Some products possess complementary features that seem to make for a natural convergence (Cellphone? PDA? Hello!), while others -- like the USB Label Mouse Printer by Casio -- leave us scratching our heads in bewilderment (and not just because of its incomprehensible name -- does it really print mice?). Eschewing laser or optical tracking for the tried-and-true mechanical ball, this wired Frankenmouse packs in a tiny thermal printer capable of spitting out labels in whatever TrueType fonts you have installed on your machine. Why you need this functionality in a poorly-spec'ed pointing device is beyond us, but if for some reason you feel the need to show visitors exactly whom your PC components are "property of," a mere $29 will bring this wonderful new gadget to your desktop.
posted Nov 2nd 2007 9:38AM
It's ugly
Fugly is more like it.
welll dont look in the mirror then, u might be shocked
If Casio made it, you can trust the quality - probably a 4/5 star device.
And YES, I am certain somewhere out there, someone needs a device that prints out labels quickly and in the palm of their hand.
If I had this device, I would probably use it to label student folders or property.
I would just ignore the mouse part of it $29 for a usb label printer
Exactly my thought. I don't need another mouse, but a label printer that hooks to the computer would be handy. Those hand-held ones work, but are such a pain to actually use.
Exactly!!!
I have an older USB Lablke Printer from Casio that was a "Mousepad/Lable Printer" combo unit.
Now the FTF were they thinking momemt is that it has a ball instead of a laser!!! A laser would take up less space!
Well just pop the ball out and you have a nice USB lable printer!
I can never find my label printer. I can easily imagine a Casio engineer complaining about the same thing, or about the mess a bunch of devices make in his or her desk drawers, and here we are. Won't lose it, always at hand, etc.
Casio quality 4-5 star??? You must be kidding me. I used Casio products before. My last one, Exlim camera, bought in Best Buy, broke twice. Once they repaired it, now warranty's up and I don't even bother to try paying money for repairing this piece of crap.
HAHAHA.
blender: here, mousey-mousey-usb-label-mouse-printer-mousey-mouse...
usb-label-mouse-printer: oh, yeah, blender...blend me!
Normal electric label printers are close to this price range. Adding USB + TrueType font support make this an amazing deal.
How does the software side of it work? Does it show up as a standard printer, or are you stuck with a crappy Windows only application, with minimal import options? (eg: if you want to make labels from a column in an excel file)
Don't see why they would make it a ball mouse. The mouse ball itself is bigger than the circuitry needed to have a optical mouse... Never mind the light sensors, axis, springs, etc. Its also cheaper to make a optical mouse...
Personally, I would have like to have seen a candy dispenser, or mini missile launcher integrated into the mouse.
It's almost as good as the Ronco Plum-Pitter and Yogurt Squirter.
A VERY poorly written review. You don't say whether it does what it does well or not. Does the mouse work? Does the label printer do what it is supposed to do? Is there any particular reason not to combine the two functionalities (other than that you never thought of it?) You can't imagine any reason why people need a label printer near their computer other than labelling their components? HELLO! Have you ever heard of files? Evidently not.
I have no idea whether this is a GOOD product or not since your review only showed that YOU couldn't think of a use for it. Duh. How does it work? You certainly gave no clue.
Um, It's not a review, it's a product announcement. And they don't think it's a shitty product because of personal incredulity, it's a shitty product because it's a shitty product.
Does the mouse work? Well, if by work we are using the decade-old definition:
work = pickup lint, chewing gum, dandruff and who-knows-what-else and deposit it inside the mouse, and preferably wind human, canine, feline, and any other hair around the little axles inside
then that's a good question.
If we're not, then no, the mouse does not work. It does that instead.
(I just figured it out, though. That label printer does double duty as a mouse-crud and hair eliminator. It contains a unique self-cleaning mechanism which scrapes everything off and sticks it on your labels instead. Think of it as the mouse's anus!)
Plastic label printers are very popular in Japan and used by every office. Canon designed this for Japan and brought it to America to make whatever sales they could.
You think it's goofy because it's not for you.
something...something...label printing overlords... fuck. i don't know.
8:40 am and i need a beer.
People in my office would love it--they could finally label the folders on their computer; instead of having "New Folder," "New Folder (2)," "New Folder (3)," etc. -all over their screen.
That was funny.
I've always wanted a mouse that can print fortune cookie messages..
Friends don't let friends converge drunk.
Seriously who thought of this thing? Honestly...
um ... hmm ... refills? oh yea and ... what happens when the mouse stops working and you need to plug in a new one? Conflict? That's what I hate about combo things, once one piece craps out, you either have to buy a whole new one even though part of it still works properly or you're stuck buying separate things again ...
someone totally needs to hack that to print out the stock market ticker!!!
um,
thermal printer is that the one that fades in sun light?
If [company I work for] made it than I'm sure its a [superlative adjective][descriptive noun]. [Commany name] products are always [unbelevably positive descriptor]!
This is gonna show up on Woot sooner rather than later.
Geez.. What will they came up with next? USB-powered grills?
Oh wait, we already have that..
Does that label that is being printed in the picture look really crappy to anyone else? Maybe it's just a bad picture or something...
My thought as well. I thought these labels typically had very deep black print. That label looks more like something spat out from a tiny dot matrix printer with a worn ribbon.
Problem is, you have to turn on the fire breathing computer to use it.
Apparently, this is actually a rather old product. Google "KP - C50", and you should find as the first link a review on a Japanese website, dated 11/29/2000.
The second link is to Casio's own website, and lists it under the heading "archived product".
This goes a long way to explaining the use of a ball mechanism, and possibly the poor print quality.
For warehouse/inventory personnel who need to keep products consistently labeled and have a minimum of space in which to operate, this might not be as silly as it first seems. However, it would have definitely benefitted greatly from optical tracking. I use a laptop in our HUGE warehouse, on a very small rolling cart which has just enough room for the laptop and a mouse (since the trackpads don't seems to work so well). A seperate printer would require some sort of powersupply which on the rolling cart would be a pain. Yes, a seperate battery powered label maker would be almost as good, but one less device, and saving money on batteries, is very tempting. Also, the ability to use TT fonts in the computer means we could print barcodes, as well as easy to read labels, whereas most low-priced standalone labelers have, at best, two fonts.
Just because *you* don't need it doens't mean it isn't useful for someone. This may be an odd convergence, bot fo rpeople with limited space who have to handle a lot of product and inventory tracking, this is a great idea, even if it could use some improvement.