Microsoft's BlueTrack mice are here -- laser bids a tearful goodbye
By Nilay Patel 
posted Sep 9th 2008 2:31PM
posted Sep 9th 2008 2:31PM
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nice mouse
The goggles....they do nothing!
Ho-ly-shit. A Microsoft post? I must be dreaming, isnt the Apple week? I mean comeon, they just announced a 0.3MM thinned iPod Touch, that deserves AT LEAST 7-12 posts right?
"The new mouse is good for various surfaces, even on the 0.3MM THIN iPOD TOUCH THAT IS THIN THIN THIN"
Ho-ly shit. You're the first to bring up apple into this thread.
Sorry, but iErik has (and probably is the only person to want) that particular honour (if you can call it an honour).
Thin iPod is thin.
Microsoft Market Cap: 240.35B
Apple Market Cap: 135.57B
They are, and will be for a while.
Hehe. I never said Hello to laser mice. Optical/Infrared mice have much better tracking. I hope this will fare well versus an optical.
Optical doesn't get 3200dpi.
True enough. But that's beside the point. Optical mice (Like the Razer Deathadder for example) have the best tracking. Take a look at the ESR chart.
You're... joking right?
Laser mice are way better than optical mice
~pew pew~
Deathadder is optical?
Laser is often very un-balanced and jerky if the surface is not perfectly clean, like I said, if the Sidewinder/Other Gaming mouse gets this, I think that I'm looking forward for it...
No joke. Optical mice are for the most part better then laser mice. And yes, the Razer Deathadder is optical. Go to Razer's site. "3G infrared sensor"
http://www.esreality.com/?a=longpost&id=1300293&page=5
There's a test. Clearly Optical mice win.
Will this work on my frosted glass desk because my laser ones don't. I would really really like to be using a mouse without mousepads or scrap pieces of paper!
I can paint your desk for you. Do you want black, blue, or orange?
(1) BlueTrack Technology does not work on clear glass or mirrored
surfaces.
I was wondering the same thing. My glass table is a whore to work on. But hey, she's a whore so all isn't too bad.
It should work.
Yes - frosted glass (not clear glass). And, better than laser, better than optical.
My MX Revolution works fine on frosted, opaque, and sometimes even clear glass (only when the lights are on in the room for some odd reason). I don't see how this bluetrack stuff could get any better.
At least this is something useful! But Logitech is still better.
The most advanced tracking technology available yet they still require a 2.4Ghz dongle. Fail.
Fail? What else would they use.. 2.4 is fine for a mouse.. remember not every computer has BT built in...
Bluetooth totally works without drivers, and drains very little battery.
2.4 GHz is a crap frequency. It's unregulated which is why so many products use it. So many products using it causes a lot of problems.
The only 2.4GHz item in my house is my Wireless Router. When I got that, all other 2.4GHz products could not function properly. So i just go rid of them.
I'ma buy this mouse for the simple fact that all electronics in my room has a blue LED light on them. This will be a great item to add to my crip collection!
And I just got my first laser mouse 2 days ago.
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=112
arc mouse is also official. Wondering about those lifecams and we can call it a day.
So... Is BlueTrack going to replace laser in gaming mice? ...or, is it just better in portable mice because it works on more surfaces?
Still useing plain old logitech optical mice on all my pc's. works just fine, why waste money on this?
I do presentations with my laptop in all sorts of places, very often while sitting at a conference table. Wood grain wreaks havoc with all of the mice I currently own, requiring me at times to use a piece of paper as a mouse pad. That to me looks incredibly unprofessional.
I'll be looking into these mice when they become available.
Also, if the BlueTrack is good, I'd like to see it integrated to the sidewinder mouse, gamers need their share...
Pfffff I could never give up my one button mac mouse.!!
If you buy a Macbook Air Steve Jobs will come over to your house and install his mental cursor controller program for $20. Then you don't even need a mouse. Any REAL Mac user would know this n00b!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow
Xbox 360
Microsoft Sync
Microsoft Surface
Zune
Microsoft Vista
Wow.. Id say their products are a tad bit on a larger scale then some of their competitors... yah?
Welcome to Blu Ray ERA
Id battery life is less than a month, I'd consider this FAIL. That dongle alone is bad enough!
Id = If
Hi iTroll.
