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PDA mouse PAD

PDA as mouse, stylus tip mouse pad, or integrated optical mouse, or just wireless control of cursor
  (+4)
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Don't you think it is a waste to dock your PDA and then grab a mouse? Why not recharge, and control your desktop at the same time. Either an integrated optical mouse, or a much lower tech mouse pad with an appropriate bump, like a stylus tip, that could take advantage of the touch senstive screen. Just attach to the power/input cord, turn it over, screen down, on the stylus tip pad, and go. Maybe a slide out division could expose the mouse buttons on the back. Or, a rotating screen/button division could allow use of the button array already on the PDA. At the very least, even without recharging at the same time, the 5 way control should be able to control a mouse cursor.
allinone, Feb 06 2004

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       I would be more inclined to go for a camera/PDA that doubles as webcam when docked. I think of my PDA, a cheapo blank & white Handspring, as a notepad so using it as a mouse would not tally with my "usage metaphor".   

       Saying that the typical "plump" mice do tend to fit snugly into the palm of your hand so such a shape could allow more space for electronics and/or batteries if it was also a PDA.
Aristotle, Feb 06 2004
  

       you'll get my plus for new combo thought+
theircompetitor, Feb 06 2004
  

       Along a similar vein, I've often thought of setting up a remote desktop connection to a PDA and using it to control my home desktop on the fly. PDA+computing power+lots of apps=Wireless In class fun If only the transfer speed was high enough...
tsnow, Mar 22 2004
  

       I love it! One problem, only the newest PDAs have screens (and presumably screen digitizers) with resolution greater than 160 * 160, surely not good enough for use as a mouse. The newest mice have up to 1600 DPI sensors, this would have (assuming a 3" by 3" screen) a resolution of a bit over 50 DPI. I actually think that the webcam/pda idea might work better, considering that cameras are more expensive than mice. I'd rather spend 20 bucks for a mouse and use my PDA (which happens to have a built-in camera) to replace a 50 buck webcam.

[tsnow], I've seen it. But I forget where.
-----, Aug 14 2005
  

       [tsnow], pocketPC lets you do exactly that with RDP. And VNC on linux does the trick too.
neilp, Aug 15 2005
  
      
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