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$70 Cordless Notebook Mouse with No Scroll Wheel
superfloungmous writes "CoolTechZone.com has reviewed Logitech's latest V500 Cordless Notebook Mouse that uses 2.4GHz wireless technology to transmit signal and has a scroll panel instead of a scroll wheel. The concept behind a scroll wheel is you simply move your finger in up, down, left and right directions to use the function. The mouse has a whopping $70.00 price tag as well. Could this be the end of scroll wheels? Here's a quote from the review, "One of the unique things about the V500 is its scroll panel, and this is the very first mouse to actually use this concept. Throughout our testing, we are nothing but impressed with Logitech's new idea. It worked perfectly, and it's actually better than a scroll wheel in many instances. It looks like the era of scroll wheels is short-lived if Logitech applies the same design to its desktop equivalent products."
Anyone?
"Hmm.. That's weird. Every time I move my mouse, I get disconnected from my 802.11g network."
I'm a big tall mofo.
One of the unique things about the V500 is its scroll panel, and this is the very first mouse to actually use this concept.
Kensington's been making a mouse with a touch panel in place of a scroll wheel for well over 2 years now. Admittedly it only does the up/down thing (no side to side action). Either way, 70 bucks is still way too much for a mouse of any kind as far as I'm concerned...
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
So "whooping" goes not only for supercomputer processing power description but also to wheeless mouse prices! :)
I read just the first line of the title and thought 'Wow! $70 for a cordless notebook! That's cheap.' But I guess that's not quite so cheap for just the mouse.
... old hat!
/. is for new news.
My boss has had one of these for at least two months.
Stupid Taco,
http://www.cooltechzone.com/index.php?option=conte nt&task=view&id=1405&Itemid=0&limit=1&limitstart=1
Hope be with ye,
Cyan
This sounds remarkably like the interface that Apple has devised to allow scrolling through menus, volume control, etc. on their iPod line of products. This isn't surprising, because the interface works extremely well and is very intuitive.
DICK. GOOGLE ASSHOLEs /US/EN,CRID=3,CONTENTID=9508
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/detail
A similar scroll pad exists on the synaptics touchpad that comes on compaq's presario R3000 laptops - but just does the up/down movements. It works nice but I still prefer the wheel on standard mice cause it provides better control over speed.
http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail~dpno~46 3024.asp
been out for at least a year now too.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
But with a 2D touchpad?
http://www.kensington.com/html/4769.html
Scroll panels, like all touch pads, just don't seem to work that well for me. They don't always register the touches I intend, and seem too jittery when I do intend to touch them. I'm glad my laptop has a scrollpanel beside the touchpad, but I'm generally much happier when I turn off the touchpad and just use the mouse.
They'd put a small scrollwheel within the touchpad on the mouse, then I could scroll around inside of large forms in a window that I'm scrolling around with.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
I like touchpads, but a lot of people don't. Some people like the Thinkpad nipple, but I don't (there's only one in the middle, and I can't get used to that :-).
I think it would be harder to keep from making mousing mistakes with a scroll pad than a wheel, which requires more effort to engage.
But still, people who like touchpads will probably like the scroll pad. People who make mistakes with touch pads probably will not like the scroll pad, either.
sigs, as if you care.
The concept behind a scroll wheel is you simply move your finger in up, down, left and right directions to use the function.
I think you mean scroll panel, not scroll wheel. Does anyone even read these before posting them?
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
One think I like about scroll wheels is the tactile feedback.. (bumps when you roll the wheel)
It gives me a perspective on how much I am scrolling.
without it, I am not sure it will be a good experience..
It's the Studio Mouse Seen here: http://www.kensington.com/html/4769.html Or Wireless: http://www.kensington.com/html/4768.html As said earlier, they've been making them for years.
They installed a trackpad on top of a mouse. What's next, a mouse on a trackpad?
what's with the submissions that get accepted?
"Could this be the end of scroll wheels?"
do they always have to ask these kind of questions? "is/could this be the end of [insert product/feature]?"
and am i the only one who prefers the feeling of the wheel? (in a non-sexual context, of course)
"One of the unique things about the V500 is its scroll panel, and this is the very first mouse to actually use this concept"
Yawn. I've been using one of those for ages.
Microsoft calls it tilt wheel, Logitech calls it scroll panel. Potato, potatoe.
I was on google searching for dicks and assholes and I get linked to this stupid /. site!
Here!
More
Insert jokes about them hosting the site on their new mouse in this thread...
I think I paid somewhere in the realm of 80-90 dollars when I got my Logitech MX700 with the two year insurance, and it was probably one of the best peripherals i've ever purchased for my computer. Logitech makes good stuff and it's worth every penny to invest in their durable and reliable products.
Where a mouse cost 20% of a new computer.
The releasedate of this mouse was October 18, 2004 according to Cnet.
t ebook_Mouse/4505-3148_7-31144953.html
Hey look! It's that new Gameboy Color!
http://reviews.cnet.com/Logitech_V500_Cordless_No
I want a trackball with a secondary trackball instead of a scroll wheel/panel.
Does anyone know anyone that makes that?
Since there is no way to press down on that panel, that means there is no middle click for us X users out there. That middle click turns into the command for left scroll.
Other than that, the mouse is pretty nice. No moving parts except for the right/left buttons. When the mouse is in off mode, the right/left buttons dis-engage.
There's another company that makes mice with no scroll wheel! They're better and they just work!
