Sony VAIO VPCEB36GM/BJ 15.5" Display Laptop / Intel Core i5 Processor / 4GB Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently purchased this laptop at a big-box store (price was lower) - and I love it. It's a replacement for my 3-year old desktop, and I couldn't be happier. I run a lot of photo-editing software so I needed a system that could handle multiple large programs at once and this laptop doesn't flinch - everything is smooth and seamless, the display is beautiful and the 10-digit keypad is a nice touch. The battery life is solid at 3.5 hours, too. No complaints!

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VAIOVPCEB36GM/BJ

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Smart Pad Multi-Touch Gesture Touchpad/Trackpad USB Mouse with Keypad for PC Windows 7/Vista/XP Review

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(More customer reviews)I was hesitant to buy this product because it seemed a little too good to be true. I prefer touchpads over mice because of RSI. Touchpads are much easier on my hands than mice and can be used on any surface, including leaning back in a chair and holding it in the palm of my hand. There are very few good options for external touchpads. The most common are the Cirque touchpads, but they are expensive and don't support multi-touch.
This cheap, generic touchpad is perfect for my needs and sells at a great price. There is a branded version at a higher price point that I saw on Amazon, but it is the exact same thing as this device, except it has a logo. Save your money and get the generic. Perhaps you'll lose out on tech support, but at this price, I wasn't that concerned about support.
The device is a bit bigger than the average man's palm. It is light but feels pretty solid. It is ideal for mobile use and it is easy to stow in a laptop bag, which I do. I carry it everywhere I carry my laptop. Why carry an external touch pad with a laptop that has a touch pad? Several reasons: (1) because of RSI I put my lap top on a mount (a Cricket portable stand when I travel)and use an external keyboard (I use a Goldtouch portable ergonomic keyboard when I travel). (2) This touchpad is more advanced than my laptop's. My laptop doesn't support multitouch and all the touchpad shortcuts that multitouch can provide. (3) This external touchpad doubles as a numeric keypad. I find using a dedicated numeric keypad far more comfortable than using the embedded keys in a laptop. If you use the calculator a lot on your laptop, having a dedicated numeric keypad is handy.
Installation was simple. Plug in the USB cable and windows automatically installs the drivers. No need for a CD or to download anything. I use it with Windows 7 and it works perfectly. I did not test on any other OS, but I assume that it will work fine on Vista. The manual says it also supports XP. Seems that Mac OS is not supported.
In addition to the expected one-finger mouse-replacement functionality you'd expect from a touch pad, it supports at least 11 two and three finder gestures. The configuration options are rather simple, basically allowing you to toggle support for various guestures on and off. You can't create your own gestures or map gestures to your own programs. You also can't us this for hand writing or doodling. It also doesn't work with Scrybe, a gesture macro program that works with some touchpads. But what it does offer more than meets my needs and more than I would expect for such a low price.
I really like the fact that it doubles as a numeric keypad. Some may not like this, expecially since they add some raised dots to give tactile cues to differentiate the number "keys". Because of this it doesn't have the glassy smooth glide feel of many touchpads. This doesn't bother me, but I could see it bother some people. You toggle between normal touchpad operation and numeric keypad with a large "mode" button. When switch to numeric keypad mode, an led lights up. I thing they could have made device smaller if they got rid of the LED and mad the mode button smaller, but it does make it very easy to switch modes. When in numeric keypad mode, the primary and secondary mouse-click buttons are remapped. The left button fire up a new instance of the windows calculator and right button acts as a backspace.
The touch pad operation has been very good. It is rare for a tap to not take and the sensitivity is as good as my laptop's touch pad. Two and three finger guestures work as advertised and I now use the touch pad exclusively to scroll pages up and down, page up and down, zoom in and out, open windows explorer, and other actions that I had to use the keyboard for in the past.
This little gadget has been one of the nicest surprises of any recent purchase. It is cheap, works great, and travels well.

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Specification: Hot Keys : 3 Hot keys (Mode, Mouse click, right click keys)Cable Length: Around 80 cmConnector Solution: USB onlySupport OS: Window XP and Vista

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Browsercat 2BTN USB Silver Cirque Glidepoint Touchpad Win Review

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(More customer reviews)PROS
Good responsive touchpad
Right-click made easy through the upper-right corner
Built-in scrolling feature
Small backstand allows the unit to sit at an angle
CONS
Hardware buttons are not the best (noisy to press but far better than the "EasyCat" model)
I prefer touchpads to mice in that they require less space and are easy for me to use either left or right-handed. Touchpads are a personal thing and I find that people's opinion of them are quite polarized. If you're the type that enjoys using them, then this is a pretty good option. The surface is quite responsive and by clicking up in the right-hand corner, you can easily simulate right-click buttons. The lower horizontal edge and the rightmost vertical edge provide horizontal and vertical scrolling.
If you install the Adesso software, then you can also use the leftmost vertical edge for zooming and the upper edge for back/forward functionality (e.g. can be used for internet browsing). I believe there are a couple of other features that can be customized with the software, but I skipped it altogether and just settled for the mousing action with right-click and scrolling capability. For me, driver software can clutter and complicate a system and the added features aren't important to me (I take the same approach with Logitech and Microsoft keyboards/mice in that I prefer to just use the device without the drivers). If you are looking to use the extra features, make sure you check the vendor website to determine if drivers exist for your OS.
The size of the unit is larger than other similar models from the same maker and to some, it may feel like there's a lot of wasted space. For what it's worth, I also own the "EasyCat" model (Adesso USB EasyCat 2-BTN Touchpad Black Cirque Glidepoint Technology ( GP160U-121 )) which I believe is inferior to the "BrowserCat" for a number of reasons. While the touchpad action between these two units is identical and the smaller size of the "EasyCat" makes it more portable, it's also more difficult to balance on a variety of surfaces than the "BrowserCat" and its buttons are unusable (too hard to click). The "EasyCat" cord placement (right side instead of top side) also limits its ability to be used left-handed without requiring extra space. Finally, this "BrowserCat" unit has a small stand in the back allowing it to be propped at a slight angle (the "EasyCat" does not have this). This stand combined with its size allows me to place the unit squarely over the number keypad on my keyboard (this allows me to sit the keyboard on my lap with easy access to the touchpad without the use of a lapdesk or other surface). All that said, this "BrowserCat" is my standard pointing device at home and the "EasyCat" is my portable device for road use.

