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I I I SOFTWARE • • 1 Blazing Data! 9 LAN Accounting I •I FoxPro Sets a New Packages That • I L-I Speed Standard in Can Save Your • J The Database Race Company Big Bucks r-I CONNECTIVITY I _ UTILITIES • I I • J Protecting Out of Disk Space? Your Network: Scrunch Fi'les Down 10 PC Workstations With PKZIP, ARC Plus, Bu ilt for Security LHA, and PAK OCTOBER 15, 1991 THE INDEPENDENT GUIDE TO PERSONAL COMPUTING VOLUME 10 NUMBER 17 ~ DIFFER,EN·12.-10~ 5 Yesl BETTER? Maybe. COVER STORY loptop-totlng rood warriors want something ()DDIJ~ IllID~U smaller than desktop mice, with shorter cords. Different, Yes. Enter the portable es. pointlng device. Id Better, Maybe. PC Lobs tests nine mini-trackballs, ifl dwarf mice, mouse pens, polm-size joystlcks, and related contraptions. Rube Goldberg would be amused. p. But will you if it be impressed? ta the u Who says the computer industry doesn't have a s )s, sense of humor? Just take a gander at some of the mouse alternatives that have become available for users of laptop and notebook computers. d They're-well, different. Quirky. md The category known as portable pointing devices evolved because of low-level dissatisfaction with ur mainstream desktop devices such as the Microsoft and Logitech mice. Some laptop users find them BY BILL HOWARD OCTOBER 15, 1991 PC MAGAZINE IDI lion, • • • PORTABLE POINTING DEVICES bulkier than necessary and the cords far ing devices starts and ends with the tradi too long. When you fly coach and your tional desktop mouse. Appoint offers laptop covers the entire tray table, there's stationary; you do not have to clear space products more thoughtfully designed than also the issue of where to roll the mouse. so that you can roll or drag them on a other unconventional devices: MousePen Over the past year, more than a half tabletop. Six ofthe nine can be attached to Professional and Thumbelina, a trackball dozen companies have developed alterna your PC (Thumbelina, TopTrak, Track just 1.6 inches square. Thumbelina is small tives to the mouse that are highly indi Man Portable, BallPoint Mouse, ICON enough thm it could be built into a laptop vidualistic, to put it mildly. In this article, troller) or are built in (GRiD IsoPoint). computer. But other devices are so un we test nine such devices. Four are track All except the TopTrak have cords sh0l1er usual that you may have trouble taking balls ranging from tiny (Appoint's Thum than the typical Microsoft or Logitech them seriously as portable pointers: belina) to portable-size (Logitech's Track desktop mouse. And all except the Top Man Portable and Microsoft Corp.'s Trak, the IBM PS/2 Trackpoint, and The • The Kraft TopTrak is a desktop track BallPoint Mouse) to too big (Kraft Sys Little Mouse/PC are smaller than a desk ball (read: bulky) with an 8-foot cord. tems' TopTrak). One is a combination top mouse. Kraft pitches TopTrak for portable use trackball/mouse (IBM Corp.'s IBM PS/2 Microsoft's and Logitech's offerings because of its 10w-culTent design, but Trackpoint), one is a mouse in the shape are likely to be the standards against which that's of little importance, since most of a pen (Appoint's MousePen Profes portable pointing devices are measured, pointing devices work well with both sional), one is a downsized joystick because the companies dominate the world desktop and laptop PCs and have minimal (Suncom Technologies' ICONtroller), one of desktop mice and because of the simi current drain. is a smallish traditional mouse (Mouse larity oftheir laptop products: mini-track Systems Corp.'s The Little Mouse/PC), balls that clip onto the side ofyour laptop. • The Little Mouse/pC, from Mouse and one is a built-in device (GRiD Sys Systems, is indeed significantly smaller tems Corp.'s GRiD IsoPoint). TOO UNUSUAL? than a Microsoft or Logitech mouse, but The five trackballs and two other de The majority of the designs are unusual, it's an optical design, which means you vices (GRiD IsoPoint, ICONtroller) are especially if your familiarity with point have to lug around (and not lose) a 7- by 8-inch mirrored pad. A minimouse re mains a great idea, perhaps an obvious idea waiting to be implemented, but not if it's optical. • Four maybes, no winners • The IBM PS/2 Trackpoint is so wobbly as a mouse that most users will find it The portable pointing device buttons to control slide shows. functional only as a trackball. market is evolving; most products The Micro'oft and Logitech would benetit from further trackballs are more similar than OTHER PRODUCTS development. Of the nine devices different. They are relatively To be included in this review, the pointing we tested, you're likely to find that expensive ($175 and $169, device had to be designed for on-the-go one of these four suits your needs: respectively). Their installation and use with a portable computer and avail Appoint's MousePen Professional, removal could be smoother. able by early summer 1991. For earlier Appoint's Thumbelina, Logitech's TrackMan Portable works only at a reviews of 58 desktop mice, trackballs, TrackMan Portable, and fixed angle; BallPoint Mouse will and light pens, see" Mice-and Trackballs: Microsoft's BallPoint Mouse. not let you close the cover of your Choices for the New Generation of Appli Given the personal nature of the laptop. But once you adjust to how catio s" (PC Magazine, August 1990). devices and the rough edges, none a trackball works (particularly A ditional portable pointing devices of them earn Editors' Choice this when dragging an object), you'll should available now or by year's end. time around. For now, they are all have no problems with either one. GEC Plessey :tol1f'(ST6-293 honorable mentions. Of the remaining products, Kraft 8636, formerly Marconi CircuitTechnol MousePen Professional, $99, Systems' TopTrak trackball is too ogy) plans a sub-$150 Microsoft Mouse comes closest to duplicating the big, Mouse Systems' The Little compatible ballistic trackball called LT feel of a mouse in the shape of a Mouse/PC requires a bulky optical that can be held by hand or clipped to a pen. This is the best choice if you mouse pad, and the IBM PS/2 laptop; the ball functions as a mouse but want a mouse but don't want the TrackPoint reversible trackball/ ton when you tap or click it. If you need a bulk of a mouse-until some mouse is bulky and somewhat hard portable tablet for CAD, consider company wakes up and builds a to use as a mouse. Joysticks have GridMaster ($449 to $469) from half-size mouse for portable use. not caught on, except for games, Numonics Corp. (800-247-4517 or 215 Thumbelina, a $99 trackball, only but if you like them, you'll like 362-2766), a roll-up 17- by 15-inch tablet 1.6 inches square and with barely Suncom Technologies' midget with a stylus pen or four-button cursor any height at all, would be ICONtroller. The GRiD IsoPoint, (mouse). It's intended to be readily p0l1 excellent for running presentations the built-in rolling, sliding pointer, able but is probably too bulky to use while where you click the left and right is an acquired taste. in transit. Veridata Research (818-303-0613) sells DfJ PC MAGAZINE OCTOBER 15. 1991 COVER STORY ~.: .T. he ExecuLite 386 notebook with an op I,,,··· • Mouse-compatible, both provide balli, lional slide-in2- by 2-inch touch pad. The tic tracking variable from 150 to 1,000 ppi pad works with a tiny stylus that looks like driver for variable sensitivity (resolution) (points per inch), and both come in port J guitar pick. In a pinch, you can use your and ballistic tracking. able (45-inch cord) and desktop PC or finger. Commax Technologies (408-435 Prices range from $89 (TopTrak) to Macintosh (8-foot cord) versions. Both 5000) sells a variant called the UltraThin $169 (TrackMan Portable) and $175 use the round serial connectors used by 386SX. Olivetti (908-526-8200) also has (BallPoint Mouse), although the two most IBM on its PS/2s and adopted by a small J line offive notebook and laptop comput expensive products will also be the most but increasing number of laptop makers. ers with touchpad technology. widely available and probably Other pointing device technology that the most heavily discounted. may find its way into laptops includes V1icroTouch Systems' UnMouse, a pres FIXING WINDOWS 'iure-sensitive 3- by 4-inch glass plate Portable pointing devices are a with a stylus; Home Row's Push-n-Point, necessity if you're running a flexible J key that functions as a mini Micros(ifi Windows 3.00n your ature joystick; and Key Tronic Corp. 's laptop, but you're likely to have KeyMouse, also a built-in joystick work trouble seeing the small mouse alike. The KeyMouse is located to the cursor on-screen. AT&T wisely right of the space bar; sensors determine modified the version of Will direction and velocity. The F and 0 keys dows included with its Safari on the keyboard act as primary and secon notebook computer to enlarge dary mouse buttons, respectively, and Or! the cursor and the I-beam Space controls cursor speed. We tested a (which marks your current demonstration version of KeyMouse; our position in a file). Microsoft first impression was that it is awkward to says that an upgraded BallPoint aim and control. We found it especially driver (which also works with difficult to hold the mouse pointer in the Microsoft Mouse) due by position while double-clicking.

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