(Credit:
SmartFish Technologies)
I switched from mice to trackpads and trackballs years ago after my wrist started getting all janky on me after a few hours a day of work. That's because seesaw mouses like SmartFish Technologies' ErgoMotion laser mouse didn't exist back then.
Looks like fun, no?
(Credit: SmartFish Technologies)The mouse, which just launched officially, isn't static like most, but rather has a Y axis and X axis pivoting motion so it fits more naturally in your hand as it moves. When you push a mouse forward the geometry of your hand is different than when you pull it back. The mouse is designed to shift with your hand's geometry. Neat trick.
Made by the same company that brought us the Pro:Motion family of moving keyboards, the ErgoMotion laser mouse goes for about $50 and works with Windows or Mac OS X and connects via a wireless USB dongle (included) so the wires don't get in the way and force the mouse one way or another. It's also designed for left hand or right hand use, something many ergonomic mice don't feature.
I haven't had a chance to try an ErgoMotion mouse yet, but it certainly looks comfortable. Which reminds me, I should look getting into some ergonomic pants for my Thanksgiving feast.
Windows users still drooling over Apple's multitouch Magic Mouse might finally have an excuse to step into an Apple store, thanks to "a little hackery" by UneasySilence.
The hack exploits a vulnerability in Apple's latest Bluetooth Update, uncovering Magic Mouse drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows from XP to 7. We've yet to put it to the test ourselves, but users online are reporting success with full use of the Magic Mouse's vertical touch-scrolling. Leave a comment and let us know if it works for you.
We should mention that since this is a hack, there's no guarantee Apple will allow the mouse to work with Windows indefinitely, so enjoy it while you can. Of course, if you share our hesitation about buying a $69 pointing device with no buttons, you can always check out our updated roundup of CNET Reviews' top-scoring mice or go nuts with the OOMouse's 18 clickable buttons.
(Credit:
Hanaoka)
Japanese artist Hanaoka likes to cover objects in grass. Cars, business card holders, cufflinks, ashtrays, compact mirrors...you name it. He even blankets computer peripherals with the stuff.
To wit: the grass mouse pictured at right. Pair it with this grass cell phone and start the hose (or maybe that's not such a good idea).
Thanks to my ever-helpful co-worker/translator Takayuki Sakurai, I'm able to glean that Hanaoka has, in the past, made his verdant mouse available for purchase, though we're not seeing evidence that it's currently for sale. If you're liking the grass-on-all-things idea, however, the artist does sell a grass-covered badge for 300 yen (about $3.50) and a grass-covered cell phone strap for 700 yen (about $7.50).
Hanaoka donates 50 percent of his proceedings to a nonprofit called Shibafu Sprit, which aims to make Osaka-area schoolyards green (Shibafu is word for grass in Japanese).
We hear he's also been donating to the Chia Pet Rescue Foundation.
Initially inspired by the keyboards on the Treo smartphones, the OOMouse was designed by a game designer who was annoyed with the paltry number of buttons available on high-end gaming mice.
(Credit: WarMouse)First impression of the OOMouse? Wow! Never have we seen so many buttons on a pointing device (18 at last count). To top it off, it may even be the first mouse to sport an analog joystick on the side.
Private company WarMouse is primarily marketing the OOMousebeing as a peripheral for OpenOffice (a Microsoft Office alternative), but we feel it's targeted at the wrong audience. With the 18 programmable mouse buttons, clickable scroll wheel, three different button modes (key, keypress, and macro), and up to 16 macros on the joystick, the OOMouse can launch 52 different commands with the touch of a button. This makes it perfect for real-time strategy games like World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2. Thanks to the onboard memory, the mouse itself can store specific macros for up to 63 different games and applications. The resolution can also be adjusted from 400dpi to 1,600dpi.
Our only complaint? With so many buttons you'll probably need an exceptional memory, especially when switching between programs. The OOMouse supports Windows, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems and will retail for $74.99 when the online store opens.
(Source: Crave Asia)
(Credit:
Intelligent Design)
Great. So you sprang for an uber-expensive laptop the likes of the Sony Vaio X or Dell Adamo. But what's this? You dare put your el cheapo $50 mouse next to that gorgeous and overpriced portable?
If you do not want to be arrested by the fashion police, then only this wireless mouse by Dutch firm Intelligent Design will do. To quote from the press release, the ID Mouse is made from "grade 1 titanium and high-quality plastic resin" and has a neodymium scroll wheel. Using the standard Bluetooth protocol, it requires two AAA-size batteries to power its laser sensor and comes in white or black.
But that's not the best part. This oh-so-desirable rodent has an oh-so-expensive price tag of 800 euros ($1,176.80). Compatible with both Windows and Mac, you can order one at the Web site--if you've got cash to burn.
(Source: Crave Asia)
Neuroscientists at Princeton University created a new way to study the neurons of the classic mouse-in-a-maze: strap it to a suspended ball and have it run through a virtual maze. That first virtual maze? Derived from a Quake 2 level.
Apparently it's difficult to control and study the neurons of a mouse when it's physically moving, and this method makes that easier. The ball is suspended on a jet of air, and the mouse is strapped in place with a collar on top of it (like a giant trackball, sort of) while running on a spherical treadmill.
Given that I don't understand psychology at all, or even totally know what a neuron is, I'm going to go ahead and assume this is an elaborate ruse to get a mouse to play Quake 2. The researchers detail their findings in the latest issue of the journal Nature. Well played, scientists.
