of the 'budget mice' I've used.

I found myself trying the Orbit and my PowerBook in a variety of situtations that just weren't possible or practical before with a mouse, namely lying down or sitting up in bed, on tabletop surfaces with thick covers (like our kitchen table, on which the Pro Mouse could barely click due to its design), and securing the trackball to the front panel of a treadmill, allowing me to control a QuickTime stream while exercising. The Orbit performed well in every situation and even survived two accidental drops onto a hardwood floor from my desk. (A hint for new trackball owners: catch the ball first before it starts to roll down the stairs, then pick up the Orbit.)

People accustomed to having five buttons on a mouse may frown upon the Orbit's two buttons, but at a very reasonable $29USD, the Orbit Optical seems more geared towards mouse users looking for an alternative or, in my case, a gentle introduction to a trackball. The two-button design of the Orbit is ideal for people who are accustomed to mice but wouldn't mind sampling a more ergonomically sensible input device. Me? I'm buying two.

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