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$70 Cordless Notebook Mouse with No Scroll Wheel

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the interesting-new-design-concepts dept.

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."

9 of 372 comments (clear)

  1. 2.4 GHz by bigtallmofo · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Hmm.. That's weird. Every time I move my mouse, I get disconnected from my 802.11g network."

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:2.4 GHz by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Something sorta up this alley...

      Back in the day when I was working on a DOS based, flat file database app; one of the new guys discovered that if you moved the mouse, searchs, updates, maintenance processing, ran faster.

      The logical reason was that the interupt checking to see if the user had hit the space bar to cancel, was firing and not waiting that extra milisecond because the mouse was saying 'nope nothing happening here' quicker than just timing out the interupt. So you just balance the mouse on the SHIFT key and boom, faster processing of long reports!

      The Customer Support people in house were like "We are NOT telling that to customers!"


      --
      People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  2. small nit to pick by justforaday · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:small nit to pick by dustbin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In addition to Kensington's product that came out in '02, there was at least a prototype displayed at CES a few years before that by Fujitsu. Never saw it for sale in the states, but it looked like production plastics, so it was probably available in Japan.

      The interesting point about the Logitech design is their best ergonomic feature isn't being noticed - it isn't even called out by Logitech. The very small sensor they're using lets them push the sensor way up to the front of the mouse. It's long been known that the mice "feel" more responsive the closer you get the sensor to a point midway between the fingertips that are guiding the mouse. Most sensors have been too big to fit up there, so they're positioned farther back, where they don't move as far as the fingertips do.

      Real ergonomics is too subtle for marketing, I guess. Maybe it's because the "ball forward" concept was originally used to promote the Microsoft Dove Bar mouse http://www.ideo.com/portfolio/re.asp?x=12328 and the standard Apple ergonomic mouse of the ~90s.

  3. sounds like the iPod interface by binarstu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  4. First??? Im not sure about that. by falcon5768 · · Score: 5, Informative
    ummm unless I am mistaken there is already a mouse with a scroll pad.

    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."

  5. Kinda like this kensington one then? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    But with a 2D touchpad?
    http://www.kensington.com/html/4769.html

  6. Re:I have one by hikerhat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some people don't have their other hand free when using firefox.

  7. Whatever happened to BlueTooth? by Minstrel+Boy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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