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Adesso Browser Cat 2 Button Touchpad ATP-400UB 1111

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Ione Scorpius R30 USB Keyboard 2.4GHZ Mce Touchpad Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this wireless keyboard because the keyboard that came with my Sony Home Theater PC system has a very rough touch pad, which makes fine control almost impossible. I also wanted a keyboard with dedicated HOME and END keys. This keyboard looked like it is smooth, has everything I needed and it got good reviews for its basic operation.
Design is really sharp, I love the slick looks and feel of it, it is ultra-thin, very light and small enough to slip into the side pocket of our couch. Range of the wireless link was good, I plugged the USB dongle into the front of my PC and the glass coffee table in line of sight didn't seem to make any difference (this is radio frequency, not IR).
However, after only 2 months of use, three of the keys fell out and cannot be pushed back in, because the design requires a special device to spread the receptacles.
Also, there are a couple of drawbacks that make the usability of the keyboard less than adequate. First of, the touch pad does not have a scrolling feature, neither horizontally nor vertically. It does not come with any software driver, nor does the company have support or downloads online (cheapo Asian company with useless website).
Secondly, the ALT-TAB function, which I use very frequently to switch between programs only works in reverse (ALT-SHFT-TAB), it produces erratic results when using the simple ALT-TAB. Very strange...
All in all, it's a great design, but for the premium price, I expect a) better quality and b) better usability and/or optimized drivers and online downloads. Very disappointing experience.

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Product Features:2 way 2.4 GHz RF technology with built in touchpadScissor-type super slim key top design similar to notebook keysLow power consumption with smart power saving functionUSB interface receiver2 standard mouse buttonOperation without directional limitation2 LED indicators (Transmitter, Battery Low)Product Dimension:12.5"(L) x 8.5"(W) x 0.5"(H) inchPackage Includes:Scorpius R30 RF keyboardUSB receiver4 x AAA BatteriesUser's guideProduct Requirements: IBM or compatible system Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/XP MCE/Vista Available USB portMacintosh Requirements: Mac OS X with USB support Available USB portLinux RedHat supported with available USB portPackaging information:unit per master carton: 20color retail box

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Adesso USB EasyCat 2-BTN Touchpad Black Cirque Glidepoint Technology ( GP160U-121 ) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was looking for an alternative input device for my desktop setup since i was developing carpel tunnel with my mouse. For a while a trackball worked, but the pain merely switched to my elbow.
Since i was so used to the touchpad on my laptop, I started looking for one. The Adesso Easycat is pretty brilliant and works well and has solved my problems for now. I use it in conjunction with a regular mouse (a MS Intellimouse) and switch back and forth as needed. For most things I never have to reach for the Intellimouse at all. The Adesso is very programmable and can do all that the five-button Intellimouse does.
Some observations on the Adesso Easycat USB model:
-Its pretty thin and small and looks quite nice. The price isnt bad considering Adesso pretty much has a monopoly on USB touchpad devices.
-It does not ship with a driver, its supposed to be plug-n-play. HOWEVER, TO USE THE ADVANCED FUNCTIONS on it you DO need to download the driver from Adesso. Otherwise you miss out on a lot of functions and personalization features. The driver can be downloaded from the Adesso website (http://www.adesso.com/products_detail.asp?productid=272).
-Once you have the driver installed, you can customize it in every possible way - sensitivity, reprogram buttons, orientation, etc. It has a very wide variety of features including: horizontal/vertical scrolls, zoom, Browser forward/back buttons, left and right clicks as taps, drag, etc. On top of that, three 'buttons' are customizable (both buttons plus a 'click area'). (the reviewer below who complained that it was too sensitive for him probably did not know that you can install this driver and adjust it).
-On my setup, I had to reduce the sensitivity/speed of the left-click tap feature before it registered correctly.
-I placed mine right under my spacebar, with a piece of velcro. Its brilliant and works and feels more or less like my laptop's touchpad. For most things I never reach for the regular mouse anymore. its very intuitive once you've set it up the way you like.
In sum: It wont cure all your problems, but as an alternative and unique input device it will make your life a bit easier.


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Adesso EasyCat 2 Button USB TouchpadWhy push a mouse when you can just point? Adesso's Easy Cat with Glidepoint Technology makes it easier than ever to control your PC. Simply glide your finger over the surface of the pad and gently tap on the pad or click the buttons to perform all cursor movement functions. Plus Easy Cat is solid-state design means no inconvenient breakdowns and no moving parts to clean.

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