We use a mouse everyday and most of us
take them for granted really, they’re there for us to use, and we are
happy with them. There have been attempts to reinvent the mouse, and
most have failed miserably, and for good reason, we’ve been using the
same style for so long that we’re not going to change out habits now.
Today for review I’ve got a quite
interesting and innovative new mouse from Cyber E Sport, it’s called
the Orbita Freestyle Mouse and it looks nothing like your standard
mouse. The Orbita is round and puck shaped, there are buttons on the
side and the top, and the entire mouse spins for scrolling. Is it
something that will replace your mouse? Probably not, but it is
something that could be very useful in the right hands.
So read on to learn more…
Product
Name: Cyber
E Sport Orbita Freestyle Mouse
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor: Cyber
E Sport
Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Cyber
E Sport Orbita Freestyle Mouse
Whether it’s scrolling down
your favourite blog, ‘jogging’ through video footage like a pro,
or zooming another world in a game; the Orbita® Mouse will
revolutionize your experience.
Push, squeeze and spin your way
to a better navigation experience with the new Orbita Mouse. By
rethinking the scroll wheel we’ve been able to ease strain on your
hand and give you scrolling control that other mice don’t.
No more 1,2,3 scrolls, page
jumps or grabbing the scroll bar to get where you want in a document.
With the Orbita you simply rotate continuously until you’ve found
what you want.
And it’s not just long
documents that become easier to deal with, music and video apps will
be a breeze with the ability to turn volume knobs more naturally or
jog through video footage like a pro; and what about zooming through
Google Earth, a 3D app or a gaming environment without having to stop
until you’re ready?
The Orbita Mouse works on the
desktop or a mouse pad just like a normal mouse, except that you can
spin it and use it an any angle.
The top small white arrow
button is the orientation button. Pressing this button while the
arrow points forwards on your desktop sets that as the ‘up’ direction
for pointer movement on screen no matter how the mouse is rotated.
This only needs to be done once for any particular desk or working
environment.
The mouse can be rotated with
one finger like a video or audio ‘jog wheel’ or you can ‘flick’ it
and it will spin freely. You can continuously rotate the mouse this
way, unlike with a mouse scroll wheel. Rotating the mouse needs only
a very light touch.
Because the mouse can be used
at any angle you can also use the buttons at any angle. There is one
‘push’ button which can be operated from any part of the top of the
mouse, and a series of ‘squeeze’ buttons which also work from any
angle to give a ‘right click’.
The third ‘Jog dimple’ button
can be used like the dimple on a jog wheel to rotate the mouse. This
button can work like the scroll wheel button on a standard mouse or
switch to left-right scrolling when pressed.
The Orbita is the world’s
first wireless 3-axis mouse. It’s a fully integrated, intuitive
control centre that redefines conventional mouse limitations.
A built-in compass calibrates
movements in 3 dimensions. The advantages are both intuitive and
ergonomic and the efficiency gain is immediately obvious.
The most noticeable change to
your conventional Mouse is the replacement of the scroll wheel. The
wireless cylindrical shape becomes the basis of this incredible
enhancement. Now instead of a vertical (up and down) scrolling, you
simply rotate the mouse left or right in a natural dialling action.
Functions that require
continues scrolling now avoid the jerking limitations of vertical
finger movement.
Navigate your way through large
documents, Audio Visual Editing, CAD 3D fly thru’s; Gaming in 3D
environments &emdash; just about any action that requires
scrolling.
Features:
*
Revolutionary Continuous Scrolling
*
Ergonomic Cylindrical Design
*
Virtual /Actual Control Knob interface
*
Jog Wheel Horizontal Scrolling
*
Programmable Interface with vmulti function platforms
*
2.4Ghz Zero Lag Wireless
*
Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.3.9 and later
Technical
Specs:
Full compatibility with a
3-button scroll mouse
Compatibility: Windows 2000,
XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.3 and later
Lithium Ion rechargeable
battery
Ball bearing base
USB 2.0 Loading station
Works with all standard drivers
Windows(R) VistaTM Enhanced
Wheel Support (Smooth Scroll)
Resolution: 800DPI
Report rate: 8ms / 125 reports
per second
Rotation sensor type:
Electronic compass
Hardware resolution: < 1
degree
Operational resolution: 256
counts per rotation (1.4 degrees)
Reporting resolution: 16 – 256
counts per rotation
Reporting rate: 125 reports /
second
Calibration: semi-automatic
{mospagebreak title=Unboxing Video and Still Pictures}
Unboxing
Video and Still Pictures:
So today I’ve got an unboxing
video for you:
Here’s the still pictures as well:
Installation,
Testing and Comparison:
Once hooked up there is a small
LED indicator on the mouse itself, and there are two on the base
docking station, one for power and one for signal.
The Orbita comes with two
different texture bases, one that is slick for quick movement and one
that is a bit rougher for a better grip on the mousepad. To change
the base you just twist the bottom and lift off.
