How to Turn Your Mouse Cursor into a Finger

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Back when I was on TechTV, I had a free utility that I used to change my mouse cursor into a floating hand. I had a lot of fun using a finger pointer to demonstrate things during live calls. Some people ask me to this day what program I used to create that. It was called CursorXP, available from Stardock. That program isn’t available now, but its replacement – CursorFX – looks to be even better!

Stardock CursorFX is a program that lets you use and create incredibly cool looking Windows mouse cursors. CursorFX users can create and use cursors that look and feel far superior to anything you’ve ever seen before! Best of all, it’s really easy to create your own super-charged cursors! It integrates into the standard Mouse interface of Windows and is easy to turn on and off as you need.

Now, I’m not going to leave you Mac users in the dark. There’s something out there for you, too! The finger cursor I’m about to show you is slightly different than the one you could have used from CursorXP. This one is really only for demonstration purposes. It’s not very practical to use for your “all-the-time” cursor. However, it is a lot of fun! This one is called PhoneFinger. And yes, the gigantic floating finger is really the mouse cursor!

PhoneFinger transforms your Mac’s mouse cursor into a realistic simulated human finger for testing and demoing iPhone applications and websites. Because of the iPhone’s high-resolution screen, Apple’s iPhone Simulator may use an area on your Mac’s display that’s physically far larger than an actual iPhone. This makes designing and testing user interfaces troublesome.

With the newest version you can even design your own hands! You can pick up and move windows. You can minimize or maximize – basically anything you’d do with a normal mouse cursor. You can change the size of the hand, to make it fit your screen better. Choose a male finger, or a more feminine model – complete with nail polish!

There is a minimalist mode, which is just a floating circle. So when you need to highlight something on your Mac, you can point at it with a finger, or have a circle around it. This is a free and fun way to give a presentation, or just mess around on your own time.

• Gyration Air Mouse Elite In-Air Cursor Control using Patented MotionSenseTM Technology and Optical Sensor GYM5600NA
• Targus Wireless Presenter with Cursor Control (AMP06US)
• Gyration Air Mouse Elite In-Air Cursor Control using Patented MotionSenseTM Technology and Optical Sensor with Low Profile Keyboard GYM5600LKNA
• Evaluation of cursor capturing functions in a target positioning task [An article from: International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics]

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