Thanks for this - takes me back! In hindsight I probably came very close to trying these out in IT in academia, but I quit my academia IT job in '96 to go to grad school. Worked in outsource software (and some hardware) QA & testing to pay for school, the years these devices were coming out, but never bumped into them (so to speak) in that context.

Also another example of marketing trumping technology, in that essentially unrelated functionality - wirelessness for mice in general - was such a factor in pushing these aside.