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Smart Mouse with E-Mail and IM Alerts
lilrock writes "CoolTechZone.com takes a look at the world's first smart mouse from Logitech, the MX610, that has e-mail and IM alert buttons. It also has auto turn on/off functionality as well. According to the article, 'All these standard features aside, what has us impressed are the e-mail and IM notification buttons. Though the idea behind them is simple, it's interesting how Logitech comes up with such exclusive features. Basically, you will have to configure the indicators to alert you when you receive an e-mail and/or an IM message from the person of your choice. The buttons will alert you by lighting up, and lead you directly to the message once you press them.' " Because I for one am constantly staring at my mouse when I have a gigantic monitor right in front of me. Cough.
Perhaps some people use screen-savers, but would still like to have a visible indicator of when e-mail arrives?
Because I for one am constantly staring at my mouse when I have a gigantic monitor right in front of me.
As long as it has a long enough range, it could be useful to just take your mouse with you when you go away from the computer - to work on some paper based thing, prehaps.
OK, I'll bite to be the first: "But does it work in Linux?" :)
It does sound like a great idea, especially if the LED is very bright. Right now, I wrote some scripts to play sounds at intervals when important Email messages come in. But sometimes it can be much more annoying than a nice LED.
Every time you think the mouse is a dead deal, somehow Logitech does come up with something new and useful. And I will admit that I was one of those "what the hell is with this scroll wheel crap" people. And after a few months of using it, you would have to rip it from my cold, dying, RSI hands to get it away from me!
It now features a vibration instead of a light altert.
In other news, female use of computers up 500%.
Why is someone spamming from CoolTechZone.com and gets accepted?
/. to drive ad revenue, apart from the editors of course.
The last two stories from CTZ were probably posted by the same user under different names, but what is common in both users is that they both specified http://slashdot.org/ as url (when clicking on their nicks). I don't think it's too far fetched to assume that someone is spamming with the intention to post inflammatory/poorly written stories to
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Who cares about the people who still use screen savers? They probably still have those prnters where the paper has the holes on the side and the actual "floppy" disc drives too.
Someone save me from this sanity.
Although the article makes fun of the output LEDs/buttons, that isn't such a bad thing; if you could make them do what you want, it would be really neat. Especially for someone who does system administration, who needs to somehow prioritize various distractions.
However, I went to logitech's site and discovered the following:
They don't provide (at least I can't find it) details on how to talk to the mouse to use the buttons/LEDs for input/output. You have to use their "SetPoint" software, which only works under Windows. And maybe it doesn't work the way you want it to.
So the mouse can't be used for other systems, and you can't program the mouse to work the way that you want it to work. Which is too bad.
Even if Logitech provided "open source" software, that wouldn't help folks who want to really use the hardware for neat things -- they need the technical specs that the "SetPoint" authors used to make the software work in the first place.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
Because you can NEVER have enough blinking lights :P
Seriously though, I doubt the software requires that much overhead, and the extra feedback could be usefull to some people. Personally I won't be buying one, but I can imagine that some people might find it handy.
are some volume buttons and a treo style keyboard on the top of the mouse, and we can ditch the traditional keyboard altogether.
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/
Yeah, I was gonna post something about the inevitable threads that were gonna pop up on this one.
1) What I want is something simpler, not more complicated -- there are two many flashing and blinking things ruining my concentration already!
2) Who in their right mind would design yet another interface type to deliver the same message?
3) But can I make it work with linux?
But the porn angle is always better. I'll form a company to take seed money for the following much needed productivity enhancement:
The iPawed Onano pr0n keyboard and mouse!
Features:
1) Wireless connectivity
2) keyboard optimized for one handed-operation
3) 5-button sidescrolling optical mouse glides over the stickiest surfaces and still tracks your movements
4) variable mouse sensitivity: seamlessly switch between sweeping movements and sniper precision.
5) optional mouse vibrate keeps you in the game.
6) Membrane keyboard for her pleasure
7) 15 context-sensitive present keys with handy icons depicting the acts involved.
8) additional keycap kits available: Hentai, BDSM, Fetish, and "Barnyard" schemes.
9) "Boss" button clears the desktop and loads harmless "Tubgirl" image.
10) 2 Fully powered USB ports on keyboard for attaching additional functionality.
My mouse could be neon green with 60 flashing lights on it and I would never notice it. I just went to the AT&T natural voice site and created a few female voice messages with the text I typed in to alert me of mail from certain people or business. Since she has an English accent it is different from my regular computer voice. I am using OS X so I just create a mail rule that will color the background of the message and then play the sound file for that person. Since I leave mail running in the background most of the day I will always know when I get an email from a person that I know, even if I am not looking at the computer.
Hey, Logitech! I'm a big guy with big paws. How about making a wired optical mouse with two buttons and one wheel that's about 50% larger than every mouse you currently make? These little buttons all over the sides and top just get in the way. I have the MX310 and it would be great if it was bigger and had 3 less buttons. You could make two or three sizes of the same thing and sell more mice that way. You know, instead of tacking on more garb... er um... features.
Also, opaque plastic please. The old optical mice with the translucent plastic were annoying. Loud colors are wasted on me too.
Why the fuck would you want you fucking mouse to do this ? A mouse is there for interactivity in a GUI, or more generally to represent the analogy between hand movements and virtual movements.
Why should the mouse ever check for email ? I have a programamble computer to do things like that.
This is the worst case of slashvertisement ever ! I'm sad I'm not a subscriber so I could ask my money back !
So you know vital details, like you got spam when your screen has blacked out.
Am I the only who dosen't want email or IM alerts?
I picked up a MX610 to replace a mouse that just didn't meet my needs. Specifically, I wanted a mouse with plenty of programmable buttons that didn't require me to move my hand position.
