Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

There’s nothing worse than having sweaty palms when you’re stuck working at your computer for long hours. Naturally, your mouse and keyboard tend to get a bit slippery with sweat, and it makes your work go so much slower. That’s why some of you will love this OptiWind Mouse which features an internal cooling system.

Inside the mouse you will find a small cooling fan which will circulate air up towards the palm of your hand. This should be enough to keep even the sweatiest palm dry. They even take advantage of the holes in the top by adding in some cool LED lights. If you have a problem with a sweaty mousing hand, you can pick one of these up for just $22.

[Brando] VIA [SlipperyBrick]

By Luke Anderson

The technology industry is a fast-paced cut-throat environment. You must innovate, or risk falling behind the pack. Convergence products are always a good way to give yourself an edge. People love having one gadget that can take the place of two or more devices. That is unless the end result is hideous. A perfect example of a seemingly good idea gone wrong would be Casio’s Label Printer Mouse.

You can likely guess from the name what this product does. Not only is it a horribly ugly mouse, but it also prints out labels. My favorite feature of this product is the mysterious ball that sits where one would usually find an optical sensor. I’m not entirely sure what this ball does, I can only assume that it’s some sort of archaic tracking device. I suppose that if you print off a ton of labels and don’t mind using a very ugly mouse, this could be something you’d want. It can be had for $29, label refills come in packs of 3 for $14.

[ Brando ] VIA [ EverythingUSB ]

By Shane McGlaun

Business travelers that give presentations frequently from their notebook will be pleased to hear that Gyration has announced a smaller version of its Air-Mouse called the M2000 Travel Air-Mouse. The M2000 is sized like a notebook mouse and uses 2.4GHz RF technology that is good for distances of up to 100-feet from the transceiver.

When used on your desk, the M2000 operates like any normal notebook mouse. Pick the mouse up and use it in the air and your hand movements turn in to cursor controls on the screen. Gyration says the M2000 will be available in Q1 of 2008 for $69.95 or you can buy it bundled with a small wireless keyboard for $99.95.

VIA [ Gyration ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Every laptop on the market includes some alternative to a mouse whether it be a touchpad, track point or the now rarely seen trackball. (I still miss them.) And while those options are a great alternative when you don’t exactly have a lot of desk space at your disposal (like when on a plane) they’re just not as comfortable to use as an actual mouse.

So for years manufacturers have been producing smaller, more compact mice specifically designed for use with a laptop while you’re on the go. In recent years they’ve even managed to cut the cord and today I’ll be looking at a wireless notebook mouse from Logitech called the VX Nano. While the mouse itself has a fairly basic design the real innovation here is what Logitech has managed to accomplish in shrinking the USB wireless receiver. Not only is it ridiculously small but I really don’t know how a USB receiver could actually get smaller and still be usable.

Frequent readers of the site might recall that our own Shane McGlaun already gave us a first ‘hands on’ look at the mouse shortly after it was released but I’m here to provide a more in-depth review complete with additional photos right after the jump.

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by Shane McGlaun

We should hence forth refer to this as mouse week. Today yet another gaming mouse has been announced, this time from lesser known SteelSeries to combat the SideWinder Mouse and the Razer Lachesis announced this week. SteelSeries is actually announcing two mice with one using an optical engine tweaked for FPS gamers and the other using a laser engine aimed at RTS and MMO players.

Both mice have buttons that allow the dpi level to be adjusted on-the-fly and both mice are driverless designs. The mouse glide surface is said to be 300% larger than other gaming mice on the market for reduced friction with the mouse pad.

The laser version of the mouse has a LCD screen on the bottom of the mouse that displays the current sensitivity setting. Oddly neither mouse actually states what their sensitivity settings are, but the LCD display in one of the shots of the laser Ikari mouse shows 3000 dpi. Both versions are headed to market in Q4 of 2007 and pricing is unknown at this time.

