Logitech's MX Air Mouse: a witches brew of lasers, MEMS, and RF geekmagic

Oh hey, that little fella looks familiar. Sure enough, the rechargeable Logitech MX Air Mouse we spied last month is getting real this morning. Touting Logitech's "Freespace" motion control, the Air Mouse combines MEMS sensors with DSP and 2.4GHz RF technology for both gestural motion-control and traditional laser mousing about. The Air Mouse attempts to bridge the gap between mouse and remote control with a touch-sensitive scroll-panel (instead of a scroll wheel) and dedicated pause/play and volume control buttons positioned down the center of the device. Push the volume button and flick the mouse right or left to increase or decrease the volume, respectively, at distances up to 30 feet away from your PC. Niiice. Better yet, it's shaped to impress when toted about in the trousers... gaRowl! Ships in the US and Europe for $150 sometime in August.

Gallery: Logitech's MX Air Mouse: a witches brew of lasers, MEMS, and RF geekmagic

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[Via Notebooks.com]

[Jeff @ Jul 12th 2007 5:40AM]

That's HOT~

[Shmee150 @ Jul 12th 2007 5:57AM]

How insanely exciting; i've been waiting for an awesome mouse to match the style of my dinovo edge.

[varish @ Jul 12th 2007 6:00AM]

damn, the price isn't that bad either :)

[gh @ Jul 12th 2007 6:03AM]

get a Wii instead, price about the same.

[Shmee150 @ Jul 12th 2007 6:13AM]

so all of a sudden the Wii is a replacement for a high class PC mouse is it? I'd love to see how that works - and yes I am being sarcastic. I'm betting your keyboard and mouse didn't were either free with the computer or cost £20 max.

[L. Cyphre @ Jul 12th 2007 6:35AM]

Set Phasers On Stun!

[snife @ Jul 12th 2007 6:40AM]

Damn RF - use frickin bluetooth! whats the point of having a wireless something if I have to have a dongle sticking out of my laptop - it might as well just have a cable.

[Tony @ Jul 12th 2007 6:52AM]

No Bluetooth; no Mac OS X compatibility.
The mouse is dead.

[johnnyg0 @ Jul 12th 2007 9:37AM]

@Tony : Since when not being compatible with 4% of every computers means the death of a product?

[Tony @ Jul 12th 2007 10:51AM]

It doesn't but when you leave out the hottest technology; chances are what you got isn't that hot.
And its 8%, not 4 ;-)

[Yo Yo Smuggler @ Jul 12th 2007 12:08PM]

Definitely not 8%.(TUAW) But that's neither here nor there. Bluetooth or not, I'm pretty excited. I've been waiting for something like this for a while now. Seems like a good compromise between the complexity of a remote and the simplicity of a mouse. Suits my purposes. I particularly like the lack of a mechanical scroll wheel. Less moving parts = less ruination after a rough night at the bars.

[Broo @ Jul 14th 2007 3:06AM]

It's just a USB wireless mouse, so it should work with OS X (unless OS X has problems with USB devices...)

it acts like a standard optical mouse when on a surface and switches to a free-air mouse when you pick it up- but it is still a basic USB mouse either way.

the software that lets you reprogram the four buttons (which are set to back, enter, play/pause and volume) would be the part that is not compatable with OS X. I think most of these commands are fairly standard for input devices? (same functions as a multi-media keyboard).

[Nish Vamadevan @ Jul 12th 2007 7:44AM]

Bit too expensive for a Mouse without Bluetooth...

[dbriere @ Jul 12th 2007 7:47AM]

So check out the TM on FreeSpace -- I've been saying to watch out for this HIllcrest Labs company for a while -- the guys with the bagel-looking 'Loop' remote control. Does this mean that I'm going to get Freespace on my Harmony remote now? That would be awesome! I saw Hillcrest on Scientific Atlanta settop boxes recently too. These guys are getting some serious brands licensing their product. Cool.

[Broo @ Jul 12th 2007 8:25AM]

i beta tested one of these a few months back and they are pretty cool; for the testing they focused a lot on Windows Media Center functionality. range was much better compared to other wireless mice/keyboards I have tried (about 20' in my room- which has a lot of 2.4Ghz interference).

In my opionion RF connectivity over Bluetooth is much better; you have to have the OS pair for connectivity with bluetooth- so you cannot use a Bluetooth mouse (or keyboard) for windows setup/BIOS or use it through a KVM switch (unless the KVM switch can do the actual pairing- haven't seen one of those yet). It is also easier for the non-technical user to setup a plug-and-go RF dongle than it is to have them go through the Bluetooth setup- and most desktop PCs will require a Bluetooth dongle sticking out the USB port.

[onix @ Jul 13th 2007 10:21PM]

I would be interested in the demographic cross-section that shows anyone who wants to own a $150 mouse but does not have BT (likely built-in) and does not know how to pair. Incidentally, you don't see too many high-end cell phones without BT and/or with their own proprietary RF link.

The only issue I could see would be speed/lag with BT especially with if the MEMS are designed for "high speed".

