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Do you still use "Ball" mice?

  • Yes

    Votes: 12 12.9%
  • No

    Votes: 78 83.9%
  • I switch between the two.

    Votes: 3 3.2%

  • Total voters
    93

CoMpX

macrumors 65816
Jun 29, 2005
1,242
0
New Jersey
I don't. I have a Bluetooth Mighty Mouse with laser tracking. I think a poll would be very effective. :)

Give the choices of ball, optical, laser, trackball, and ?other? I don't know if there is any other. :confused:

EDIT: Too late. :p
 

plinkoman

macrumors 65816
Jul 2, 2003
1,144
1
New York
OMG, I could not stand those. I would always have to pop the ball out every week to clean it out or they wouldn't work quite right. 4 years ago I had enough, I bought an optical mouse and never looked back. :cool:
 

SkyBell

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 7, 2006
6,603
219
Texas, unfortunately.
Whoops, forgot about trackball's. But the poll isnt asking what kind you use anyway. It's asking weather you use "ball" mice. But I am going to say, that "between the two" can mean between whatever kind of mouse you have and ball mice.
 

CoMpX

macrumors 65816
Jun 29, 2005
1,242
0
New Jersey
plinkoman said:
OMG, I could not stand those. I would always have to pop the ball out every week to clean it out or they wouldn't work quite right. 4 years ago I had enough, I bought an optical mouse and never looked back. :cool:

That cleaning ritual sounds familiar for the MM's scroll ball. I just rub it vigorously with a damp cloth about once a month, or when scrolling starts to get flakey.
 

bousozoku

Moderator emeritus
Jun 25, 2002
15,675
1,840
Lard
Actually, I have a number of devices but my Atari ST doesn't have the ability to use a mouse with a laser.

I have a three button Kensington mouse with a ball and it works fine on my Macs but I prefer the Logitech MX 510, which uses a laser. However, the cables get in the way and cordless devices are still so-so. My trackballs work well instead.
 

Fearless Leader

macrumors 68020
Mar 21, 2006
2,360
0
Hoosiertown
on an old comp i have a stationary mouse and you move the ball with your thumb, but it runs over a serrial cable :( , anybody know of a usb mouse like that?
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,621
3,982
New Zealand
A friend's two-month-old Dell came with a ball mouse. Draw your own conclusions :p

Rokem said:
on an old comp i have a stationary mouse and you move the ball with your thumb, but it runs over a serrial cable :( , anybody know of a usb mouse like that?

I think Logitech still make trackballs.
 

CoMpX

macrumors 65816
Jun 29, 2005
1,242
0
New Jersey
Cassie said:
Well, of course. Dell isn't going to spend an extra $4 just so thier customer can have an optical mouse.:D

It's not even that much. We are probably talking a matter of cents more to make an optical mouse. I didn't know anyone made ball mice brand new anymore.
 

CoMpX

macrumors 65816
Jun 29, 2005
1,242
0
New Jersey
Cassie said:
Ya, they sell 'em at Wal-Mart and Radio Shack for about $5. I see optical's for $9 or $10

That's how much they sell it for. How much do you think its costs to make? There's a huge difference there.
 

Stampyhead

macrumors 68020
Sep 3, 2004
2,294
30
London, UK
yeah, I have an old ball mouse on my PC. I only use that machine for checking websites in IE, so I'll be darned if I'm going to spend any real money on it. I think I paid $9.99 for the mouse and a crappy keyboard together, and that was like 4 years ago.
 

SkyBell

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 7, 2006
6,603
219
Texas, unfortunately.
CoMpX said:
That's how much they sell it for. How much do you think its costs to make? There's a huge difference there.


You're right. The companies that make them get a better profit from optical rather then ball mice. But seeing as how the ball mice attract low-budget customers, they make them still. They just charge more on the product they make the most on.

Of course, what company doesn't do that?

EDIT: Dang, I really need to work on my 'explaining things to people' skills :D
 

x86isslow

macrumors 6502a
Aug 10, 2003
889
11
USA
I still have a trackball mouse that I use when I'm at my desktop at home. I want to get one of the wireless optical trackball mice that Logitech makes. I hate mousepads and the other nonsense attached to the typical mouse
 

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,937
157
I usually try to avoid the impulse to pick up any stray mouse and see if it has balls or not.
 

x704

macrumors regular
Apr 15, 2006
118
0
I thought I would post a few interesting things I found out about mice...

The "Laser mice" are actually use a tiny pinhole camera with a red pulsing LED. My cousin and I stayed up late one christmas and figured out what they were. We think it's a gray scale camera so the picture size would be smaller and easier to deal with.

I think there are two different "ball" mice... One is an optical ball mouse the other is mechanical. The first one uses 2 small LEDs for one of the two axes to infer motion. I don't know about the mechanical one but think it had two switches in place of the small LEDs and inferred motion basically the same way in the logic.

I found the "laser" mouse work much better on darker colors. they tend to go wild on white colored mouse pads easier.
 

zflauaus

macrumors 65816
Nov 19, 2004
1,166
3
I am forced to use a ball mouse at school. Mainly because the school couldn't get that $10 for like 20 computers even though they got new Dells. But then I come home and am spoiled with my laser mouse and a few optical mice here and there.
 

nightelf

macrumors 6502
Mar 25, 2003
272
1
No.

The company of a friend bought HPs and they came with PS2 ball mouse! :eek:

I got a new Logitech laser mouse for my iMac.
 
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