$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."

Comments

sounds like the iPod interface

[binarstu]

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.

Re:Laptop touchpads have this as well

[antifoidulus]

The latest revision of powerbooks have a scrolling function built into the touch pad as well(and you can go left and right), you just use 2 fingers instead of one when you want to scroll. I use it and it's quite useful IMO.

I have one

[radish]

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.

Re:small nit to pick

[bhtooefr]

How funny ;-)

First, there's the mouse.
Then, there's the trackball, which is put into laptops.
Then, somebody at IBM realizes that the trackball is too big, and puts in the TrackPoint (pointing stick).
Next, somebody else also figures out that the trackball is too big. They use a touchpad.
Microsoft (this is debatable, though) puts a sort of one-axis trackball in their mice for scrolling.
IBM sees it, and puts a TrackPoint in the top of their mice for two-axis scrolling.
Then, Kensington and Logitech decide to put a sort of touchpad in the tops of their mice for one or two-axis scrolling ;-)

So, every major pointing device after the mouse (except for the touchscreen) has been strapped onto the top of a mouse for scroll functionality ;-)

Whatever happened to BlueTooth?

[Minstrel Boy]

I don't understand why the majority of wireless mice/keyboards out there use RF rather than BlueTooth. It's a reasonable standard, it's been out there for awhile, lots of notebooks come with built-in BlueTooth - I expected to see all the newer wireless mice start to use it over the past couple of years. Is it licensing fees? Power consumption? Implementation problems?

KeS

Re:2.4 GHz

[sammy baby]

I was thinking exactly the same thing. I just snagged a new laptop with built-in Bluetooth, and it's shocking exactly how few bluetooth travel mice there are out there.

If you're going to include a dongle in the packaging anyway, why not make it a bluetooth one? The mouse I eventually bought came bundled with one, and I just tossed it. (Okay, actually, I just put it aside.)

I could see the need for a 2.4Ghz transmitter if this were a presentation remote or something similar, but come on, people. Most of us don't sit fifty feet from our laptops.

Iffy ergonomics....

[Half-pint HAL]

As someone with a personal and professional interest in ergonomics, I'm not too happy about this.

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