Comments on: Razer Naga Review: A Keyboard Lover’s Mouse

By: Flynn

Flynn — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 03:53:03 +0000

I personal love to use this mouse for everything and wouldn't want any other really good performance and good looking.

By: Glinski

Glinski — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:18:31 +0000

Does this suit a lefty? My nephew has cp and only use of his left hand. He wants me to buy him one as he plays wow. Please advise. Ty

By: Nathan Greenstein

Nathan Greenstein — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:07:50 +0000

You're right that one hand can stay on the keyboard, but I feel limited to half of the shortcuts available then. For me, it takes longer to move my hand to the right side of the keyboard to use a shortcut than it does to move my right hand off the mouse. Personally, I find that having shortcuts available on the mouse in addition to the keyboard is convenient and saves me some time, especially for shortcuts on the right side of the keyboard. But, of course, YMMV. Picking the most efficient way to interact with a computer is surprisingly personal and will be a little different for everyone.

Having a lot of profiles is helpful simply because I use a lot of apps. You're right that I could make a 'generic' profile with common, universal shortcuts and use that in most apps, and I do do that to some extent. On the other hand, since profiles are switched automatically, why not create a specialized one for each app? Even if I only created profiles for the complex apps I use regularly, I'd have six or seven.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check out rooSwitch. I can think of a few other things it would be useful for as well.

By: Kyle Cronin

Kyle Cronin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 07:44:08 +0000

Usually people that want to be efficient try to replicate as much of the mouse's function as they can with the keyboard, it's interesting that you've taken the opposite approach. However, I do take issue a bit with your statement that it takes time to switch to the keyboard - using a mouse is clearly a one-handed operation, leaving your other hand, typically your left hand, free to permanently sit on the left-hand side of the keyboard. In fact, when I'm at my desk, my left hand is more or less fixed on the left-hand side of the keyboard while my right hand moves back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse. Switching from navigating to typing takes a bit of time as my right hand moves over (though I've never been in such a hurry that that's been a problem) but my left hand is usually at the ready to issue keyboard commands.

I have a Logitech MX Revolution mouse and I use a total of four buttons on the device. Left, right, and middle click, and I've bound a key on the side to command-W to close windows. The mouse has an additional button I can use, as well as a thumb scroller, but I've never found a function to map that's more convenient than using the keyboard shortcut.

I can understand that in some apps, like Photoshop, having some extra buttons mapped to common features is useful, but your statement about the fact that you're limited to 5 profiles cracked me up - the mouse has 17 buttons and you need more than 5 profiles? Do you really have more than 5 apps where you can't simply use the built-in keyboard shortcuts? Besides, lots of apps have standard commands, so the basics like cut/copy/paste, close window/tab, etc are consistent throughout the UI and can be handled in a single profile.

However, in case you really are serious about plist-juggling, you might want to check out an app called rooSwitch I heard about the other day on the latest Mac Power Users podcast (a workflows show with Mac developer Daniel Jalkut, a good show and a recommended listen). The app basically handles the swapping out of the preferences for apps automatically. I don't know if this will work for preference pane preferences, but I don't see why not. It would be worth checking out if you're serious about it.

All in all, good review though. Looking forward to reading more.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:05:33 +0000

Sounds like a fascinating input device. Out of my price range, but if I were looking to spend that kind of money, I'd certainly consider this. Thanks for the review. Input devices are fun to learn about.

By: Nathan Greenstein

Nathan Greenstein — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:59:51 +0000

I don't use full screen apps on Lion (I use multiple monitors), but I do assign shortcuts for switching between apps and windows. Those are useful, and I can definitely see how buttons for switching between full screen apps would be useful.

By: Ian C.

Ian C. — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:57:30 +0000

Did you just assign keyboard shortcuts for moving between full screen apps? With Lion and my old Logitech mouse that's the one thing that's horribly disconnected: there aren't enough buttons on it to assign a next-full-screen-app/previous-full-screen-app combination and keep the mouse useful.