[Broo @ Jul 14th 2007 2:49AM]

as for the price, I think logitech is nuts for asking $150 for a mouse- even one that has free air movement abilities (I guess they are basing their MSRP from comparable Gyration products). I think they were crazy trying to get $99 for the MX Revolution (especially after purchasing one and having it replaced twice!)

As for Bluetooth, the only thing I find it really useful for is A2DP for headphones (and AVRCP for the headphones that support it)- but for some strange only a few devices support this... (such as my blackberry 8300 or my treo 700p w/ the Softick A2DP addon).

the only other advantage that I find for bluetooth is that it has a little better range than standard wireless devices- but the cost of having to pair a device with an OS negates this usefulness when you want to use the keyboard/mouse with more than one system through a KVM that allows switching of USB devices...

Have you every tried to hit the DEL/F2 key when rebooting to enter BIOS with only a bluetooth keyboard plugged in? it doesn't communicate as the bluetooth stack doesn't load up until the operating system loads the BT driver (a BT USB dongle is seen as a bluetooth receiver to BIOS- not as a USB keyboard/mouse).

As far as wireless/bluetooth keyboards, why would anyone ever want a wireless keyboard (well, maybe for aesthetics) unless their monitor font is set to XL to take advantage of being able to sit 8+' away from the monitor? (MCE would be the exception, but that is why Micrsoft makes the IR keyboard receiver). I have a 24" gateway LCD and I cannot read this text from over 6' away.

bluetooth is nice idea for interoperability between systems, but how many phones have you seen that support a bluetooth mouse (and why would they)? and how many devices do not support all the bluetooth features -no serial bluetooth connection, cannot be used for DUN over bluetooth, no bluetooh sync, no bluetooth keyboard support, etc.

Most devices do not even support multiple connections- so if I want to use my bluetooth headset, I have to kill the connection to my bluetooth GPS receiver.

we had four bluetooth keyboard/mice setups (that i actually recommended) in our conference rooms at my office- after about 6 months all four have been retired (two were replaced with a long-range wireless and the other two are using PS2 over CAT5 extenders) due to the problems with having to re-pair when the batteries died or or when someone did a hard power down of the system (we had to keep a USB keyboard attached to each system to allow us to re-initiate the pairing process).

Bluetooth is great in theory, but impractical for day to day use unless you have one bluetooth device for use with one bluetooth system.

[Paul @ Jul 12th 2007 8:46AM]

That looks hot! But a little too much costly

[milrtime83 @ Jul 12th 2007 9:39AM]

It's just a gyration mouse which there are some in existence already, although this one looks a lot better. If it had the gyration and a point and click type function of the wii remote it would be a lot better for a home theater pc.

[kyle w. @ Jul 12th 2007 9:44AM]

ga-Rowl!

[Stevie Wonder @ Jul 12th 2007 10:22AM]

"Better yet, it's shaped to impress when toted about in the trousers... gaRowl!"

Who has their penis in their side pocket? Seems like you might want to have a doctor look at that!

[tiuk @ Jul 12th 2007 10:24AM]

Well, it's nice to see them thinking outside of the box design-wise, anyway. Logitech is smart, they're ensuring they don't stagnate and have someone take their market.

[TTX1 @ Jul 12th 2007 10:25AM]

can't wait to give this a try. seems like this would be *the* killer interface for Media Center. does this mean that the Hillcrest Loop is coming soon?

[Wwhat @ Jul 12th 2007 11:24AM]

Too expensive, and who wants to gesture to adjust volume etc.? might as well just get a volumeknob and 'gesture' adjust volume using a 'magical virtual twisting' motion, aka turning it.
Didn't they do some research? mousegestures are used by nobody, doing them in the air won't change that.

Damn logitech seems to have a policy now that every new muse MUST be 25% more expensive than the previous one, same for keyboards, it's ludicrous.

[mike @ Jul 12th 2007 11:45AM]

Can it be used as a mouse on the air? or it only has multimedia remote / gesture functions in the air?

[gh @ Jul 12th 2007 11:58AM]

I have been using Logitech since DOS days(the one with triangle side and three square buttons on top, if you know what I mean) and have gone through dozens of them. Currently I am typing on a MX3200. I like their products but it's just sad to see them hike the prices so much - it should not cost them more to make a mouse than a Wii controller(I was told the cost is about USD$10), there got to be a better place to spend USD$149. Dinovo Edge.... are you really typing on that thing....if you do.....a MX Air should suit you, either won't help too much anyway. And yes, I am being sarcastic.

[Yo Yo Smuggler @ Jul 12th 2007 12:15PM]

[url=http://www.tuaw.com/2006/06/02/apples-market-share-falls-rises-depending-on-who-you/]Meant to link to this.[/url]

[Bill @ Jul 12th 2007 12:26PM]

If I EVER spend $150 on a mouse, someone just needs to shoot me in the head. Yeah, it's slick, but totally not worth that much.

[buzweaver @ Jul 12th 2007 12:56PM]

Looks pretty, I'm not sure how practical it would be for me.

[curt @ Jul 12th 2007 5:13PM]

dbriere is right. check out the webposting at
www.motionappsreport.com