We're not really sure if Microsoft is peddling a revolution here or just the mousing tech flavor of the month, but we've got ourselves a much better idea of where things might be going. After that little
"Say Goodbye to Laser" teaser turned our pointing device world upside down, a reader spotted this MS Explorer Mini Mouse with "Blue Track" technology over on Amazon.de. Coincidence? We're guessing no. We followed a bit more of the PI work done by our fine commenters and discovered Blue Track to be based on a blue LED combined with a wide-angle lens that's supposed to work on more surfaces than laser and optical. Microsoft only really seems to be aiming this at the portable spectrum, hence the wireless adapter and miniature size, so perhaps Blue Track isn't the end of laser after all.
[Thanks, awesome commenters]
Read - Amazon.de's Blue Track gallery
Read - Blue Track explained... in Italian
posted Aug 27th 2008 9:13AM
Yeah everyone know's blue is better, yeah you can tell ms is caving in...they'll have blu on their xbox360 soon.
That's exactly what I'm waiting for. I'm going to buy a full HD TV next month. Want a bluray player. The PS3 is good but I simply don't like the PS3 so I'm left with the option of buying a HTPC with a bluray player. Preferably I would love to purchase a 360 with a built in or external bluray drive.
@homeboy
You should suck it up....for the $ you are not going to find a better BD player than the PS3 for twice the price. You are not forced to use it for any thing else but the built in DLNA to stream PC content, Netflix (soon), HULU etc and the built in WiFi are awesome. SONY won't bite. Oh, through a PSP into the mix for Remote Play of your streaming content too (not BD yet though :( )
I wish the same for Toshiba laptops soon...
@BSTKiller I couldnt agree more I have a 360 for gaming but I have PS3 for home entertainment system. I dont even have any games for it. Streaming all my vids and music from my iMac and using the browser for youtube, bbc iplayer (UK only), and all the other *ahem* legit online video sites. As well as a great blu-ray player. I dont even have a sixaxis anymore just use the bluetooth remote and logitech mediaboard.
"The PS3 is good but I simply don't like the PS3..."
Now that makes sense.
Yo homeboy, the dolts at MS are like the dolts at Toshiba. See if you can buy a better player or build an HTPC or whatever you want to do for less than $399. Remember as long as you don't buy games Sony loses money on your purchase.
I would never buy a PS3 for a media player. You don't get MKV support and that is essential. I can live without BluRay because I can download the bluray rips in MKV format. WMVHD is what I use now and stream to my Xbox but my next step is a Core2Duo with HDMI out based system that can play everything.
oh boo hoo kurt im so sorry ps3 doesn't play your illegal downloads...
MKV support could be added in the future if more people use it (they just added xvid in a few updates ago)
WMVHD sucks
stop being a cheap ass and pay for the things that entertain you, people gotta eat.
@Kurt
The 360 doesn't support MKV either. You can quickly remux to MP4 (XenonMKV and one or two other programs out there can do this for you), but you'll lose surround sound and have a 4 GB file size limit, or you can go through a lengthy (10-24 hrs depending on file size and PC) and tedious re-encode process to WMVHD. On the other hand, for the PS3 you can use a program called MKV2VOB to quickly (1-2 minutes) remux an MVK for a playable format and retain full surround sound and the exact same video quality as the source MKV (since it's a remux and not a transcode). I'd esitmate that works for about 85% of the MKVs out there. The rest require some minor transcoding, but it typically takes 2-4 hours on my PC instead of the 12 or so hours trancoding to WMVHD took (and those failed half the time).
Hmm... I got low ranked for wanting Blu-ray on Toshiba laptops. Why the hate? :(
transcoding just so you're compatible for playback om some gizmo?
fuck that. HTPC ftw.
seriously, saying MKV is only for illegal downloads? talk about ignorant! it's called (legally) archiving your DVDs.
How on earth did a post about a new mouse turn into a fanboy rant about which console is best? Oh yeah, clever. Blue. Blu-ray. Ok, I get it. Impressive.
Please stop.
Love the color.
Commenters FTW!
Being an ass-kisser won't get you any votes.....
Nice actually.
Interesting... I was just reading about this in the other topic. Pretty cool.
Why can't MS use BT as a frequency instead of using another dongle????
Because people would complain that it uses BT instead of a dongle, because those people getting one of these new netbooks (stupid name imo) don't really have BT on them.
which is why, XGM, BT mice come with BT dongles.
Really? I've been trying to find a decent, cheap BT mouse for my Eee 1000h, besides, they could bundle a cheap adapter in with the mouse, similar to how they do it now with the 900mhz stuff.
A simple (or at least in theory) solution would be to have the dongle, but have a switch on the underside of the mouse to switch it between bluetooth mode and dongle mode.
