MacMice busts out laser-powered Danger Mouse

If that Mighty Mouse of Apple's isn't fulfilling your need for classic cartoon references or laz0r-based accuracy, the new Danger Mouse from MacMice might do the trick -- plus it tosses in a nice, fresh pop cultural reference to boot. The Danger Mouse sticks close to Apple design cues, but splits its shell in the front to make concession to a traditional right click function. MacMice also tossed in a MicroScroll wheel to ape Apple's scroll ball (in 1 dimension at least), and a 1600 DPI laser sensor for tracking with the best of 'em. So yeah, MacMice isn't exactly breaking new ground here with their stylings, but with the homogeneous tastes of the general Mac populace, would that make them Crazy?

[Via The Gadget Weblog]

[Will @ Aug 21st 2006 10:35AM]

Danger Mouse isn't exactly a "fresh" pop reference. People seem to forget the early eighties cartoon. Also, 1-dimension is a single point, so a scroll wheel would actually function on 1 axis in a 2-dimesional plane.

[John Laur @ Aug 21st 2006 10:35AM]

With the history of the company and their shoddy products, I wouldn't exactly jump on one of these until someone finds out if it is a piece of crap or not.

I have a "TheMouse BT" from them and I have to say it is the worst piece of junk mouse I've ever owned. I have a sum total of about 10 minutes of use on the thing.

[XBudd @ Aug 21st 2006 10:39AM]

Danger Mouse? Wow. Whats next?
"Coming Soon: The New CEE-LO Keyboard!"
Is this the Gnarls Barkley PC Accessories?
Lol.

Goto www.GnarlsBarkley.com if you have no idea what I am talking about!

[R3AL1Z3 @ Aug 21st 2006 10:48AM]

Anyone else catch the Gnarls Barkley REference at the end...... No?

[Richard @ Aug 21st 2006 10:53AM]

I bought an optical mouse from MacMice a couple years ago and the quality was real bad. The clicks felt really cheap. Unless they have improved on the "feel" they can give it all the lasers they want, it still feels like a cheap mouse.

[Ben Stanfield @ Aug 21st 2006 11:14AM]

Engadget folks,

The MacMice/MacTable/Jack Campbell companies exist to scam people. Jack Campbell, the founder of MacMice, is known as a shady, dishonest, and unscrupulous jerk whose companies have charged high prices for less than mediocre products, then disappeared when the quality problems become widespread, only to pop up a few months later with another name and more shitty products to peddle to unsuspecting people.

Helping them advertise this repeated attempt to defraud people is shameful. Hopefully a quick google of Jack Campbell or Mac Table, and you'll see what you're promoting and post an update warning folks to stay far far away from MacMice.

[Oluseyi @ Aug 21st 2006 11:25AM]

@Will:
Given that Danger Mouse was mentioned in the same sentence as Mighty Mouse (which is an even older cartoon), isn't it logical that the pop reference WAS to the eighties cartoon, not Damon's alter ego?

@Xbudd:
Ditto.

--

I'm wondering why there hasn't been a single painting/modification of the Mighty Mouse with an image of, obviously, Mighty Mouse. I might have to pick up a pair of mice and get to sketching... I'll post pics if I go through with it.

[Kevin Cannon @ Aug 21st 2006 11:31AM]

Doesn't Apples Mighty Mouse have a right-click button already, it's just not visible.

Sounds like they've reinvented the wheel, and badly.

[Rus @ Aug 21st 2006 11:43AM]

Ben ...

I don't think Jack has much to with MacMice any more. I think he sold the intellectual property to someone (equally shady) Mike Aljouny of Mac Pro Systems in California. I also think that the company that makes these (All-Spirit) owns a stake now and that Jack sold the company to these two entities to "move on"

Why the company has kept the name is a mystery though

[JR @ Aug 21st 2006 12:10PM]

XBudd:

I think it will come packed with the game "MF Doom."

[Rok @ Aug 21st 2006 12:51PM]

Ben, MacMice was sold/doors closed from Jack's influence a while back. the name has been kept by a few North America vendors, but you're railing against old news and old enemies.

that having been said, macmice products are hit-or-miss. the "flex" products o what they claim, probably because of their simplicity, they simply cannot mess them up. but i did ask for (and got) "The Mouse" for Xmas last year, and while it's great in concept, the "split shell" design is really bad. it is far too easy to press too low on the shell (closer to where the split starts) and accidentally press both buttons at once. i KINDA got used to it after a while (but I still got stray right-clicks at times), but my wife found it utterly unusable.

it's in a drawer around here somewhere, as an emergency mouse, but that's where it stays.

[Joe Mamma @ Aug 21st 2006 1:14PM]

Why on earth would I ever need that many buttons on a mouse? That's absurd.

[Jeff Foster @ Aug 21st 2006 1:42PM]

"homogeneous tastes of the general Mac populace"

you suck.

[kriz @ Aug 21st 2006 2:10PM]

Is the name Danger Mouse not trademarked/copyrighted anymore? Is this too far outside the realm of cartoons to count as infringement? Did Apple have to do any legal wrangling to be able to use Mighty Mouse? Will someone ever make a thumb controlled, bluetooth enabled trackball so i can ditch the stupid usb dongle mine uses now???

[x23 @ Aug 21st 2006 7:57PM]

"Did Apple have to do any legal wrangling to be able to use Mighty Mouse?

Posted at 2:10PM on Aug 21st 2006 by kriz [ ! ]"

- - -

yes. as seen here : http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/

at the bottom you see : "Mighty Mouse © Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved."

but then looking at the MacMice page as linked... i see nothing similar. good luck to them.

[keith waddington @ Aug 22nd 2006 12:18AM]

"... the homogeneous tastes of the general Mac populace..."

The writer is sharp and insightful. Not only that, he's clearly something of a wit, a wag, nobody's fool. Let's face it: Engadgets has some of the most engaging writers on the internet. And you can always spot an Engadgets writer because they all share a hip disdain for the things they write about. One might even say a they have a homogeneous writing style. And that is really cool, man.

peace
waddo
http://www.waddo.net/

[D2 @ Aug 22nd 2006 3:09AM]

"Also, 1-dimension is a single point, so a scroll wheel would actually function on 1 axis in a 2-dimesional plane."

Not exactly Will, 1-D is a line, 2-D is a plane. The scroll wheel allows movenment in one dimension (up/down), the scroll ball allows movement in two dimensions (up/down and left/right)