Andrew Liszewski

is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid.

Ploopy has announced another open source mouse alternative that skips touchpads and trackballs . While the new Ploopy Bean looks like a tiny travel-friendly mouse, you don’t need to move it around. Instead, surrounded by four buttons is a red pointing stick similar to the TrackPoint that IBM included on its ThinkPad laptops long before Lenovo took over the brand .

The Canadian company only shares pricing in its local currency but the Bean is available for preorder now through Ploopy’s website for $69.99, or around US $51. Beneath a pre-assembled 3D-printed enclosure that lets you print your own replacement parts is a highly-sensitive Texas Instruments magnetic sensor powering the Bean’s pointing stick capable of detecting movements as small as 3 microns.…