mouse

By now, you're probably a little bored of playing Angry Birds, but here's a new way to make it fun and challenging again.

Simon Ford over at Mbed has an awesome hack that lets you hurl your favorite fighting birds using a real slingshot. Inspired by a demo on how easy it is to build your own USB devices, the idea behind this DIY project is to turn the slingshot into a mouse.

The slingshot was actually handmade by Chris Jarratt using a branch he found in Epping Forest, London. Ford then hollowed out parts of the branch, … Read more

Do you have to break your rhythm while typing to use your mouse? Are you tired of getting killed in a game every time you reach for your mouse to target some miscreant? Do you have some other perfectly good reason to want to control your cursor with your keyboard instead of a mouse or similar pointing device? Try MouseFighter, a free program that lets you control your cursor and make mouse clicks using your keyboard's direction arrows and keys you can specify.

MouseFighter's small interface includes tabs for setting keys, called "mousekeys," as well as … Read more

Traditional mice have flirted with touch-based scroll bars for at least four or five years, but we've only had full-surface touch-capable mice since Apple debuted the Magic Mouse in 2009. Microsoft followed with its own Touch Mouse last year. Logitech's M600 Touch Mouse is the latest contender.

None of these mice works as intuitively as a smartphone, and they all still rely on a traditional spring mechanism to register clicks. They're not bad, though, and with a few simple gesture systems, they're all easy enough to pick up. As the category matures, perhaps after touch-focused Windows … Read more

Joining Apple and Microsoft, Logitech finally has its own touch mouse.

The Logitech M600, announced today, will have a $70 suggested retail price when it ships later this month. That price will likely fall as it hits the retail channel, but it puts it in the same recommended price range as Apple's Magic Mouse and Microsoft's Touch Mouse.

Whatever its real-world cost, the M600's highlight is that it provides full surface touch sensitivity, which Logitech, in its press release, compares with that of a smartphone. The idea is not new, but it's the first such mouse … Read more

If you've ever wanted a faster, sleeker way to access your computer's volume controls, look no further than Volumouse. This innovative program lets you set both mouse controls and keyboard shortcuts to access the master volume controls as well as volume settings for a variety of devices. It's easy to use, highly customizable, and hard to do without once you've gotten used to using it.

The program appears as an icon in the Windows system tray, and clicking the icon launches an options panel where you can configure the utility's many features. You can create … Read more

Thermaltake has a new Level 10 product and it's just as avant-garde as its Level 10 case.

Like the radical case, the Level 10 M Mouse is created jointly with BMW's design consultancy, DesignworksUSA. It's the first of a new series of gaming peripherals from this collaboration and it will be launched early this year.

Judging from the images that have been released, its open design--with a perforated surface that allows some ventilation for those with sweaty palms--is unlike any mouse we have seen. Its main selling point is that users can adjust the height and the angle of the mouse body by turning a screw. … Read more

Logitech tries to reinvent the mouse with the Cube, the next Xbox may have built-in DVR functionality, and venerable Kodak lays plans for bankruptcy protection if it can't sell its patents.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Apple will spend $5 million to settle a suit filed by Elan Microelectronics over the alleged violation of a patent for multitouch technology, Elan said today.

As part of the settlement, the two companies have also received authorization to use each other's patents, according to Reuters.

In April 2009, Taiwan-based Elan filed its suit against Apple in U.S. District Court, accusing the iPhone maker of violating a 1998 Elan patent covering a method to detect the use of one or more fingers on a touchpad. Apple then countersued Elan for alleging infringing on two Apple touchpad-related patents.

Elan … Read more

Logitech cast aside all of our expectations for traditional mice with its new Cube design.

Gone are contoured molding and mechanical buttons, replaced in the Cube with a rectangular design and touch-sensitivity. The touch panel acts as the main mousing interface, enabled by what Logitech calls its Flow Scroll software.

Lift the mouse off your work surface and the Cube becomes a presentation device. Logitech doesn't mention a laser pointer in the Cube (perhaps in the Cube 2?), but it will at least let you click to advance through a slide deck.

If it doesn't have a laser … Read more