I'm surprised at how well the blinking catches my attention. When I'm using my laptop in class, a meeting, or the library, audio indicators are out of the question. On-screen indicators are great, but unless they're persistent, I often miss them. The MX610 does a decent job of letting me know I recieved an IM or an e-mail.
The drawback? It's currently exclusive to M$ applications with no mention of further support. I have to use MSN messenger to talk to some of my friends, but I can't stand Outlook. >:(
You and I both know that this is yet another attempt to get around M$'s single screen interface. Because M$ has yet to make virtual desktops work, most people don't have it and suffer desktop congestion. A brave few have ventured into the expensive world of dual monitors, but they are still limited to the screen space and that's not enough for them. Others, such as Nvidia, have done the right thing and made virtual desktops but the last time I saw one it was slow and crash prone as you can expect anything M$ wants to be "first" with. This goofy mouse is just another attempt to gain useful space. On any system using X and a decent window manager, you can get a popup for your IM and email and it works. On Winblows, the pop up might not rise to the top and could be lost in the congestion if it did. That's the reason they made this thing.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Because I for one am constantly staring at my mouse when I have a gigantic monitor right in front of me.
Most people don't stare at their mouse constantly, BUT a flashing LED on your mouse will be quite visible in your pheripheral vision. Actually it will probably be more visible then a small icon or text flashing in one of the corners of the screen. Our pheripheral vision is quite good at recognizing movement, bright colors and flashing light, all of which were very useful to our cavemen anscenstors and as still useful to us today.
I think its a good idea, but some people might find this feature annoying after a while (e.g. teenagers who send messages per hour than speak sentences during the day).
I would not really apreaceate my mouse blinking (or vibrating for that matter) while I'm playing a game. And if I accidentally touched the IM button and it were to tab out of the game (which often crashes certain games btw) I would be really annoyed.
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/08/003425 2&tid=126&tid=99This was reported on /. over three months ago. Nothing to see here... move along..
If you run Linux, you can forget this.
Logitech refuse to support using Linux with their products - just ask anyone with a DiNovo mediapad keyboard. All they have to do is tell us the protocol, which won't cost them a penny, but they won't. Asshats.
Yeah, the extra buttons on those common-as-dirt Compaq USB keyboards sure are useful when plugged into an OS X box. And now your hand will be between you and the lights most of the time. Oh yeah, and this will be real useful for left-handed mouse users.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
When I worked at HP (the part that became Agilent) we had HP PCs with keyboards that included an email LED (next to the Caps, Scroll and Num lock LEDs). It also had some quicklaunch buttons but they aren't so interesting.
It was really useful to not have to unlock the computer just to check if you had been sent that email yet.
My mouse just failed so I went out and bought a Hyper Super Tech X40d2mfgv2 Extra III. It's the most amazing mouse ever. It has 104 programmable keys and three fantastic lights.
Am I the only one that thinks mice are becoming a little over complicated? Three buttons and a scroll wheel should be enough to anyone :o)
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
number of females deleting their spam filters increased with 1000%.
The previous two post had to do with genetics/biology, so I guess I was a bit pre-conditioned ...
... cool, they've genetically engineered a mouse to able to use email and IM ... neat trick, I get the IM, but the email asynchronous communication does require fairly high abstract thinking ability ... oh, wait.
Smart mouse with e-mail and IM alerts
Seriously, for a moment I was alright with a mouse messaging with other mouses and reseachers.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers - Pablo Picasso
One thing I have never understood is why wireless mice do not seem to have battery on/off switches. Although they go to a low power mode after a while, some of them get retriggered when moving around in a briefcase, and the battery life is shorter than it needs to be. Is a physical switch really that difficult?
Pining for the fjords
Microsoft's best product is their mice. Simple is beautiful.
Having said that, it would make more sense for IM programs to add this functionality.
Gaim has support for "buddy pounces" which allow you to set an action (such as a notification which can be anything from a pop-up window, IM box, and sent message to just a simple sound) for any event (an IM, change in state, even typing) a person on your buddylist triggers. They can also be set to repeat. They can even be used to piss people off by having it send a message to them whenever they start or stop typing. That can get really annoying, believe me.
First off I'll second all the objections to this ridiculous product: It's unnecessarily limited, proprietary, non-compatible, and probably-- anyone know for sure?-- absurdly patented. That said, there are two underlying concepts embodied here which I think are worthwhile as we look towards future interface design.
One: More I/O is almost always good. The human brain is in large part a pattern recognizing machine; put meaningful information anywhere in someone's environment and they'll adapt to make use of it. If this product was aimed at slashdotters, the ad copy could have read: "Mouse that displays two bits of information!" It's not much, but it's more than your mouse used to be telling you.
Two: Input and output work well in connected loops. It's much more intuitive that if somewhere lights up to tell you about something that needs your attention, you respond by touching there. If properly implemented, this kind of integrity to a mini I/O situation could help us in making meaningful connections and associations. For instance, if there is a button somewhere that lights up when we get an IM from a particular person, and brings up an IM window to that person when pressed (whether it's lit or not), then that button represents that person on multiple levels.
We are primed and ready to make emotional connections with the things around us. One might have thought that having a light that shows HD or network activity would be silly-- in fact it's often practical-- but more than practical, it's often reassuring. For decades now, when a computer looks like it might be hung, I look to the HD light to reassure me that it really is doing something. That light has an emotional meaning for me.
So, yes, this particular product is a ridiculous implementation, but the ideas which are being ridiculously implemented are themselves worthwhile. There's something missing in all of the vibrating mice and email buttons they've come up with so far, but that doesn't mean that we should never explore I/O that goes beyond 101 keys and one big glowing square.
<3
If you were my sig, you'd be reading yourself right now.