Kensington Looks To Replace The Mobile Mouse With The Wireless Trackball
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Kensington has thrown its mouse alternative into the accessories ring with the upcoming, customisable Orbit Wireless Trackball.The ambidextrous trackball is a stationary unit that sits firm on the desktop, with a protruding ball on the top end that works like a multidirectional scroll-wheel.

The Orbit is built for mobility to suit laptops as well as desktop computers, with 2.4GHz wireless connectivity and a removable, mid-size ball that’s easy to clean. As a plus one for mobile users, there are no extra drivers to install, but an added USB dongle is required.

Customisable features are thrown into the multi-button device on the back of an update to Kensington’s TrackballWorks software. Keyboard shortcuts and general functions can be assigned to various buttons on the trackball, while ‘chording’ allows whole key combinations to similarly be assigned to different keys.

Other updates to the free software include inertial scrolling that allows users to flick through a document intuitively like when using a tablet, rather than stop-start every time the ball is released.

The trackball is slated for an August 22 release at $69.99, behind the US$59.99 price point.

The latest Orbit Trackball comes from a 20 year heritage of trackballs from Kensington, up against other trackball-makers like Logitech.