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(Credit: Logitech)

Hunting down mice isn't my personal idea of fun, but this mouse mission might not be so eek-worthy. Logitech has launched a contest inviting people to track its billionth mouse shipped, a milestone announced Wednesday.

A PR stunt to be sure, but also a nice chance to reflect on Logitech's 20-plus highly successful years in the mouse-making business (check out this cool PDF of Logitech mice that never made it out of the lab--hockey puck design, anyone?).

But back to the billionth mouse. The milestone mouse's journey will be chronicled on Logitech's blog, Blogitech. Each day, the notable mouse (named Billie, naturally) will post online mouse-related questions. Get a question right and you can enter a daily drawing to win a Logitech product.

Founded in a Swiss farmhouse in 1981, Logitech introduced its first retail mouse in 1985 and reached the 100 millionth mouse mark in 1996. Today, it says it sells mice in more than 100 countries worldwide and manufactures an average of 376,000 mice per day and 7.8 million every month.

The company timed its billionth-mouse announcement to coincide with the upcoming 40th anniversary of the first public demonstration of the computer mouse (which, coincidentally, some might also peg as the 40th anniversary of RSI).

Of course, with input methods like touch screens and gesture recognition becoming more common, it'll be interesting to see how many more mice from Logitech (and others) roll off the assembly line in years to come. Is Billie becoming anachronistic?

(Credit: Vat19)

As weird as this may seem--and make no mistake, it is weird--it will probably be appreciated by anyone whose pockets have been weighed down, or worn through, by too many gadgets. The "FreeHand" is a pouch that can be worn like a fingerless glove, a "flexible mesh pocket" that can stow everything from keys to a mobile phone.

Coolest-Gadgets says it looks like an RSI brace, though we think it could pass for a high-tech bowling glove. Either way, it gets dangerously close to date-repellant territory. Unless you can convince people that you're slowly morphing into Iron Man.

(Credit: Inventor Spot)

Here we go again. We've warned repeatedly about the insidious nature of fitness equipment attached to the desk, and now there's yet another way for unscrupulous employers to do us a "favor" by providing exercise opportunities without leaving the cubicle. Few, however, look as ridiculous as the setup depicted here.

The "Springflex UB" clamps onto the desktop and affords the opportunity to do "over 120 exercises that tone and firm your upper body" without ever leaving the chair, according to Inventor Spot. We certainly hope that the guy pictured here is a telecommuter.

The Springflex is specifically designed to help combat RSI, according to InventorSpot, giving "your arms and shoulders a workout while you read your email, favorite blogs." We have another idea: How about leaving the desk and going outside for a walk?

(Credit: USB Fever)

Silly us. Just when we were thought some sanity was coming to the trend of combo gadgets, along comes one that brings home the insane reality: a mouse with a built-in wristpad.

OK, maybe the idea isn't totally off the wall, but take a gander at this thing. It looks like something your crazy inventor uncle might concoct in the basement with some spare parts from an old Dustbuster.

USB Fever, which has brought us the likes of the USB heating pad (need we say more?) is peddling this supposedly ergonomic mouse with its unsightly attachment, which is filled with silica gel--that's right, the same stuff that comes in those ubiquitous little packets in everything from suitcases to foodstuffs. So don't gnaw on it.

Ideazon had a hefty hit with PC gamers a few years back--the innovative Zboard keyboard, which offered different keysets for specific games. It was rather clunky, but it succeeded in making PC gaming slightly friendlier--the Battlefield 2 keys were certainly very handy. Now Ideazon's back with the altogether sleeker Merc Stealth keyboard.

(Credit: Crave UK)

Instead of a swappable keyset, the Stealth has an extra-wide chassis with special gaming keys built into the left side. These are basically a second set of the keys you use most when playing FPS-type PC games, such as W, A, S, D, Shift, Space, and so on, but in a much more user-friendly design. It means you still use the key presses that are hard-wired into your shooter brain, but with less RSI and fewer mistaken keypresses. The W key, for instance, is exactly above the S, unlike on a normal keyboard, and both are much wider than your run-of-the-mill key.

Other features include a backlit keyboard so you can play in the dark--very cool if you're playing something scary like F.E.A.R.--which can change color at the press of a button. Red, blue and purple lighting is available for your customisation delight. Ideazon also bundles a very easy-to-use software tool to assign functions to each key, which brilliantly includes mods for dozens of the most popular games.

Testing the Merc Stealth out on a few of our favorite titles, we found the gaming keys responsive and very comfortable. The build quality is very high and (although obviously we haven't been hammering it for months) we imagine it'll last a good deal longer than a bog-standard keyboard would.

The only downside we could find was that the design has squashed the right-hand side of the keyboard together, so the cursor keys and those you'd normally find above them (Insert, Home, Page Up and so on) are all part of the number pad. This can be irritating if you plan to use the keyboard for more mundane pursuits.

The Ideazon Merc Stealth is available now for around 50 pounds (about $99).

(Source: Crave UK)

(Credit: Dvice)

We've never understood trackballs. Like the folks over at Dvice, we too remember being told that everyone would be be using them in a few years. That was 1995.

We tried our hand(s) at it too, with one about the size of a softball that was attached to an even bigger mouse--both of which were supposed to eliminate RSI forever. Years of physical therapy later, we're back to our old wireless Kensington. But we digress; clearly there are those still loyal to the trackball, for Genius has invented one that can even be used on the road by clipping it onto the laptop itself.

Then again, the maker of the "Traveler 350" never seems to let logic stand in the way of a product idea. Genius is the same company that came up with a camera-speaker combo set. You do the math.

(Credit: Coolest-Gadgets)

Perhaps more than any other piece of office equipment, the computer keyboard has been constantly morphed to keep its operators' hands out of the doctor's office. In the perennial battle against RSI, we've seen versions that break in two, glow in the dark and even skip the keys altogether. But instead of the hardware options, others continue to pursue solutions in the keys themselves--and a generation that goes beyond the QWERTY alternatives may be just beginning.

New Standard Keyboards, for instance, has developed an alphanumeric version that includes only 53 keys rather than the usual 104, according to Coolest-Gadgets. The NSK535 is intended for those who don't need all the keys on a standard board, keeping only those that are used most within the easiest reach.

But if you're someone with the opposite problem, fear not. You can always opt for a double-sided model or perhaps just stick more keys wherever you need them.

(Credit: Gizoo)

What if someone claimed to have invented a wireless mouse that never needed batteries or a recharger? Yeah, we'd say they were nuts too. But Gizoo is offering one that does just that and even makes the claim in its name: the Battery-Free Wireless Mouse.

How? It draws its energy from the electricity in a companion pad that, unlike the mouse itself, does need a power cord that connects to the computer's USB port, according to Coolest-Gadgets. It may not sound all that useful at first--after all, you're still tethered by the pad's cord--but we've actually had RSI problems resulting from the use of wired mice, so this would make a lot of sense for us. Especially because we're too cheap to buy batteries.

(Credit: TechShout)

With so many concerns about the ergonomics of the mouse, why not just remove it altogether? After all, laptops and their touchpads have done just fine without them. Sweden's Mousetrapper Nordic apparently shares this philosophy, which is why it designed the "Mousetrapper Advance."

It's described on TechShout as a "unique electronic pointing device" and a "multi-dimensional steering pad," but to us it looks like a laptop-style touchpad built into a wrist rest. Marketing-speak aside, it could still be a good idea for RSI sufferers. For our part, we're sticking with the "MugMouse."