GUIDE TO TOUCHPADS

Adesso Smartcat 4-Button USB Glidepoint Touchpad ( GDU410 )

Manufacturer : Adesso
In Stock : 28

List Price:	$106.46
Price:	$51.00
You Save:	$55.46 (52%)

Features

4-Button Touchpad with Glidepoint Technology by Cirque
Extra-Large 3 x 2-1/8" Mousing Surface
Includes Three Programmable Buttons
Downloadable Drivers Available for Scrolling and Other Features
No Moving Parts to Clean or Breakdown

Product Description

No mouse can do all this! Adesso Smart Cat sets a higher standard of performance and comfort with the new generation of Glidepoint Technology. Intelligent software you can personalize, one-touch scroll and zoom in most applications, distinctive sounds for each operation, and more makes the Adesso Smart Cat the most precise, easy-to-use pointing device in its class.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating of 4.00 out of 6 reviews

Rating :
Piece of junk - Hardheaded Reader, Jul 26, 2008

I bought this touchpad to alleviate wrist and arm pain from using a mouse. It had such great reviews here on Amazon. The touchpad is too small for convenient use, and the entire device is so light that it inadvertently moves all over the place with the slightest nudge. It is not synched correctly with onscreen motion so that the cursor movement is sometimes not immediately reflected correctly on the screen. This is junk - a total waste of $43.

Rating :
Best consumer-grade mousing solution available - Aaron Cohen, Mar 28, 2007

I've tried almost every other type of mouse, including basic models, contoured basic models, trackballs, and vertical mice. The problem with them all (except the trackball) is that my fingers or hand would have to grasp the mouse, leading to fatigue and RSI. (With the trackball, I had to hold my hand in an awkward position, which eventually resulted in fatigue and RSI too.) But, with this touchpad mouse, I can hold my hand at desk level and not have to grasp anything. Plus, it has the biggest mousing surface for a touchpad mouse I could find in the consumer marketplace (i.e. for an affordable price).

I'm giving it a 5 because it avoids wrist/hand strain far better than any other mouse I know of, though I too am slightly annoyed by the limited programmability of the buttons (see other reviews for more info).

The only better mousing solution I can imagine is a mouse that responds to voice commands.

Rating :
Why use a mouse? - Interested Reader, Oct 16, 2006

I purchased this product after reading the reviews and looking for a solution to hand pain experienced with the Microsoft Trackball I had been using. I find this device very easy to use. It works just like the touchpad on a good laptop but has a bunch of additional features which are also very helpful such as scrolling. It responds perfectly to my finger and I find it vastly easier to use than a mouse or a trackball and it makes me wonder why anyone would want to use a mouse at all? I have only one complaint - the buttons are supposed to be programmable but they are only marginally programmable ... they can be re-programmed to do one of the functions that Adesso wants to support but they cannot be re-programmed for other functions (i.e. program to reproduce any particular keystroke). So far I'm very happy with this product overall though. One user mentioned it comes with no drivers - a CD was shipped in the box for me with drivers. -- Updating this review, I still love the product, and my severe hand pain has disappeared since I switched from a Microsoft "Ergonomic" trackball to this device because it eliminates much of the repetitive motion and one's hand is at a much lower and more natural position. One annoying thing to note is that the functionality of this device appears to be dependent upon processor activity. When the processor is not busy, it works wonderfully but when the processor is busy with a task then it hardly works at all. This is an intermittent problem but I've never had trouble like this with a regular mouse so it seems the driver for this device has a lower priority than a normal mouse driver.

Rating :
Great for a laptop - Jessica M. Walker, Mar 17, 2006

This touchpad saved me after gettig my laptop. It doesn't require a flat surface and is light and portable.

Rating :
Great for carpal tunnel type issues! - Little tyger, Mar 03, 2006

The touchpad is great! My wrist and forearm don't hurt anymore!

The instructions for set up were easy. There are programmable buttons for shortcuts, but you need to register the product to download the program to do that.

The touchpad is very sensitive and takes alot of getting used to. I find it difficult to highlight a whole passage (as opposed to a word or sentence which is easy) and sometimes I click on things accidentally because my finger just brushes the pad. It's just a different creature and will take some time to learn how to use it. It's well worth the time and effort.

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