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From: pds@leviathan.cs.umd.edu (David Stotts)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: notebook mice and GeoWorks
Message-ID: <30975@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 4 Mar 91 02:08:52 GMT
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Reply-To: pds@leviathan.cs.umd.edu (David Stotts)
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Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
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The AEG Olympia notebook is reputed to contain another built-in
mouse-like device, which seems to be a small joystick attached to
one of the keys, say, the "J" key.  You wiggle the key around
and this moves the cursor.  Any one seen or usd this?  It actually
sounds more usable than the isopoint device.

Other notebook mice...
I have seen ads for a device called "mouse pen" that I am hoping
to try for use with a notebook.  It is about 1/2" or 3/4" square in
cross section, and about 5" long, with a small ball roller on its
"foot" and two buttons on the shaft.  It looks compact (and even
better than a mouse for drawing... handwriting...) but requires
picking up to use, so does not offer as fast access to the cursor as
with a mouse.  Any one used one?

Speaking of new products,
Another notebook product that looks nice is Geoworks Ensemble.
It is a windowing, multitasking OS like MS Windows, but runs nicely
on even older 8088 laptops (and desktops for that matter).  To sell
it until the big houses redevelop their applications for it, the
makers have created a package like MS Works (spreadsheet, word processor
etc... that share data) that is bundled with the windows.  Any one
use this yet?  Cost seems to be around $180 or so.

Dave Stotts
Univ. of Maryland