Xbox 360 is the biggest player (pun intended) out there, and that "ring of fire" isn't something that happens to everyone
Surface is a huge gimmick, but so is the iPod Touch, " ooo0o0o you made a small touch screen, no one cares"
Zune - If your friend doesn't have it, it... makes you uncool?
Vista - If 1/3 downgrades, that means more sales...
Ok man, your a complete jerk, as most apple users are... for one
apple doesnt even have a gaming console... and MS replaced all the bad 360 units for free.. OLD NEWS
the surface kicks ass and you know it...
who care about market share... they only sell them in the US, and dont want to put apple out of business like they almost did in the past and had to pay them millions to not go bankrupt...
vista users downgrade because they are trying to use a NEW OS on OLD hardware... poor people dont deserve vista... ive been using vista since beta.. and i can say it is WAY better then XP... but you wouldnt know maccie boy now would you?
and microsoft doesnt market consumers, they market huge companies... go ahead... go to best buy... count how many computers run vista.... wow... you're blind or must live in a third world country... or maybe your just a queer who likes to dance in sillouettes wearing fedoras...
iDumb
You have absolutely no knowledge of basic economics, eh?
Market trends don't dictate future growth. It's a fact. If this were true (like you assume) then Motorolla would still be on top with their Razr. This is exactly the reason why quantitative investing got so many firms in trouble. (investing based on math formulas trying to predict growth)
Actually, if you use unbiased judgement... Microsoft has a better business plan because they have solid stability in place. Microsoft's profits are largely based on their industrial contracts. This is the key behind Microsoft's success and why Apple can't catch them. Apple relies on booms from consumers which can get them in huge trouble. If tastes change or consumers suddenly are unable to afford Apple's products, you'll see a lot of restructuring. See Motorolla, Versace, Coach, Dell, etc.
i dont hate apple though..
the iphone rocks... well friday it should as soon as my apps dont crash anymore
i guess a wired mouse is too much to ask for these days. i'm on my third intellimouse explorer now.
You're not even a spec of dust compared to MS. Who you trying to bash?
Zune has radio from day one. Which I love. Now has a bunch of apps and games through zuneboards.http://www.zuneboards.com/
MS Vista. Use it on my NB. Have never had a problem with it. It's pretty and I like it very much.
Yes ipods are cooler then zunes and we all know this... whatever... that doesnt mean MS is going to plummet because of it, lol... i think this blue track technology is a great investment for MS, now every single mouse ever sold using this technology MS will get a slice of the pie... cha ching!
Maybe it's just me...but, I don't let others tell me what to buy. I make that decision for myself. NO amount of advertising can sell me a sucky product. I'm man enough to stand on my own two feet. I don't care if I'm the only one in the world with a Zune, if I like it...I'm using it.
Everyone... Just keep clicking the "!" to report his comments. Eventually he'll get banned.
Hey Pynk,
I have owned two zunes in my past, the first 30gb i got on launch and after a year i dropped it and bam warranty void broken... DOH, Then i bought an 80 gb and it got stolen! (obviously people like it enough to steal it eh?) So i decided to get an iphone because i was sick of looking at my tiny blackjack screen to sruf the net, and i didnt ahve an mp3 player.. and i do like it... im kind of bummed out that i didnt get to try out zune 3.0 with the games... can i borrow yours lol? oh well... they are both great products...
I guess it is jut up to the ultimate "me-too" company to copy this.
Come on Apple catch-up !!!!
Yes, but, do we have a resolution rating on this technology? Is it 3200dpi or better like laser mice? How about poll rate or data path (1000hz?, 16bit?). Oh wait, wireless, sorry, forget I asked.
iErik's name is Erik Shirk. He is 18. At his first opportunity to vote, he will vote Republican, because that is what his Dad voted. He is going to join the Air Force if they will take him. He will earn $5000 per month if he gets in (which is a lot of money according to him).
He is a child. Don't knock him.
I miss clak
It would turn heads, if it wasn't in QUICKTIME!!!
Quicktime movies are up there with Real media movies on my list of internet annoyances.
"Upgrade to pro now and I'll maybe stop crashing your browser..."
