deskthority

Please suggest nominees for the Best alternative or other input device in 2014. This can be an ergonomic keyboard, a really big keyboard, a mouse, a trackball, etc. You have to give a short motivation for each suggestion. The input device must be released since November 2013.

By voting in the third round of this category, you can win a pumpkin and arc reactor key from matt3o!

In this round you can earn multiple entries in the draws for voter prizes: if you are the first to suggest a particular nominee and the suggestion gets at least 5 votes in round 2, you get an extra entry in the draw for the prize by the sponsor of the related category. If your suggestion is voted as an official nominee and makes it to round 3, you get another extra entry.

The first round ends on Thursday 27 November, 00:00hrs UTC.

Current suggestions (this list is frequently updated):

• Contour RollerMouse Red
• Stinky board
• Elecom M-XT1URBK
• 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Pro Wireless
• Synaptics ForcePad
• Twiddler 3
• Typo2 keyboard case for iPhone

While not technically released this year, it was "discovered" this year. Parak's IBM dictation pedal for all it's metal construction awesomeness. Even has cherry switches, lol.

http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/ibm-pedal-t8870.html

Can the Matias Ergo Pro be nominated, seeing as it doesn't ship until next month? I wouldn't vote for it because I hate the quiet clicks (and I haven't used it), but I see no reason to not nominate it. Flexible layout, made by a major mechanical keyboard manufacturer, and has an interesting approach to the bottom row (which Matias is also using on their 60%).

For some real WTF... how about the Contour RollerMouse Red? Launched at CES 2014, so it's within the launch window. Haven't used that either, though.

Stinky board.
http://stinkyboard.com

Finally a new trackball in the market: Elecom M-XT1URBK. It's good to see an attempt to catch up with modern mice. Just throwing it out there, because there aren't many reviews yet and according to the existing few, it needs an M570 ball to track properly.

HaaTa wrote: ↑While not technically released this year, it was "discovered" this year. Parak's IBM dictation pedal for all it's metal construction awesomeness. Even has cherry switches, lol.

Better use Best relic or discovery for this one.

bhtooefr wrote: ↑Can the Matias Ergo Pro be nominated, seeing as it doesn't ship until next month?

Save it for next year?

Any more? Surely something interesting must have been released last year...

I was thinking about Cyberith Virtualizer. But its not really realeased yet so. http://cyberith.com/product/

3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Pro Wireless. Launched 2014-06-17.

Synaptics ForcePad, launched with the HP EliteBook Folio 1040. Synaptics dates their press release to 2013-12-12, the Elitebook Folio 1040 was introduced at HP Discover 2013 Barcelona, 2013-12-10 to 12.

Twiddler 3 chording keyboard with built-in pointing device, and it looks like developers can order it.

For documentation purposes, my nomination for this was moved here, so I'll make it easier on webwit and paste it...

bhtooefr wrote: ↑Typo2 keyboard case for iPhone, appears to have launched 2014-07-31 for preorders, and appears to be shipping.

And then, you missed my addition of the Twiddler 3.

Oh, no I would have nominated the 3d-printed "chordy keyboard". The concept is not exactly new, but It was not exactly available to the public.

http://hackaday.io/project/2115-chordy-key

http://stinkyboard.com/ I'm nominating the Stinky Footboard ! I'm disabled with a lot of nerve damage in both my left and right hands and arms. For example, as a gamer, the concept of using a multi-button mouse that requires a good thumb is just a joke in my world...I use the Logitech G300 as it is the only one that I can multi-task on...its ok and I have spares. I think that describes my gaming world. That also shows why my Stinky Footboard has made my mmorpg pvp gaming even possible. I'm a decent middle of the road player vs player gamer, which would be impossible without the Stinky Footboard, so I am utterly sold on the device.

One of the things that I set up that other gamers may or may not have thought of is restoration of your player's focus/energy/turnips or whatever you use to get the count back up for stronger spells. Well, I set that basic resoration spell on Pulse at 3 per second and just keep my foot mashed in that position while I continue to spam the stronger spells...essentially, as long as the gas is there, the stronger spells spam out faster than the restoration ones, and once they run out, the resto ones start firing and build up again...I don't even think about it, which allows me to concentrate way more on game play and a lot less on keybinds and other BS . I do have the other 3 postitions set up, the forward one is the clone of the back one, or resto one...then a kill shot and a pet heal. i could do more, but not currently necessary . . Plus its effing bulletproof and you can rage the crap on it with your foot and reduce pentup stress lol

TL;DR: You can assign repetitive functions to the footboard and leave the mouse to more complex items and macros.

Bad news: nominations closed.
Good news: it was already nominated, and you can vote for it in Round 2 now!

http://deskthority.net/vote-for-nominee ... t9246.html