Couple years ago, when I was young (hmmm, this makes me sounds so old), I connected a volume knob with my PC speaker (at that time, most DOS game still use PC speaker sound effect). I really like the result as I can control the PC speaker sound easily using the knob or turn it on/off easily.

Griffin Technology has bring back my memory. Their product, PowerMate, is a USB Volume Knob capable to control your audio volume simply by spinning the knob wheel. But this volume knob is much better than one in my old computer. You can use it edit home movies / audio or scroll through long documents. You can also reprogram it and customize it to do anything you want in any application.

With the included software, you can create your own Key Command. You can assign the wheel to scroll through Microsoft Word document and save it when you press the knob. Or you can ask PowerMate to scrub through songs in sequencers and music apps. Really cool, huh?

PowerMate Key Command works by “activating” the assigned keyboard shortcut key. For example, in one application, the Save File shortcut is F2. You add this preset to PowerMate, assign either the wheel scroll or button press to that keyboard shortcut (F2), and set the preset to work with that application. Now anytime you scroll the wheel or press the knob button (depend on your configuration above), it will trigger the F2 keyboard keys and if the application is opened, it will automatically Save the file.

[ More Information About PowerMate USB Volume Knob ]