The GameBall Pro got out of prototyping:

GameBall Pro will be a right-handed trackball with a 44mm ball and the latest internal gaming grade components. It will be wired and wireless (2.4GHz) and run at 1000hz polling rate. In addition, it will have a Bluetooth connection option at 125Hz. You can find out more details about GameBall Pro from our videos on YouTube. We will be releasing more videos as we get closer to preorders.

Recently, we met our final major prototyping milestone. We have no outstanding issues and have moved into final testing and manufacturing preparations. This puts us about 2 months out for preorders unless we discover an issue during final testing, but so far so good. The goal would be to start pre-orders around early October and deliver to customers around a month later. The final price will be announced as we get closer, and be in line with similar products from Kensington and Elecom.

The GameBall Pro prelease will have a special Limited Edition (LE) version. This version will have a red ball, red base, and red logo. The final version Standard Edition (SE) will have a black ball and black base and grey logo. All the internals and functions will be the same. After we sell out of the pre-release units, we will release the SE version. I anticipate this will happen quickly.

Regarding the original GameBall which will be discontinued:

I have made the difficult decision to discontinue the original GameBall trackball, primarily due to rising production costs. Manufacturing the original model in the United Kingdom has become economically unsustainable; maintaining production would require a retail price well beyond market competitiveness.

I want to extend my sincere gratitude to our UK manufacturing partner for their exceptional work over the years. However, the commercial landscape for manufacturing a trackball in the UK has fundamentally shifted, and current labor, material, and service costs are no longer practical.

Final Inventory Release: We have secured one final production batch at our previous pricing. These units will be available for purchase on Thursday July 30th at 1:00 PM PST. Once sold out, the original GameBall will be permanently retired. Warranty & Pricing: These final units will retain the standard warranty and return policy, and will be priced at $188 USD (shipping charges are separate). We have set aside a portion of this inventory specifically to honor warranty claims moving forward. Shipping Limitations: Due to logistical constraints, this final batch can only be shipped within the United States. I apologize to our international customers. If you are located outside the US and wish to secure a unit, you will need to arrange independent freight forwarding.

Doesn't look that ergonomic to me.

Adam from PCWorld is a lifelong trackball user who has been using Kensington's previous Expert Mouse for a long time. He reviewed the new TB800 EQ.

Been liking my GameBall so far but are there any Kensington users? What they are like?

(Cross-posting this from !3dprinting@lemmy.ml. Hopefully I'm doing it the right way, sorry if not! I know there's like threadiverse cross-posting meta going on about cluttering up people's timelines and such.)

This is the 57-68mm ball size version, with an Aramith tournament series cue ball and Rexroth BTUs. I printed the new parts out of PHA, both for sustainability and because I just LOVE the way it feels, almost kinda leathery? It's got the new hi-res scrolling firmware that Ploopy released, although it took some fiddling (this, basically) in Linux to get it to work right.

So, as some people have said about this mod already, the stiction is really almost too low. To compensate, I have my sensitivity turned way down and mouse acceleration turned off. Even then, you really have to use it on a stable surface for any accuracy. I used to use my unmodded one on the bed occasionally. This one rolls so freely that any shifting of the surface beneath will get the ball drifting around. Still, it doesn't take too long to adapt, and I don't think I'd go back. Also the noise isn't nearly as loud as some people have said, and it's not an unlikable sound anyway.

There's a hi-res scrolling Ploopy Knob on it's way in the mail right now, and once it arrives, I think I might switch this Adept to Plodah's alternative firmware. It may not have hi-res scrolling, but it has SO MANY other features! In particular, I could replace the dragscroll button with Plodah's "sniper mode" button, which seems super useful.

Comparison with the unmodded Adept:

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/32994623

Does anyone have experience of Ceratech's trackballs? There doesn't seem to be a lot of info or reviews about them. I wonder how they compare to the Logitech & Elecom offerings.

I've been using the Elecom Deft Pro and Huge for a few years now. Huge I haven't used anymore for months. I guess I'll start there.

Cons of the Huge is, well, it's huge. The wrist rest area is awkwardly angled for my wrist, especially if I'm using my stupidly purchased weeb mousepads, IYKYK a separate wrist rest. It makes me put my whole arm way to extended. Otherwise I like the huge ball size. Speaking of angles, I never really tried to get wedges to bring the Huge more vertical. I did put a small wrist rest on the left side to bring it up a bit and do find it more comfortable.

On to the Deft Pro, cons would be I'd like it to be a bit bigger I think? Especially the ball, but it's functionally solid. Works much better with a separate wrist rest. Since it's small it's my office mouse that I lug around in my bag.

Both have started to get unintended double clicks. I never really have that much stiction problems with mine, but maybe my standard is low as these are the only two trackball mice I use.

Should I go with the ploopy classic? but I'll miss the extra buttons the elecoms have. not that I use it for anything important, mind you. I just assigned shortcuts to go left/right of tabs in my browser.

Maybe the adept? I never has a symmetrical trackball since the PS/2 kensington Orbit I knicked from my dad's stash that started my on my trackball journey.

Should I go with the gameball? Like I do game, but not in anything PVP or competitive.

Or should I just buy a new Deft Pro? I really don't have that much to complain. Even the ball size is a nitpick I could live with. The Huge really has to fix it's hugeness. So I wouldn't really buy it again.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.zip/post/159752