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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
SkyBell

SkyBell

macrumors 604
Original poster
You, know, the old mice, before optical was introduced. Anybody still use these? I do.


I think I'm gonna make this a poll...
 
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. 😕

EDIT: Too late. 😛
 
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. 😎
 
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. 😎
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 😛

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.
 
Well, of course. Dell isn't going to spend an extra $4 just so thier customer can have an optical mouse.😀
 
Cassie said:
Well, of course. Dell isn't going to spend an extra $4 just so thier customer can have an optical mouse.😀
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.
 
Ya, they sell 'em at Wal-Mart and Radio Shack for about $5. I see optical's for $9 or $10
 
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 😀
 
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 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! 😱

I got a new Logitech laser mouse for my iMac.
 
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