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Seven Color LED Mousepad
VL writes "If you're into LED mousepads, but one color isn't enough... how about one that has seven that you can choose from with a press of a button?
" Gotta admit, it looks pretty nifty.
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Must be a very slow news day...
----
Bareback is the only way to go.
Thinkgeek for a mere $26.99. Coincidence? *wink wink*
I need eight colours for my mouse pad disco you insensitive clod!
Slow newsday at slashdot..... This adds insult to injury when my submissions get denied.
slashdotted before the first post. google cache
lexiglow FX GamePad: Blue LED mousepads don't do it for you? Red neither? How about one which gives you seven choices? Date: April 19, 2004 Manufacturer: Flexiglow Written By: Scott Harness If you were to ask the question "how do you control your PC?" pretty much the majority of answers will be along the lines of "with my mouse". As such, mice have been designed and redesigned for changing markets, new features and of course to try and appeal to the individual in all of us. It's the fascination to have something a little different from the rest that has extended to mouse surfacing as well. It may be a simple image imprinted onto the mousemat, differing shapes, textures and materials, or as has been seen in both the modding community and now retail companies, differing designs featuring some kind of illumination. However I think that this review item certainly tries to appeal to more than just one user base with its differing colour cycling which is a little different, especially from a manufacturer. What am I talking about? The Flexiglow FX GamePad. Features 7 Colours options in one pad choices Eight function is automatic cycle through the seven colours Incredible lit up bubble effect Gaming enthusiast approved mousing surface Terrific night time illumination - ideal for LAN parties Specifications Low power consumption LED lights USB Cable 1.8m Slick mousing surface that works well with both Ball and Optical Mice The FlexiGlow FX GamePad comes in a clear plastic shell type package with all the usual PR info displayed, and partially the pad itself. Opening the package you are presented with the pad itself and attached 1.8m USB lead for power, as well as a small packet with two spare feet which I thought was a great touch by Flexiglow. Sure, the chances of losing a foot are minimal but the thought was their and it could happen. The surface of the pad itself is a textured black plastic which works well for both ball and optical mice so a good choice their. Bottom right of the face of the pad we have an FX Game Pad logo and top middle is a FlexiGlow logo. Next to this is the button for cycling the colour options. The rear of the pad shows off where the colours come from. The base of the pad is a clear, bubbled plastic with the center area housing the LEDs for colour; three LEDs in each of the four corners of the black circle aiming to the four corners of the pad. Despite the fact there are only those tiny 3mm LEDs, three of each in each corner, they do a terrific job of lighting up the base, even in broad daylight. I've had to (unfortunately) colour edit some of the photos below because my camera wouldn't pick up the colours to well, but the colours are very good in real life. You can get 7 colours from the pad ranging from Green, Red, Blue, Yellow (red and green), Purple (red and blue), Aqua (blue and green), and finally RGB/All/White. All of these are cycled through by pressing the button. When you power the pad (plug it in) the pad will go through a light show testing all of the colours smoothly, and then one after the other quickly before finally stopping all lighting. You can then press the button to go to green, again for off, again for red, again for off... wash rinse repeat. This will get you through the 7 colour options, although there is an 8th option which will slowly and smoothly cycle from one colour to the next in about 4 seconds continuously. In Use This is a very subjective part of the review but hopefully I'll be able to include enough information to help you make your own minds up. To test the pad I've been using it in both every day normal tasks such as web browsing or just clicking icons etc., as well as an intense few days of nonstop gaming (woe is me). Games of choice have ranged from Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy to Call of Duty (specifically the last level). What I've been looking for here is to see the difference in the feel of accuracy both from my own sensory feedback as well as how I felt it affected my gaming and general use. Weapons of C
With optical mice why would anyone need a mouse pad? Back in the day with the old-style mice, I would occasionally move my mouse off the pad thus resulting my Rocket Launcher pointing in some odd direction. Once I switched to an optical mouse, that .99c IKEA mouse pad was thrown out the window.
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
The review said it has a small mousing surface, but that 'cons' were easy to get used to. BAH. Who wants to sacrafice usability for blinkenlights?
If I wanted style of substance I'd buy a k-rad black & grey Compaq. Or Windows XP.
7 colors is useless to me! 16 colors, NOW we're talking.
People have been making these for their computers out of lexan and plexiglass for years... It's interesting to me that something like this hasn't come up in the past. I'd personally like to see one that uses a tri-color LED and morphs between them, instead of switching manually.
