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31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I don't know why this thing isn't more popular, August 24, 2008
When I use my laptop, I just don't like to use the touchpad. It's difficult to maneuver, and especially when I am dragging something, I always seem to have problems dropping things or not being able to let go of the things I am dragging. So I wanted a small USB mouse to go with my laptop.
I bought a small (cheap) optical mouse with a retractable USB cable, and although it worked for a very short time, the wire started to have jittery connection, and that frustrated me more than anything else, I quickly gave up, and I was looking for an alternative. When I was buying a cheapo bluetooth dongle for my old HP laptop, the vendor I bought the bluetooth adapter had this strange looking "finger mouse". The item was cheap enough ($10) so I ordered one. The mouse came in a blister pack, but the packaging was very cheaply made. I was worried that I may have overpaid for this cheap looking thing. Nothing was wrong with the product itself once opened, but if I saw this in a store, I may not have even tempted to buy one. It looked that cheap.
Anyway, once I opened the package, this little miniaturized night scope looking thing came out, and I put in the USB connector to my PC. As soon as I connected it to my PC, the mouse lit up with red laser, and the PC recognized it as an optical mouse, and it was ready to be used in a few seconds. For some reason, I was so surprised by the amount of light mouse was emitting from the red laser. I checked the package picture, but the red light seems so faint in these pictures. If you own one of those optical mouse and flipped over the mouse, you'll see the laser area (I think the light is actually very bad for your eyes, so avoid looking directly at it). That's what this mouse has on one end. It actually makes sense, but I just didn't connect the two together. But that means you could be shining a red light to someone else's eyes with this mouse, so you'd have to be careful when you have this thing attached to yourself.
Then I wrapped the velcro band around my index finger to use this thing. In my first attempt, I wrapped velcro around my finger so tight, I was cutting all blood circulation to my finger. So I loosened it, and started to use the mouse. Ok. My thumb had to move far to press the button, and my thumb could not reach the scroll wheel. Moving the middle finger slightly to rotate the mouse helped, but that made my middle finger sore. Also the movement of the mouse is cumbersome (the mouse is attached to your finger by this velcro and there are a lot of movement, but you would want to hold the mouse to steer it), and I was not really liking the experience since top side of my index finder was getting sore after only 5 minutes of use (by being rubbed by the mouse). So I grabbed the mouse like I do with a pen, and that would actually place my thumb at a perfect position to press the buttons and use scroll wheel. Because the optical element is probably the same as any other optical mouse, so the mouse can be used on pretty much any surface, except something too glossy (like a glass and mirror, or white laptop's casing...), and top of my trousers or jeans, my left arm, brown lunch bag, anything really would work as a mouse pad.
Since I changed the way I hold the mouse (the way it is shown in the picture with velcro around the index finger is just so ergonomically horrible... The package does tell you NOT to use it for more than an hour, since it could cause permanent nerve damage!!) this little mouse has been just incredibly easy to use. The mouse is very easy to navigate and maneuver, almost easier than a regular optical mouse. I had to file down two little feet that are sticking on the other side of the buttons to make it easier to hold. Since then I've removed the metal wire (I guess it was holding the velcro in place??) and velcro, and use it as a travel mouse. I think whoever is manufacturing this thing should keep the same design, get rid of the horrible velcro and take out the two little feet sticking out... I just don't know why this thing isn't more popular, really. This is a perfect mouse on an airplane, train, even cars, or one of my most frequently used place, on my couch. For $10, I'd recommend this to anyone who owns a laptop. Much better and easier than one of those tiny trackball things, or so-called "pen mouse" things... But just don't use this product as advertised on your finger for a long time or you'll risk nerve damage to your finger!
Well velcro is one of the problem, but another problem is the red light. Because the light is always on regardless of whether the mouse is on some surface (so that the light isn't escaping), I keep flashing myself with the light. I don't really mean to look at the light, but I can't help it. I hope it had some kind of switch to turn the light off when it's not in use....
So all in all, even with above mentioned problems, I'd rate this with 5 stars. I think this thing is innovative enough, and with a slight modification, it could be an excellent product.......
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