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.
and that word is......pretentious.
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...
Looks distubingly like a vibrator to me. But maybe that's just me. Back to my one handed surfing...
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
Wow! That slit down the middle makes me think it's just a vagina. I can't get a better view, but I also imagine the scroll button placement helps to further that logic.
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.
Only the maker of antequated operating systems would make a "museum quality" mouse.
im not trying to be all "anti-microsoft" when i say this but that is a really unattractive mouse! im not a fan of apple so much but damn they have a way of making some damn good looking stuff! how much money would it take to get some attractive pc peripherals!
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.
Who knew Microsoft would turn into Apple?
Actually their hardware division makes products that are as good as their software division's products are bad, and it isn't new.
The Microsoft "natural feel" keyboard (or whatever its name is) is well build and many people I know swear by it. It's unusable to me, but I recognize a good product there. Same for the optical mouse: if memory serves right, Microsoft was the first to introduce that technology, pretty much to go around Logitech's patent on roller-less trackball and mouse balls.
So, hating Microsoft's software is a healthy attitude, hating their hardware product isn't.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
This mouse is beautiful, and it actually matches the theme of my most recent system.
BUT -- I won't buy it for one reason. It has a cord.
I'm using the Logitech MX700 Optical Cordless mouse with charging station and I absolutely love it.
I thought I would hate this mouse at first because it's not designed for either right or left hand use but since I normally only use my mouse with my right hand anyway I figured I'd overlook that fact.
While Microsoft's new object is designed for either hand, I just can't go back to a cord. I've gone cordless, I've gone optical, and I've gone rechargable. The only thing that can convince me to replace this mouse is one that has all those features as well as being usable with either the right or left hand.
Maybe Microsoft will release a cordless and recharagable version? Until then it's just a pretty mouse on a cord.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Your posting on Slashdot, how do you know what a vagina looks like?
Isn't he the guy famous for making stuff which is considered artistic and pretty (like go to and art gallery and admire) but functionally useless? Is it supposed to be a foreshadowing of Longhorn?
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.
" 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
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.
CAN'T... LEAVE.. THIS.. ONE.. ALONE... ARRRrRRGGgghh!
Sorry. I had to.Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Unlike the Apple Mouse, the whole left and right side's are buttons. A friend of mine tried one out and he constantly complained that because he rests his hand on his mouse, he mistakingly clicked all over the place. The Apple Mouse, although it has only one button, is only pressure sensitive at the top.
"Putting the slash back into slashdot"
Need Mercedes parts ?
I know bashing MS is required on Slashdot, but whatever you think of their software and/or business practices, their hardware has always been great.
Personally their keyboards and mice are some of the best being made. Logitech isn't bad, but I haven't liked their last couple generations of mice and their keyboards have always been sub-par.
In terms of innovation, MS released its first mouse in 1983, one year before the Mac was launched. Though I don't know if they invented the mouse wheel and optical mice, but they were the first major manufacturer to promote the technology. And though I personally don't like the "natural" keyboards, I know a lot of people that swear by them.
And even though I love Apple's industrial design, their mice are utterly useless. I use an MS mouse with my Mac.
That said, the Starck mouse looks more like an executive desk decoration than a useful mouse. =)
...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.
My wrists have been destroyed by bad keyboards and worse mice. That mouse looks cool, but my wrists start to ache just looking at it.
I want a mouse that is comfortable to use for long periods of time. I need one that has a good 15-30 degree slant up towards the left, like the Goldtouch Mouse. Sure, it's ugly, but I can still hold a beer after a long day of computer use.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
Remember kids: that scroll wheel is VERY important!