Windows uses a three line scroll when using the wheel, which in most cases is very precise. Imagine playing $FPS and selecting the wrong weapon because that precision isn't there? Now I can blame Logitech for my poor performance instead of teh lag.
The "wheel" works pretty well, it's certainly nice to scroll up and down with, no complaints there. I also like the other design aspects of the mouse - like the tiny transmitter which fits inside the mouse for safe keeping. What I really don't like (being a Firefox user) is the lack of a middle button (which of course a wheel usually doubles as). It's very irritating to lose my middle-click open new tab function. If I had realised you couldn't use the touch pad as a button, I wouldn't have bought it.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
While I know some people aren't as enthusiastic, I really like the Thinkpad trackpoint. Since most newer models come with both trackpoint and touchpad, the software lets you configure the trackpoint for pointer movement and the touchpad for scrolling. It's glorious...for long web pages, I don't even have to move my hand...just my thumb. My hands can stay on the keyboard.
If you are a PowerBook user, then no doubt you have already become addicted to this feature (and unable to use any other computer as a result).
.. of course.. you also end up looking like you are stroking your laptop.
Just place two fingers on the touchpad and drag in any direction.. it scrolls in the direction you drag.
Here is a link to the Logitech page about this mouse:
s /US/EN,CRID=2146,CONTENTID=9508
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/detail
It doesn't even look like a touchscreen 'scroll' panel as much as a flat button with up, down, left, right capabilities.
They've got a flash online demo of sorts to check out to see how it works. Doesn't even look as "fancy" as the Kensington touchpad mouse people have mentioned.
I'm having trouble making an informed buying decision here. Perhaps the collective /. wisdom could assist?
On the one hand, this mouse's $70 price tag (quite reasonable for a quality mouse, I think) is 'whopping'. On the other hand, 90-odd teraflops worth of supercomputer is 'whopping'. I really only have room for one whopping piece of consumer electronics in my home, and I'm torn between the two. Perhaps we could petition the manufacturer to have the mouse's designation changed? Or could we instead express the supercomputer's processing power in terms of the number of LoCs per hour it could perform a simple regexp on? Would that still be a whopping number? Perhaps the only hope for it is to buy the mouse with euros?
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
A scroll wheel is really cheap, it's just like the roll sensors, only turned upwards. Maybe 50 cents added cost. A scroll panel is a much more comlex device, with a capacitive or resistive transducer, x-y driving and sensing electronics, and a/d converters. Several $ I'd guess. By the time these costs go up the manufactiring and distribution and retail paths, we're up to many $ difference. It's hard to see paying that much more for a solution to a non-problem.
Damn language when a double "o" or a double "p" can make the diff between my ass being whooped or my comment being funny :)
I bought one of these because of its extemely compact usb receiver. My older laptop's USB plug is recessed in the case so that most other wireless receivers would require an extension cable.
This one's small enough that it plugs right in. I'm half-tempted to try and see if I can fit it inside the laptop's case. (BTW, why don't laptop makers include wireless mouse capability? OK, so Bluetooth might count, if there are any good Bluetooth mice...)
Unfortunately, the mouse suffers from a lack of tactile feedback. It has a slightly audible "tick" when you're scrolling, but I really miss the physical "bump" of a real scroll wheel. Perhaps they could accomplish the same thing by adding some little ridges on the scroll surface?
A little center dimple, like you find on calculator and phone "5" keys would also help in positioning your scrolling finger.
It could also use a third button. Two just ain't enough!
This is good enough for a compact laptop mouse, but I'd wait until they refine it some for desktop use.
I had never heard of these guys before the other day when Slashdot had another article from them. It looks like their new advertising campaign is going great. Does anybody know what it costs to get Slashdot to start pointing to your own web site as "articles"? I don't personally have a business that would benefit, but I do have a friend who may be interested in doing the same thing that these guys at CoolTechZone.com have obviously done.
I don't respond to AC's.
FPS gamers are used to the scrolling function for switching between weapons. I doubt the scrollpad will be very useful for this function.
Lots of stories pointing to "CoolTechZone" lately. Do they have some kind of deal with Slashdot/OSDN? This post seems to be a Slashvertisement both for the mouse and the site.
g +cooltechzone
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aslashdot.or
rooooar
My girlfriend just picked up a decent computer for $300, monitor and all. For $70, that mouse had better predict where I want to go.
SYS 64738
1. Does it work with Linux?
By that I mean can you adjust the sensitivity of the touch pad? I'm sure it will "work" but can you adjust it??
I was using a "natural" type keyboard that had a serial Synaptic touchpad built in. Under M$ I could set a LOT of options on the touchpad, like turning off taps and setting the sensitivity. Under Linux, no adjustments were possible at all. I absolutely despised tap to click and the ultra sensitivity. It was so freaking annoying that I quit using it totally.
I just bought an HP wireless optical USB mouse, 800dpi, 5 buttons, scroll wheel, etc.. Can't set the extra buttons to do anything but besides that it works damn nice. Got it at wallyworld for $30..
Didn't like it. I usually rest my middle finger on my mouse which made it hard with this mouse, not to mention the fact that there is no third mouse button.
Don't mod me, bro'!!!!
I haven't upgraded to a 755MHz machine yet, you insensitive clod!
Also available from Dell with a $20 mail-in rebate: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.a spx?sku=A0429071&cs=19&c=us&l=en
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
and its absolutely fantastic. I haven't owned a lot of notebook mice, so can't make comparisons to the oft mentioned Kensington or others, but its accurate, comfortable, battery life has been great (still on first set), small enough to put in a pocket (not that I do, just making a point), and looks very cool to boot. And it runs out of the box with SuSE 9.3, so yes it does Linux too.
