Griffin Powermate
Sept 14, 2008 14:27:34 GMT -5
Post by Lamron on Sept 14, 2008 14:27:34 GMT -5
www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate
I've been eying these for a little while and finally bought one. Basically, its a mouse-sized knob that can be assigned many different functions. It can be pushed down as a button also, so it recognizes six different inputs: right, left, down+right, down+left, brief down, down+hold 2 seconds.
You can assign any input to one of several special functions, or have it make a keypress (or combination of keypresses). I primarily use it as a big scroll wheel, with similar function to the mouse wheel, but much easier to scroll up/down long pages. It can be set up with different function sets depending on the application. For example: globally I have hold-down set to system mute, but in FireFox it resurrects the last tab I closed. The setup menu is basic, but easy to use.
Construction:
Its heavy enough to stay still when you're using it and has a grippy rubber bottom to prevent it sliding around. Nicely machined and polished aluminum on the whole thing, maybe TOO polished. I found immediately that it was too smooth to easily grip and turn quickly. So I put a rubber band around it to give the sides some grip when I'm holding my hand over it and using my thumb to turn, and added a stick-on rubber foot (like what's on the bottom of a keyboard), to give my index finger an easy way to rotate down long pages when I'm using it with one finger from the top.
Conclusion:
I like it. It just needed easy fixes for better grip. I have it right next to my mouse and find it very natural to switch back and forth depending on what I'm doing. I do wish that it would free-spin though. There is some turning friction, so you can't just flick it and let it ride.
Too expensive to purchase new ($45). If you have a specific application such as video editing or something that would really benefit from easy rotation (3D modeling?), it would probably be worth it. It would also be useful in kiosk applications or laptop-run car audio systems where you don't have a keyboard and just need to scroll down a list and make selections.
Otherwise, its just a convenient (and cool) way to do things that could be done with your keyboard and mouse. Its worth having if you can get one for under $30 on Ebay, like I did.
This item works with both PC and MAC computers.
I've been eying these for a little while and finally bought one. Basically, its a mouse-sized knob that can be assigned many different functions. It can be pushed down as a button also, so it recognizes six different inputs: right, left, down+right, down+left, brief down, down+hold 2 seconds.
You can assign any input to one of several special functions, or have it make a keypress (or combination of keypresses). I primarily use it as a big scroll wheel, with similar function to the mouse wheel, but much easier to scroll up/down long pages. It can be set up with different function sets depending on the application. For example: globally I have hold-down set to system mute, but in FireFox it resurrects the last tab I closed. The setup menu is basic, but easy to use.
Construction:
Its heavy enough to stay still when you're using it and has a grippy rubber bottom to prevent it sliding around. Nicely machined and polished aluminum on the whole thing, maybe TOO polished. I found immediately that it was too smooth to easily grip and turn quickly. So I put a rubber band around it to give the sides some grip when I'm holding my hand over it and using my thumb to turn, and added a stick-on rubber foot (like what's on the bottom of a keyboard), to give my index finger an easy way to rotate down long pages when I'm using it with one finger from the top.
Conclusion:
I like it. It just needed easy fixes for better grip. I have it right next to my mouse and find it very natural to switch back and forth depending on what I'm doing. I do wish that it would free-spin though. There is some turning friction, so you can't just flick it and let it ride.
Too expensive to purchase new ($45). If you have a specific application such as video editing or something that would really benefit from easy rotation (3D modeling?), it would probably be worth it. It would also be useful in kiosk applications or laptop-run car audio systems where you don't have a keyboard and just need to scroll down a list and make selections.
Otherwise, its just a convenient (and cool) way to do things that could be done with your keyboard and mouse. Its worth having if you can get one for under $30 on Ebay, like I did.
This item works with both PC and MAC computers.
