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The Power of the Optical Mouse

Image: The futuristic Starck MouseI'm continually frustrated by the trackpad on my Extensa laptop. It's not that it's a particularly bad trackpad, it's just frustrating.

Trackpads don't help at all when it comes to precise mouse selection. If you've ever tried to use Photoshop on a laptop you'd know what I mean.

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The optical mouse is a great tool for the modern laptop user. The great thing about them is you can use them on virtually any flat surface to a reasonable degree. They even work on bedsheets.

One thing about trackpads - dragging and dropping from one end of the screen to another is just so difficult to do. From a design perspective it's hard to make this any easier to do with a trackpad.

You can do everything you want to with a trackpad, but it just takes so much longer and is so much less satisfying to use than a simple optical mouse.

The mouse was designed to fit the palm and move a cursor in co-ordination with your hand. It wasn't intended to be a small, flat surface which only reacts to finger movement. Give use something substantial.

The point: for all you laptop users who haven't yet bought an external mouse, buy one right away. You don't need me to tell you. It's obvious! Get it optical too. No trackball cleaning to do and much more versatile. I don't care about wireless but you might. Free yourself from the shackles of the 2"-wide miserable bit of plastic you call your mouse.

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