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 - SpaceNavigator PEEasy installation. Operation is smooth. It feels like natural extension of one's body. I used it with Solid Works, eDrawings and Google Earth. Learning curve is very fast. It has 2 buttons. They feel little small for person with larger hands. Buttons can be programmed. It takes some tries to get used to it. For instance, I tried to program right button for pan only. Display pans right/left by sliding controler accordingly. When you slide up/down it does not work. To pan up/down, controler must be pulled up or pushed down. Overall it is a very neat device that is comfortable to use and it saves the mouse hand from fatique. It would be nice to have something like that for general Windows applications, notably for pan and zoom. Rating:  - Great! With a price this low, why wait?I love this product, using it for Google Earth, Autocad and Sketchup so far. It really transforms Google Earth - it becomes much more of an idle exploring tool with this added control & sensation of flying. Flew across the Irish Sea and investigated a dam I found in Scotland somewhere - fascinating stuff! Sketchup: again - transformation. Autocad - great in 3D mainly otherwise negligible. Nice build quality - heavy base - therefore not really a portable item though in size it could be. Down side: sometimes glitchy about switching between open programs. Also please note: install anything you are going to use this with BEFORE the drivers - only programs that are installed get driver support from the 3D navigator. Well worth fiddling with though at this price. Rating:  - A beautiful $59 paperweight The thing is beautiful, but the box and advertising seems to convey more OSX support than there actually is. Currently it only appears to work with Google Earth. I am a Blender user and a Second Life tinkerer, and hope this will support those apps before it goes obsolete. Deep searching of forums gets the occasional 3D connexion rep to type "we are looking into it but have no set plans at this time". Thanks, guys. The driver installation needs refactoring too. install disc > prompted to check for upgrades > get sent to site > download new driver > install > get prompted to check for upgrades (??) > configure > stare at useless thing on table. Rating: - Truly remarkable!I didn't get this for the reason that many folks would get this (i.e. to use in 3D authoring applications). Instead, I got this because I'm a software developer and love to tinker with input devices like this, and I wanted to use this to emulate the behavior of a mouse, and so my review is focused primarily on the ergonomics of the device itself. In short, it does what it's designed to do very well! The first thing you'll probably notice is that this thing is HEAVY! You'll know it isn't intended to be used like a mouse as soon as you pick it up. Instead, it sits stationary on a surface -- aided by a rubber-like ring on the bottom to keep it from slipping around-- where you control it by pressing gently on the rubberized cap in the desired direction. If you're like me, I don't think it'll take you long to get used to the SpaceNavigator's sleek & stylish appearance. With a brushed finish to the heavy metal (stainless steel?) base, and with a cool blue glow emanating from underneath the control cap, it lends a distinctively sophisticated air to any desktop. Translation along and rotation around each of the axes is EXTREMELY smooth and precise, with literally hundreds of distinct degrees of sensitivity (i.e. between 350 & 450) in each direction, and yet the comfortable rubberized cap doesn't have to be moved very far to achieve such fine control. The deadzone is VERY small, with input being registered at even the SLIGHTEST touch in any direction -- which is quite ideal, considering how this is intended to be used. However, unlike all joysticks that I've ever used, the deadzone is consistently at exactly the same spot every time! Considering all these things, I think this really says a lot about the high quality of the product! These great features make for a really enjoyable and immersive experience while using the SpaceNavigator. Although I've never used this in any of the supported 3D authoring applications, I have really enjoyed using it in Google Earth. Never has navigating in 3D been so surprisingly & captivatingly intuitive! If my experience with the SpaceNavigator in Google Earth is any indicator of how well it performs in other 3D applications, then I have no doubt that this is clearly one of the best products on the market for intuitively manipulating either an object or camera in 3D. As a programmer, it was nice to see that this product has a well-documented API and that it seems to be well-supported. The little control panel application that installs with the driver seems adequate for most purposes, but for those looking for more advanced features might find it lacking. Each of the 2 buttons can be assigned to one of a number of functions, but with only 2 buttons, don't expect to be able to do much customizing. It certainly can't replace a mouse, and it does take some getting used to, but it has really grown on me even in the short time I've had it! I really am quite impressed with the overall quality of this product. Really the only other feature that I can think of which would make the SpaceNavigator PE significantly more useful than it already is would be for it to sport more than only 2 buttons. (But I guess if I were willing to pay about 3 times the price, I could get the SpaceTraveller which has 8 buttons!) So if you're like me and enjoy trying out new input devices, or if you're interested in finding a more efficient & intuitive way to use one of the supported applications -- even if it's only Google Earth -- then I say just get it! I doubt you'll regret it! Rating:  - Flimsy & inconvenient[...]Pro: * It indeed feels cool to control Google Earth with it. * To a degree, senses your force, i.e. the further you push the knob, the faster the object on the screen moves, although the gradations are few. Contra: * It feels very flimsy. I'm afraid it would break in no time. * It is VERY HARD to make it do precisely what you want. For example, when you try to pan, you will eventually fall into tilting, even though you didn't mean to. Tilting similarly tends to turn into zooming, and so on. * The springs are too tight. After just about 10 minutes, my muscles are aching. * The device isn't supported "natively". As you know, you can plug in any mouse, joystick, keyboard, etc., and Windows will recognize the device and make use of it immediately. Not with this one, it requires software download (the CD has obsolete version) * That software download size is ENORMOUS!!! 100+ Mb!!! Come on guys, the whole 3D Studio package took less than that a couple years ago, but 100MB for a freaking DRIVER??? You oughtta be kidding. So all in all, you better buy a 6-axis joystick.
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