WarMouse Meta: OpenOfficeMouse has a new name, same 18 buttons
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted December 14th 2009 2:52PM
posted December 14th 2009 2:52PM
What can we say about this peripheral that we didn't say when it was known as the OpenOfficeMouse? It still has more buttons than any mouse has a right to have, but now it's adopted an edgier, darker look, and its eschewed the optical sensor for a 5600 CPI laser. Oh yes, and it has a new name: The WarMouse Meta. War is Hell, kids. PR after the break.
WarMouse Meta: "18-button Freak" Gets Freakier With High-res Laser
Oxford, England, December 15, 2009 – WarMouse today announced that its revolutionary 18-button joystick mouse, rechristened the Meta, will ship with a high-resolution laser sensor instead of an optical sensor. With a patented design featuring 18 buttons, an analog joystick, and a 5600-cpi laser sensor, the Meta provides a radically efficient user interface that has been shown to increase mouse input speeds by an average of 30 percent in comparison with conventional two-button mice utilizing toolbar icons and pull-down menus. Formerly known as the OpenOfficeMouse, the WarMouse Meta will be black with dark gray buttons.
"We were frankly shocked by the overwhelming response to our original announcement of the mouse," said Theodore Beale, Lead Designer at WarMouse. "We sent out three emails and ended up getting three million hits on our website that weekend; no one seemed to believe that an 18-button mouse with a joystick could be anything but a joke. But it's real, it's brutal, and it's going to fundamentally change what people expect of their input devices. There are some who are of the opinion that the Meta is insane, but we believe there are many gamers and power users who want to be able to do more than stroke their mouse with two fingers."
The Meta is one of the first computer mice to incorporate an analog joystick and is the first mouse to permit the use of the joystick as a digital keyboard interface. In the three digital joystick modes, the user can assign up to sixteen different keys or macros to the joystick, which provides faster user input regardless of whether the user is flying through the cells of a large spreadsheet in Calc or on the back of an epic flying mount in World of Warcraft. In analog joystick mode, the player can select between having up to seven joystick buttons available or using all 18 buttons as keyboard and mouse commands instead.
The features of the WarMouse Meta include:
The Meta has been alternately described as "the most insane mouse ever", "a Photoshop gag", and "too much of a good thing". For more detailed information about the WarMouse Meta, visit http://www.warmouse.com/about.html. The Meta is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems and will retail for $74.99 in the first quarter of 2010.
Contacts:
Marc Soskin (UTC -05h00)
Media Specialist
m-soskin@excite.com
+1 (612) 284-7344
Theodore Beale (UTC +01h00)
Lead Designer
theo@warmouse.com
+44 1865 600 440
Oxford, England, December 15, 2009 – WarMouse today announced that its revolutionary 18-button joystick mouse, rechristened the Meta, will ship with a high-resolution laser sensor instead of an optical sensor. With a patented design featuring 18 buttons, an analog joystick, and a 5600-cpi laser sensor, the Meta provides a radically efficient user interface that has been shown to increase mouse input speeds by an average of 30 percent in comparison with conventional two-button mice utilizing toolbar icons and pull-down menus. Formerly known as the OpenOfficeMouse, the WarMouse Meta will be black with dark gray buttons.
"We were frankly shocked by the overwhelming response to our original announcement of the mouse," said Theodore Beale, Lead Designer at WarMouse. "We sent out three emails and ended up getting three million hits on our website that weekend; no one seemed to believe that an 18-button mouse with a joystick could be anything but a joke. But it's real, it's brutal, and it's going to fundamentally change what people expect of their input devices. There are some who are of the opinion that the Meta is insane, but we believe there are many gamers and power users who want to be able to do more than stroke their mouse with two fingers."
The Meta is one of the first computer mice to incorporate an analog joystick and is the first mouse to permit the use of the joystick as a digital keyboard interface. In the three digital joystick modes, the user can assign up to sixteen different keys or macros to the joystick, which provides faster user input regardless of whether the user is flying through the cells of a large spreadsheet in Calc or on the back of an epic flying mount in World of Warcraft. In analog joystick mode, the player can select between having up to seven joystick buttons available or using all 18 buttons as keyboard and mouse commands instead.
The features of the WarMouse Meta include:
- 18 programmable mouse buttons with double-click functionality
- High-resolution laser sensor with adjustable resolution from 100 to 5,600 DPI/CPI.
- Five assignable button modes: Key, Keypress, Macro, Mouse, and Mouse-Key Combo
- Analog Xbox 360-style joystick with five analog and digital modes
- Clickable scroll wheel
- 512k of flash memory
- 63 on-mouse application modes with hardware, software, and autoswitching capability
- 1024-character macro support.
- Meta Modeware for creating, managing, and customizing game and application modes
- Import and export of custom modes in XML format
- Taskbar notification of active application mode
- Optional audio notification of mode switching with customizable wave files
- PDF export of application mode button assignments
- Graphical pop-up map of application mode button assignments
- 25 default modes for popular games and applications, including Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, OpenOffice.org Writer, Calc, and Impress, 3D Studio Max, Autodesk AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.
