On mice and men...

[torkell]

Logitech spins 'revolutionary' free-wheeling mouse

Mouse maker Logitech today introduced its first input device with a freely-rotating scroll wheel, aiming the system at gamers looking for fast weapon changes and Microsoft Office users who need to be able to whizz through long documents...

But flip a switch on each laser-guided gadget's base, and the wheel runs freely. The alloy-made wheel is weighted to spin for six seconds, Logitech said...

Oddly enough, my aging Intellimouse Explorer has a similar design on the wheel. It requires very little pressure to spin and doesn't so much click as gently bump. And you can set it spinning for about half a second.

It's a lot better designed than the current version, which has a heavily damped wheel that doesn't click at all. Which, while it may be nice, is hopeless for trying to change weapons in Unreal Tournament.

Plus it fits my hand nicely, and has drivers that actually work.

Say what you like about Microsoft, they know how to make mice.

Comments

[choros.livejournal.com]

I don't have any problems with the newer optical mice from M$, but I do agree that they do know how to make good hardware.

Then again it would be PRETTY embarrassing if the drivers didn't work seamlessly/instantly under Windows...

[justicefornone.livejournal.com]

Razor know how to make mice (Less Than Threes his Razor Diamondback, mmm 1600 DPI and 7 buttons... THAT helps for UT (link gun on button four, mini (fave gun) on five!)

[torkell]

There's three things I dislike about the new Intellimouse Explorer: the scrollwheel is, as said, useless for gaming; the drivers don't give me scrolling in Visual Basic; and the left mouse button is very tempermental (a friend has had to replace his because of that).

Whereas my one is an original Explorer, has had the cable repaired three times, and is still going strong. It's also older than this computer (which means it's at least 6 years old). The only older bit of hardware in use with this is the keyboard.

[pleaseremove.livejournal.com]

As the friend mentioned above who had to replace, you will note that I replaced, not got a different mouse. They are very good, very comfortable for using for any length of time. I am actually one of those that loves the wheel because I use it "to whizz through long documents". I can do about 400 pages in a few seconds if I so feel the need. It also works well for going slowly because I have the scroll set to do about 7-8 lines in a go, and the acceleration on full, so I can go slow or straight to the bottom which works for me.

With regards to the mouse on reghardware (I did see it earlier) I don’t think it looks that nice to use, too sharp.

[jecook]

Agreed. While I will bag on their software until the sun is a small lump of coal shaped like Bill Gate's head, their hardware is actually pretty decent stuff, and their mouse and keyboard drivers are non-intrusive, OS wise.

I'm likely to get a wirless keyboard/mouse combo when I build Desktop V3 sometime next year, finances permitting.