A colleague of mine has the wet kitty nose version on his Thinkpad and I had a chance to touch it personally last week. Definitely better compared to the hard nipple I've had to deal with in the past. I still prefer a touch pad for normal travel work and an official mouse otherwise.

I used to use trackballs when I was doing heavy graphics work and I liked them, especially the Kensington versions that basically felt like a Cue-ball. It really freed up the muscles in the hand for very precise pointing.