From the Good Side of Logitech (Logitech iFeel)

Member Name: geoffcampos

Product:	Logitech iFeel
Date:	21/06/01 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: left hand friendly, dust, grime free, well built

Disadvantages: there's a cord, not enough grip, software

I've been using this mouse for about 6 months now, and I have little to complain about. I, in common with a few others on this planet, suffer from a disease which has crippled my body, atrophied my mind and branded me a freak before the eyes of all mortal men. Of course I refer to left-handedness. Typically, when a new mouse (or any finger manipulated input device) comes onto the market, I am instantly disenfranchised from it's uptake. I immediately seek an area sufficiently sheltered from view, sit down and commence stabbing my leg with a fork whilst moaning randomly like Thom from Radiohead in his song entitled n (where n = any Radiohead song). Logitech have long been guilty of such shameful discrimination. The iFeel mouse is however, perfectly bi-laterally symmetrical. It's great, with it, I get the ephemeral almost beatific feeling that perhaps, there is a hope of a complete and glorious acceptance and forgiveness of my kind from The Right-Handed People and that the future is an incalculably dazzling jewel of unified joy and breathless ecstasy into which a renewed and energised human race bound by love, justice and understanding march but then, the feeling wanes and I come crashing back to the intractibly stark, soul-burning despair and persistent vitriolic hate and rage that is reality for left-handed people.
On the plus side, the mouse is also optical, which means you needn't bother with the high friction, dust adsorbing style crime that micemats almost without exception (the exception being my round Cartman one)are. Sometimes, it will flip out which could be down to the plug and freeze nature of the USB connector or particularly shiny or featureless surfaces.
There are a few minor annoyances which could easily have been avoided by the designers had they been so inclined. The sides of the mouse where your fingertips rest are smooth and transparent which may look gee-whizzy, but gets oily and irritating - there should have been sco
ring instead. The wheel would also have benefitted from a tread. There is a fairly ostentacious 'Logitech Button Logo' I'm sure they call it on the back. It is made of rubberized plastic and looks pretty cheesy. I am a staunch minimalist in theory, so I'd have vetoed it if canvassed.
The main feature of the mouse is the force feedback. This manifests itself with the aid of a 154,676,433,223 MB software installation which comes on one CD (they must use some amazingly efficient compression technology). After I used up all free space on my array of 27 18.1GB disks to install the driver, I tested out this 'ifeel' concept. Wow, a vibrating mouse. What next? Flashing phones for the blind? Essentially, the mouse will grumble lightly when rolling your cursor over icons on your desktop, or links on a website. So you might think it'ssome kind of accessibility device. No. It's just another example of rampant overconsumerism. It feels like you are mousing over a surface covered with sugar - gritty. I trashed the software. Despite these minor qualms, it is a well made device which feels like a quality piece of kit. As my Microsoft IntelliEye lasted about a month, I'd have to say that this Logitech is um, 6 times better.

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