New mice, pen tablets and keyboards come out all the time, but when’s the last time you can remember a genuinely new input device developed to increase your productivity while using the creative applications you depend on on a daily basis? That’s the idea behind NuLOOQ — a new series of devices and software from peripheral maker Logitech, which today introduced a new input device and software application aimed specifically at creative professionals.
NuLOOQ starts with the navigator, a $149.99 rotary peripheral that provides you with instant access to commonly used tools and features in Creative Suite 2 applications. Coming in March, the navigator will be available in conjunction with “tooldial” software that’s also available separately for $49.99.
Designed to work with a keyboard and a mouse, the NuLOOQ navigator is a round, stationary input device about half the size of a tennis ball that sits under your non-mousing hand. The circular surface is embedded with buttons, and it’s ringed by a rubber-like material at the base that can be twisted like a jog controller on a video deck.
Together with the tooldial software, the navigator helps Creative Suite users call up frequently used commands, adjust option values, navigate images, access menus, zoom and scroll without having to move their mouse cursor across palettes and navigation bars.
You can use the navigator to adjust brush size and text leading with a flick of the wrist, for example. The software is also context-sensitive and application-aware.
The NuLOOQ tooldial software is also available separately. It reorganizes frequently used tools, commands and access to files in a rotary menu that’s divided into eight wedges. Eight additional wedges appears when the cursor hovers over the original wedge.
You can activate the tooldial software using a programmable hotkey, mouse click or using one of the navigator’s “triggerpoint” buttons. The rotary menu appears under the cursor and then goes away again after the task is done.
You can customze the tooldial by dragging and dropping commands, files or applications into the wedges. And it’s application-aware, so if you’ve set up a tooldial menu for a specific application like Photoshop or Illustrator, that’s what will appear when it’s activated.
System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.4.4 or later, G5 or better, 1GB RAM, 50MB hard disk space, and Adobe Creative Suite 2 applications.