>>>reviews Tough testing, trusted ratings
KENSINGTON SLIMBLADE TRACKBALL
Hardware: YaY; Software: Boo
As a piece of hardware, the SlimBlade Trackball is upper-left button toggles into an i Tunes-controlling
nearly perfect. All of its modern curves lead mode, paralyzing the mouse temporarily. No matter
to the red orb in the middle, making which application is in the foreground, twists adjust
it comfortable and functional. the volume, left- and right-movements skip between
Giant click and Control-click tracks, the left button plays (or pauses) music, and
(aka left and right) buttons are the right button stops songs. But why the almost
easy targets in the front corners. useless “stop?” Too bad you can’t reset its function.
Two back-corner buttons activate And only the volume control gives visual feedback;
advanced navigation and i Tunes controls. You we wanted an option to superimpose song names
can even scroll by twisting the trackball, without onscreen when jumping ahead.
the need to reach for another wheel or button. Even The upper-right button toggles into the view
though the software design disappoints (more on that mode. In this case, mouse movement scrolls around
in a moment)—you can’t customize any functions— documents, twists zoom, the left button sets the
we like this pointer overall. document to 100 percent zoom, and the right sets it
To start, a quick software driver installation left to fit to the display width. These functions work in
us confused; where’s its System Preference pane? many applications: Photoshop, Firefox, Lightroom, and
Instead of those typical settings, Kensington just adds more. But without driver customization, you’re waiting
an icon to the menubar to signify that the trackball on Kensington to add support for others, including
is connected and the software is working. Forget Aperture and iPhoto.
all of the customized button functions in previous The bottom line The lack of button customization
Kensington trackballs. and kludgy software is a bummer, but the trackball
While we wanted to tweak a few options, the itself is a marvel of usability and smart design.
mandatory settings are useful in most situations. The —Zack Stern
Soft curves look
right at home
next to your Mac.
SlimBlade
TrackBall
Kensington
www.kensington.com
Price: $129.99
requirements: Mac OS X; USB 2.0
Smooth ball skates the pointer
across big desktops. Comfortable
design with big buttons. Intuitive
twist-to-scroll system. Controls
i Tunes in the background. View
mode glides through long Web
pages.
Software lacks any customization.
Can’t use twists to shuttle in
timeline-based software.
Mac|Life GREAT
RATED
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