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| Product: WebRacer Internet Mouse |
Company: Kensington Technology Group |
| Web: www.kensington.com |
Phone: 800-280-8318 |
| Platform: Windows PC |
SRP: US$60
Street Price: $44 |
Cred Rating: | Special Award: |
I have to say, I was skeptical of WebRacer, Kensington's latest Internet-friendly pointing/navigation device, when I first heard about it. Do we really need *another* weird-looking mutation of the mouse/touchpad? Is a good mouse really that hard to find that we need to constantly try re-inventing it?
At the heart of the WebRacer is a touchpad festooned with a series of 18 programmable buttons. The buttons can be tailored to access favorite websites, your bookmarks file, the software buttons on your browser, to execute custom macros and to use with your regular applications. The sofware comes with a bunch of application pre-sets for popular programs. WebRacer can work with an existing input device (if you have a spare serial port) or be used alone. The device comes with Kensington's excellent MouseWorks software which offers a bundle of customizable features.
I tried using WebRacer as both my sole pointing device and as a Web-only nav tool. I found myself quickly getting comfortable with it by itself and would possibly have adopted it, but it didn't work seamlessly with all my programs.
As a Web-only navigator, it might seem unnecessary and unwieldy to all but true-blue Web junkies, but after I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. The 18' cord and soft keyboard let you sit back and navigate from a distance. I sit at one computer in my office and use the WebRacer to navigate the computer on my other desk. The main use for me here is to operate my TV card. Unfortunately, the touchpad does not allow me to type in double-digit channels on the TV card's software remote control. I have to hit the double-click key I've assigned on the WebRacer and go to, say channel 44 and then click the channel selector to go to the channel I want, say channel 47. Dumb. The biggest mistake they made was the size of the software keyboard. It's miniscule and not re-sizable! From five feet away (from one of my desks to the other), I can barely read the freakin' keys. What good is an 18' chord if you can't see the keyboard at five feet? If the keyboard was larger, this would make a great (tethered) remote controller.
The WebRacer is definitely not for everyone. There's always that question (which we've addressed on Street Tech before) of whether the solution should be hardware-based, as this is, or software-based. Different strokes...and all that. If you spend a lot of time online and want an input device that puts Net navigation first, the WebRacer might be worthy of a place on your desktop. As always with such attempts at building a better mouse, we recommend that you try the device out first before dropping a bunch of those phony looking new twenties on it.
- Gareth Branwyn [2/15/99]
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