"Would you, could you, with a goat?" Dr Seuss
$70 for a mouse?? You sure Apple doesn't make this mouse?
Finance tutorials and more! Understandfinance
Here's the link at Logitech
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
...so I don't have to carry the usb stick around everywhere?
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Mice are already cause a lot of RSI pain, and the scroll wheel makes it significantly worse. It sounds like this pad should help a lot. Instead of curling your finger repeatedly, you can just slide it around. Brilliant.
But I *require* a middle mouse button. Here's hoping they release a $40, corded, middle-buttoned version very soon.
I nabbed the first page from mirrordot
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I love the bump ( queue cheesy 70s pr0n music ).
Seriously, I love the bump of the mouse wheel. Now, if they make a touch panel that has a similar shape, I'm sold.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Just a quote:
There's no doubt that Logitech is one of the pioneers when it comes to peripherals such as keyboards, mice, joysticks and other key components for personal computers. It's almost as if the company has perfected the art of designing peripherals that are nearly faultless in every way. Though Logitech's components carry a hefty price tag, in many cases the product is worth the value. Whenever it appears to be the end of innovation with peripherals, Logitech always have something unique entering the market. Whether the feature is practical or not is not the question, but continuous motivation on Logitech's part to deliver something new with almost every product is exceptional.
Why are Logitech and friends not using Bluetooth? It seems the most logical choice--broad compatibility, better utilization of that narrow and crowded frequency range, plus they can at a lower price because so many laptops and desktops already ship with Bluetooth support.
I have only a few complaints:
Nope, this one will definately not be going into my travel bag. I'll stick with my Logitech MX1000 even though 2/3 of the buttons are useless under Linux.
Iogear has had a 2D scrolling trackball mounted on an optical mouse for years now. See http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product&Item=GM E421&PHPSESSID=6375c6dc2f0083e0512b2b3078a7b759
Sheesh; someone puts a touchpad on something and all of the sudden it "new hotness".
You're replacing your trackpad with a mouse, with a TRACKPAD on it!
Next stop, a tiny mouse that you maneuver around on the trackpad of the mouse....
I hava a Logitech MX1000 mouse, and I love it.
This mouse has a fairly fancy scroll wheel. Its got the regular up and down, plus you can tilt it right or left. but in addition to that there are two buttons, one above and one below. I think Logitech calls these 'cruse control', but what they do is scroll up or down the page really fast.
I thought it was kind of lame at first, but after I started using it I gerw to like it
Basicaly, logitech has a habit of building very good quality mice that are actualy worth more than the competition. $70 sounds steep, but if you have to use it every day it might just be worth it.
"What does slashdotting mean?"
"You've never heard of slashdot?"
"I know it makes websites not work."
The big problem I have with touch sensors is that they react to the slightest touch. When I use a laptop, the mouse pointer always jumps around because I brush the pad with the heel of my palm, or my thumb. I imagine I would suffer from similar problems with this mouse wheel substitute. Occasionally I find myself lightly tapping on my scroll wheel (from habit, or in time to music, or whatever).
Also, I prefer a little tactile feedback to my input - the light thud as the keys on my keyboard reach the end of their travel, the click of the mouse keys, and (in the case of my mouse wheel) the movement and "ratchetting" when the wheel turns. These things will be missing with the touch pad.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Another new kind of hardware to write drivers for and get OSes to recognize...joy.
One of the things (actually the main thing) I like about using a Bluetooth mouse with my Powerbook is I don't have to have some dongle/receiver sticking out of the side of my Powerbook. If this Logitech mouse were useable without a receiver on notebooks with built-in 802.11b/g, that would make this a much more desirable product - but Logitech's support info says the mouse and receiver are pre-paired at the factory, which implies that you MUST use the receiver.
#DeleteChrome
I use the scroll wheel to do next/previous weapons in a lot of FPS, which is OK since you can physically feel the increments on the wheel. Now with a panel...that's more transparent... hmm.
No more middle-click for new tab in Firefox.
Can someone definitively confirm or deny this? I was almost convinced to try one out.
IBM has something called the Scrollpoint mouse, which also gives you 4-way scrolling. There are several other mice with 4-way scrolling as well (tiltable scroll wheel, etc.). Those came out around the same time as the scroll wheel.
Before that, there were several three button mice with the middle button rebound to scrolling in software (you still get that function today in Windows if you like). I think that's actually perhaps the nicest way of doing scrolling.
This mouse has been out for a while, and I bought one a few months back. It's pretty sweet, and worth the money imho.
The side to side scroll doesn't really work very well, but who really uses that function anyway? The standard up and down scroll is responsive with the only drawback being that sometimes when you touch it for the first time, it jumps up a screen instead of scrolling down. But overall, it's just a matter of getting the dexterity down.
The hidden USB connector carrying slot is really nice too. It's almost impossible to forget to put it back inside because you have to close the mouse to store it (so you have to put the USB connector back inside for all the lights to go off).
I never noticed the mouse going dead, so it was always receptive. The design is sleek and looks sharp without a nasty wire getting in the way. This is especially cool at the coffee shop when you don't know what cramped situation you might be in.
The mouse tracks well on most surfaces (even a stick coffee shop table).
Overall, it's a good little mouse with a few issues. And for the record, I got mine cheaper than $70 by shopping around (around $60).