I used to have a track ball mouce, and now a wireless, no need of mouse pad, as ther is no ball.
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
Damn html formatting...
lexiglow FX GamePad: Blue LED mousepads don't do it for you? Red neither? How about one which gives you seven choices?
Date:
April 19, 2004
Manufacturer:
Flexiglow
Written By:
Scott Harness
If you were to ask the question "how do you control your PC?" pretty much the majority of answers will be along the lines of "with my mouse". As such, mice have been designed and redesigned for changing markets, new features and of course to try and appeal to the individual in all of us. It's the fascination to have something a little different from the rest that has extended to mouse surfacing as well. It may be a simple image imprinted onto the mousemat, differing shapes, textures and materials, or as has been seen in both the modding community and now retail companies, differing designs featuring some kind of illumination.
However I think that this review item certainly tries to appeal to more than just one user base with its differing colour cycling which is a little different, especially from a manufacturer. What am I talking about? The Flexiglow FX GamePad.
Features
7 Colours options in one pad choices
Eight function is automatic cycle through the seven colours
Incredible lit up bubble effect
Gaming enthusiast approved mousing surface
Terrific night time illumination - ideal for LAN parties
Specifications
Low power consumption LED lights
USB Cable 1.8m
Slick mousing surface that works well with both Ball and Optical Mice
The FlexiGlow FX GamePad comes in a clear plastic shell type package with all the usual PR info displayed, and partially the pad itself. Opening the package you are presented with the pad itself and attached 1.8m USB lead for power, as well as a small packet with two spare feet which I thought was a great touch by Flexiglow. Sure, the chances of losing a foot are minimal but the thought was their and it could happen.
The surface of the pad itself is a textured black plastic which works well for both ball and optical mice so a good choice their. Bottom right of the face of the pad we have an FX Game Pad logo and top middle is a FlexiGlow logo. Next to this is the button for cycling the colour options.
The rear of the pad shows off where the colours come from. The base of the pad is a clear, bubbled plastic with the center area housing the LEDs for colour; three LEDs in each of the four corners of the black circle aiming to the four corners of the pad. Despite the fact there are only those tiny 3mm LEDs, three of each in each corner, they do a terrific job of lighting up the base, even in broad daylight. I've had to (unfortunately) colour edit some of the photos below because my camera wouldn't pick up the colours to well, but the colours are very good in real life.
You can get 7 colours from the pad ranging from Green, Red, Blue, Yellow (red and green), Purple (red and blue), Aqua (blue and green), and finally RGB/All/White. All of these are cycled through by pressing the button. When you power the pad (plug it in) the pad will go through a light show testing all of the colours smoothly, and then one after the other quickly before finally stopping all lighting. You can then press the button to go to green, again for off, again for red, again for off... wash rinse repeat. This will get you through the 7 colour options, although there is an 8th option which will slowly and smoothly cycle from one colour to the next in about 4 seconds continuously.
In Use
This is a very subjective part of the review but hopefully I'll be able to include enough information to help you make your own minds up. To test the pad I've been using it in both every day normal tasks such as web browsing or just clicking icons etc., as well as an intense few days of nonstop gaming (woe is me). Games of choice have ranged from Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy to Call of Duty (specifically the last level). What I've been looking for here is to see the difference in the feel of
...I sat next to a guy with that thing at The Gathering... CONSTANTLY PULSATING and annoying the hell out of me, and also achieving amazing amounts of screen glare. The guy lit up the entire isle with lights.
It gets annoying.
toresbe
this site isn't just visited by Americans, please spell it the real way and not the lazy haphazard typical I'll do it the good ole' American way. I'm only moaning like a bitch because doing research online is annoying when Americans decide to change english words to better suit their educational needs, ie to save money.
Jonathanjk.com
Looks like you can buy those from thinkgeek
... Slashdot was availble in 7 colours.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Won't blinking LEDs make an optical mouse go crazy? And on a related note, why is the article on a mousepad SO FREAKING LONG.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
I think this story should be moderated -1, Sad.
/. displays complete contempt for their readers with postings like this.
I understand that these guys need to make money but how long have these stupid mouse pads been around?
I don't want my point lost by quoting somebody else's price but look around. Other online retail outlets are posting $23 with even lower prices on eBay.
Laws are for people with no friends.
