Logitech reinvents the Sony Jog Dial™

I can't help but giggle whenever a company is lauded for reinventing the wheel in IT. Today's example:

Logitech just announced a new keyboard with a dial, customizable through their software. It looks nice and solid—as Logitech hardware usually does—and it works on macOS and Windows.

I read the article on The Verge and watched the video. All I could think of was how much this reminded me of the Sony Jog Dial™ built into my first own laptop, a 14" Sony Vaio back in 2001.

Sony Jog Dial on a Vaio laptop.
Image credit: ITCua

It, too, was backed by drivers and a customization app. I loved this thing to death, having used it for everything from navigating the Start Menu, to controlling Winamp, to running system macros that took care of actions requiring a lot of tedious clicking.

So yes, if the software is sufficiently easy to use and flexible and if the integrations with third party apps work well, this new Logitech keyboard will undoubtedly be a good tool. But it's really nothing new.

Alex Hoffmann @mangochutney