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Discussing Logitech's New Gaming Mice

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the click-it-until-it-dies-from-the-clicking dept.

Paul writes "Logitech had a busy day announcing three new products designed for gamers. The company introduced the Logitech G15 keyboard, G5 and G7 G-Series gaming mice. TechSpot had a brief talk with Erik Charlton, senior product-marketing manager at Logitech, who shared a few ideas and details on Logitech's newly announced products."

17 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. Images here by plover · · Score: 5, Informative

    The story of a keyboard is fine, but pictures are worth more. See the G15 keyboard here.

    --
    John
    1. Re:Images here by calibanDNS · · Score: 5, Informative
      Product pages:


    2. Re:Images here by plover · · Score: 4, Interesting
      The more I think about it, the more this could really enhance realism to gaming by removing onscreen clutter.

      It'll be interesting to try it out. I like to play America's Army in a darkened room, and for total immersion I'd love to get rid of all the status bars, bullet counts, magazine counts, health, steadiness, objectives, etc. Just show me a picture out the soldiers eyes. A small glowing compass and current weapon indicator down below my line of sight would be perfect. In a firefight or tense "scan for opfor" situation, all you see is either nothing or targets. Once the action has passed, though, you can steal a quick glance down to see how you're doing for ammo, is there a medic call, etc. And as in the real world, when you divert attention away from the situation to check on the mundane details, you might miss something.

      Yeah, this looks really interesting. It might not improve my frag rate, but it sure could improve my enjoyment.

      --
      John
  2. Display? by TGK · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The article mentions a built in display - configured by the player to show in game information or data from an outside application.

    Two questions:

    1 - Who really looks at their keyboard that much during a game session?

    2 - How are they pulling data from a game engine? Is this assuming that developers will build software for this keyboard system for major releases? That seems presumptive.

    --
    Killfile(TGK)
    No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
  3. Impressive by mikeophile · · Score: 4, Funny

    They support screaming fast 20g moves up to 45 inches / second...and even higher, depending upon the surface.

    Will they support 20G impacts when I throw the damn thing against the wall after I am fragged by a LAN hacker for the n-th time?

  4. The g5 optical mouse got a raving review by BlackCobra43 · · Score: 3, Informative

    from ExtremeTech. It's fairly comprehensive. Read it here : http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1847008 ,00.asp Notice the perfect 10 score.

    --
    I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
  5. g5 and g7 mice by arkhan_jg · · Score: 4, Informative

    Pictures of the g5 mouse

    And guess what, it's shaped for right handers only. You'd think that it'd be possible to invert the casing, and produce a mirrored device for the 15-20% or so of the target market who can't use a right-handed gaming mouse. (I can handle it for general use, but I need my primary hand for precision work)

    Still, looks like I'll be buying the new razer copperhead when it comes out shortly, similar features but suitable for lefties.

    --
    Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
  6. Re:Optimus by millwall · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bear in mind that the Optimus keyboard is expected in 2006 and is yet only at prototype stage.

    As discussed earlier on Slashdot: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/ 18/1314226&tid=126&tid=137

  7. Re:Optimus by JahToasted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah the optimus will be great for playing Duke Nukem Forever on.

  8. This is a huge scientific breakthrough... by Malor · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the writeup on the new mice:

    "The low weight of the mouse allows fast moves and zero inertia[....]"

    In other words, they've quietly developed an inertialess mouse. The biggest physics breakthrough ever, and they're wasting it on a stupid gaming mouse. Quick, somebody call NASA!

  9. Re:Get a console... by plover · · Score: 3, Funny
    Because two groups of consumers drive the absolute high end of home computing: the gamers and the porn surfers.

    And porn surfers don't need a two-handed keyboard.

    --
    John
  10. Full-Speed USB! by NewStarRising · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't miss the Full-Sped USB!
    "The G7 and G5 are Logitechs first computer mice to leverage full-speed USB. "

    Now checking on http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm , we find that
    "Full Speed" refers to USB 1.1, while High-Speed (Or "Hi-Speed") refers to USB 2.

    So Logitech are bragging about their USB 1.1 mice?

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    b3 4phr41d 0f my 4bov3-4v3r4g3 c0mpu73r kn0wI3dg3!
    MadDwarf
  11. keyboard by CaptnMArk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hope the keyboard doesn't have the f**ing f-lock.

    Whoever invented disabling the function keys by default on new keyboard should just die.

    The only reason I'm not buying a keyboard from www.pckeyboard.com is due to lack of USB support (I find most converters are problematic).

    1. Re:keyboard by RCSInfo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, I would cheer at the public execution of the f-lock inventor. Or the guy who made the f-lock disabled on boot with no way of changing it.

      I have been hitting F5 to refresh the screen for as long as I have worked with Windows machines. Now someone has decided that F5 without the f-lock would be a great shortcut to close the window. What was wrong with Alt-F4? The function keys already served a function (hence their name). They did not need to be remapped.

      Its also a little annoying when booting a PC and missing the Bios setup screens or Windows boot options because the keyboard boots up with the F-keys disabled.

      Until the F-lock goes, I will not buy another Logitech or MS keyboard.

  12. New mice actually worse for FPS gamers by Jan+Brunner · · Score: 4, Informative

    It seems like they increase the resolution with every generation while sadly neglecting the maximum speed.

    The MX510 (800 cpi) is able to track up to about 3.4 m/s, the MX300, too (with raised USB polling rate at 400 cpi). The Razer Diamondback (1600 cpi) has a maximum speed of about 1.4 m/s, very probably as much as the MX518 (same or similar sensor, I couldn't measure it, yet). The article talks of about 45 ips (1.14 m/s) in those 2000 cpi mice...

    I can't think of any good shooter player who would actually benefit from a resolution higher than 800 cpi but I know there are many who like to move their mouse faster than 1.4 m/s.

    Raising the resolution by sacrificing maximum tracking speed is very easy: They can just scale the chip down and/or change the optics. It seems that they don't like to make a chip more complex (MX300, A2020 was the last big upgrade).

    This is bad news for the gamers who got used to their MX510's speed and don't find anything else than "Ultra Gamerz 4000 dpi" with a max speed of 1 m/s when they need a replacement in a few years. Maybe someone clever will invest in a few MX510 and make a lot of money. :)

  13. Re:Optimus by zkn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A 3D rendering of a product concept can hardly be considered a prototype. They are in concept stage.

  14. F-Lock Key ELIMINATOR by gabecubbage · · Score: 3, Informative
    F-Lock Eliminator

    Your complaint about the F-Lock key stirred up my own longtime irritation with it. It's the only thing I dislike about my MS Natural Multimedia Keyboard.

    Realizing how many others were bothered by this prompted me to Google "F-Lock key" and discover this wonderful little registry hack. Note that there are several versions -- be sure to use the right one.

    This works! A quick 30-second test of F5-Refresh and PrtScn image pasting have yielded perfect results. My function keys now behave like function keys regardless of the status of the [F] LED.

    Now if only this worked when trying to hit F6 during SATA driver initialization in WinXP setup, and F2-activated BIOS access.