Requirements: Macintosh with at least one ADB port,
System 6.0.7 or higher (NOTE: while not required, a
hard disk and System 7 or higher are highly recom-
mended). Contact: Kensington Microware Limited at
(800) 535-4242 (US and Canada).
In the beginning the computing world was cold and desolate
and without form. And Steven Jobs looked upon the computing world and saweth all was not well and set about to invent the Macintosh. Steven and his disciples tarried long and hard and in the fateful year of 1984, introduced the Macintosh to the secular masses. The masses laughed and insulted Steven and his disciples, but they remained steadfast in their convictions. And the secular masses saw their convictions and that they were good and suffered to learn more about Macintosh.
“Point and click” became the most chanted words throughout the land. Even Bill Gates, whose company hath nary createth an original product, saw the tide of warmth that floweth over the secular masses and set out to copy the blessed work knowneth as Macintosh with a beast called Windows. As a result, “point and click” became more firmly entrenched in the vocabulary of the secular masses.
Around this time, the masses screamed, “Our wrists hurteth due to all this pointing and clicking. We cannot completeth our work without much trial and tribulation. If it please the computing gods, helpeth us before our hands falleth off.”
Time brings us to the present and those ol’ computing gods at Kensington Microware have indeed offered the masses a solution to their point and click dilemma. The Thinking Mouse is, without a doubt, the most advanced mouse ever created for the Macintosh.
On the surface, the Thinking Mouse has an extremely comfortable ergonomically design featuring four buttons. These buttons can be used singularly or chorded much as piano keys are. Each button can be programmed to perform specific tasks or clicking combinations. Further, the user can program a chord for two of the keys to perform a specific task.
But programmable buttons are only the first of the many fine features incorporated into the Thinking Mouse. It also sports custom mouse movement acceleration. The Thinking Mouse can be programmed to zip across large screens and then slow way down for detailed, intricate work. Programming this feature is extremely easy and straight forward. Best of all, once the user establishes mouse movement preferences, they are remembered and used until changed again by the user.
Also a nifty feature is Brilliant Cursor. Brilliant Cursor allows the user to pre-define hotspots on the screen, such as the File menu for example. And, with a simple nudge of the mouse in that direction, the cursor automatically jumps to the pre-defined hotspot, saving a lot of wrist movement and clicking in the process. This feature is most useful when working on large monitors with a lot of screen real estate.
Another innovative idea is the Rest Reminder built into the Thinking Mouse software. Rest Reminder alerts the user that a break should be taken at pre-specified times. The user specifies the amount of time they work before the Rest Reminder dialog box pops up on the screen. Best of all, however, is Rest Reminder’s smart ability. Let’s say you have Rest Reminder programmed to remind you to take a break every hour, but at the half hour point you stop working. Rest Reminder recognizes the break in your work and automatically resets itself back to one hour. That way, you preclude unnecessary rest reminders.
The Thinking Mouse also has pop-up menu capabilities, but this feature is all but worthless on a Mac. Since programs on a Mac are launched by clicking on them instead of typing a launch command as you do with DOS, you cannot program an application launch into the pop-up menu. However, because of the way the Mac operating system is laid out, this isn’t a big problem. The Apple Menu is every bit as useful for launching programs as a pop-up menu would be.
Yet another nice feature is the Thinking Mouse’s ability to be programmed for individual software applications. What this means is that each button on the Thinking Mouse can be programmed to perform specific functions within each application program. This saves a lot of time from having to pull down menus to execute commands, again adding to your overall productivity.
The Thinking Mouse comes with a very well written user’s manual that is well laid out and easy to read and understand. Technical support offered for the Thinking Mouse is high in quality and easy to procure. Best of all, it’s free and unlimited. To round out the package, the Thinking Mouse comes with a five year warranty against defects and workmanship.
 
As Macintosh users from a decade ago discovered, constant pointing and clicking is a major hassle and somewhat limits one’s productivity. The Kensington Thinking Mouse, however, all but does away with the hassles inherit with mouse usage. While you still have to point and click, it’s much less frequent and far more productive. Additionally, since the mouse can be programmed to execute specified commands, the need to pull down menus is greatly reduced, further adding to one’s productivity. Throw in absolute comfort and an easy grip design and you’ve got a mouse that’s hard to pass up. Apple should definitely take notice of the Thinking Mouse and incorporate some of its best features into the Apple mouse. Rest assured, all Mac users would definitely appreciate it.
