Elecom optical trackball [USB] (5 button Black) M-XT1URBK

I was in the market for a mouse to replace my Apple Magic Mouse with a wired mouse - it just seemed like the battery died at the most inopportune moment, and was a real pain since I keep my Macbook closed and use an external monitor. The Magic Mouse just wouldn't reconnect unless I opened the Macbook. I decided to buy wired components vs wireless.The mouse arrived quickly and was well packaged. Setup was a breeze, plug and play. I did have to download the Elecom mouse utility from their website to map the mouse buttons in a way that made sense to me - it took about 5 minutes total.Using a trackball is awesome - I wish I had done it sooner. It took a couple of hours to really get used to it, but now I feel like I've been using it forever, even though its only been a day. I use an ultra widescreen monitor, and with my old mouse getting the cursor from one end of the screen to the other was a real pain - I had to lift the mouse off the desk and reposition it.The size and the shape of the mouse is great - feels like it was custom made for my hand. I wear a size large glove, if that helps any. The buttons are very well positioned.One thing that confuses me is that this is a 5 button mouse, but I actually count 6 buttons. There's one that sits under my ring finger - it clicks, but doesn't appear to do anything.Other than that, everything is really straight forward, and I'm very happy with my purchase.Edit 03/27/2015:The button that didn't appear to do anything actually slows the mouse cursor movement when pressed. Some might find that useful, but I would like the ability to map that button.Edit 04/16/2015:Added image of the Elecom Mouse Assistant 4.Edit 10/20/2015Problem & Fix: Upgraded my OS to El Capitan, and 2 of the buttons stopped working. Elecom Mouse Assistant would also throw an error. I downloaded the latest version of the software from http://www.elecom.co.jp/support/download/peripheral/mouse/assistant/mac/I had to uninstall the Elecom software by clicking Applications >> Utilities >> ELECOM_uninstall - there's no dialogue while it's running, but a box will pop up telling you to restart your mac. Once restarted, open the previously downloaded dmg file (basic mouse functionality still works), and run the pkg installer. Another restart and you should be good to go.

I like the system. It is noticeably different in dimension to the 570 Logitech but still good. The only problems I have had with it come from the initial set up and connection. Mine apparently came directly from Japan with the manual being in Japanese. I am running windows 7 and it could not find the driver for the mouse. It took awhile to find the driver download on Elecom's website since it was also mostly Japanese. The time it took to get it running was about 20-30 minutes after searching for the driver. I was just about to return it due to the difficulty in set up when I guessed at the "download" button on Elecom's website. There was nothing in the description that made it clear and grabbed my attention that said "This is going to be in Japanese and difficult to get started and using." However when I got my "do you want to review this" email, it had the information on it. I still don't see anything in the description about the language problems. I may have missed something but I expect better from Amazon.For all the extra features, I would recommend it with the suggestion to be prepared for a possible setup goose chase. Otherwise order the Logitech 570 and put up with the small hitch in the trackball.

Edit: The longer I use this, the worse it gets! Changing my rating to 2 star. Been getting worse for a month now. The sticking/hanging problem with this mouse is -horrible-. Cleaning doesn't fix it, gads, nothing fixes it.Edit edit: I ordered an M570 blue marble from Logitech, and it it's working fine with that. However buying an $18 marble to make a $40 mouse work ... yeah. Also, still no fix for the refresh rate.This is a mouse that gets a great deal right, and answers a major need for a wired replacement to the Logitech Trackman man that Logitech itself has abandoned. That got it four stars. What it got right was worth 5 stars, but there's a lot wrong.1- It's small. The design of this mouse is perfect, so let me be clear: I, and most people I would recommend this mouse to, are over 6' tall. This is soooo close to the Trackman Marble ergonomics, but it's not there. If your hands are small, you may love it, but they need to make a bigger one for North Americans.2. It does track poorly. I used this for 4 days before I wrote this, but it's true. When it's working, this mouse is great. But it frequently loses 'track' at low speeds, like browsing and Windows work task with the mouse at slower speeds. I now realize that it -does- frequently pause for no reason, making it dead-in-the-water for gamers. Unless gamers like being dead in the water.3. The 'slow' mouse button is odd at best. This comes with a 'pinky switch', which at first seems really cool. A whole new button to map! But actually it's just a slow-down button for mouse movements, and if your mouse isn't on high, it doesn't slow much either. In practice, a dead 7th key that could have been programmable.4. Not a crime, but this was never a gamers' mouse. It could be one of the greats, rebuilt a little bigger, but the Elecom drivers don't support higher mouse polling rates so the whole high-res support was basically wasted.5. Sort of -1 Star. This is from Japan. All the docs and the website are in in Japanese. That should say 'quality' but it's actually built in China. And the behavior is erratic. A nice try from Elecom, but nowhere near enough to replace Logitech.Note: I made this my daily driver before I wrote this review. It hanging in places for no reason was part of writing it.Edit:Still using it for weeks now, partly because I really use the Forward/Back buttons a lot. But the hanging problem is -bad-. It's constantly hanging now. I thought about posting a video of this but it'd be hard to show the ball motion and screen at the same time. You can move the trackball and the pointer just sits there! We're talking the -ball- moves a 1/4" inch and the pointer doesn't move at all.I've cleaned it over and over, tried different motions, everything. It's just busted. I also swapped in a Trackman Marble ball and it got worse, not better. Lowered my rating to 3 stars because it just doesn't reliably work. And I desperately want it to work.I also wanted to add a shout out to Tradebank the seller. Regardless of the device issues, the seller shipped really fast!