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Logitech Ships 500 Millionth Mouse

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the rodents-who-squeak-lightly dept.

ipxodi writes "Logitech marks the milestone of 500 million shipped mice. Mice first widely appeared in consumer form on the original Macintosh, but have appeared in various forms back through time to 1964 when they were invented by Doug Englebart. My favorite mouse is also my current mouse, a Logitech Optical Wheel mouse. I also remember some oddities beyond the old bar-of-soap shaped mice of the mid 80's, like one with a crosshair attachment for clicking on specific points of a blueprintfor CAD input. What's your favorite current or past mouse?" My first mouse was back in 1987, for my Apple //c. It cost $50, and came with a double-sided floppy that contained an interactive instructional program on side one, and MousePaint (a port of MacPaint) on side two. Memories!

6 of 559 comments (clear)

  1. Not a mouse per se by BWJones · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What's your favorite current or past mouse?"

    My favorite input device is my Kensington Turbo Mouse. It's a trackball, but I have been using them for years going back to the original 1.0. They are great in reducing RSI and allow precise control which is important for digital imagery work and image forensics.

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  2. Logitech TrackMan Marble Wheel by kworthington · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My favorite is actually a trackball. No un-necessary wrist movement avoids carpal-tunnel nicely. My preference is the Logitech TrackMan Marble Wheel, which has a scroll button as a third button. It's sort of the older version of this. Mine is a bit 'wider' left to right, and is white rather than silver/gray.

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  3. Best... Mouse... Ever... by Chmarr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The clearly the best mouse ever was the hemispherical, red-clown-nose mouse that came with the AT&T/Teletype 5620 terminal. What a buzz using that thing was :)

  4. Re:I have the Logitech optical too by pla · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I somehow don't think the mouse will be replaced anytime soon.

    Probably not, but I'd like to see them vanish.

    For delicate work, such as purely digital drawing, mice force the user to use the whole wrist and arm, rather than far more dextrous fingers. For coarse work like web browsing, mice far exceed the precision needed.

    I'd like a wireless optical thimble, myself - A sort of finger-cap that tracks the surface you place it on, and you can tap your finger to click. Far better for art, and far lighter and less encumbering for "normal" work. Alas, I don't think such a devce exists. :-(

  5. Re:Logitech Marble Mouse by Vargasan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have an old Trackman Marble and two Cordless Optical Marbles.
    Best "mouse" I've ever owned. Who needs mousepads?!

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  6. Old-school optical mice by Experiment+626 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I really liked the optical mice about 12 years ago that were put out by Mouse Systems, and the ones on the Sun workstations at the time. Sure, optical is mainstream stuff now, but these cutting edge mice were so ahead of their time... how many people had an optical mouse on their 386?

    Unlike the modern opticals, however, the early ones didn't let you use any old surface as a mouse pad. They came with special metal mouse pads with a tiny grid of shiny and not-as-shiny areas for the mouse to track. Get the pad too scratched or dented and your mouse started working funny. I liked the pads though, having your mouse on a futuristic metal surface instead of the usual felt-covered rubber was all part of the charm.