Macintosh CPU with NuBus expansion slot; System 7 or
later with 24 or 32 bit addressing enabled; 21”, 19/20”,
16/17”, 13/14”, or portrait display monitor (NOTE:
Macintosh II, IIx, IIcx, and IIsi computers are not supported
by the PaintBoard Prism GT). Contact: RasterOps Corporation
at (800)-SAY-COLOR
Graphics have always been a strong suit of the Macintosh. It’s
capability of displaying and creating photo quality images has
made it the industry standard for such endeavors. Happily, a
Macintosh right out of the box is capable of displaying superb graphics, most models sporting at least 16-bit video. But professional and demanding graphic artists need more than 16-bit video. For them, expanding the color and video speeds of their systems are vitally important.
RasterOps comes to the aid of these users with their PaintBoard Prism GT. The PaintBoard Prism GT is a standard seven inch graphics accelerator NuBus card for Macs having a NuBus slot. Not only does the PaintBoard Prism GT provide 24-bit color on monitors with resolutions up to 1152 by 870 pixels, but it provides a whole host of features that make it a very attractive product worthy of serious consideration.
The PaintBoard Prism GT supports bit depths of one, four, eight, 16, and 24 bits per pixel. It also supports monitors up to 1152 by 870 pixels in size. Additionally, if the monitor supports it, the PaintBoard Prism GT allows the user to switch from one resolution to another on the fly using the Monitors control panel. However, to move between bit depths, the user can simply make use of the nifty pop-up menus sported by the PaintBoard Prism GT.
Pan and zoom are also supported by the PaintBoard Prism GT. Panning allows the user to move around an image when the image is zoomed; additionally it allows for panning across monitors when multiple monitors are used in an extended desktop scenario. Zooming allows the user to get a close-up view of whatever it is they’re working on. A simple keystroke combination activates the zoom feature and, when activated, the pan feature automatically becomes active.
The SyncCamera feature allows the user to synchronize monitor timing, otherwise known as the refresh rate, with the timing of their video camera. In other words, SyncCamera gets rid of the rolling black line that appears when you try to record the content of the computer screen using an NTSC video camera. Currently, however, this feature only works on monitors supporting resolutions of 1024 by 768 at 60 Hz, and 640 by 480 at 67 Hz.
In benchmark testing, the PaintBoard Prism GT performed beautifully. Both vertical and horizontal scrolling is accomplished at almost warp speed, even when the monitor is set to display large 24-bit images. Text scrolling is even faster, but seemed a bit slow when using Microsoft Word.
The PaintBoard Prism GT comes with all the necessary software for both 680x0 Macs and Power Macs. Technical support offered by RasterOps, while sometimes hard to contact, is outstanding and free. However, this product is so straight forward in its usage, calls to RasterOps technical support should be few. The manual accompanying the PaintBoard Prism GT is easily understood and nicely detailed. And, while this product does have a rather large price tag, it’s still about $600 US cheaper than the competing Radius product which makes it an exceptional value. Add its three year warranty on parts and workmanship and you’ve got yourself a product that begs for serious attention.
 
Does every user need such a high-end product as the PaintBoard Prism GT? No, but then again, those who would like accelerated 24-bit color can’t go wrong with this fine piece of hardware. It’s much less expensive than competing products and every bit as high in quality. For those whose Macs cannot make use of add-on VRAM (such as Power Mac 6100 users), a graphics accelerator board is the only way to go; and in this scenario, the PaintBoard Prism GT is again the all out winner in the value and quality categories. Indeed, the PaintBoard Prism GT is a fine example of the quality and value one can find without spending an arm and leg to get it.
Any Macintosh with 68020 processor or greater, ADB port,
System 6.0.5 or greater. Contact Calcomp at (800) 458-5888
or 602-948-6540.
Anyone who does serious (or not so serious) graphic work and has tried using a mouse, trackball or graphics tablet knows that the graphics tablet is the superior tool. In the not so distant past, many Macintosh artists were left with choosing between spending a lot of money or using a very tiny tablet. Happily, the situation has changed and the prices for medium sized graphics tablets have plummeted. One of the best of the new mid-sized and low priced tablets is the Calcomp DrawingSlate II with a 6” x 9” active area.
