Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse rumor resurfaces, expected in September for $69.95 (updated)
By Vlad Savov 
posted August 5th 2010 3:29AM
posted August 5th 2010 3:29AM
It was almost exactly a month ago that we reported on swirling rumors of Microsoft pulling together a multitouch-capable mouse to call its own, while earlier this week we saw the company's Twitter feed enlivened with teasers of a mysterious new touch-input device. Coincidence? No chance, says Neowin, whose insider source confirms the Arc Touch Mouse moniker and also adds that launch is expected in September. It's said this peripheral will come with just basic touch functionality initially, with multitouch presumably being thrown in via a later update. Sounds like Microsoft's version of the Magic Trackpad, though the Mouse part of its name suggests it'll also be able to track around your desktop like a more conventional rodent as well. That'd certainly offer more versatility than the stationary Apple option, but we have our doubts about the ergonomics of using a flat mouse over long periods of time. More should be known soon, provided @msfthardware keeps feeling loquacious.Update: Never mind waiting for MSFT to tell us, the Arc Touch Mouse has appeared in a reseller's price list with an MSRP a few cents south of $70 -- right in line with Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse pricing.
Got to be a Phone to me.
@MManLA Just wonder what the courier fans are going to do now!
@NewBie I could also be a tablet, but I don't think that it can be release this year. I"m guessing a Zune Phone with WP7.
@MManLA
I saw this posted yesterday and have to agree. It looks more like the back of an upturned phone.
Hmm.. not too sure.
I thought MS were fairly big on ergonomics and if that is a mouse it's not ergonomically designed at all and will more than likely cause hand strain pretty quickly.
@FireMonkey
Yeah i cant stand using the mighty mouse. We have one for use with the macbook pro but i much prefer buttons and being able to feel the click.
@James The mighty mouse DOES click.... Or DID click. One of the two.
Sucks for Microsoft that it will be seen as a fail in all likelihood.
@AlienSix Could it kind of be a moveable track pad. So that you kind of use it statically if that's what's required at the time and then by actively gliding it over the desktop it becomes more mouse like. I am riffing here and have not been at too much Camberwell Carrot.
Looks too fat to be a touchpad, too flat to be a mouse. Going by just that one pic, i would guess that its somekind of phone or PMP with some soft touch back on it.
I think it's a multitouch calculator turned upside-down. Probably with a super amoled display to show those numbers in hi-def.
The "Microsoft" logo on looks to be on the bottom portion(plastic) and the top piece not shown is the camera housing(metal). It could be Microsofts own WP7 or it could be the next Zune.
@igeekonee It's not a Zune or WP7. Microsoft hardware does not manufacture phones or Zunes they do mice, keyboards and webcams. It's a mouse and it's the Arc Touch Mouse, end of story.
Dear Microsoft,
F*** this, make the Courier.
Sincerely,
Steve Jobs
@Xcharles718
Dear Xcharles718,
Microsoft isn't a single monolithic entity...the guy who makes the Internet Explorer icon isn't the same guy who creates the "ding" noise you hear when you change your volume. The guy who heads up Zune has nothing to do with the QA guy who makes sure MSN messenger works. There are thousands of staff all simultaneously working on separate, diverse and sometimes competing projects. The efforts of the keyboard and mice department do not impinge on those of whoever was working on the Courier.
Sincerely
Ghandi.
@Tes I think you took that a little too seriously.
@Oxyrt
LOL, naw, just it's so common for the SAME response every time a company releases a new product, as if there was this one guy sitting there and he can't do more than one thing at a time.
It's most common when Google releases something. You get the all to common "Why aren't Google concentrating on the interface of Gmail?" or "Why don't they spend time on making Google Calendar sync with " as if there was one single Google department all working on a single project at a time.
I signed it Ghandi...surely you can see it's tongue in cheek?
@Tes Live Messenger.
@Tes Microsoft are cool
Microsoft is cool
Singular or plural?
@Tes
All I'm saying Ghandi is this, give people what they want. If we want a phone with a oled screen, built it. If they want Justin long to be your pitch man, hire him. If people want a two screen digital notebook, do it. It's not like Microsoft doesn't have the capacity to do so. If the people want you to wear a black turtleneck and jeans, wear it.
Sincerely,
S. Jobs
P.S. I'm working on something revolutionary that people had ask for since the dawn of man. And so we did...
iToilet 4.