@Kiwi616: RF consumes much less power than BT. My Logitech wireless mouse lasted for about 5 months on two AA batteries! I don't think there are any BT mice that can match that, but correct me if I am wrong.
From previous experiences (BT MX1000) bluetooth mice have a nack of lagging.
RF is perfectly fine.
Why can't you ask a different question?
@Cal
That makes no sense whatsoever. That would be more complicated and expensive than a Bluetooth mouse with an included dongle which you would simply leave home if you had built-in Bluetooth.
My Microsoft Bluetooth Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 came with a bluetooth dongle; I haven't used the dongle, though, since it syncs up with my Mac's bluetooth just fine.
BT uses a LOT more juice than RF. I get 5-6 months off an RF mouse, and I trashed my last BT mouse, it would suck the same type batteries dry in 1 month or less used on the same PC with the same user habits.
BT is great for what it can do, but it has a lot of power and lots of bandwidth, but taking in feedback from a mouse doesn't need either of those.
There are low power CSR radios out now... and it will only be another few years until I find a 5-button BT mouse that takes 1 removable battery that also has a low power radio.
Also... why isn't the stupid dongle smaller?
@Richard Lai: I have a Toshiba BT mouse working on my MacBook Pro and... no, two AA batteries don't last 5 months, but they do last for 3-4 months of intense and continued use (a little less if they're rechargeable batteries).
Bluetooth technology is actually the cheapest to produce, the expense is in the bluetooth patent license. I worked with a hardware developer on a project and it turned out 75% of the cost was in the license.
That lasted long...
Now... if us lefties can get a version of their own!
I've never understood why there are people who use the mouse with their left hand. I'm a lefty myself, I have essentially no coordination with my right hand whatsoever, but using a mouse requires almost no precision. I use a regular right-handed mouse for the virtue of not needing to reorganize every single computer desk I ever lay my hands on in order to make it usable and I have never had trouble using my otherwise totally useless appendage for mousing duties.
Since I do most of my PC gaming with my right hand (as well as photo editing and any other precise tasks) I like to balance things out by using my left hand for basic clicking around. If I don't, my right hand will sometimes get a little sore since I work with PCs all day long.
i heard some guy named Ned Flanders opened a store just for lefties called the Leftorium, you should check it out!
I have tendinitis in my right elbow, which is aggravated by using a mouse. So I use my left hand at the computer.
Thinking more broadly, not everyone who uses a computer has a functional right hand, or even a right hand at all.
I personally think that left handed mice are stupid. I'm a lefty, and I do just about everything left handed. I can use the mouse with my right hand, but when I'm playing PC games I have to use the left hand on the mouse. I think that mice designed specifically for left/right-handed people are stupid, and, IMO, uncomfortable, even if I am using the correct hand with them. I like my regular non-specialized mice just fine, thank you.
on that same note, I can't cut with left handed scissors. I can only cut with right handed scissors on my left hand ;-)
How hard can it be to sell lefthanded versions, or adaptable versions, you'd think it's the old times where they used to frown on lefthanded people and tried to force them to be righthanded, and burned 'witches and shit..
Apple Mighty Mouse comments here out of the way please.
Thanks for your co-operation.
Get out of the way, please.
I hate blue LEDs. Sure they were neat when they were unique and expensive. I even managed to wrangle up some engineering samples for a cooler/heater project back when they were $20 each. But now they are in *everything* and are becoming quite obnoxious.
Plus, if they are using the same Cypress Semiconductor mouse chips as everyone else in the world, these devices work better at lower wavelengths of light than higher, and actually work best in the near IR range. (Most CMOS optical sensors are this way.) I'd like to see if they are using a different chip for this that responds better to higher wavelengths, or if this is as I suspect marketing drivel.
You're bitching about... the overuse of a color of tiny little light? Really?
As far as i know, blinkies neither have nor need an NAACP. Don't bring that day down upon us.
Indeed I am. They are overused, especially superbright LEDs in general for indicators. For example, my DirecTV receiver has a ring of superbright blue LEDs that do nothing but just shine. The only other purpose I've seen is that they spin when it's booting. That's it. It's a horrible distraction when trying to watch a movie, thank god they can be disabled.
On a computer, especially laptops, I don't want some extremely bright indicator light shining in the corner of my eye, it's just irritating. Any indicator should be a normal brightness LED.
And, yes, blue is overused. It's in everything these days, just because it's the in thing. Not everything needs a dozen blue LEDs, you know.
Plus, my biggest grievance with this is the performance curves of blue light with a CMOS sensor. CMOS light sensors have always been more sensitive to the longer wavelengths of light, and this, if using a normal CMOS sensor will not be as good as it could be if they were using a red light instead of blue. I'm not discounting, though, that they may be using a different technique than CMOS, but CMOS is pretty much the standard out there for most semiconductors.