The DrawingSlate II is a well designed and visually appealing tablet. Compact (10.1 inches by 11.2 inches and .29 inches thick) and light (1.5 pounds), the tablet has a non-skid backing to keep it from sliding when in use, a sturdy transparent overlay sheet to hold paper in place (for tracing), three mode keys, six toolbox keys and eighteen macro keys, and indicator lights for tablet mode and power. The DrawingSlate II is pressure sensitive and ships with a cordless, battery powered stylus. The device plugs into the Macintosh ADB port and has a connector to allow the attachment of other ADB devices. The device ships with a control panel that allows the user to configure the setting of the device to her needs.
The DrawingSlate II is well designed: the keys are easy to use (and yet not in the way), the transparency overlay is extremely useful for tracing and keeping dust and such off the active area, and the ADB cable is long enough to allow freedom of movement.
Simply touching the stylus tip to one of the 26 keys will activate it. Three of these keys are mode keys which allow the user to select between various modes of operation. The user can set up two tablet modes (which determine how the tablet maps to the screen) and can choose to use the tablet like a standard pointing device. These mode keys allow the user to customize the tablet to his needs, which is very useful. Six of the keys offer the user access to the command key combinations that are used for open, save, cut, copy, paste and undo. Since these are extremely common functions, the tablet can save the user time and effort. The final eighteen keys are user-configurable, and can be set to execute particular keystrokes or linked to macros from commercial or shareware macro programs. Because there are eighteen keys, however, the user might have some trouble remembering what each one does. Keeping a list of the macros under the cover may be useful.
The stylus is battery-powered and has three buttons, one of which is the stylus tip. Using the control panel, the user can assign different functions to the button. For example, the tip could be set to perform a mouse click, the second button a double-click, and the third could be assigned a commonly used keystroke. When using the stylus, I found that I would sometimes accidentally push the buttons, and I often pushed both at the same time when I intended to only push one. I would recommend that users assign the same function to the two buttons until they become accustomed to the stylus. Since the stylus is battery-powered, it is slightly larger and heavier than unpowered styluses, such as those used with Wacom tablets. However, I found the stylus comfortable and easy to use. Since each person’s preferences vary, it would be a good idea to try the stylus before buying, if possible. Battery power does give the stylus an advantage over non powered styluses, however. Being powered, the stylus is able to trace through thick paper or even several sheets. On the minus side, the batteries will eventually wear out and will have to be replaced. Fortunately, the stylus will “sleep” when not in use, in order to conserve battery life. It should also be noted that, unlike the Wacom Erasing UltraPen, the stylus does not support an erasing feature.
The control panel software is well designed and did not create any conflicts with my vast suite of extensions and control panels. It allows the user to adjust the pressure sensitivity to suit their needs and has visual feedback for the adjustment process. As mentioned above, the control panel allows the user to adjust the tablet to screen mapping, set the button functions and set the functions of the eighteen user-configurable keys.
The manual is very well written and provides very clear descriptions and instructions. The illustrations are very clear and used effectively. The documentation is, in fact, a textbook example of what hardware documentation should be.
The DrawingSlate II compares very favorably with its competition. While it lacks some features that are possessed by competing tablets (like Wacom’s new tablets with the Erasing UltraPen) it competes very favorably in the area of price. The average mail order price for a DrawingSlate II is $219.95, while the Wacom ArtZ II 6” x 8” tablet is priced at $329, and the Summagraphics Summa Expression (a 6” x 8” tablet) is priced at $299. Given the high quality of the DrawingSlate II, it competes very well against these other tablets.
 
I have been using my DrawingSlate II for several months and I have been extremely pleased with its performance. I have used it extensively and with a variety of graphics programs (such as Deneba’s Canvas and MacroMedia’s Freehand) and it has performed flawlessly, with no compatibility problems. It offers a good sized active area, pressure sensitivity, user-definable keys, and a well thought-out design. While it doesn’t quite match the feature set of the Wacom ArtZ II tablets with the Erasing UltraPen, it offers excellent quality at a very reasonable price and is an ideal choice for budget conscious consumers.
