Microsoft Outs The Properly Named Touch Mouse
by Matt Burns on January 5, 2011
Wait a sec. You haven’t seen this one before. I know it looks like just a different flavor of the Microsoft Arc Touch, but it’s actually the Microsoft Touch Mouse. Where the Arc Touch is just a a fancy travel mouse with just a touch sensor, the Touch Mouse is actually a mouse where the entire top surface is a touch pad. Yep, that means gestures and all the fun trackpads offer.
The mouse uses a 2.4GHz wireless dongle and Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology, which is a nifty sensor that works one most sufaces. Wanna bring some trackpad-fun to your desk? Great, the Touch Mouse should hit your favorite electronic emporium this June for $79.99.
There you go Microsoft! Keep ‘em comin! One day, I truly believe Microsoft will leave Apple in the dust with products like this, and the possibility of the 2nd generation of Surface getting closer to a consumer product.
Yeah, except for apple came out with a similar product like 6 months ago.
But this one is shaped slightly differently!
There you go Carlton! Keep ‘em comin! One day, I truly believe you’ll do some research before posting about Microsoft releasing innovative new products. The Magic Mouse by Apple has been out since Oct 09. http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/
Apple did it a while ago and I *think* has drivers for windows out for the magic mouse too. With that said, it’s good that microsoft is trying to tap this market too instead of releasing something unexciting like the previous Arc mouse they did. Sure it folds, but nothing much besides that.
Wow this actually looks nicer than Apple’s magic mouse. sweet.
I really wish Microsoft would take a look at things like “standards” and avoid confusing things with terms like “BlueTrack”. A lot of the salespeople see something starting with “Blue”, and tell you that it will work as a Bluetooth device, where clearly you need to use yet another USB dongle that picks up a different set of radio signals.
Oh, and I predict that in another year or so, they will bring out a flat, touch sensitive pointing device that claims yet another USB port with it’s custom wireless receiver.
They really should go back and update their trackball line, cutting the cord, and getting rid of the USB dongles by going Bluetooth. They had some fantastic trackballs, but nobody seems to want a 7-year old design any more.