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Engadget's recession antidote: win a Kensington SlimBlade Trackball!
This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn't want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back -- so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We'll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff / companies stop sending things. Today we've got a Kensington SlimBlade Trackball on offer. Read the rules below (no skimming -- we're omniscient and can tell when you've skimmed) and get commenting! Check after the break for some photos of the prize!Special thanks to Kensington for providing the gear!The rules: Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for "fixing" the world economy, that'd be sweet too. You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine. Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one Kensington SlimBlade Trackball. Approximate value is $129. If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Entries can be submitted until Tuesday, March 10th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck! Full rules can be found here.
Kensington SlimBlade Trackball hands-on
Kensington promised us that the SlimBlade Trackball would turn us into "smooth operators," and we certainly felt retro behind the ball -- we hadn't used a trackball since the original Kensington Turbo Mouse. Muscle memory issues and a loss of efficiency drove us back to our trusty MX Laser after just an hour or so, but overall the Slim Blade is a nice little peripheral with some slick drivers -- mode changes pop up in an HUD, and spinning the ball latitudinally works like a scroll wheel -- so if you're a trackball fan, the gallery below is probably worth a long look.%Gallery-45397%
Kensington SlimBlade trackball for the smooth operator
Yep, Kensington is still making desktop trackballs for all of you out there still rocking your original Macworld '92 T-shirts, and its latest model is actually quite attractive -- the SlimBlade trackball features a minimalist low-profile base with four buttons and a ruby red ball. The drivers are equally slick, displaying mode changes on screen in an HUD, letting you know when you've flipped from cursor to media control to view control profiles. Not a bad way to spend $129 if you're into trackballs, we suppose -- and we wholeheartedly support any product whose press release claims it'll turn us into "smooth operators." Video after the break.[Via Engadget Chinese]
Kensington introduces the ShareCentral peripheral hub, SlimBlade Bluetooth mouse
Kensington has just unloaded a slew of new "back to school" items on the world -- luckily for you, only about three of them are interesting. The first item worth your precious time is the ShareCentral ($39.99 - $79.99), a series of USB / peripheral hubs that allow you to share printers, scanners, or other USB devices amongst several computers without the typical mountain of cables. The other items of interest are the new $59.99 SlimBlade Bluetooth mouse, which is -- you guessed it -- a Bluetooth mouse / presentation remote, and the $39.99 Ci95m Wireless Mouse, a 2.4GHz input device with a "nano receiver" and rubberized exterior. Both mice are available now, the ShareCentral will be available at the end of the month.Read - Kensington ShareCentral Brings Greater Convenience and Ease to Home Computing Shared TasksRead - Kensington Announces Ultimate in Mouse Mobility and Flexibility for School, Work or Play
Kensington's SlimBlade Media Notebook set relies on magnets not magic
In perhaps the largest dose of hyperbole you'll taste this year, Kensington is claiming to "reinvent the computer interface" with their new SlimBlade Media Notebook set. No, we're not talking mult-touch, speech, or thought control here; just magnets. Sorry, no magical Steorn energy, they're simply using magnets to attach a media remote and keypad module to the sides of a keyboard. Whoopee. The wireless laser mouse features a 360-degree scroll ball while the keyboard goes both ways with PC or Mac hotkeys. A Wireless USB micro-receiver controls all the modules and tucks away inside the mouse when not in use. The kit goes for $130, or $150 with the Vista MediaCenter / FrontRow enabled remote control. Pretty sweet all-in-all but hardly a re-invention of the computer interface.
