Adesso Smartcat 4-Button USB Glidepoint Touchpad ( GDU410 )

by Adesso Inc

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.2 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00008XOL4
• Item model number: GDU410
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #38 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Accessories > Keyboards, Mice & Input Devices > Touch Pads
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 21, 2003

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 aplications, 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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gave Up on Mice (Even Vertical Ones), October 29, 2005

By 

J. Russo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adesso Smartcat 4-Button USB Glidepoint Touchpad ( GDU410 ) (Personal Computers)

I've got to tell you first off that I have some carpal tunnel in my "mousing" hand, as well as the lunate bone in my wrist dying and deteriorating due to a fall I suffered 8 years ago. I wish I had all the money back for the various mice and track balls that I've tried, especially in the last 3 or 4 years. I've also examined and adjusted all the ergonomic factors at my work meticulously, but it's all been to no avail.
Then I bought the Veritcal Mouse 2. I thought it would be the miracle I was looking for, especially after reading many reviews. And at first, it seemed to be. But I found that it didn't really fix anything. I just traded my existing joint pains for pain in other joints that were used differently in the movements of the new mouse.
Then I came across information on the Smartcat, and figuring I had nothing else to lose (except for more money), I tried it. It was a smart move, and my smartcat sent the mice scurrying to the hills for cover. One word of caution - it DOES NOT have 4 programmable buttons - at least not the way you'd expect that to mean. The two smaller buttons, one on each side of the touchpad, act together. In other words, you program one function, and that function is performed whenever you hit EITHER small button on the sides of the touchpad. So the big buttons on the bottom are my standard left and right clicks. I then programmed the button on the sides as a double click. (It reduced my overall number of clicks! Now that's a good thing in my situation.) To scroll, I just rub my finger on the right vertical side/edge of the touchpad screen to scroll up and down. To scroll left and right, you use the bottom of the touchpad screen. I ultimately chose to turn off the ability to "click" and "double click" by just tapping on the touchpad. There were times that placing my finger on the pad as I was getting ready to move the mouse would be interpreted as a click - wherever the mouse cursor happened to be on my touching the pad. So I turned that feature off.
All in all a great production - the first to help me, and I've tried many.
But it's been a wonderful product, and I wouldn't go back to anything else. I didn't trade pain for other pain this time. Everything has improved.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why use a mouse?, October 16, 2006

By 

Interested Reader "Interested Reader" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adesso Smartcat 4-Button USB Glidepoint Touchpad ( GDU410 ) (Personal Computers)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for carpal tunnel type issues!, March 3, 2006

By 

Little tyger "feline extraordinaire" (Middleton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adesso Smartcat 4-Button USB Glidepoint Touchpad ( GDU410 ) (Personal Computers)

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.