Microsoft's BlueTrack mice are here -- laser bids a tearful goodbye

Yeah, so we might have forced Microsoft's hand into announcing the fall Zune lineup a day early, but nothing can upstage the pure excitement of the Say Goodbye to Laser campaign -- awww yeah, the BlueTrack mice are official today. The new tracking tech uses a (surprise!) blue beam and wide-angle "specular optics architecture" to work on a wider range of surfaces than traditional optical or laser mice, including granite, marble, and even carpet. The new tech will debut in two new mice: a revised wireless Microsoft Explorer Mouse and that Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse that we'd already spotted. Both will be available at Best Buy in November for $99 and $79, respectively.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 3:35PM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 3:37PM]

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

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 3:40PM]

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..."

[PynkFloydd Posted Sep 9th 2008 3:43PM]

@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?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 3:51PM]

Swwwweeeet!!. I've been itching to use my new Granite mouse pad......Thank you Microsoft :)

[PynkFloydd Posted Sep 9th 2008 3:54PM]

@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.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 3:56PM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 3:57PM]

Will your 300 dollar iPod do a better job at being a mouse? I don't understand.

[vudean Posted Sep 9th 2008 4:04PM]

does it work on glass?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 4:58PM]

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.

[Missing Matter Posted Sep 9th 2008 4:18PM]

@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.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 4:28PM]

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.

[erh Posted Sep 9th 2008 4:32PM]

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.

[Biomech Posted Sep 9th 2008 5:03PM]

@iErik: If I were you, I'd stfu now.

[Larz Posted Sep 9th 2008 5:06PM]

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.

[archpope Posted Sep 9th 2008 5:07PM]

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!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 5:33PM]

So, could you say this is a "Blu-ray"? :P

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2008 5:56PM]

STOP FEEDING THE FUCKING TROLL, YOU FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Callil Posted Sep 9th 2008 7:43PM]

Wow I must say @iEric props for being a wicked troll, you see that wall of text they wrote for you? rofl

[ashesfall Posted Sep 9th 2008 6:43PM]

@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...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2008 3:06AM]

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

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2008 4:14AM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2008 3:59AM]

New mouse technology that may revolutionize mousing as we know >> crappy ipod updates

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2008 6:55PM]

Goodbye to laser? Um... isn't a blue beam still a laser?

[Javindo Posted Sep 23rd 2008 3:48PM]

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!