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 $74.99 in the first quarter of 2010.
Contacts:
Marc Soskin (UTC -05h00)
Media Specialist
m-soskin@excite.com
+1 (612) 284-7344
Theodore Beale (UTC +01h00)
Lead Designer
theo@warmouse.com
+44 1865 600 440
that's at least half a qwerty keyboard.. lol
better yet. why don't we have two mouses, i mean mice so that we can type and click at the same time.
this is ridic
This reminds me of the 14 blade razor parody SNL did way back when.
Anything fewer than 20 buttons just isn't useful.
I don't even get the point of making these.
Who the hell is going to use this?
I sure am not going to.
And I can give you a list of at least 200 more people who won't.
It doesn't even make your life easier in any way.
this is a fail now as it was back when it came out.
I'll stick with the magic mouse.
lol the name of it just sounds so gay.
but whatever, I think I'd rather use the 1 button mouse that apple made WAY back in the day than use this thing. seriously.. wtf
Ok, if no else has christened this the "Darth Mouse" or the "Vader Mouse", I'm calling DIBS!
those buttons look like as crappy as the materials on an old school sega gensis controller.
wow
I like how it has a built-in Modern Warfare 2 profile. What is that, one button to aim, one button to shoot and then 16 buttons to assigned to text chat macros complaining about noobs and lag?
%$#@ing Silly.
I'll stick with the Razer mmo mouse ;]
in my country... we prefer our mouse and keyboard separate.
I can't believe that you can't see that this mouse if for playing Streetfighter. The scales have been lifted from my eyes;)
This mouse is Steve Jobs' kryptonite.
Super non-ergonomic! I mean, when I look at my hand... I have a thumb and at least 1 but probably 2 fingers holding the mouse. How many fingers left? Any more top-mounted buttons usually require sideways movement of my fingers, which can add RSI stress in the long term. This is probably the main reason for the Apple one-button idea, actually - a central button... and why even keyboards have only a few exceptions where you have to stretch sideways.
My favorite, the Logitech MX-510 has buttons nicely under where my fingers already are!
Looks like it's losing the war — the buttons are starting to take over.