Is there any way to escape the laptop touchpad?
OK, just have to bitch a moan a little...
When I bought my hp pavillion laptop, it wasn't because I thought it was a superior piece of hardware. It wasn't because I thought it would be able to match my desktop pound for pound. It wasn't, in short, because I thought it was the laptop solution I had been searching for my whole life. All things considered, my pavillion is a machine that gets the job done, but it's nothing to write home about.
But it did have one feature I prized over everything else: a feature that made me *prefer* it over my old supercharged Alienware laptop: it had a little switch right over the touchpad that let you turn it off.
I hate touchpads. I loathe touchpads. I, I'll come right out and say it, I *despise* touchpads. I find them awkward, they're impossible to use when you type fast, and on very warm days when your hand sweats you can't use them at all.
So... the ability to manually turn the damn thing off? It seemed like one of the best design features I'd ever seen on a laptop.
And now what do I see? HP IS PHASING THAT FEATURE OUT OF THEIR NEW MODELS. Damn it all to hell.
Looks like my next laptop is going to have to be a Lenovo Thinkpad, since they still have the eraserhead joysticks. But I notice they *also* have those goddamn touchpads as well... I can only hope they come with a fucking off switch.
... there. I feel better now.
