Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Unveils A Designer Mouse
jeckil writes "Today Microsoft unveiled the new Starck mouse; a new shiny mouse designed to take the 'cool' from other mice such as Logitech or Apple. Microsoft is calling it the 'first museum-quality mouse.' Looks shiny enough to be on a museum display along with other succesful Microsoft products."
The only cause for celebration (their words, not mine...) is more money for a questionable product. I'm not judging the quality of this new optical mouse, just wondering what would make it worth the money (if you "buy", you get links for prices ranging from $25 to $31). Sure it may look pretty, but really, it's another mouse with another pitch from MS about why you should buy THEIRS! Come one, really! A museum piece? I don't think so.
This just doesn't feel like news. It feels like a free ad.
Real Picture
The mouse buttons, I believe, run the entire length of the mouse... which will make many palm-resters click accidently.
However, $30 bucks isn't bad...
What exactly is the point of a pretty mouse when your hand is going to be covering it most of the time, anyway?
Okay Microsoft, listen and listen damned well, as this is the last time I say this... Give me the ORIGINAL natural keyboard, and the ORIGINAL Intelliexplorer mouse... I don't want the fancy million button keyboards, and the god awful small craptacular mice... I want the originals back! You had something good, and you destroyed them... it's not the 'new shiny blue plastic' that will get you sales...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
Slow news day, I take it?
ok, 2 and a wheel, but seriously... museum quality?
It reminds me of those "modern" art where it's a blank canvass with a line running down the middle.
To me it's not art... nor does it look good. It's just superficial "designers" (Ugof need silence!) who think people want their mouse to have hidden meaning.
Sure it looks ok, maybe i'd even buy one if I needed to, but I'd rather have function over fashion. Right now I'm using Logitechs MX500... and I think it looks sweet too.
I realize it's trendy to bash microsoft at every opprotunity, but I think it looks pretty cool myself. I'm loving the optical mice that companies are coming out with these days.
I only wish the rechargable ones battery would last longer. We had to ditch a couple of gyro wireless keyboards/wireless rechargable battery mice units at work cause they got to the point where they would only keep a charge for 4 or 5 hours. They also would miss keystrokes from the keyboard if a palm treo 600 phone was too close to them.
The one really good feature about this new mouse is that it isn't form fitted to your hand, it's gender neutral, I guess, at least from a left or right handed perspective. I'm actually ambidexterous and the last time I bought a mouse for myself there weren't any wireless optical availabl at all that weren't molded for the right hand
I guess when they come out with a wireless version of this I'll be in the market.
This article has recently been linked from Slashdot. Please keep an eye on the page history for errors or vandalism.
US$30 for a two button mouse with a scroll wheel? I can get the same for less than $10 at Fry's. This is going to compete with the the Microsoft Intellimouse and its 5 buttons? The Intellimouse It has more functionality and I can program Expose to use the extra two buttons on my Mac. Costs about the same too. Come on Microsoft, this is sad.
I think Apple's optical mice look much more in place in a museum, with their understated minimalistic look. I also happen to think they are overpriced and suck when you try to actually use them. I mean $49 for one button and no scroll wheel. Now before some rabid Apple fanatics will now try to explain to me why one button is actually better because it leads to less confusion, better ergonomics and that MacOS was designed for one button mice, or whatever, spare your keystrokes. I've been a Mac user since the System 7 days, I know what I want. Apple mice suck. They belong in a museum, not on the desk. I like Apple for many things, but their mice are the ultimate displays of style over substance.
That's been going on for several years now. It seemed to start somewhere around "windows 95 - it's mac os 7.5" MS just tends to lag a few years behind. When did Apple intro their Pro Mouse? Couple years ago, so MS is right on schedule I suppose.
MS really needs to come up with a truly original idea that is at least marginally successful. This is getting pathetic.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
What was the point of the Microsoft Bob link other than to bash Microsoft over something that came out for Windows 3.1 an entire decade ago?
I've never gotten the Clippy/Microsoft Bob obsession around here.
The sad thing is that Microsoft Bob wasn't all that much of a failure. The product itself didn't sell all that well, but the animated assistant idea that came from it is still around in today's versions of Office and Windows.
Sure, us Slashdot folks think that it's annoying, but the newbies seem to like it.
Just look at this other piece of museum quality art. It's actually rev 2 since the janitor threw out the original by mistake.