Health Insurance Quotes
No because people use what they like and people like using a mouse with a wheel, especially for gaming... Of course since a recent article said that the PC Gaming industry is finished because of consoles I guess that gaming mice are gonna die too. I for one will not go to a scroll panel because as others have said I like the feel of the wheel.
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
I won a Kensington mouse with a scroll panel a year or so back, and gave it away. The lack of feedback is really annoying.
There's a couple of better alternatives that I've never seen. One is the IBM trackpoint... the button between G and H on thinkpads. It's a small, reliable, and well understood 2d controller that would fit on a mouse really easily. IBM even put a trackpoint on a mouse... they called it a scrollpoint. Unfortunately they only made it into an up/down scroller. *doh*
The other alternative that's good is a software solution. Logitech came up with a MUCH better idea a few years back. They implemented it in the mouse software instead of the mouse, and that poorly, but the basic idea is good.
You could configure the middle button as a "grab" button. When you held it down, moving the mouse would scroll the document in all four directions. Unfortunately, it also put an obscure icon down where you clicked and didn't clean it up properly, but there's no reason that part couldn't be left out.
That sort of reminds me of a couple of Apple patents, including a mouse with an iPod-like scroll wheel and a mouse with a touch pad instead of a button.
What I need is a $70 cordless notebook.
KeS
Apple has made an overpriced mouse without a scroll wheel for years and no one ever complained...
at first i was impresed by the "new wheel" but then i found out that i got no middle button (firefox -> open link in new tab) and after like 14 days wonder wheel stoped working... now im back to mouseman travel :/
I picked one of these up a couple weeks ago when my laptop touchpad buttons stopped working reliably. One thing to keep in mind is that it's pretty damn small. This (and the stow-away USB receiver) makes it very nice to pack in a laptop bag, but it takes quite a bit of getting used to. I regularly find that my middle finger is resting on the central "scroll panel" which results in unexpected scroll-ups. Also, for those still trying to figure out how it works from just the pictures, the scroll panel itself doesn't move, nor does the whole "panel" detect your fingers movement. There are 4 arrows on the panel, and when you "flick" them, it scrolls. It takes some getting used to, but then so did migrating from the old thinkPad touchstick to the new(er) touchpads.
Logitech's MX900 mouse uses Bluetooth, but yeah, why they don't use it more often is beyond me too. Must be a cost issue of some sort. FWIW, I use a Microsoft Bluetooth mouse with my notebook. Logitech's mouse is supposed to be a bit nicer. Shame HP only provides Bluetooth radios with their Configure-To-Order notebooks and not with the gazillions they sell at retail. I always encourage people to add the Bluetooth option when helping them buy notebooks.
IBM sees it, and puts a TrackPoint in the top of their mice for two-axis scrolling.
The IBM "scrollpoint" mouse I tried looked just like a trackpoint on a mouse, but it was only an up-down controller. I'd love a full trackpoint on a mouse, do you have an actual model number for the 2-d version?
Until it will reliably and easily send a double-click on a single tap without false positives, I won't be a convert. Using my middle mouse button for the double-click has been my most favorite setting ever since five minutes after I got my first pre-scroll wheel 3-button mouse many years ago. I will not give this productivity enhancement up easily.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Stay at leat a mile away from wireless mouse. I got the Mx Laser Logitech wireless mouse. It worked well for 1 week after which it decided to freeze on me at random. I was told Monitor radiation can be one of the problems. However after 2 replacements I did what I should have done to start with - I use a wired mouse.
IBM Scrollpoint It's only $21, too.
The one with two ears, and a small tail...
Several places, including Newegg have this mouse for $49.99 - just go to pricescan
First of all were keys. Separate. One press, one effect. :)
Then keys on top of keys. Shift plus a key... And keys on top of keys of keys. Double bucky
Then, paddles. One manipulator - one rotary wheel, plus a key. Two of them, separate. Plus one key on each.
Then came standard joystick, essentially four keys connected into one. Plus one separate (fire).
Then came mouse. Two paddles connected into one. Plus two keys on top.
About the same time came analog joystick. Two paddles connected into one, but with ability to return to original position by itself. Sometimes better than mouse, sometimes not. Of course, keys on top.
Then some aberrations like trackball (mouse on its back) or driving wheel with pedals (2 paddles mounted in specific positions), mousepad without mouse (touch tablet), mousepad without mouse on top of keys (touch pad) micro-joystick on top of keys (trackpoint), etc - marginal use. And all with lots of keys on them.
Then they added another paddle on top of the mouse. Wheel mouse.
Analog joystick evolved. Two more joysticks were added in paralell (PS gamepad).
Sometime along yet another paddle was added to top of mouse. (a4tech etc 2-wheel mice).
Some more aberrations. Paddle on top of keys (keyboards with scrollwheels), Joystick on top of joystick (multiple levels of freedom), triple paddles (steering wheels with throttle), touch tablets on top of screens (touch screens), etc.
Now we learn Logitech put a joystick on top of a mouse.
Still waiting for mouse on top of a mouse (trackball instead of wheel), mouse on top of a joystick (trackball again, seemed like xbox2 would have it but not), and whatever comes next, following the pattern.
Remember: keys and paddles.
And of course screens on top of screens (windows).
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
First up, scroll wheels are a Bad Thing to start off with as they encourage unnatural movements of the middle finger while holding the rest of the fingers static.
Secondly, things like zero-travel buttons and trackpads all too often prove far too sensitive -- any small twitch is interpreted as a meaningful movement. The result is that the user tenses up to avoid making any inadvertant movements.