Blah, does anyone know where to get these? (Yes, it's safe to click despite being at stile :)
I'll trade my password for one of those mouse pads
if you're going to whore the article at least use the "plain old text" setting..
seven that you can choose from with a press of a button
I'd be impressed if I could choose from seven WOMEN with the press of a button.
Oh, wait...
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
Seven different colours??? SEVEN? I can't have that - no way should my mouse pad have more colour options than my good ol' trusty CGA monitor. What next, a "Lite-Brite" style mouse pad? Just put the pins in wherever you want to make the colour patern you want on your mousepad?
I have 1 million monkeys on a million year contract to make me a better sig.
The master walks by and observes the student playing with a blue glowing device. "May I?", asks the master. He takes the device into his hand.
"This mousepad is interesting. The manufacturer offers seven different selections of colors. Yet there is another color which is inherent in all devices, which is directly available as a color selection."
"Any what, pray tell, is this mysterious color, Master?"
The master drops the mouse pad to the floor and smashes it under foot. The student is enlightened.
Since the pad draws power from a USB connection, it would be cool if the colours could be controlled via the USB port as well.
With a simple API, it should be easy to change the colours on the fly, going from blue to red (or whatever) depending on different 'threat' conditions.
What would be cool would be to computer control it to switch up a notch as you progress through Double Kill, Multi Kill, Monster Kill, GOOOOOODLIKE...etc.
Green for normal state, progressing through Green/Amber to ultra-bright, pulsating Red. Shit, you could just get so pumped, even without a mod for your headphones to jack up the volume in sync with the light...
You've got a point in that I'm using a wireless optical mouse. The only problem I've seen is that it will occasionally get a little confused by wood grains. But a mouse pad is by no means a necessity.
Led mousepad is for protecting your lap from dangerous radioactive emissions coming out from your optical wireless mouse
1. Make shiny geek toy
2. Submit to slashdot
3. Profit!
7 mirrors to choose from. . .
We should have been
So much more by now
Too dead inside
To even know the guilt
After the 'furry mouse', the 'gel mousepad', the
:)
'arm rests in front of keyboard' and so on now the LED mousepad...
Nonsense with blinking lights does very well judging by the sight of cars in the city at night (biggest consumers of blue leds), so this will probably be a hot seller
MP3 Search Engine
So we finally have the Neon Undercariage lights for PC hot rodders.
But will we ever see the hydralics kit to turn my case into a low-rider?
-- My name is George Bush, and I abused this message.
I still use my old Sun optical mousepad. Works great, and sure is pretty. Besides, it's the only Sun hardware I have that is still good for production use.
-
Wow a mouse pad, thats some thing to post on the internet and talk about. But seriously who needs a mouse pad when you have an optical mouse? I can use mine on carpet, wood, or what ever.
Interesting. I remember back in '96, when my friend's cool laser mouse needed a mirror mousepad. As far as I understand, optical mice work by bouncing a light beam off of a surface to illuminate it, and checking many times a second to see if the marks on the desk shift. So, I don't think it's the fact that your desk is shiny that messes up the mouse, but maybe if the paint job is very good there aren't enough irregularities for your mouse to tell one patch of desk from another. Either that, or maybe your optical mouse just isn't very good. :)
This whole LED mousepad/lighted case mod thing reminds me of the car performance enthusiasts vs. the "ricers".
Some people like to put all of their attention into how their machine (comp or car) looks rather than the machine itself. They annoy the general public in their gawdyness.
Some people like to have a "sleeper", just a plain ol' machine on the outside (car or comp) keep it nice and quiet as to not annoy others, but on the inside... Every part has been tweeked to get the most performance or stability out of it.
Some people have fast AND showy machines, but most of those people tend to burn out their engine/processor prematurely.
Alas, we must all respect eachother, and our freaky ways.
Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
Watch as you indicators and useage graphs go from green to yellow to red.
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
Cos I don't.
Mousemats were needed with a ball mouse, but with an optical one you don't need one, and I actually find it easier without one. They're inexpensive too, mine cos 6 GBP (~$10) for a three button scroll wheel optical mouse.
Preetty Colours...
--Auger
Am I the only one who has grown more than a little tired of clicking on links in postings only to find them convienently unavailable?
The obligatory self-congratulatory "Look What WE Did" bleeting that stems from slashdotting a site is immature and just as annoying - not to mention redundant. Of *course* sending a boat load of traffic to a website that can't handle it is going to result in dead links.