Under the feet ring you’ll find
the ball bearing strip, this is what allows the Orbita to spin around
easily.
On the bottom you’ll also find the
on/off switch, optical sensor, reset button and the speaker that
emits the tones to help you get the mouse working.
The top silicone cover can be
removed for cleaning, which you’ll probably do often as the silicone
really attracts dust, dirt and hair. Under the cover you can get a
better look at the buttons on the top and sides as well.
Ok, for the actual installation
you just need to hook the mouse to your computer, let it charge and
you can use it, Windows will recognize it and install automatically.
To use the other features though you’ll need to install the included
software, especially if you want to change the button configuration.
That’s where I ran into a problem, it is not compatible with Windows
Vista X64 edition, but it will work with X32 edition. Cyber E Sport
assured me that they’ll have the new software shortly for X64 though,
but sine I use X64 as my primary OS I couldn’t install and use the
software. A workaround would be to install the software on a computer
running Windows XP or 32bit Vista and configure the buttons, then
move back to the 64bit OS and use the mouse, the Orbita will save
your settings inside. That just seems like too much work for me
though, so I just used the Orbita as is.
So not using the software/drivers
you can use the Orbita with X64, but first you’ll have to get the
Orbita accustomed to your desktop, and location of mousepad, this
requires two steps.
First you need to press the small
button for two seconds to enter calibration mode, then you need to
spin the mouse around twice within 10 seconds and press the button
again, if done correctly you’ll be greeted with a tone, if not you’ll
be greeted with a different tone. I ran into a problem here as well,
it just would not work for me easily, it took at least 15 tries to
get it to work for me, it was very frustrating.
The second thing you need to do is
orient the mouse so it knows which way is up on your desktop, once
you get the calibration done correctly just point the mouse up and
press the button once to orient it.
Once
that’s setup you can use the Orbita as you would most any other mouse
basically, I recently reviewed the XTracPads
Hybrid and was using that pad, I found that the Orbita did not like the
graphic surface of the Hybrid, so I had to switch to a plain black
cloth mousepad.
Using the Orbita I found that it
really does not like fast movements, I use three monitors, the main
one is set at 1650×1080 resolution with one on each side, both set at
1280×1024 resolution, that’s a lot of screen real estate to be moving
across, and not being able to move quickly is something that I don’t
like. Quick movements with the Orbita resulted in erratic behavior
with the cursor going every which way, but slow steady movements were
fine. Of course most people don’t have three monitors, so it’s not
that big of a deal normally.
For the most part though tracking
is decent on most surfaces, it worked fine on my desktop, and on a
solid colored cloth mousepad, as long as you don’t move too fast.
The idea of spinning the mouse to
scroll is quite innovative, but something that takes a lot to get
accustomed too, if you’ve been using a mouse with a scroll wheel
you’ll quickly start to miss it, at least I did.
As for gaming, don’t even think
about it, it just won’t work, at least it won’t work for fast paced
games like FPS shooters, but it could work with RTS type games as
long as it’s not too fast paced.
Actually using the mouse I just
found it quite difficult, you need to re-learn how to use a mouse,
especially the top button, it’s just in an odd place, at least it
felt that way to me. I found myself accidentally hitting buttons all
of the time and it became quite annoying, there’s just a rather high
learning curve to this mouse really, you’ll need to re-train yourself
on how to use a mouse.
It might sound like I’m saying the
Orbita is a bad mouse, it’s not really, it’s just not a mouse that I
could use everyday. In the right hands it could be very useful
though, someone who needs to scroll a lot might like this mouse, an
office job maybe looking at long spreadsheets, or something that
doesn’t entail exact precise or quick movements.
The one problem with this mouse is
that they’re trying to re-invent something that people use and have
been using for many years, and it’s going to be hard to get people to
switch to something like this that will require changing their
mousing habits and it does have a bit of a high learning curve as
well.
Summary
and Comments:
The Orbita mouse is a cool and
innovative product that brings new life to the standard old mouse, it
incorporates side buttons and a scroll feature that’s rather cool.
Sure it’s an innovative product
but it’s something that is more of a niche item and not something
that will be widely accepted by people, it’s very different from you
regular mouse and you’ll need to learn how to use it. I think many
people are very happy with their mouse, and the Orbita is just
something that is just too radically different from the norm to ever
be accepted by the general populous.
Cyber E Sport essentially is
trying to re-invent the mouse, but why mess with something that works
so well. The old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ really
applies here.
DragonSteelMods gives the Orbita
Freestyle Mouse a 4 out of 5 score.
Pros:
-Cool and innovative
-Seems well made
-Wireless
-Includes carrying case
-Includes different texture bases
-Decent tracking on most surfaces
Cons:
-No 64bit support yet
-Can be difficult to get working
-Short cord length
-Silicone cover attracts dust,
dirt and hair easily
-Does not like quick movements
I
would like to thank Cyber
E Sport for the chance to review the Orbita
Freestyle Mouse and for their support of DSM.
review# 553