Left Lane

I enjoy the red nipple-like track point on my ThinkPad. Call me a cultist. Call me old fashioned. I just can’t stand track pads.

I resent the fact that I must move my finger incessantly on a track pad to get the cursor to where I want to point. Often, this involves numerous lifts of my finger to make repititious movements to move the cursor along. And those buttons! Don’t get me started on those horrible track pad buttons.

Image of a track point on an IBM ThinkPad. Tastefully borrowed from here.

My finger thanks me when I use the track point because finger movement is kept to one spot. I press down gently and move my finger in any direction, and that moves the cursor to where I want to point. It’s brilliant, if you ask me. It’s certainly causes less stress on my hand. Why don’t other laptop manufacturers use this feature more? This really perplexes me. It seems to me that if you have a creative, innovative product like a track point that exerts less stress on the user, is less in-the-way than a track pad, and has other user interface benefits, then the better product should eventually win over the less intuitive one. This is obviously not the case with the track point.

The track pad is one of the few reasons I am hestitant to buy an Apple Powerbook. I envy Powerbook users, with their small, slim silver computers that are absolutely beautiful. Plus, Mac OS X has everything I want in an OS. I need to get over my track pad phobia soon; my ThinkPad is becoming obsolete and I am definitely leaning to get a Powerbook when they go Intel.

Posted in Design, Gadgets and Hardware, Usability, Apple.