Logitech Unveils Smart Mouse

Rob writes "Computer business Review is reporting that Logitech International, one of the world's largest makers of mice and keyboards, has added to its already large range of peripherals with a new mouse that can receive and process wireless communications from a PC. The new fangled mouse is capable of two-way communication with the PC, it can inform users when their mouse battery is low, and notify them when they receive an email or instant message. Other features include laser tracking, 10 buttons, volume control and probably too many other things."

Comments

Re:Why?

[arivanov]

Well, that is most idiotic use of the feature.

There may be some good uses for it though. Notifying the user that he must take an anti-RSI break springs to mind as one good use. Possibly a few others.

Re:10 buttons?

[imroy]

Gosh, it hasn't even been a month since the last Logitech Slash-vertisment. So I can quote my last rant about the buttons on newer Logitech mice:

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I have an old Logitech M-BA47 from around 2000. It has a nice thumb button right where I rest my thumb (i.e low). When I first hooked it up, XFree86 mapped it as another middle button. I was happy with that so I never looked into changing it. It works great for me under Linux. Pasting text or opening links in new tabs is a matter of simply pressing with my thumb. And I never liked pressing down on the mouse wheel because it can turn unless you're careful about applying the pressure (or at least that's what I'm thinking about whenever I have to do it on other mice). Pressing the thumb button is so much easier.

Then earlier this year, my mum took pity on me still using a non-optical mouse and got me a Logitech MX500 mouse. Bleh. For a start, I had to hunt around a lot of web pages to figure out how to map the buttons the way I like. Then I realised the stupidity of having two (not one) thumb buttons, making them thin, and placing them up on the rim of the mouse. So now I not only had to move my thumb, I had to be careful to hit the right one, and I had to apply more pressure because they were much smaller. Think about it, the left and right mouse buttons are nice big pads you can rest your fingers on, so why make the other buttons so small and hard to hit?
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Re:Why?

[DrXym]

The answer is they don't. But if you're a mouse and keyboard maker, you'll cast desperately around for ways to make your product look useful and relevant.

Personally I'd be happy with a mouse and keyboard which did what they're meant to without screwing up my machine with a bunch of apps and dlls that destablize the whole OS by running the entire type, installing hooks and "sniffing" for various things.

Next Big Thing (tm)

[headkase]

Some posters seem to think that 10 buttons are too much for a mouse but I think I'd like it if my next mouse had twice as many buttons on it. A hand held input device (a.k.a. mouse) is leaps and bounds ahead of any keyboard out there ergonomically. What I would like to see are functions such as task switching (alt-tab), ok, cancel, minimize, maximize, and like basic functions used while interacting with the operating system. Having them convieniently and literally at your finger tips would allow the more efficient and transparent manipulation of the command functions of the operating system.
The Windows Icon Mouse Pointer system would have to have some of it's qualifying actions loosened, for example, having ok and cancel mouse buttons active when the pointer is within the dialog box instead of requiring that it needed to be above the actual button graphic. This leads to a more generalized notion that the operating system could be manipulated in a context orientated manner. Like today's Wizards on megasteroids. As you went from screen-to-screen within the context of a wizard paradigm have the buttons on the mouse change functions depending on the screen or context you were currently at. It would have to follow some logical system to be useful otherwise you'd probably be constantly looking at your "mouse" to see what was written on the button display at the moment. If it was ever to take hold maybe our children will take a mouse interface course much as we take touch typing courses today.

Re:Looks like feature bloat to me

[jellomizer]

One feature I would like and I think I heard about it on slashdot long ago but I am to lazy now to find it but the mouse gave resistance when you move over hot spots or moved over windows. This would be very useful today especially now that most OS's use or are starting to use 3d interface to draw their widgets so when you move on the z access you get a little resistance which lets you know where you are and get a better feeling of the interface.