VIA [ SteelSeries ]

by Shane McGlaun

Razer was right on the heels of Microsoft this week with the announcement of Microsoft’s new SideWinder gaming mouse. Gamers that prefer high levels of sensitivity will be giddy at the though of the new Razer 3G laser engine that has a massive 4000 dpi, which is reached without the use of software interpolation.

Razer’s familiar Synapse software will control the Lachesis and the mouse has 32kb of onboard memory that allows you to save five game profiles for use on systems without the driver software installed.

Razer placed nine independently programmable buttons on the Lachesis as well. On-the-fly sensitivity adjustment is included and the mouse uses 1000Hz Ultrapolling giving a 1ms response time. Razer says the Lachesis can process 60-100 IPS and withstand 25g of acceleration. The Lachesis will be available in October for $79.95.

VIA [ Razer ]

by Shane McGlaun

It’s been a long time since Microsoft made any Sidewinder gaming peripherals, or any gaming peripherals in house at all. The Microsoft Habu Mouse and the Microsoft Reclusa keyboard were both designed by Razer.

Today Microsoft is rolling out their latest mouse, and the first gaming peripheral designed from the ground up at Microsoft. The SideWinder gaming mouse is being shown off today at the Games Convention in Leipzig.

Microsoft says the SideWinder mouse was designed for meeting a gamers needs, and they packed it with some interesting and useful features. A hot key allows one-touch browsing of Windows Vista Game Explorer and Quick Turn, which is a macro that allows gamers to check their perimeter from wherever they are in the game.

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By Evan Ackerman

When it comes down to it, everything we use is solar powered. You know, your computer mouse gets power from electricity which comes from a power plant which is probably burning fossil fuel comprised of carbon fixed by long dead organisms which drew their energy from the sun. The solar powered Sole Mio mouse cuts out all the middlemen and lets the sun power your mouse directly, which has gotta be way more efficient than the process described in the preceding run-on sentence.

The Sole Mio is being developed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. In fact, they’ve been working on this thing for over four years, and it’s not even available yet: it first has to undergo feasibility trials to determine whether the current configuration will generate enough power during the day to keep working, which is a lot more forethought than most products get before they hit the market. The mouse uses 20mA of electricity while active, can store 300mAh onboard, and can charge at a rate of up to 250 mA in full sunlight. It remains to be seen whether the mouse can be functional for average users on a day to day basis, but the developers estimate that the Sole Mio has the potential to save several hundred million batteries annually on a global scale.

[ Solar Powered Mouse ] VIA [ Core77 ]

by Shane McGlaun

A German company called Navilock has a unique wireless mouse in Europe. The mouse is called the Navilock BT-451 and acts as a wireless Bluetooth mouse with the added benefit of having an internal GPS receiver as well.

This seems like a pretty unlikely combo to me to have a GPS receiver inside a mouse, but I guess it makes some sense in that if you are traveling with a notebook or UMPC you will probably need a mouse anyway.

Inside the Navilock BT-451 is a u-blox SuperSense GPS chip that is designed to give outdoor functionality as well as accurate positional tracking indoors as well. The BT-451 is available across Europe at retail outlets currently for 79 Euro or about $108.

[ Press Release (registration required) ] VIA [ Navilock ]

by Shane McGlaun

This week Logitech introduced the VX Nano notebook mouse. I have been using one here at my desk for the last few days and it is without a doubt one of the best notebook mice available. The VX Nano has the same hyper-fast scroll wheel as the VX Revolution notebook mouse, making scrolling long pages a breeze and it can easily be changed from free-wheel mode to click mode by pressing on the scroll wheel.

The most innovative feature of the VX Nano is the micro wireless receiver that uses advanced 2.4 GHz tech for connectivity. The receiver sticks out of your notebooks USB port a mere 8mm, which means you don’t have to remove the receiver from your notebook after you use the mouse.

More after the jump…

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