I did also make a mistake of my last post, it should have been longer, not lower wavelengths. I hate mornings... and messing up the energy vs wavelength (red light has lower energy, longer wavelength (I do know what I'm talking about, I just have a case of what my old music teacher, Mrs. Mellenger, calls "stupid fingers")).
Awww, the poor MS marketing peeps. Gone to all this trouble and it only lasted.. 2 hours? :p
Really the only reason is "blue" is the new everycolor.
To all the lefty-righty commentors, I am so left handed, you may as well chop off my right hand. We really need mouse manufacturers to either step up and invert their mold for a *significant* batch run, or design these things symmetrically.
Can't wait for neuron control!
I'm a true lefty, I cannot do anything with my right hand at all except play the piano which took me 10 years of practice to do on anything above happy birthday, but I've never had a problem using a mouse with my right hand =\ actually, it feels off trying to use my left hand, I keep clicking the wrong buttons when I do...
That being said, I assume that aiming this towards travelers was better. At home, on a desktop, I assume you all use a solid surface any optical mouse or laser mouse can handle, and something like this is more useful for business presentations, and doing things on the go, you know? Making a home version seems somewhat silly, are we all using our desktops on our laps?
Kaveman, I'd be happy to control your neurons for you.
new surfaces? from what i heard osama bin laden was not satisfied when his optical mouse did not work on the surfaces of his cave so he contracted microsoft to come up with something more sand-worthy?
makes sense to target the mobile market first at least... that's always the time when i am trying to use a laser mouse on some crazy surface and it's just too jittery to be usable.
i love it dude, you deliverd the microsoft shill line with the picture of the "im a PC" guy...freakin awesome
plz do not misinterpret me im a geek, i love pcs and linwhut? naw its windows for now :)
We probably shouldn't assume that "BlueTrack" is only aimed at portables just because the only product currently leaked on the internet is a wireless laptop mouse. That makes as much sense as assuming it's only for Germans, and only being sold on Amazon.de.
Just like their optical and laser tech, there will probably be a full line of mice using BlueTrack.
alright! only 90euro for a laptop mouse!
Erm the price is EUR48.90 and not 90 as the translated version shows.
Its a problem with the Google translator.
I always wondered since the invention of bluray and HDDVD using blue lasers if blue LEDs would be better in mice than red ones too. I was almost at the point of swapping one to find out :D
Ed, they are not. The chips that are in normal mice respond better to larger, not shorter, wavelengths of light. You will lose performance of your mouse if you put a blue LED in them (you may not be able to tell, but it won't work as well). There are wavelength responsiveness graphs on the Cypress Semiconductor website (the only real maker of optical mice chips, patents and all), I'd invite you to take a look at them.
Blu-Ray and HDDVD both use blue lasers because they can be focused to a finer spot than IR or red laser LEDs, the smaller the wavelength, the finer the focusing you can achieve.
Cool stuff, thank you, I had presumed that the finer focusing possible somehow may be applicable to achieving higher resolution/sensitivity/whatever on a mouse but I understand now.
that looks like such a horrendous design, the grip look like a leftie's grip only its got thumb buttons on the left side, as in a rightie's mouse....i cant imagine it being comfortable
BlueTac? I have that already, it's sticky and stuff, don't understand why it's good for mousing.
This is better than laser why? I'm gonna guess that wireless power efficiency alone will persuade me not to buy this.
Apparently it works on every surface (cfr glass) and is more precise than Laser.
Microsoft's designer might have just discovered the outer glow functionality in Photoshop..
Hopefully that blue glow doesn't mean that this thing has a blue glowing ring around its bottom, like some hoopty ride with neons. And if it does, there better be some kind of off switch. Ah well. Not like I'd really want to get this since it would eat a USB port with the damn dongle.
Man what a huge USB dongle!
Pretty blue! :)
Until mice manufacturers make the usb dongle the size of the logitech nano, they won't be getting my business. Pain to have to install/remove it every time you use it. With something like the nano you just leave it in one of your usb ports.
What about battery life on this? I'm thinking that RF combined with LED could create a fairly low power usage, maybe that's why the first application we see is for notebook users. Just a thought
OK, so they havent announced it yet, only 1 mouse has been found on the web so far. And you can already say that this is NOT the end of laser? Jeez, easy there Engadget. I highly doubt they are having an announcement for 1 single portable mouse and put "End of laser" on it. Common sense peeps.
I think that's called marketing.
look. as long as we have sharks, we'll have lasers.
*nods head sagely*
Does it have to glow? I mean really, why does everything have to glow today. Most of the new high powered laptops have crazy glowing LEDs everywhere, mice glow like crazy, and then with everything glowing nothing matches. You desk ends up looking like a multicolored strand of christmas lights.
Please for the love of god, make tiny USB dongles. Or at least stuff 8gb of memory in them so they can be USB storage as well. My wife loves to hit the dongles with her hand, which of course destroys them, then the mouse is useless and you have to buy a new one since they don't sell dongles by themselves.
