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Logitech mice take on new duties

Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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Candace Lombardi
2 min read

How many feet does the average person spin a scroll wheel in one workday?

Logitech says the answer is 26 feet in an eight-hour period. And to help make this Sisyphian task easier to bear, the peripheral maker on Thursday announced the release of two new wireless mice with faster scroll wheels that require less rolling.

Logitech mice

Logitech MX Revolution mouse ($99.99), and its laptop version, the VX Revolution ($79.99), both have scroll wheels that can traverse hundreds of pages in a single flick and spin freely for up to seven seconds, according to the company.

Testing it by row in Microsoft Excel, Logitech scrolled 10,000 lines in seven seconds. That speed is significantly faster than current computer mice that take 500 spins and seven minutes to scroll over the same thing, the company says. To avoid inadvertently scrolling way past, say, line 3,175, the wheel has a technology that vacillates between free-spin and click-to-click motion based on the user response and the application in which it is being used.

Each mouse also has a new one-touch search feature. Clicking that button will produce Internet search results for a word or phrase that has been highlighted by the mouse, the company says. Users can choose which search engine they would like the feature linked to.

There is also a side scroll wheel on the right for the thumb that can be used to switch between open windows on the desktop or as a zoom, the company says. Settings for the scroll wheels and all of the seven buttons included on the MX Revolution are customizable. The mice are also Mac-compatible.

The laptop version, in lieu of a side scroll, has a sliding button for zooming. There is also a slot in the mouse to store the 2.4GHz micro-receiver. A switch on the side makes the change from free-spin scrolling to click-by-click scrolling.

Earlier this month, Logitech announced new Vista-compatible peripheral sets that had extra features for use with Internet calling and multimedia applications.