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Some touchpads are better than others, and the very best Apple notebook trackpad in my estimation was the one in the WallStreet G3 Series PowerBook. One shortcoming touchpads have, at least for me, is that in certain high humidity environments, the touchpad takes on a mind of its own and becomes essentially useless. Of all Apple laptop touchpads I've used, the WallStreet's is the most immune to this, and the ones in the PowerBook 5300 and 1400 were the worst (although I really like the 1400's trackpad button). The problem is most often encountered on a cold startup or wake-up, and usually clears within five minutes or so as the machine warms up.
However, the most moisture-oblivious touchpad I've ever used is the Cirque Easy Cat, the subject of this review, which isn't a built-in notebook computer device, but a freestanding unit that can be used with desktop computers too.
One great advantage of the touchpad is that it is the lowest user-stress pointing device on muscles, tendons, and nerves, making it an excellent choice for people who suffer from mousing pain. Touchpads are also compact and since the unit remains stationary and requires no mousepad, it's an excellent alternative for use in tight quarters.
Touchpads operate by sensing your fingertip's electrical capacitance, with capacitive sensors arrayed along the horizontal and vertical axes of the touchpad. The location of the finger is determined from the pattern of capacitance from these sensors, which is why they can't sense inanimate objects being moved across the pad's contact surfaces. On the other hand, even gloved fingers may work, and I find that thin cotton gloves are just fine.
The Mac OS also supports touchpad "tappability" - that is you can substitute finger taps for mouse clicks, and you can also drag and drop or highlight items without using the touchpad button. You can enable tap-clicking, dragging, and drag lock in the OS X Keyboard & Mouse system preference panel - any one individually or all three as you wish. About the first thing I do with a new Mac or fresh system install is to enable the full slate of trackpad tappability configurations.
While Cirque Corporation, which was founded in 1991 by George E. Gerpheide, PhD, and James L. O'Callaghan, to commercialize the GlidePoint technology invented in the 1980's by Dr. Gerpheide, and which has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps Electric since 2003,, does supply OEM touchpads for use in notebooks, Apple has never used Cirque pads, which is unfortunate, because Cirque’s GlidePoint technology, which was also introduced commercially in early 1994, is considered by many, including me from experience, to be the class of the capacitive touchpad field, particularly for it's crisp sensitivity and relative immunity to moisture and dirt. I can use the Cirque Easy Cat touchpad with wet fingers. It does not work as well with damp digits, but is still usable, unlike the Apple 'Book units under similar circumstances.
The Easy Cat, which is the subject of this review, is the least expensive of three freestanding computer touchpad products offered by Cirque, the other two being the Cirque Smart Cat Pro and Cirque Smart Cat, however they all use the same GlidePoint technology, and for Mac users there is a strong case to be made for going with the Easy Cat, since most of the high-end features of the more expensive units such as, one-touch scroll and zoom, distinctive sounds for each operation. and four unique programmable hotlinks to independently execute programs/commands, open files, control browser functions, assign (toggle) mouse actions and control cursor modes, are not supported by OS X.
The Easy Cat can be positioned almost anywhere within reach of its luxuriously long six-foot USB cord. Because it is so small and light, you can position the Easy Cat on an angled plane for more relaxed wrist positioning, or even hold it in one hand and point and click with the other, use it in bed, or on the floor. The long cord and two buttons also make it easy to alternate hands in order to spread the stress.
The Easy Cat's sensor pad surface itself, which I think has a more pleasant texture than Apple notebook trackpads, is about one-third larger than the trackpad on my WallStreet and Pismo PowerBooks, but considerably smaller than the pad in my 17" PowerBook. There are two buttons on the near side of the housing. On Macs, these both work is standard mouse buttons.
The buttons are the weakest feature of the Easy Cat, as they are too close to the pad surface for really good clicking ergonomics, are a shade stiff for my taste, as well as being a bit sloppy in action. Fortunately they only rarely need to be used if you enable the tappability feature.
The real beauty of the Easy Cat is its precise responsiveness to finger tapping - better than with Apple notebook trackpads. The Easy Cat responds to the lightest feather touch for clicking, but still does not "misfire" - a superb bit of engineering.
Nor, as noted above, does this trackpad exhibit the maddening behavior that the Apple trackpads do when your fingers are moist or you use it in high humidity/low-temperature conditions.
To drag, draw, or highlight text, you just double tap rapidly and begin the motion in one smooth movement on the second tap without lifting your finger. (Or hold the left button with your thumb, something I find awkward).
The Cirque Easy Cat's "GlideExtend" feature allows you to drag farther than the margin of the pad surface. There is a textured margin on all four sides of the trackpad. If you are dragging something and you get to this textured edge zone, GlideExtend will hold a drag for three seconds while you reposition your finger to complete the operation.
The Easy Cat does not ship with any software of its own, and some of the trackpad's advanced features that are supported on Windows PCs are consequently disabled on Mac installations. However, there is a partial workaround.
A shareware device driver software called USB Overdrive created by Alessandro Levi Montalcini is recommended (although not supported) by Cirque for users who wish to configure the Easy Cat Trackpad's button clicks. USB Overdrive enables button reprogramming, submenu launching vertical scrolling and more. Unfortunately, most of these configurations work only with USB Overdrive for the Classic Mac OS, and are not supported by the OS X version of the software.
The Universal Binary version of the USB Overdrive fully supports Apple's new Intel-based machines.
USB Overdrive is $20.00 shareware, although it doesn't offer a whole lot for the Easy Cat in OS X except for more button click configuration options.
You can find out more and download USB Overdrive here:
http://www.usboverdrive.com/USBOverdrive/Information.html
The Cirque Easy Cat is an excellent little pointing device, and is certainly a more than adequate substitute or alternate for a mouse or trackball. I especially recommend the Easy Cat to those who struggle with repetitive stress related pain, and who will find product's sparkling response to the gentlest of input is a welcome relief. It also may contribute to not developing RSI in the first place, which would be a logical deduction.
Easy Cat’s compact size makes it easy to pack along with a roadgoing notebook. It is available in either white or black.
Easy Cat features:
GlideExtend virtually eliminates the edge of the pad when dragging
Small and portable
Withstands spills and abuse
Thin and comfortable design
Easy-to-find textured "right" click area
System requirements:
• Mac 0S 8.5 - OS X (supports basic touchpad functions)
The USB Easy Cat sells for $44.95.
For more information, visit:
http://www.cirque.com/cpages/?page=24
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Charles W. Moore
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