I'd propose that all posters be required to provide a mirror or an alternate to a link before dropping it on slashdot. Based on the number of times a link winds up dying under all the ensuing traffic that only makes sense in my opinion. If the poster can't provide a mirror than the poster shouldn't post the link.
If a poster posts a link that winds up collapsing under the resulting traffic, they should be sanctioned in some way (loss of karma points or a truck load of dead rats dropped on their doorstep)
It's stories like these where I try to click on the link to go see this new nifty gadget. Of course, the server is slashdotted to hell and back by the time I try and go there, and I keep telling myself I'll just wait a couple of days. I never remember, then a friend of mine points out the device to me like months later, and even though I never got the chance to see it, I'm here trying to outgeek the other guy and pretend like I saw it way back when.
You bastards!
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
It could be safely done, but not cheaply. You'd have to shape the field so it wouldn't let the mouse out of the field. It would also probely draw more power than your computer.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Come on, it's 2004. At least an EGA mousepad. A VGA one, please. 7 colour sucks. My ZX Spectrum dislayed 256 colours.
[]'s Carlos Cardoso - Becoming a brazilian ProBlogger, typo by typo
Look Quick!
Get Excited!
You can use it with Linux!
why do I need a mouse pad for my optical mouse?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
here.
This would be really cool if there was a driver to instigate a change based on an event/time of day/karma rateing.
All these nifty USB light'em'up things out there - getting kinda obnoxious.
Yes, but whats that got to do with the price of tea in D'ni?
Now they just need to make the mousepad play Simon. Then I'm sold.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
"If you're into LED mousepads" There are people who are into mousepads?
Now we are just waiting to see what company patents the "idea" first. Something in the lines of Antec and Led Fans. Too bad that I didn't have enough money for patent when I invented these lighted mousepads (GlowPad) back in 2001. Now I'm holding my breath and waiting when the first BreezePad comes out. ;)
Can I have a black one?
Lara Roxx.
Crushing my karma one post at a time.
What fucking links? I have been doing this for years, and I've rarely used any links in my posts.
Bonzi Buddy.
People will do stupid shit because it looks cool. Why? Cause it looks cool. It is our jobs as computer 'guys' to know how to fix it immediately. And if that means we have to uninstall it, we're not trying hard enough.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
LEDs have been around longer than most /. readers have been alive.
Yes, they are small, low-voltage, low-current devices that can be used in a myriad of places. However, none of this crap is "kewl" or innovative. So you stuck 7 LEDs in a mousepad. Putting even 1 LED in a mousepad is pointless and stupid, 7 is just stupid^7.
The whole case/peripheral modding thing stopped being interesting a long time ago, now it is just become "what other device can I stick a clear window or LED in/on".
-This sig intentionally left blank
Yes, but does it come in octarine?
You don't have to be the person you've become.
if you want "No More Hiroshimas" then I say "You First. No More Pearl Harbors."
Seriuosly. Anyone here still uses mousepads? You must be kidding!
Sounds like it uses the same LED and chip setup that Google has in their light up pen.
Yeah, I like LED Mousepads because I have one. I don't see what's so special with this one though -- mine came from ThinkGeek.com!
Heh, they are great for your late night gaming/hacking/programming sessions, but sometimes your mouse cord wants to catch that little button on the top. It should have been moved to the side or something.
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
Here's a thought...Use the battery charging pad technology (as seen on Popular Science and elsewhere) as a mousepad, powered via USB, to charge your wireless mouse! Chances are this has already been thought of, but hey, it just came to my head. $0.02
If your SA's mouse pad is red, better leave him be.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Somebody's not thinking in binary. Doesn't turning all 3 LEDs off give you an eighth color -- black?
My system is on 24x7 running linux, I'd like that when I turn out the lights to go to sleep, that my room would darken, not turn into christmas of rainbow colored LEDs w/ some that flash, etc.
I'd probably think this was cool for novelty for maybe 5min, after that, it would be at best ignored, worst extremely annoying.
My new MSI motherboard has flashing leds on its fan, which I didn't know about when I ordered it. It's a little rediculous. If I want lots of flashing lights I'll go to club, concert, or maybe a sporting event.
I think this stuff is designed for people who don't have their systems on 24x7, because I imagine it would be to damn annoying.