As all computer-people should know: tension is the root cause of many an RSI.
HAL
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
...and they drop the price by an order of magnitude.
It will be interesting to see if they can get the manufacturing costs down to $1-3 to adapt into a mouse. A quick check shows most touchpad mouse alternatives bottoming at about $30. How much of that is on the retail end (market demand & cost of stocking less popular goods) and the manufacturing end (dedicated USB stuff, case - stuff that goes away when integrated into a mouse) is anyone's guess.
An engineering challenge, to bring the concept of a touchpad onto a mouse for a low cost, but with the right price pressures (especially from competition) I wouldn't mind dropping an extra buck or three on this. Not too much more than that, though.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Get them from my friend Bryan x71071 at PC Connection for $29.99 after $20 rebate. In stock and ships today!
:/
Looks cool, I'll probably try one. Though I would like it more if it had bluetooth....
-m
http://www.invisik.com
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/motorhead/1916.ht ml#7
I'm gonna live in L.A. drinkin' all day,
Lay by the pool
And let the record company pay,
Talking to the devil on the batphone
All of the time...
Clearly, Lemmy should run to replace der Governator in California, as his grasp of local issues is so clearly demonstrated.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
I'm waiting for the $70 mouse with a built-in qwerty keyboard!
All I can say is that the Touchstream LP is still far superior that this crap.
It ended the era of mouse and keyboards altogether. However, some mysterious entity has bought out Fingerworks, the maker of the Touchsctream LP. I am very angered by this as I cannot get my hands on a touchstream now for less than $700.00. Fingerworks's other products (mouse PADs that acted like mice) were also a lot better.
And yeah, they were worth the $100-$330.
Help me, help you. - Jerry McGuire
Could this be the end of scroll wheels?
:) I'd say the same for my keyboard. I've been through countless boxen, as many kernels (more actually) and never saw the need.
Seriously folks! I just finally switched over to an optical scrolly wheely mouse thingy as I found one in the discount bin at the local Micro Center. (like $7 wahoo!) Before that I was using the serial mouse (at least it was only 9 pin) mouse from like '93. Why, because I don't play "twitch" games, and I've been a pro at the both-button-press-for-the-third button for years. (That and the X10 driver that I pulled on my last box update didn't play well with the mouse.
Not to pull out the old "They don't make 'em like they used to crap." (well, they don't and they don't cost what they used to either) But the long and the short of it is until you can't buy them at Walmart (VHS anyone?) they ain't goin' anywhere.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
I love that,
-- duderino
I like the convenience of pop-out transmitter and the comfort-factor of the expanding design, but the scroll panel is annoying. As radish says, you can't middle click in firefox, so I've ended up with one hand on the buttons on my Thinkpad for clicking and the other hand on the mouse for cursor movement.
The other annoying thing about the scroll panel is that you have to be very careful about where you rest your finger. I've found that as I'm reading, my finger starts to relax and all of a sudden, I'm looking at the top of the page again.
The final point of irritation is the position of the optical sensor, which is right at the front of the mouse. I understand that they had to put it there because there isn't anywhere else for it, but it does give a very strange cursor response.
Meanwhile, 2.4Ghz seems to be quickly becoming practically useless. I think I have five devices all vying for that space in the evenings...
I sure hope IBM^H^H^HLenovo will release their TrackPoint Mouse for those who hate touchpads.
Why, by all the gods, doesn't slashdot let us edit our frikkin' comments after we've posted them? I don't get it--other sites let you do that, and the slashdot editors themselves can and do edit their articles after they've posted them...
Furry cows moo and decompress.
I assume your browser history problems occur when you are using Firefox, as I had the same problem when I got my new Powerbook. Thinking something was fishy, I investigated a little bit, and it turns out that the behavior is due to (IMHO) a poor choice for default horizontal scrolling behavior in Firefox.
.sysnumlines values for each of those to "false," otherwise your changes won't have any effect).
If you want to change Firefox to actually scroll side-to-side, open up Firefox and enter the URL "about:config"
Enter a filter of "mousewheel" so you're only seeing settings relating to the mousewheel.
Set mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.action to 0 (the default value is 2, I believe). You may also want to try adjusting the values of mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.numlines and mousewheel.withnokey.numlines to get a more comfortable feel for how screens scroll in Firefox (and make sure to set the
After I got those settings fixed, I found scrolling with the Trackpad in Firefox to be quite handy, though for some reason it still seems touchier than Safari. Oh well - I guess not enough of Firefox's developers are Powerbook users, and I lack the initiative to make a positive change.
The scroll wheel was always an annoyance: most of them were too tall, and I kept bumping my finger on them reaching across to the left mouse button.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details /US/EN,CRID=3,CONTENTID=9508
Beat this http://www.rapidsupplies.com/index.asp?PageAction= VIEWPROD&ProdID=38631/
M$ it's whats for diner!!!!!
For everyone complaining about the price of this, buy.com has this mouse for $30 after rebate, with free shipping. http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10386550 &loc=101&sp=1
Enjoy!
I have a cheap $10 optical cordless mouse here, with a "scroll panel". I got it about half a year ago at a local mom & pop computer shop. I can't remember the brand right now..
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
At this point, timecop paused and deposited a quart of Gaynigger seed into Steve Jobs' mouth.
Please use SI units and their derivatives, not your American medieval non-standard arbitrary nonsense.
1 US quart = 0.94635295 litres
Would it really have been that hard to write "a litre of Gaynigger seed"?
kthx.
