Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Does anyone still use "ball" mouses?

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
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
 
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:
 
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.
 
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:
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
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?
Click to expand...

I think Logitech still make trackballs.
 
Cassie said:
Well, of course. Dell isn't going to spend an extra $4 just so thier customer can have an optical mouse.:D
Click to expand...

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.
 
Cassie said:
Ya, they sell 'em at Wal-Mart and Radio Shack for about $5. I see optical's for $9 or $10
Click to expand...

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


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
 
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
 
I usually try to avoid the impulse to pick up any stray mouse and see if it has balls or not.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back