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Why Would a Mouse Need To Connect To the Internet?
jbrodkin writes "In this hyper-connected, networked world, many more of our devices are getting linked to the cloud, whether we want them to or not. That's sometimes good, and sometimes bad, so when a basic device like a mouse requires a user to go online and set up an account to activate all of its functionality, people are understandably going to ask why? The latest entry in the saga of 'Why the hell does this thing need to connect to the Internet?' comes from Razer, which has caused an uproar by asking users to register gaming mice on the Internet. While it's mainly for syncing settings across devices, gamers are complaining that certain functionality might not be available unless you create an online account for your mouse. Razer has responded to the controversy, but its answers aren't entirely satisfactory."
razercfg!
So at the current trend of technology am I going to have to start paying a monthly fee to use my mouse, or at least the more advanced features of it. All it would take is a Firmware update, which they can force if the mouse is connected to the internet. I can see it now, a little popup inviting me to take advantage of all the great features available with RAZER Plus.
Never before have I had as much of a love/hate relationship with a company, and this includes Apple. Razer makes some great peripherals, that usually all have some crazy, simple, fixable flaw that they ignore for months before finally getting around to in a half-assed way. Why do I love them so much? I'm a left-handed gamer, and the pickings are pretty slim for me. So I'm stuck with them for a good left-handed gaming mouse.
Examples in the past: The Lycosa keyboards, which had a defect where the touch panel for volume and LED control would stop working after a month or less. It took over a month to get them to acknowledge a problem. Another, the drivers for the Death Adder mouse line. For four months, it was impossible to get a combination of working drivers that allowed you to rebind the left and right buttons to one another (because Razer defaulted to the primary click being on the right, for the LH models).
Razer takes forever to respond to anything, and when they do, it's typically poorly communicated and badly handled. This is a company that is just mindblowingly TERRIBLE at customer relations.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
... and returned it!
Basically the mouse is so hypersensitive with insane DPI that you have to run their software to mod it down. The reason the internet is required is because it uses a cloud to load your mouse settings. No you did not misread that?!
It gets worse
The profile and cloud service are several services that depend on each other and take almost a minute on my fast 2.8 ghz Phenom II and meanwhile the cursor is flying all over the machine due to the high dpi settings. Razor made it so light too which excaberates the problem. They have added weights for their $130 and it is their way of saying a Fuck you for being cheap by buying the $80 mouse??? Since when is $80 cheap? So you just have to set their and wayt for your mouse to connect to the cloud to slow down a simple setting. Sigh
This cloud obsession is silly and getting too far. I can't use logitech because they are too small for my hands. Microsoft explorer mosue 2 is big enough but htey no longer have the scroll mouse. Just a touch button that will hurt after rubbing my fingers for several hours. My dying MS mouse I will keep for now as I am disapointed in razor. It is rediculous.
http://saveie6.com/
Why Would a Mouse Need To Connect To the Internet?
It probably wants to use your credit card number to place a giant order at http://www.thecheeseshed.com/
If my comment didn't sound as good in your head as it did in mine, then I guess we all know who's to blame
Or 10 cents worth of EEPROM.
Logging into someones computer and having your *mouse* setup from the cloud is basically the easiest way to declare your permanent virginity.
Adding a gigabyte of flash might increase the BOM cost by a dollar! Also, we won't be able to track all your keyboard and mouse activity and monetize your little consumer ass. One of those...
Well, the cloud solution lets you have multiple mice all automatically use the same settings without toting around SD cards or adding expense and bulk to the mice themselves.
I use Razer Synapse. I was really annoyed at having to use it at first, but the next day when I moved my Naga mouse over to a different system, I saw how useful it was. My only complaint now is that updates for the software are quite frequent, and require reboots, which is pretty obnoxious.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
Do they require reboots, or does it just ask you to reboot. Because I find that 90% of the stuff that asks you to reboot doesn't actually require a reboot. It's just something developers put in, "just in case" but most of the time it's completely unnecessary. I think the only reason I reboot anymore is so Windows will stop complaining and install it's own updates.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Oh, it gets even worse with the Harmony remotes. Have two of them? Well, you can't register two remotes to the same account--not and have them control different equipment, that is. No, Logitech forced me to set up two accounts in order to control my two remotes. This was a year ago; hopefully they realized how idiotic that was.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/gaming/mice-keyboard-combos/g600-mmo-gaming-mouse
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
This sounds like a job for Cat 5.
My Logitech G700 stores settings on the mouse itself. I can hop from win to mac to linux and all the mappings are the same.
Good-bye
You really think I want to go to that effort? Just because it's technically possible with a lot of work, doesn't mean it should be necessary in the first place. Your criticism is exactly the same reason why people avoid Linux like the plague - not everyone wants to have to be a fucking geek to get things done. And it shouldn't be necessary for them to do so. It's a fucking consumer product.
Most people on Slashdot are fucking idiots.
have no possible marketing utility
Well the new synapse drivers have Facebook and Twitter integration. I'm not kidding - open the mouse configuration page and down the bottom right there's a row of social media icons.
I would be interested to see an informed EULA-violating teardown of the new driver arrangement; but I'm inclined to operate on the provisional assumption that an untrusted program with enough local access to modify nonstandard settings(ie. Not just twiddling the numlock LED) of USB HID devices and internet access is a keylogger until proven innocent.
". USER GENERATED INFORMATION
“User Generated Information” means any information made available to Razer through your use of the Software. Subject to the Privacy Policy mentioned above, you expressly grant Razer the complete and irrevocable right to use, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, broadcast, and otherwise communicate, and publicly display and perform the User Generated Information and derivative works thereof in any form, anywhere, with or without attribution to you, and without any notice or compensation to you of any kind."
With that little puppy in their service agreement, they certainly appear to be asserting a claim over absolutely anything that their software(or any later version) is technologically capable of grabbing...