$70 might be the MSRP... Fatwallet and others have picked this up for much less than $70. Try buy.com ($29.99 AR).
I've used this mouse for a year and it's been great.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Is it me or is there always a super hyped geek techie who always predict the end as we know it of certain piece of hardware when something knew comes out? ,leave the scroller!
Scrolling with a touchpad can be bothersome
--Dump that technology on Macintosh--
They can't even do an optical mouse with 3 plain simple buttons. That's all *I* want in a mouse.
Until technology "advances" that far, screw 'em.
http://mirrordot.org/stories/5457f02cf8d8fb8064003 720ce6dd5b8/index.html
the mirrordot.....
again, slashdot should just link to Coral, MirrorDot or host the webpage themselves.
How many years must they kill with traffic?
Is it only because they believe in the fallicies of "click count" and "banner ads"??
Is this why we must drive traffic into a dead end?
again and again and again and again.
read more rants: thunt.net
I got all jazzed-up about this mouse a few weeks ago, and decided to pick one up for my new laptop. One week later, I sold it to a friend.
.
As far as the mouse is concerned, it's really pretty good -- it tracks great, the buttons feel nice, and the RF receiver fits into the mouse, which can collapse. But it just wasn't for me -- the mouse was too small -- if I were just using it once or twice a week, it'd be okay, but every day for 5 to 8 hours was just too much with such a small design. I could never really find a comfortable position when holding it. After three or four days, I realized that my hand was starting to tense up a bit, and it was becoming sore. I decided not to keep trying to get comfortable with it, and just went back to my old mouse. I think my hand might just be a bit too big for that mouse.
IMO, the scroll-pad is overrated. It's a very neat thing, and at first you are very impressed with it. But over time, the novelty wears thin. The most immediate problem is that it doesn't work as a middle-button -- as a Firefox user, I don't like to do without a middle-button. Then there was the problem with finger position. You kind of have to acclimate yourself to using the scroll-pad -- if you start your finger in the middle and move one direction or the other, you're okay. But if you start from the top of the pad, then scroll down, a lot of times it'll go up for a second, then not scroll at all. I found it sort of frustrating having to be even slightly precise with something I use so much and so quickly. Then, since you can't touch the pad without it scrolling something, you can't really position your hand over it. With a scroll-wheel, if you inadvertently touch the wheel, nothing happens. If you accidentally brush the touch-pad, you're going to scroll somewhere. It makes your hand position a bit more difficult, and I think that's part of why I could never really get comfortable with that mouse.
Oh, and there's this annoying clicking sound -- it's a neat sound, but I would love to be able to turn it off . .
If you have a smaller hand, this might work for you, but for me, I found the mouse too small, and the touch-pad to be a lot more flash than substance. It is definitely the best-looking mouse around, I just think it's a bit lacking on comfort.
I bought it from CompuHQ and had it delivered to my door for $66.89.
I got this mouse as a backup / portable mouse. Most of my clients use laptops and it is damned handy to have this thing around.
However, I would not use it as my primary mouse. I guess it is an ok mouse, however it seems too
small in my hand. Also, it is easy to accidently cause the scroll panel to activate.
I must admit, the ticking sound generated when sliding your finger over the scroll panel is disturbingly enjoyable.
i found myself picking one of these V500s up about two months back. What follows could be consider my amature review.
the purchase decision centred on small wireless mouse with scroll wheel a nice to have. i looked at two or three options in-store and found the idea of left-right interesting, since i rely on a few horizonal organized spreadsheets. yes the CDN$80+ price was higher than the competition but they didn't have even the physical scroll wheel.
i figure a mouse is a mouse, however this little device has a high density of value. the design engineers are clever and innovative. the mouse nestles nicely in the palm of my hand and allows me the use the heel of my thumb as a natural rest. Logitech designed the v500 for left or right handed use, right down to the scrollpad. the wireless mouse uses a usb stick smaller than a common memory stick and protrudes out from my laptop about 3cm (little more than an inch). this little stick hides away in the body of the mouse to prevent loss. and there is a little black pouch for all of it, including a spare pair of batteries. the scroll works very well with a little configuring. when a scoll is enacted, the mouse responds by emitting an audible click (much like the click a physical scroll wheel). you have to listen for it, but for first time users that little click helps. the horizonal scroll is harder to master. i found the default 3line scroll too fast and ended up at the far end of my spreadsheets too often. the configuration software included a setting to reduce (or increase) the number of lines scrolled. the mouse itself almost floats on three (assumed) silicon pads, requiring very little effort to more on finished surfaces. the standard optical mouse difficulties on reflective surfaces still exist, but i find textured surfaces, including pantlegs, respond better than with other optical mouse alternatives. finally, i was pleasantly surprized to find the power drain on the batteries does not require a large store of reserve AAA batteries close by. Two months of medium to heavy use (i left the mouse on overnight more than a few times) and i only replace the batteries once.
i orginally purchased the v500 as something to submit as a business expense but quickly disliked the idea of possibly having to give up this mouse. i'm keeping this mouse and i would have to say that that's a positive review.
Now if they just take away a couple of those buttons, it'll be perfect for my Mac!
(I kid, I kid! I use a three-button mouse on my Mac and support Apple's decision to stick with a one-button mouse)
Also, consider editing submissions that make silly whines about cost. $70 is not that much for a cordless mouse. There are cheaper onces, but not with this feature set.