@PHO:
I actually bought an iPod instead of the first gen. Zune. I replaced that iPod with a Zune and love my 80gb. The iPhone is nice but, I like my $49/month plan with unlimited everything (except minutes: 1250) with Sprint. My friend's 3G iPhone didn't give a good impression. He couldn't make a call without dropping it. My Windows Mobile phone makes calls without dropping them just fine.
I don't dislike Apple's products, I just feel their marketing team is a bunch of scumbags with no ethics. Think 1980's used car salesman (before there were regulations in place for full disclosure).
@iErik:
You're being an Apple tool posting Apple links in a Microsoft article. It's annoying. I bet you're the type that walks into random peoples' houses without knocking, opens their fridge, makes a sandwhich and then take a big dump with the door open. Huh?
Swwwweeeet!!. I've been itching to use my new Granite mouse pad......Thank you Microsoft :)
@kccboy2004:
Ha ha ha! Oh man...it's the same tool that's "Apple Rep" and "fieldcar"!!!
Erik, by the way...I was in the Army for 3 years (82nd Airborne - 1/325 Airborne Infantry Regiment). You don't make a lot of money. Actually, you make under $20k for the first few years. Stop lying. You're not in the Air Force. ...and stop being an annoying Apple tool. With the information that you've provided, I'm sure that someone could get your home phone number and call you nonstop circa 1990's phreaking. ...but, we won't. So, stop being annoying because we're not going out of our way to annoy you.
LOL iErik, You are one of the RARE funny people that pop in and out on this site.
Heres some tips:
1. Move out of North Korea, get off your DaeWoo Gaming system and come back to reality....
2. If you own/ buy / trade stock, fire your broker for you are sooo misinformed.
Will your 300 dollar iPod do a better job at being a mouse? I don't understand.
does it work on glass?
iErik is a MacLover, just as many of us are MicrosoftLovers... they will standby by their favorite company's product no matter what.
i have always loved windows, and most of Microsoft's other endeavors.
The Xbox 360 is not crap, and everyone knows that- it successfully dethroned Sony after the PS2 sold more than the xbox1, now the 360 is leaving the PS3 in the dust sales-wise. ALSO everyone can agree that the 360's games are more fun than Apple's "gaming platform" the iPhone's games.
Surface is neat, thats all i will say. It's flashy and will do great in very specific special situations. However if surface eventually keeps up to its promises and actually has the groundbreaking Syncing capabilities shown in the video- being able to put my zune and camera on the table, and simply throwing my pics into my zune- now THAT would be AMAZING.
The Zune is a quality MP3 player, as well as the iPod. Both are pretty much equal. the iPod has a little more battery life, the Zune has a bigger screen for videos. For most people their mp3's primary function is music, so that little battery life will make the decision. For those who mainly watch videos on their device, me, the Zune is a better fit. so all in all more people will buy the iPod for a legit reason. However also many people buy the iPod because "everyone" has an iPod. After that it really is preference- the iPod has a sleek&simple interface + clickwheel, the Zune has a pretty&graphical interface + scrollpad- personally i like the scrollpad better. and i can't use clickwheels, they bother me- so that and the screen are the reason i purchased a Zune.
Vista is a perfectly fine OS. It is prettier than XP, and is also more functional- Vista's inbuilt network functions are amazing. I have a terabyte network drive and all of my windows machines found it instantly- i had to google howto get it to work on my dads mac- it required me to use the terminal a little bit- but eventually worked out. I won't dock OSX too many points for that considering network drives are more commonplace in a work environment and lets face it- OSX isn't built for the business world. Vista does require more power from you PC, but shouldn't that be expected from a newer OS? i would think so. I want more bang for my buck.
when it comes to smartphones it is a very competitive market- Blackberry, OSX Mobile, and Windows Mobile are the big players right now. Blackberrys invade the workplace with secure delivery of messages, although i'm not to keen with the usability of the phones themselves. Windows Mobile 6.1 is actually pretty nice, and they've updated the UI a little bit as well. Also added a slightly better PocketIE ( i still use Opera Mobile ) ,COPY&PASTE, and better car bluetooth compatibility. OSX Mobile is sleek and sexy and definitely LOOKS better than WinMo, no questions asked. The AppStore is nice, and the seamless downloading done well- however the SDK for developers is quite locked down( at least Apple is taking baby steps towards the developer community). And the device(iPhone not iTouch) itself is pretty damn powerful. WinMo definitely more complicated than OSXmo and is extremely overwhelming for your average phone user- however if you know what you're doing it is pretty amazing, with features like Internet Connection Sharing (One-Click in the 6.1 update) you can share your data plan to you laptop with ease(not available in OSXmo) and also 3rd party apps having full access can be pretty useful as well- Opera's Mobile browser for PocketPC's, and even Opera Mini for WinMo Smartphones leave Safari Mobile in the dust- Opera Mobile/Mini have great Flash and javascript Support, and Mobile even has touch navigation- Opera Mobile is better than Safari Mobile hands down.
