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Non-Apple Buttonless Mouse
MX pointed us to a story about a
new buttonless mouse. It's visually quite unique, but they say it's not the ideal gaming device for you real-time-gaming folks. But hey, points for style. I've been using this
optical cordless logitech (Blatant ThinkGeek linkage) on my desktop for awhile, although I'm not sure how well it'd work for gaming. When I play, I still use a MS Optical mouse. Whatever anyone thinks about their business practices and operating systems, they sure seem to always sell good mice.
This seems like it would be good for implementing a targeting system in say tank simulations. Where you can move the mouse to move the tank, and move your hand on the mouse to move the turret. Also good for 3d modeling as they say
Photos.
What? and you don't post my story on the keyless keyboard?
Carpe meam simiam!
Personally, I've never understood why people are so obsessed with MS mice. There's nothing wrong with them, although I think the ergonomics are sometimes designed for show rather than use. But when Logitech discontinued the Pilot mouse, I went out and bought a whole bunch. I've yet to find anything better. MS mice, and newer Logitech mice all lack a full size middle button, and those with wheels impede the use of the middle button. I've never understood why wheel mice didn't have a traditional three button layout with the wheel on the side, being thumb operated...
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
User: My mouse doesn't have any buttons? How do I click?
Helpdesk: Lean left.
User: What, the buttons are in the seat now?
Helpdesk: No, lean the mouse left.
User: But how do I move it around then?
Helpdesk: Er...put it back.
User: What if I have to click and drag?
Helpdesk: Hang on, let me just open up a hardware service ticket.
"It remains to be seen if the human brain is powerful enough to solve the problems it has created." Dr. Richard Wallace
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:-)
Hehe,it seems their webserver is running on a mouse, too
Life sucks.
It appears to me that the mouse still has left-right buttons, but they're in the underside of the mouse body, so you have to tilt the entire body to activate a button by pressing the appropriate corner harder against the desk. Cool, but like the man said, you lose some fine control and quick response time.
Yeah you definately wouldn't want to be using a mouse like that for gaming. In fact, even using an optical mouse isn't a good thing if you are competing at the world level.
What you will find if you look into the Pro gamer community (this might sound like I'm kidding, but it really exists: http://www.shackes.com) is that most of them do not like optical mice. They simply don't have high enough sampling rate in most cases. If you turn fast enough with an optical then tend to freak out for a second resulting in your player staring at the floor or sky and spinning. Also, the movements and physics of using an optical are somewhat different. For instance the 'flick' motion that a lot of players have mastered doesn't translate well to an optical.
Opticals are nice because of their longevity, and low maintenance, but if you're seriuos then ball is still king.
Sigs are awesome huh?
Whatever anyone thinks about their business practices and operating systems, they sure seem to always sell good mice.
I replaced the hideous 'pebble' supplied with my iMac with an MS optical wheel mouse, it's probably the best £30 I've spent on computing kit.
The Classic MacOS drivers for the extra button and scrolly wheel work without incident and MacOSX has support built in.
Whatever anyone thinks about their business practices and operating systems, they sure seem to always sell good mice.
i say the same about nike. who cares if small asian children work 16 hours a day for almost nothing-they sure make good shoes. really though it's called having principles. if you think a company is bad, for whatever reason, you shouldnt do business with that company-not just the part of the company you disagree with.
mod me down if you want, but i personally dont appreciate the hypocrisy.
-- john
Apple's buttonless, (beautiful), optical mouse has been great for me. They say Macs are more productive computers because of the user interface.. I agree.. but I must admit I wasted a lot of time originally just looking at this thing.. it's weird.. the inside of it appears to "float". You can't tell this in pictures but in 'real life' it seems to float. It reminds me of mercury actually, in a sense. The Apple logo inside, especially, floats within it. It's a really great mouse.. and it's connected to a G4 tower, so that ain't bad either!
Wow, I'm talking about *nothing* and I've still developed a paragraph! Much like my english papers. I'm done now...
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
"Whatever anyone thinks about their business practices and operating systems, they sure seem to always sell good mice."
Difference being is this. Microsoft software is made, mostly, within Microsoft. Microsoft hardware is hardware someone else makes and they just slap on a label onto it.