I've had a V500 for the past oh.. eight months. The closest thing I could compare it to is... a Chow (dog). It runs forever (pair of batteries that came with mouse lasted 6 months). It wanders (the scroll bar BLOWS). And it seems to have been dropped on it's head at birth and developed a mind of it's own (the scroll bar BLOWS). You can forget about trying to get it to do what you want it to do (the scroll bar BLOWS). On the good side, the USB dongle is very compact and fits neatly inside mouse for storage. It does not interfere with 802.11x or Bluetooth. Also, I've never had any disconnect issues with it like some older wireless accessories I've had from Logitech. Aside from power consumption, I don't know why they didn't use bluetooth for this. When I originally purchased it, I did evaluate other bluetooth mice. In spite of havign to deal with the added dongle, the V500 came out a clear winner. Unlike the bluetooth ones, it never disconnects or needs to be connected (via bluetooth manager). All in all, aside from the scroll bar (it BLOWS), this has been one absolutely sweet mouse for travel use with laptop.
I got this a few weeks ago interested in the unique features it offered. What a waste of money. I hated it almost immediately.
Ergonomnics - The shape of it is like a small box. About as non-ergonomic as you can get. Convinced that it was 'cool' product that I just had to ease myself into, I forced myself to use it and got used to the weird shape after a few days. But my hand began to hurt pretty easily from being in such an akward grip all the time.
Scroll Pad - The whole 'scroll pad' thing.... Not a good idea... It's interesting and new and unique, but if Logitech replaces all their scroll wheels with these things I'd have to start buying other mice. I had an incredibly difficult time with it in some cases. It is good for scrolling up or down on long documents or webpages. But it is HORRIBLE for when you need precision scrolling. Like if you know you need to move the scroll wheel up exactly 3 "clicks", it is virtuall impossible, unless you get lucky.
EXAMPLE - You are playing some FPS game and you use the scroll wheel/pad to change weapons. You are using the pistol and you have to scroll up 2 "clicks" to get to the shotgun. With this mouse, GOOD LUCK!. You will either overshoot or undershoot almost everytime and end up with the wrong weapon in your hand. Impossible.
COLLAPSING - A cool unique feature is that the wireless receiver can fit into the bottom of the mouse and it collapses upon itself for easy storage/travel. A cool idea that works very well.
NO MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON - I use the middle mouse button all the time in my field of work and can't use this mouse without it. Logitech decided it was a good idea to get rid of it for some reason. Probably cause making a clickable scroll pad was too complicated. Anyways, BAD MOVE.
Overall I give this mouse a 3/10 (10 being the best). I like the collapsing feature, but there are too many other problems with it. Too uncomfortable, scroll wheel too difficult to work with, and no middle mouse button.
In my opinion, if you want a really great and comfortable mouse, buy the Logitech MediaPlay mouse. I own 3 of these things for my computers. It's wireless. Perfect for either left or right handed folks. Very ergonomic. And the wireless is very responsive. IMHO this is the best mouse Logitech has released since the original 3-button MouseMan many years ago...
I've had one of the V500's since they were released. It works great, doesn't mess up my wi-fi setup, and the side scroll is great on the road in photoshop
If this thing at bluetooth it might be worth it. But it does not, it is just like evey other "cordless" mouse that needs a port to plug into, making it worthless in my eyes.
But someone out there makes a unit that can be switched between being a trackball and being a mouse, so I suppose it's close. I don't recall who makes/made it... I want to say Microsoft, but I could be wrong. I had a customer who had one of them and the first time I saw it she laughed when I gave her a look of whisky tango foxtrot.
I've noticed on my G4 powerbook, and on my friend's Dell notebook, scrolling with a trackpad in many graphics programs results in the screen scrolling erratically. Has anyone used this mouse with these programs?
Funny - i just now got back from returning one i bought the other day. I wanted it for my ibook so i didn't need to cart along my regular mouse. It seems like a nice device.
In any case, it didn't work. The cursor would move on the screen but i couldn't select or click on anything. I downloaded the driver (the OS X one doesn't come on the CD - somewhat strange) the amusingly named "logitech control center" and something called the connection utility, for when the receiver loses the signal. They both error, not recognising that the USB receiver is plugged in. I couldn't find out anything about bad drivers for OS X. If anyone knows anything let me know.
Oh, and i got my $ back.
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
Okay,
After seeing stories lately that call into question the credibility of blogs/newsstories/PR campaigns:
We have here a link to CoolTechZone.com, masquerading as a story about a new logitech mouse (w/ scrollpad or whatever).
Why is the link NOT TO LOGITECH's SITE?
Someone should speak up, or am I the only one who thinks this is quite suspect?
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
Dude, kensington has had a mouse like this for over a year and a half, it was wireless or wired, and meant for Mac, it's like $85 and uber sexy
as many touchpad users on laptops already know. I only have two buttons on my Tosh, and it's set by default to emulate a third button when you press both together.
... clearly not designed by a Linux user ...
I was stuck on a laptop with a whacking great bar between the mouse buttons once
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
Big deal. I've been using a Logitech cordless mouse with my notebook since 1999. Its USB, but I stuck the reciever on the back of the monitor. The only problem I've had are baggage security screeners eyeing the blue bulge on the side of my laptop suspiciously.
As someone who uses a trackball full-time when given the choice, I know a bit about tactile feedback, and I really don't like the idea of not being able to feel that nice sensory input of a trackwheel spinning on a mouse or any other input device. Touchpads are annoying enough with their ceaseless errors in detection. Now we have to put up with this on our separate devices? I'll stick with my three-button Logitech Trackman, thanks. At least this way I can open and close my Firefox windows without a ton of extraneous movement and an extra click.