BUT when it comes down to it, your OS is all personal preference, so many apps are becoming available on both OS's that its hard to say one can do what the other can't. Things work differently on both, but usually you can get the job done on either- some things are easier on OSX, some are easier on XP/Vista- personally i like the layout of Windows and i've used it so much i can troubleshoot just about anything i run into, or work around something that is bothering me- so i will continue to purchase laptops and phones that run windows.
But to stay on topic i will also mention BlueTrack mice. I am happy to see Microsoft to returning to the mouse-game, they did invent the two-button mouse(still much better than the apple's current one button, and two side squeezer shits) now Microsofts coming back to better it.
@iErik
"lmao, thats their market cap? considering apple almost went out of business 10 years ago. And wow, microsoft is falling faster that i though rofl"
Companies can't grow exponentially. Market cap of a company vs revenue tends to grow with decreasing returns (imagine a function that looks like X^.5). Microsoft has the 4th largest market cap in the country (under Exxon, GE, and Walmart respectively), and it can't grow much larger considering it's No. 1 in its industry.
Enough of this apple fanboy crap. I bet any one of them would give Steve Jobs a BJ in a split second. You guys need to get a life and stop flaming everything that isn't hailing the next macbook 00x or what the hell ever they call them. Apple products aren't the holy grail, Steve Jobs isn't Jesus, ok? Get a life... iTards.
Before you even say it, no i'm not a MS fanboy, why the hell would i be a fan of a company to the point of spending days on the internets posting stupid crap about them? Get a life fools, or atleast get paid for your advertisement.
So, what's the real deal. Does blue's shorter wavelength allow it to pick up details on smoother surfaces? I want to know if the switch to blue makes a real difference, or if it's just marketing hype.
@iErik: If I were you, I'd stfu now.
You guys are too funny... arguing over who's the bigger tool / fanboy, or which big heartless corporation is less evil. News flash: they both suck! I gotta say though, given the choice, I'd say Microsoft is the lesser evil.
Meh. That USB dongle is huge! When they can make nano receivers like Logitech, I'll consider buying a new mouse for what will probably amount to 5% better tracking. I rarely use my computer on polished marble or carpeting lately. If they were smart, they'd make one that hooks up through Wi-fi (it's been done before) so there's no dongle at all!
So, could you say this is a "Blu-ray"? :P
STOP FEEDING THE FUCKING TROLL, YOU FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow I must say @iEric props for being a wicked troll, you see that wall of text they wrote for you? rofl
@iErik
Is it really something to brag about that you have had to get a new account "many a time"?
I am personally proud of my engadget comment accountability. I've had this account since I started using the site...
as long as they glide well.... i have no problem using a mouse mat, but i hate mice that dont glide well. for me the 3 ost important aspectos of a mice are the *comfort, *smoothness/gliding ability, *design. someone please tell me the best mouse for my pointing duties
I've been using a $10 optical mouse on carpet all day. I'm sure this thing is cool and all, but, man, mice have been pretty awesome since we moved away from balls in the base.
New mouse technology that may revolutionize mousing as we know >> crappy ipod updates
Goodbye to laser? Um... isn't a blue beam still a laser?
OK enough of the Apple/Zune rubbish in these coments I have a serious question. Will this mouse have the button on the side to bring up the magnifier with holding it and moving it to adjust it like on my notebook laser 6000 because, being quite badly partially sighted, I have found this to be one of the best features on anything ever made on a peripheral; it almost seems like an afterthought but for someone like me I can really appreciate it more than most people. Can someone please shed some light as to whether this mouse will have this; assuming also that it uses IntelliPoint.
Thanks for any help in advance!