Microsoft hardware is actually really good, and the support for it is amazing. My optical mouse was tweaking out for some reason, so I called them and they sent me another one by the next day. They didn't require me to send in my old one. It probably didn't cost them much anyway, but it was still a cool gesture.
Check it out.
I would like to try this no button mouse, when I am working (coding) I occassionally get serious serious hand pain (no jokes..lol).
It will last for days and is quite painful. All of us in tech jobs, spending long hours at computers should take a serious look at ergonomics. Also, your employer should pay for upgrading your chair, keyboard and mouse if you feel pain with your current setup. It's your health, your future, hell, go out and buy what you want and throw the bill at your boss if you're in pain (not literally throw it, figuratively). I would in fact suggest sitting down with your employer and going over ergonomics and how it can effect employee productivity.
Maybe some of these links would be helpful:
Design/Layout
Ergonomics - A Practical Guide
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Computer Related Repetitive Strain Injuries
I am gonna buy one, the tiny little muscles used in your hands to click the mice buttons place a huge strain on your arm over a period of time. It may not bother you now, but let's talk in 20 years....
Wow it seems like whenever there is a good story not on cnet.com only the first 3 people can get to it. It takes 5 people to make a conspiracy: slashdot, osdn, the site that gets ./ed, me, and you. There is only one solution, well besides everyone upgrading hardware/bandwidth incase they get slashdoted, and thats to get even. What goes around comes around, so we should all slashdot slashdot. So everyone follow this link check out this awesome story online at http://www.slashdot.org !!!!!!
I still contend that such products although good, should still be referred to as "microsoft rats"!
Taco posts a story about a new mouse, and includes a one-line comment mentioning MS Mice. Result: a thread of replies almost entirely about Microsoft mice, Microsoft hardware, and MS's business practices. And 3 about the actual mouse :-)
Anyone else notice that Microsoft's best (or perhaps, only decent) products are their hardware offerings? It's amazing what they can offer when they outsource most of the design and manufacturing to someone that knows what they're doing. Microsoft I/O gizmos and the XBox show that Microsoft does know how to assemble a team that is not afriad to hire outsiders to design and build a good product.
Now if only their Windows versions of Office took some cues from the Mac versions and became less of a disk/ram/cpu hog.
Off to download the latest 18 MB security service pack for Outlook... man am I glad I only own one Windows PC...
Ever find yourself stroking the spot between the left and right mouse button on a mouse without a wheel?
:-) ).
ALL the time, and practically EVERY time I've got a non-wheel mouse in my hand. I never thought that such a little addition could be so addictive. The first time I was with one, I found it a bit of a nusance. Not 1 day later I had a "normal" mouse in my hand, and found myself rubbing the mouse where the wheel shoud've been.
I ran into the samething with the M$ Natural Keyboards. There was one sitting around the office that no one wanted to use. I figured "what the hell" and tried it. I yelled at that thing for 2 days straight. I finally got fed up enough and put a "normal" keyboard back on my box. I couldn't use it! After that, I plugged the Natural back in and ordered one for home. I've been using a Natural ever since. That was like 2 years ago. ( I HATE the cursor keys on the newer Naturals, but ALL pain in my wrists totally went away after using the Natural. I think that out-weighs a bit of annoyance (and a few extra times of getting fragged...
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
Now, about those Windows shortcut keys, if you want to use them in Linux, there is nothing stopping you. You can bind them to whatever kind of menu, modifier, or action you want.
...I find this stuff funny. From the site linked:
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/home/sites/site84/web/class_db.php on line 7
:-) Boom goes the box.
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ERROR: Unable to connect to database.
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
Obviously I haven't used one, but I don't see what problem they're trying to solve with this leaning instead of clicking thing... it seems to me that that would be even worse for your wrist after repetitive use, and judging from the other mice on the companies website, they're not exactly masters of ergonomics or industrial design.
This does bring up a question I've wondered about, though; if Apple offers their own 2-button scroll wheel mouse, what will it look like. The last time we heard rumors that they were designing one was back during the days of their hockey-puck mouse, so the mouse would have had the fruit and ice design scheme. I must say Apple's current no button clickable mouse is beautiful, even though I use my Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse most of the time, I keep it on my desk for the prettiness factor (the Logitech isn't bad though, it almost perfectly matches the colors of a graphite G4 tower, it just can't hold a candle to a translucent black oval floating above your desk ;).
