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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."
Why in the world would a person want their MOUSE to notify them when they get an Email?
The monitor? OK.
Speakers? Sure.
Mouse!? Come on. What would it do? Jiggle slightly?
...Also, I didn't know Buggalo could fly.
That was done before at Princeton.
And they needed one of this to trap some of the rodents that used its new superior skills to escape.
My city: Barcelona.
My Apple bluetooth mouse has been telling me my battery is low for years (I really should change it).
As for telling me when I get email... isn't that what the screen and sound cards are for? I don't own a PC, or run linux, but I'm guessing that these operating systems already have a system for telling you when you've got mail too.
10 buttons? Meh. I've got 113 keys right next to my mouse. I have two hands, so I find that I can press these buttons whilst I'm using the mouse.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
From TFA:
"the ability to sense the power status of the PC"
"it can inform users when their mouse battery is low"
"the mouse can sense when the PC has gone into sleep mode or is shut down. The mouse powers down accordingly."
"ability to sense if there is wireless interference from other devices"
All of these features are workarounds for the fact that the mouse lacks a cable. What the hell is wrong with a good optical mouse with a cable?
Honestly, I can't understand ths obsession with wireless stuff. Of course wifi and bluetooth are convenient, but wireless keyboards and mice add nothing for most users. Most desktop users are better off with wired versions because lots of hassle goes away.
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
What do you do when your product already does everything a sensible user wants to do?
If you're M$ you release a new version incompatible with old versions to force the upgrade
If you're Logitech you just keep on adding features. I can't see any reason to upgrade here.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
What we need now is energy-saving tech in mice. It feels like i am changing batteries constantly in my Logitech MediaPlay. Does anyone else feel the same?
You cant fight in here, its a war room!
Logitech announces their "PC mouse", complete with monitor and networking. For an extra $9.95 it comes with the optional PC mouse mouse.
Anyone remember when each of your peripherals had a clearly defined function?
Now my mouse can check my email, my printer can send a fax, my monitor can produce sound, my cell-phone can access the web and my keyring can store half a gig of data.
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:
---
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?
---
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.
Shh.
Logitech Smart Mouse:
Features:
10-key keyboard in QWERTY layout
Stereo audio
LCD color VGA display
8 signal LEDs
WiFi
Intel Pentium Centrino(tm) 2.5GHZ CPU
512MB RAM
Weight: 3.1kg (not including batteries)
Dimensions: 30x15x5cm
Power usage: 40 Watt
Battery: 2 Li-ion batteries of 40Ah each
Battery life in sleep mode: 32h
Battery life when mouse used: 4h
DeLuxe model includes power steering allowing for almost frictionless and momentum-less movement.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
WEll, I HAve thiS WInAmP PLUgin thaT BLInkS KEyBoARD leds WITh thE MUsic!
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"