Customer Reviews

Cirque GPB160 Easy Cat Combo Touchpad

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have had one of these for over a year. You will not have to worry about the stress to your whrists using the touch pad. You will also not have to hunch over the mouse pad. You can sit back and relax. Very responsive, and light. I love to pack it with my laptop since it takes up less room and is much lighter.

I'm afraid that this is hard to find now all of a sudden but worth the search.

I got this because I have repetitive stress issues and figured that switching between a mouse and the pad would help, based on how nicely the touchpad works on my laptop. It does help, but not nearly as much as I hoped. The touchpad surface isn't very smooth (even in the middle) and my fingers tend to drag on it, which combined with the very light weight and small rubber base pads, means it moves around too much. Also, the buttons are at the corners, but since the rubber base pads aren't really, the opposite corner will lift up when you hold the button down (e.g. to drag and drop) and you won't be able to control it accurately. As someone pointed out, it would be better if the cord came out the top rather than the side, but that's no big deal. The biggest problem is that the functionality is limited compared (for example) to the Synaptics touchpad on my laptop. On the laptop, I can "flick" my finger down or up in the scroll area and it will keep scrolling. The Synaptics can also continue scrolling if I scroll to the edge of the pad and hold. Neither such function is available with this product; therefore you have to keep sliding your finger up and down to scroll through a large document. This significantly reduces the benefit for repetitive stress. Cirque makes a big deal of their "glidepoint" technology, but I can't figure out what it does. They obviously haven't updated their drivers (except for Vista compatibility) or added any features in years, and anyone who buys this expecting functionality similar to their laptop will be disappointed, like I was. I'm keeping it, but wish I'd done more research and not assumed all touchpads were alike.

This product came out when some notebook computers had touch pads and some did not. It is designed to match the mouse driver programs (though you can download special drivers from the manufacturer site if needed) so it is "plug and play" (plug, however, before you boot up the system). It gives the benefits of a touch pad for computers, notebook or desk top that do not have them. The fact that it is on a wire was helpful, too, because I could put it anywhere I wanted and it functioned one time as a wired remote unit for one application.

I had chronic wrist pain and was barely able to use a computer for any length of time because of the mouse. I switched to an Easy Cat and have had 90% reduction in pain. There is so much less force required than a mouse, and you don't have to grip/hold it like you do a regular mouse. I would highly recommend this or a similar product to anyone with repetitive stress injury issues. I have used one on several different computers and only had software issues (which were resolved)on one computer. That was my work computer, and they do so many strange things to them here that I wasn't surprised it doesn't work.

This is our 3rd Cirque touchpad. We will continue buying them. Makes the use of our computer so much easier. Thanks for the great price!