The Meta has been alternately described as "the most insane mouse ever", "a Photoshop gag", and "too much of a good thing". For more detailed information about the WarMouse Meta, visit http://www.warmouse.com/about.html. The Meta is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems and will retail for $74.99 in the first quarter of 2010.
Contacts:
Marc Soskin (UTC -05h00)
Media Specialist
m-soskin@excite.com
+1 (612) 284-7344
Theodore Beale (UTC +01h00)
Lead Designer
theo@warmouse.com
+44 1865 600 440
Still ugly
@glamajamma
MAWR BUTTONS PL0X
@glamajamma Also, why OpenOffice Mouse in the first place?! o_O What does it have to do with a spreadsheet and a word processor?! I'd understand an OpenOffice Keyboard, but a Mouse?!
hard to see the usefulness of this
KNEEL BEFORE WARMOUSE!
*hits right click...no not that right click, the one on the second row..did I say second, I meant third...yeah, 3rd one from the right..not from the right click from the right side...next to the mouse wheel...*
aww damn it you hit the left click button! Now you ranked him up....or did you rank him down?....well I don't know, you hit the one on the top row, you must've ranked him sideways..
...enjoy your sideways rank, puny human.
@N900 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
APPLAUSE!!!!
@southern78
I agree, not very useful...
throw a joystick on there though, then you might have something.
@unknamed
They did. Its the ugly blue mushroom sticking out of the left hand side of the ugly black box.
@Alimas
HAHA
I'll be calling this one The "Mushroom Mouse" from now on. LOL
Becuz point and click iz hard.
@(Unverified)
It is now
Hello, 1995.
With every attempt that Apple makes to get rid of buttons once and for all, there will be something like this invented to balance the playing field.
@Maddy are you suggesting that this mouse is "Agent Smith" to Apple's "Neo", or the maybe the other way around?
@Maddy, Newton's third law: For every miserable attempt at mouse design in Apple, there is equally miserable attempt at mouse design in `competing` manufacturer, just in a different direction...
This goes beyond "ugly" into "insidious giant spider" territory. The legs are just hidden, waiting for you to touch the thing.
The press release is dated for tomorrow...
@dickweed
Welcome to the wooooorld of tomorrrrrooooowww!!
@dickweed In the Year Three Thousand...In the Year Three Thousand!!!
Swap the cord for bluetooth, give me full programming over all the buttons and honestly you've got me sold. I do 3d CAD work for a living, and as many buttons as I can get under one hand make drawings go a lot faster.
Why not use one of those 3D Connection controllers? The odd puck things. I've got one of those, myself.
@(Unverified) Need the Fn buttons and ctrl, shift close at hand for drawing commands. 3D mouse wouldn't fix it.
What could possibly require you to do your job one handed...?
Wow, those blank keys look very useful...
@muol How many of your current mouse buttons are labeled. ;) /snark
@Andir Agreed, the two buttons of my mouse aren't labeled 'left' and 'right' but the chance that I accidentally mix them up is still very close to zero for some reason...;)
Look like. . .something they sell in the toy section of drug stores.
@yulebellow Maybe you remove the buttons and candy is underneath them.
So what's it going to war with? Functionality?
@NYNY
That or Aesthetics. Take your pick.
Seems great for an rts, so how would it perform as a gaming mouse? I have no idea what docs you're working on that would have an urgency associated with them that this mouse would address. Spreadsheets for tpain or something? Hurry up yo! Got to tabulate the riches 'fore you consummate with b--
Anyone else thinking this could be useful for FPS's ?
I think it's great - except for the design.
@maxisma
Yeah, like clicking all the wrong buttons all the times.
I think with the new name they're marketing it to WoW players and Emacs users, because they realized OpenOffice doesn't have any brand power.
(I'm editor agnostic, I use emacs and vim, although it messes with my head when I switch between them).
This is the mouse for me! Cause people on my planet have 20 fingers a hand.
NEEDZ MOAR BUTTUNS!
So this is actually an OpenOfficeMouse that has been beaten until it is black and blue, huh?
@scjessey No the white one was just a prototype, black is the original colour.
They better sell this in Europe.
Still looks like a wannabe Atari Jaguar controller.
Why is this hideous thing getting so much press here? Is it a gadget? Yes. Have you covered it once or twice already? Yes. Does anyone care about the worlds ugliest mouse? NO.
Oh, how I do love the feel of cheap plastic, seams, and blocky design. I especially love the pinball plunger on the side, nice touch! I hope this is a prototype.
If you want buttons, I think the Logitech MX Revolution did it with class. Jesus, what is this 4th grade project of mine doing up here after so many years?
Let's just put a tracking laser on a keyboard and get this over with.
I think I just threw-up in my mouth...
pew pew!
(yeah, its still ugly :P )
click and watch in horror
I can almost text on this mouse
@axerlzx
Turn it upside-down and you've yourself a Blackberry!
mawr buttons
I would like something like this for my video data analysis. Buttons for playback, pause, rewind, slow, fast, frame by frame, window switching to the transcription pane, etc etc. The problem is it doesn't look at all comfortable.
If it was made of wood, with buttons made of little square rocks, then you'd have something.