mouse

Not everybody has fingers glued to a touch screen these days. Some folks still like to travel with a portable mouse for a satisfyingly retro computing experience.

Mouse lovers are often faced with the challenge of finding an appropriate mousing surface when on the go. Knees and gunky coffeehouse tables don't offer an optimum experience, and it's times like those when you want your own mouse pad with you.

The Smartfish Mouse Pad Travel Pouch is an overachiever. It pulls double duty as a mouse pad and a zip-up storage compartment.

The 9-inch padded neoprene surface is easy on your mouse while it's in use and protects small gadgets and accessories in its spare time. It looks a lot like a taco when it's closed, except that this taco can be packed with a scrumptious filling of electronics.

A small snap handle opens up to attach it to your briefcase, or you can just shove it in with the rest of the gear in your laptop bag.

The Mouse Pad Travel Pouch will cost you $14.95 and comes in either black or blue. … Read more

The Green Lantern's Power Ring it ain't, but a ring containing MicroPointing's touchpad is something Q might give 007. With a sensor control area of one square millimeter, the touchpad can easily be embedded in a ring.

Israeli start-up MicroPointing plans to offer the touchpad for embedding in all manner of devices large and small, including smartphones, Netbooks, remote controls, game controls, cameras, steering wheels--anywhere you might want to let your finger do some scrolling.

The touchpad could be on handsets starting in the fourth quarter of next year, according to Avi Rosenzweig, MicroPointing's vice president of business development.

The MicroPointing touchpad works by detecting the force your fingertip produces as it drags across the tiny device's three sensors, according to the company's patent application. The sensors are mounted on tiny posts spaced a few tenths of a millimeter apart--less than the size of a ridge on your fingertip.

The sensors pick up sideways force as your fingertip moves parallel to the touchpad's surface. The company's secret sauce is an algorithm that can pull detailed data from just three sensors, Rosenzweig said.… Read more

Afraid that the excessive use of the mouse and keyboard will someday make you suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome? Maybe you should let your feet take over some of the job. And Keith McMillen Instruments (KMI) has something that enables you to do exactly that.

The company announced today the SoftStep KeyWorx multitouch foot controller, which it claims is "the world's first foot-controlled digital interface." According to KMI, SoftStep "works with any computer program to speed up access, making the computer as easy to use as a car's gas and break pedals."

The new … Read more

An Android app called RemoteDroid allows Android smartphones to become wireless computer touch pads and keyboards. It's a great solution for people using computers as their entertainment hub. Here's how get it up and running:

RemoteDroid requires a client application to be installed on your Android phone and the server to be application installed on your computer. In order to use RemoteDroid, you'll need to make sure Java is installed on your computer. You'll also need a Wi-Fi network. Once these two requirements have been met, you're ready to install RemoteDroid.

Step 1: … Read more

The operation of the mouse and pointing system in graphic operating systems is one of the more important aspects to having a smooth experience when using your computer. Even though Apple and other computer manufacturers are incorporating more multitouch options for interacting with computers, the mouse and pointer is still one of the primary options for managing the system. If something is wrong with the mouse pointer and you get jumpy or erratic behavior, then this can really impede on your ability to use your system. Generally if this happens you can quickly fix it by running through some basic … Read more

Apple's Magic Mouse is a unique input device that offers a multitouch surface for scrolling and performing various other functions in OS X. When it's connected to your Mac, the Mouse system preferences will change from a view that shows simple settings for speed and scrolling behaviors to options for the various finger gestures supported on the Magic Mouse. However, for some people the Magic Mouse settings will not appear and it will show the standard mouse options instead.

The Magic Mouse is ultimately a Bluetooth input device, so if the driver for the Magic Mouse does not … Read more

We don't often see innovations in mouse design, but that's exactly what HP has announced this morning with its WiFi Mobile Mouse.

According to the press release (and accompanying promo video), the mouse is the first on the market to connect to your PC's wireless receiver rather than with a RF signal from a wireless USB dongle. HP says the battery in the WiFi Mobile Mouse will last twice as long as the charge from Bluetooth devices, running for up to 9 months before running dry. HP also claims the mouse will match Bluetooth's 30-foot receiving … Read more

If you're a fan of odd computer peripherals, this mouse should be right up your alley. Created by American designer Joey Roth, the felt mouse is a two-button optical mouse with a (barely visible) scroll wheel.

This quirky prototype device is slated to be exhibited at the American Design Club's Use Me show. The art exhibition aims to feature artistic designs that "exhibit a strong sense of purpose, intelligent use of materials and the ability to do one thing extremely well."

While we're not sure how comfortable a mouse made of felt might be, we hope nobody leaves it lying next to a whiteboard.

(Source: Crave Asia via Inhabitat) … Read more

At a California Israel Chamber of Commerce demo event yesterday, I got a walk-through of an unusual and, as-pitched, probably hopeless idea for improving the interface of touch-screen devices: The Ringbow, a ring-mounted, wireless pointing stick.

The Ringbow does solve a problem in an elegant way. Touch-screen apps generally have only limited ways to control them, so access to menu commands or secondary functions requires trips to full menus, which slows down the user. The Ringbow is a finger-mounted five-way controller (four compass directions plus pushing down) that makes blasting through accessory menus faster than it would be in most apps.

In a demo (see video; note that the wire is for an extra battery pack the prototype device requires), selecting drawing submenu options (color picker, line weight chooser, pen type), and then making selections in those submenus, was much faster than it would otherwise be. Ringbow CEO Efrat Barit proposes that software vendors who make complex graphical apps (such as Adobe) could make their products easier and faster to use for professionals by adding Ringbow shortcuts.

There are also benefits in games, where a ring-mounted controller adds a lot of control options that one otherwise doesn't have in a touch-screen device.

… Read more