Of course, there's no guarantee Apple will ever make a two-button mouse, but I don't think you can rule out the possibility that they might start at least including them with Power Macs. Apple has admitted that many of their customers need the extra button and scroll wheel, particularly gamers; when Apple furnished Power Macs for QuakeCon, they came with 3rd party two button mice, and you'll wonder how you ever used the Mac OS X Finder with a one-button mouse once you switch.
So I think there is plenty of motivation, although they would probably keep the present mouse on the iMacs (the iMacs now actually use a special mouse with a white bubble instead of a black one, ditto for the keyboard). So my question is what would it look like? Hopefully nothing like this one from Green, in form or function, but how do you make a mouse as stunning as the current one with buttons and a scroll wheel breaking up the design? Would be a very different design, but the new towers might see a very new design sometime soon as well, and they might take that opportunity to switch keyboard and mouse designs ont the pro products as well, after all, is Apple going to use the same style they've had since the G3 when they start making 5th gen towers.
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
I am a lefty, but now that I think of it, I never acutally tried using my left hand to control the mouse. So, here I am trying to do it...I feel like I do when I try to write with my right hand. Pretty klunky and having trouble getting used to it. But certainly a thought....
Could you please link to the relevant statements from RMS and ESR stating that they aren't in favour of people making money. I must have missed them.
WTF? I chose Poland, and a girl in her bra shows up on the Polish Logitech site.
Well, I'll be darned. It doesn't have that pic for any of the other countries, though the German page has a picture of a scantily-clad man and woman lounging under an ad for their iFeel Optical. Verrry subtle.
Promote proofreading. Don't mod up sloppy posts.
I purchased a mouseman wheel optical when they first came out a couple of years ago. I've been very pleased with this mouse. It has 4 buttons + wheel, which is surely enough for anyone. The design is very comfortable, plus if you look at Intellimouse Explorer it appears to be very similar in design to the mouseman. Another cool feature of the mouseman, is the blue LED that is USB powered. It looks really cool in the dark too. I've looked at the newer wireless mice, but I have no reason to go wireless plus it isn't the same form factor as the mouseman wheel.
I have to give a big thumbs up to buttonless mice. I've been fighting an RSI in my mouse hand for a couple of years. Since I've switched to a buttonless mouse it has cleared up entirely. I highly recommend anyone with mouse hand problems try one.
It is an apple mouse. You don't miss the buttons under Mac OS, I run about half the time in X and I've just learned to use the extra modifier keys to get the other buttons. It becomes automatic after a day.
(Not that I'm a clicking fiend, the injury probably originated while playing a string of shows with a bluegrass band. 240 notes/minute, 80/finger/minute on the right hand for three hours a day is a lot of finger pulling for a bass player. I had to stop doing that, but the hand didn't heal until I switched mice.)
(I don't work for logitech.)
I've been using it for almost a year now (bought it when it came out). It is wonderful. I've been playing all kinds of games with it, tried my friend's Razor Boomslang, this is definitely better. I like the shape, although I suspect some of the bigger mice (like MS Optical) may be more comfortable for the hand. Batteries work for two or three months (I use rechargeable so it's more like a month and then I spend 5 seconds replacing them with charged ones). Doesn't need a pad, doesn't collect residue like ball mice. Windows detects it as a standard HID device, so no drivers needed. Not bad at all, I say it's definitely worth the money.
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Read the link please. The style is similar to the Apple Pro mouse except instead of a single click action you lean the mouse to the left for a left click and lean to the right for a right click. The only thing thise mouse lacks in comparison to a regular optical mouse is a scroll wheel which would drive me batty like my Apple Pro mouse does on my Powerbook. I know a scroll wheel doesn't look as asthetic but PLEASE reading a long web page without a scrool wheel (or PDF document) is madness.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
That's one of Micros~1's monopoly tactics: make protocols that are close to normal ones, but just different enough that one can't use both, and make hardware that acts the same! :)
Posted from the wireless couch.
Here's a really useful buttonless mouse, the Stupidamouse.