At least with Bluetooth you can buy one of the micro adapters that takes up a USB port but onyl sticks out about a 1/4 inch. With a lot of laptops they put USB ports on the right side, oh yeah that makes a lot of sense, so when you plug in the monster dongle there is no room to move the mouse next to the computer on a small desk.
Come on guys, well thought out design FTW.
Word on the tiny dongles... is everyone else here a desktop user?
It has to glow, it's so all the people who's eyes are sore from watching porn can see where they left their mouse.
Don't blame Microsoft for bad laptop design. The dongle size is fine, I mean, the non-dongle alternative is a cord! Have some relative appreciation.
I guess the next version will have chrome alloy rims and a subwoofer. If I were a skeptical person, I would say that this was an optical mouse with a blue LED in it.
aquatsr: You seen the Logitech nano?
i was hoping for a trackball revival
Cool, but i have never really had the need to use my mouse on these strange surfaces that optical and laser mice apparently have problems with. I mean what the heck are you using your mice on; your pet cat?
What?! Am I the only one who does that?
Is there a slot cut out in the mouse to store the dongle, or did they just place it there for the picture?
There is a slot for the dongle to store there flush with the bottom - the current generation of MS mice for laptops have this. There is a switch in this slot that the USB dongle presses on when stored there which totally powers the mouse off saving battery life. When you remove the dongle it instantly powers the mouse on again.
It works on wood, on granite, on carpets (??), but what about glass?
Logo on mouse (bottom of right-side-up picture) looks the same as the Say Goodbye to Laser teaser logo...
None of my red optical mice work for the central email computer in my house that we all use because it on a red table top. (cheap Ikea table) So we still have to use a mouse pad. A blue led mouse would be great for this pc.
so does this blue track stuff just mean smoother mouse movement? what does it mean for high res displays/ how much dpi is it? lol put it into consumer terms. im sick of my stock hp optical mouse and my logitech wireless laser is the only (and annoying) reason to buy batteries.
Dongle. Too. Big.
You'd think after Logitech made the tiny Nano receiver, everyone else would too. And since most new laptops only have USB ports on the sides, they stick out and are in sight.
And I never understood "laptop" mice anyway. They aren't 'that' much smaller than regular sized mice. Most people have so much stuff in their laptop bag, that a mouse that's maybe an inch bigger wouldn't make a difference.
That would look kick ass with my laptop being all the power lights and stuff are that shade of blue.
If it works on glass tables then I would buy it.
I'M A FIRING MAH LAZAR!!!!
*sighs* Blue, blue....what's with the damn blue! I know blue LED's are the in thing but I swear as god as my witness as I sit in my living room I can spot 7 blue LED's. I know they are still a bit expensive but how about some green\purple LED love?
i think they should make a BT and a RF version of every mouse
M$ should have just copied the size of the receiver of the VX Nano. :)
http://www.bluetrack.com/
Well that was an anti-climax. I suppose the "Say Goodbye to Laser" rather implied that the only change was going to be in how the mouse reads its position, but for some reason I was hoping for something more interesting than a blue LED. Somehow I don't think my current VX Revolution mouse is worried that its services won't be required anytime soon...
I am a lefty, and proud of it too. I do also use a Logitech G7 Laser mouse 99.9% of the time with my right hand. I play RTS, FPS and RPG Games all using my right hand. I think it comes down to whether or not you are truly ambidextrous as I believe my self to be. In fact, I only EVER use my left hand on the mouse when I'm using my right hand to smoke or bite my nails! (horrible habit, I know!).
On the issue of the above mouse, I hated ball mice, always getting clogged and jittery, and I have noticed the benefit in moving to Laser from optical especially in the area of DPI. Surely Microsoft know more than most about Desk Rodents, and therefore, I would at least try one to satisfy my curiosity. I'm not a fashion victim, or a mug, just looking for a worthwhile upgrade. I mean hey, my PC is still Dual Core P4, and I still only have a DX9 Graphics Card (x1950xt). But I have been waiting to make it a worthwhile upgrade when it happens, and so rather than buy a q6600 or a HD2900xt at ridiculous prices, I can get a Q9450 and a Radeon 4850 and get way more bang for my buck. The point is, despite such effectively arrogant advertising by Apple and the like, we do still have a lot to be thankful to Microsoft for, and whilst they make mistakes just like everyone else(including Apple), they do make good products and not just operating systems that need constant patching.
Try one before you raise any criticism other than those that are speculative.
Just my opinion, so don't flame me too hotly!
I found Blue LED Mouse web site where you can modify your USB mouse to blue or buy a modified one : http://www.blueledmouse.com/
Wow a mouse. Who gives a shit?
Hope they didn't 'dis the lefties!