Blah.
when you pry it from my cold dead fingers. It's the best mouse I've ever had, something that feels like it's actually trying to help me. Scrolls horizontally and vertically (works in everything except gtk1, but gtk1 sucks so that's understandable. Side note: why don't people upgrade?). It's been through 3 different computers. You're not having it!
I am trolling
I had a Logitech Quickcam Express I bought in 1999. When XP came out I looked around for 2000/XP versions of the driver for this camera and found that Logitech seems to have a habit of ending support for their products when new versions of Windows come out. So when Longhorn comes out they won't issue new drivers. Instead they'll quickly repackage all their products in a new plastic housing, write new drivers that work on Longhorn, and package them as new advanced Longhorn-compatible products. If you approach them asking for a driver for your current equipment they'll give you some crap about how it's "not advanced enough for Longhorn" but they will give you a coupon toward the purchase of the model with the new Longhorn-compatible plastic housing.
I eventually found an XP/2000 driver for my camera on a site where a guy got so pissed off he reverse engineered his and wrote a driver for it himself. It works really well. I got a new Logitech camera in the mail as a piece of promotional junk from the cable company when I switched ISPs, and I haven't even plugged it in because this one and its driver work so well.
the only unnatural finger movement is one that you cannot perform
It just occured to me that I've "Drank the Kool-Aid(tm)" so to speak. All this hooplah about it costing too much and I've got a bluetooth mouse from Apple that's got ONE FREAKING BUTTON and it was $60. And I like it.
It all started out so innocent. Ooo... look at the pretty iBook... Ooo... Master Steve has given us Tiger, we must upgade... oooo... look at the pretty mouse.
The new Macs are white... cocaine is white. Coincidence? I don't think so.
It may have something to do with Bluetooth's refresh rate being limited to something like 85 Hz. I know Logitech prefers a 125 Hz refresh rate on their mouses.
I am using this baby for quite some time now with my Centrino and the only problem that I'm getting is the interference while there is heavy network traffic. The cursor starts skipping and is not so smooth anymore. But that's only when there is 100% congestion on b-type connection. And because laptop is not my dedicated tero-torrent-ized machine in my network that is not a big deal.
;)
As well that's nothing that a quick LAN cable to router couldn't fix for those 5 minutes of copying files. Make that 1 minute as LAN is 100Mbit and WLAN-b is only 10.
I've been using it with my live teaching lessions in class flawlessly and I can walk 15 meters across the class and still show with mouse pointer on the big screen everything I want my students to see.
My major problem with the V500 is the lack of a middle click button. Hopefully in later models you can tap on the scroll panel to do a middle-click, but currently you can only do slide left, right, up, or down.
BTW, You can change the slide-left and slide-right as programmable buttons if you install my UberOptions mod for SetPoint. It works for any Logitech SetPoint-controlled device (all the newer keyboards and mice), and enables editing of all the buttons and adds all sorts of options.
-Richard L. Owens
What's next, a mouse with a mini-mouse on top, with a scroll wheel on that?
for now, this is for people who are gadget crazy and just want to buy new things.. i'll stick with my optical G.E. mouse that i bought for $10 at target.. its flawless and the scroll wheel works great.. once that mouse is $10, then i'll buy it..
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
Both my wife and GF really like it when I make unnatural movements with one particular finger while leaving the others more or less static... can be highly useful from time to time.
AC to protect my domestic situation !
Gotta love Logitech's design team. They've always been great, but this time they must have hired a European. EU's MX900 (gray/white) was way cooler than ours was.
I have a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer for Bluetooth. It positively cancels out activity on my (alebit old) 802.11b home network whenever it's in motion and I have network monitor and file transfer progress dialogs to prove it. Now, it doesn't actually kill the connection, but it definitely interferes severely.
Above and beyond that obvious problem, the bluetooth implementation in this mouse is poorly thought out -- Microsoft felt they needed to get this product to market in time to cash in on the bluetooth craze as enthusiasts like me thought they'd use bluetooth technology to actually improve some aspect of the mousing experience. The result?
The mouse driver only comes on CD, and is not downloadable from Microsoft's website. Now, where did I put that CD? Oh well, bye bye mousy.
It doesn't work in Linux -- no drivers and it doesn't even attempt to emulate a regular USB mouse from the computer's perspective.... even though the base bluetooth receiver plugs into a USB port.
I can move my mouse pointer on screen when I'm at the neighbor's house down the street. What possible good can come of this gross misappropriation of wireless technology? Well, how about positively gluttonous battery consumption. Even when the base station and mouse are kept within 2 feet, I have to swap and recharge 2400mAh NiMH AAs every 4 days or so on a home computer that is only in use evenings and weekends.
Thank you Microsoft!
"One of the unique things about the V500 is its scroll panel, and this is the very first mouse to actually use this concept."
maybe the way it's done on this particular mouse is new, but it's not really a new idea to replace the scroll wheel with something more functional... microsoft's and even some of logitech's have the backward and forward, side to side wheel. kensington had a mouse with a scroll pad, similar to the creative zen micro. we just got some mice at work that have a trackball instead of a wheel. (though it doesnt work as well as i had hoped).
Yeah, $70 for a mouse. Please go die of cancer. Personally I like the wheel and woudn't want a mouse without a scroll wheel but I'd never pay that much for a cordless mouse much less would I pay a $50 premium to get a wheeless cordless mouse.