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Microsoft Unveils A Designer Mouse

Posted by timothy on from the roundy-and-curvy dept.

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."

10 of 547 comments (clear)

  1. puhhhhllleeeaaaassseee! by yagu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:puhhhhllleeeaaaassseee! by Awptimus+Prime · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Face it, half the stuff on /. is free advertising.

      I do find it amazing that simply being negative about Microsoft will cause a post to magically get moderated +5, Insightful when all it contains is negative opinion and nothing to do with the actual product.

      At $25, it seems like a reasonably priced product. Definitely not something you would find in a museum. Mind you, if you will gripe about this products advertising, then it would only be fair to point out how other businesses pitch their mice.

      Lets take a look at Logitech's sales pitch on a MX510:

      "The Red Mouse for Gamers. Break through with the extreme optical power of the Logitech MX 510, the mouse designed with you in mind. You get the ultimate in mouse precision with no lag, and the gaming-tuned software drivers will help you dominate the competition."

      Well, instead of being a museum masterpiece, it touts itself as having no lag. While lag has not been a problem since 1st generation cordless mice (by Logitech), an advertisement for a corded mouse is bringing up the fact that it has no latency issues. Why? Because it will cause people who are not very keen on what "lag" means in a gaming environment. They will be more likely to purchase this product thinking, "Hey, it will help my lag problems". Another thing this mouse comes close to claiming is that it will make you a better gamer and will dominate the game if you buy this product. The "ultimate" precision they claim is also a slight exaggeration since almost all optical mice have similar resolution and precision.

      Another fine example of bullshit in advertising is Logitech's product description for the MX700 cordless mouse. It claims "Business never stops, neither should your mouse." In regards to a mouse whose batteries only stay charged about 7-8 hours under continuous use. Once the batteries have been depleted, it takes a solid 20-30 minutes of charge time to get another hour or two of use out of it. For this reason, I had to move mine from my work computer to my game PC since I cannot afford abrupt downtimes while working on projects, not over mouse battery issues anyway.

      Is this evil? Perhaps. But this is what marketing departments do. They try to craft a particular product image that will always be more fantasy than reality. Attempting to single one company out for this is rather silly.

  2. Mousie by BoldAC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

  3. Cripes! by Quasar1999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  4. Uhhhh.... by Sesq · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Slow news day, I take it?

  5. It's just 3 buttons... by Transcendent · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  6. Microsoft Bob by rd_syringe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  7. Re:Apple Mice Cool? WTF by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    " Apple mice are hardly cool...in fact they're a pain in the damn ass to use. "

    two different things.

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    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  8. Re:Microsoft Bob by Tim+C · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    It's official. Most of you are morons.
  9. Who is Philippe Starck? by Riktov · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...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.