This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.
(Credit:
GlideTV)
With the exception of Netflix and YouTube, many online video providers aren't natively available on set-top boxes or game consoles--Hulu being the most notable example. That's led many online video junkies to go with the most direct workaround: connecting their PCs directly to their big-screen TVs. Generally, it works like a charm--but requires a big keyboard and mouse to sit on the coffee table for navigation duties.
It's that niche--the living room input device--that the new GlideTV Navigator is designed to fill. The wireless pointing device is a disembodied touch pad flanked by a handful of backlit buttons, including volume and playback controls, as well as dedicated Enter, Back, and Escape keys. The $149 package includes a charging cradle and a USB receiver. While the Navigator is compatible with Windows PCs, Macs, and the PS3, GlideTV's onscreen keyboard application will only be available for Windows.
(Credit:
GlideTV)
According to GlideTV, the Navigator is designed to offer an ergonomic alternative to navigating such mediacentric applications as "Windows Media Center, Apple iTunes, Boxee, Apple Front Row, SageTV, Firefox, and any Web browser." We'll be reviewing it later this month, at which time we hope to compare it with other alternative input devices, such as gyroscopic mice and the Logitech diNovo Mini Keyboard.
In spite of its novelty factor, Windows 7's multitouch capability faces some major hurdles to mass adoption. Touch-screen displays aren't exactly ubiquitous, and few serious PC users would consider reaching out across a desk to touch their displays for any real length of time. It seems Microsoft is tackling both issues with a series of prototype touch-capable mice it unveiled today.
The five mice prototypes come from Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group, which will be presenting a paper on the mice at this week's User Interface Software and Technology Conference in British Columbia, Canada. Microsoft already announced a pressure-sensitive keyboard at the UIST back in August.
For the mice, Microsoft has five different designs to demonstrate. We'll hand off the description chores to Microsoft's PR department:
(Credit:
Microsoft)
FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection) Mouse: FTIR Mouse is a mouse design that uses the principle of frustrated total internal reflection and a built-in camera to sense user's touches on top of an arc-shaped piece of acrylic.
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I don't normally indulge statements from vendors in response to other company's announcements. Guess what? They think you should buy their product instead. Normally it's the graphics card guys that snipe back and forth via my in-box, but this morning was the first time I've seen competing PR over mice.
Microsoft's BlueTrack-powered Explorer Mouse can track on your pants, but not a glass coffee table.
(Credit: Microsoft)After extensive research to determine where people want to track, BlueTrack was designed to work where people use their PCs most--around the house on granite, carpet or a bedspread to on-the-go at a coffee shop table, on an airplane tray or even on your jeans. Tracking on glass is not a high priority for users--in fact, 93 percent of people admit glass is not a surface they encounter when using their computer.
The above was from a Microsoft spokesperson vial email. BlueTrack refers to Microsoft's mouse sensor released last year, which, while versatile, can't track on glass like Logitech's new Darkfield laser, announced in two new mice this morning.
The reason I'm willing to give Microsoft some air time on this is mostly because I'm curious. If, according to Microsoft, Logitech's glass-tracking Darkfield laser meets the needs of only an additional seven percent of users beyond those satisfied by BlueTrack, exactly how many people were clamoring to track on their jeans prior to BlueTrack?
Logitech's Darkfield-powered Performance Mouse MX, on the other hand, can handle glass.
(Credit: Logitech)Microsoft actually makes a decent point later in the e-mail when it says that you can get a BlueTrack mouse for around $40. Logitech's new Darkfield mice go for $99 for the desktop model, and $79 for the laptop version. The price gap isn't surprising given that the Darkfield products hit the market today, but if you're currently experience mousing surface difficulties and you don't need to track on glass, Microsoft's BlueTrack products are a more cost-effective option than Logitech's new mice, at least for now.
Once Logitech's Darkfield prices start to drop, however, Microsoft's argument will be a little harder. If you're not a member of Microsoft's unserved glass-tracking seven percent, you wouldn't pay extra to track on glass right now. But as the price gap between Darkfield and BlueTrack mice inevitably narrows, why would you not opt to have glass-tracking capability for the same price? You could even keep it (wait for it...) in your jeans' back pocket.
Apparently unhappy with falling behind in the input arms race, Logitech announced its response to Microsoft's BlueTrack mouse sensor technology this morning by way of two new mice bearing its new Darkfield laser. Unlike traditional laser sensors, or even BlueTrack, Darkfield will track on pretty much everything, up to and including nonmirrored glass.
Logitech's Performance Mouse MX
(Credit: Logitech)The desktop-size Darkfield product is the Logitech Performance Mouse MX. Retailing for $99.99, the Performance Mouse MX replaces the MX 1100 Cordless as Logitech's new flagship desktop mouse. You get the usual array of high-end mouse features with the Performance Mouse MX, including rechargeable batteries, wireless operation, and Logitech's adjustable fast scroll wheel design. It also has the standard pair of forward and back buttons on the left side, as well as Logitech's extra-comfortable sculpt.
We haven't used the mouse long enough to write a full review, but our initial hands-on suggests that Darkfield is the real thing. We tried the mouse on a pane of glass and experienced no discernible jitter or precision loss, at least in our initial Web navigation test. We were also glad to see that Logitech extended its new Unifying USB microreceiver to the Performance Mouse MX. The Unifying receiver, which debuted last month, is not only small, but it also lets you link up with other Logitech wireless devices in its Unified product family.
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