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flip mouse
make the mouse flip open to reveal a number pad | |
One of the biggest irritations that I face when using my laptop comes when I need to use excel or some other number-intensive application. Notebooks are great because they are compact and portable, but the keyboard has no proper number pad! I was thinking, just about everyone buys an external mouse
to replace that horrific touchpad; there are also devices which plug in to give the user a regular number pad. Why not combine them? Basically, you could have your average-looking mouse, but when you need to punch some numbers, flip it open like a flip-phone to reveal a number pad. Obviously the mouse would either need to be slightly large, or the numbers slightly small - but it would still be better than nothing. The x-y positioning would still be functional when "flipped open" so constant opening and closing wouldn't be necessary. However, when closed, it would be impossible to accidentally hit the numbers. Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
Keypad mouse
http://www.amazon.c...103-0754347-6330245 Available, no flip top cover. [half, Oct 17 2004]
(?) Keyboard Mouse
http://www.halfbake...ea/Keyboard_20Mouse Very similar halfbaked idea [half, Oct 17 2004]
(?) Tele-mouse
http://www.chinabony.com/tele-mouse.htm Sort of baked, and very silly. I want to see a picture of someone using it as a phone and a mouse at the same time. [omegatron, Nov 20 2004]
(?) One from 1997
http://www.byte.com...9704/sec15/art3.htm [LostBrit, Oct 16 2005]
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great idea as described - no comments required |
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Actually, many laptops have a secondary key that when pressed, converts part of the keyboard to a touchpad (the numbers are written in blue on the keys and the normal are in white). |
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