The microsoft mouse looks interesting, but not special, and I wonder how it holds up in the whole ergonomic department, maybe it can come with a matching wrist brace.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
" Apple mice are hardly cool...in fact they're a pain in the damn ass to use. "
two different things.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It might help to understand why your girlfriend might have reservations by thinking of her saying to someone: "Ok, now fiddle with that little nipple until the cursor is over the icon..."
I've never gotten the Clippy/Microsoft Bob obsession around here.
It's because they're about the only two things that you can justifiably take the piss out of about MS that actually are undeniably bad. All the rest of their software, including IIS, Outlook, Win9x, etc has its good points as well as its bad. At least with Clippy and Bob, the zealots are on safe ground.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
I heard a lot of complains about that one button is not enough for a mouse. All those complains were by PC users who have never ever used a Mac.
I know some Mac users who bought a two button mouse. I also know a lot PC users (> 50 years old) who do not really know when to press the left, and when to press the right button. My mother uses an iMac and she never missed a second or third mouse button. And I do not want to teach her when she would have to use which of those buttons.
"Looks shiny enough to be on a museum display along with other succesful Microsoft products."
I am not a Microsoft fanboy, but whether the Mouse is good or bad is a subjective matter. What is the basis for comparing it with Microsoft Bob? Stories like this (along with the other trollish story about Gmail posted earlier today- once again with no data or story to back it up) is making Slashdot a tech tabloid. Editors, please use your discretion more carefully while approving stories.
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
But Microsoft Mice in general are good.
In fact, I would say that the MS optical mice are probobly one of the best things to come out of M$.
you microsoft zealots are so f*cking stoopid.
The "microsoft" natural keyboard, like many of their software products (visual sourcesafe, games, browser, database) was designed and built by another company, originally.
Microsoft bought it and claimed "innovation".
Ignorance is bliss, and man are you MS zealots happy!
You know, I could say everyone was a newbie once but how about this: you will be old and stupid one day, too. Have fun while it lasts.
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
I found one at a garage sale this morning - part of a $5.00 PS/2 (old 80286 vintage PS/2) system. If only IBM would make an updated version of this - same microswitch tech under each key, but add some of the newer features (USB, volume controls, etc). I'm sick of all the membrane keyboards. The keyboards happily on my desk now, and the other parts are waiting for trash pickup monday morning! As for the mouse, I hate the "full length button" crap - I hate that on the Macs, I don't think I want it on my PC!
There's no reasonably priced alternative to Project, for what it does.
resigned
The click mechanism on this new mouse is identical to that of the now quite-old Apple mouse design.
It's a trivial thought to simply cut the mouse 50/50 to give it another mouse button, making it suitable for windows.
The side view of the new mouse is even less original, following an alteration of the curves currently used in the Apple mouse design.
The designer has been particularly unoriginal, as he'd run into the Apple mouse on a daily basis when dealing with design studios. It's not like an accountant coming to this amazing idea, it's just a rip off. Pity.
...as is says on the web page.
That seems like a problem right there. How many average computer users know who Starck is? How many Slashdotters know? OK, there are probably a lot of Mac user who know. But if you have to say "this product is great because it was designed by Starck" while most people don't know who Starck is, where's the appeal?
Philippe Starck is in fact probably the best-known industrial designer of the last 20 years. He's a celebrity.
But his stuff (among his best known is an orange-juice squeezer that looks like a 3-legged alien landing craft) is the kind that yuppies in the '80s said "Oooh, it's a Starck! I need to get one to display in my condo!" Like I said, there are probably lots of Mac users that Starck appeals to. Anyone who would want a Starck mouse because it's a Starck probably wouldn't be using Windows.
That's not to say this mouse isn't necessarily ergonomic -- I'm sure Starck's underlings took good care of it. But as far as I can tell, the classic "soap bar" MS mouse got the ergonomics right, and I don't think most hands could tell the difference between it and the Starck. (Look at the touted ergonomic features -- smooth form! Ambidextrous! aren't these the basics that any mouse should have?) This mouse is being marketed solely on a designer name.
yes, i have actually used it. and i still don't think it sucks. oh wait... i know why it sucks... it's microsoft, that's why it sucks. seriously though... microsoft isn't all crap. i still love windows 2000, and i love my microsoft optical mouse (not some dumb looking shiny thing). it's more comfortable than any other mouse i've used.
please me, have no regrets.
Wouldn't you like some arrogance with your mouse?