Ok, so we have pictures of something and a tweet refering to something 'touchy' and then information about a Touch Mouse.
Is there actually anything linking these 2 bits of info together or is it still just guess work?
I'm not saying it isn't the mouse, just checking if I have missed something or if people are still just speculating.
not bad at all
-----------------------------
rapchieuphimonline.info
Based on the article, if I'm reading it correctly, it seems that it would be more appropriate to compare this to the much more useful Magic Mouse rather than the trackpad.
@JimmyJimJim It's a trackpad and a mouse so it's a LOT more useful than apple's offering.
@JimmyJimJim
Ergonomically the Magic Mouse is a nightmare and this looks the same.
@techwhizard
haha you luddites, the Magic Mouse had gestures ages ago.
I guess it's really hard being a MS Apologist these days... you mock Apple for being overpriced, then MS comes out with the exact same product 2 years later, for the same price.
Speaking of which, how are those MS Store(s) doing? Still with the forced awkward zombie dancing?
Am I missing some horrible joke here? Why is the ARC mouse FLAT?!?!?
@MJR
Why is Windows 7 actually Windows Kernel Version 6.1.
Dude, it's Microsoft.
Logitech Trackman Wheel FTW!! :(
MS has had touch mice in development for a while and I have no doubt that they have one coming, but I highly doubt this is it. Neither the look of the device nor the text of their tweets jives with a product you would call Arc Touch Mouse. How does "DON"T be touchy...FLAT is where it's at" (emphasis mine) equate to ARC TOUCH Mouse? It doesn't. I might be making a mistake in thinking that the clues dropped in twitter should logically relate to the device being released (as opposed to this and other sites that seem to through logic and definitions out the window) but whatever is being tweeted about is not some curvy touch-enabled mouse.
@jfortun "throw" not "through". no coffee yet.
Microsoft at its best. Copying the competition ®
Oh and the blind fanboiis on here: Get a fucking life.
How quickly people forget that MS has a stranglehold on dozens of markets that Apple could never dream of touching.
Lets see Apple make a Server OS that actually works. (OSX Server is a bigger joke than linux on the desktop)
Lets see Apple make a virtualization solutions...a hypervisor, VDI system, etc.
Let's see apple make an end to end enterprise systems management suite like System Center
Let's see Apple make a decent antivirus thats free for consumers and rock solid for enterprise (yes, Mac's get viruses.)
Let's see apple do anything other than put shiny aluminum on 2 year old computer parts and sell it for 3 times the markup to idiots.
@Jordus
Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel.
@Jordus
A Stranglehold on the Anti-Virus market? Hilarious..
"Hey Steve Jobs get over here! We gotta write Anti-Virus software for Windows!"
And if you actually took a look at OS X Server, you'd know what an awesome deal it is.. but.. you don't.
The rest of what you mentioned are totally frigging boring products and boring markets. Apple is a CE company you moron.
@Jordus You are confusing 2 different markets. Apple is a consumer electronics and software company (for the most part), Microsoft is consumer and enterprise. The problem is that Apple makes awesome products for home users. Microsoft makes the biggest buck on enterprise users, but they somehow fail to make good products for home users.
@Wesscoast Blinded by the bubble. Call those businesses boring but many of them drive the world we live in. Some of them are nearly as large as Apple's entire business. The innovations and progress made in the server and collaboration and even the cloud space are pretty wonderful and far outshine Apple's meager entry into the enterprise. They might bore you, but the fact is it's a healthy and innovative segment of Microsoft that should be ignored.
MS does seem to drop the ball on on some consumer products but their largest consumer product - Windows- is nothing if not the model of success. Kin not so much, though I think it signals a change in the company that they were willing to kill it so quickly. Zune is a great product- just not popular (Apple fans know about that phenomena, I know). Xbox has had its (significant) troubles but it's now the center of my home theater and I don't even game on the thing.
MS Hardware is a good business. MS Research has been playing with touch interfaces for a long while and is certainly not following in Apple's footsteps from an innovation perspective. Surface is an incredibly cool product, though admittedly not one most of us can afford.I think Kinect will bring something very new to the world- and not merely for gaming.
MS has its problems - its slowness to change being most critical-, but the hate/"following Apple" attitude reveals ignorance, not insight.
@Jordus You need rehab or something. Get help
I thought it would be the next gen ARC mouse. I called it, remember?
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/03/microsoft-teases-something-flat-and-touchy/5#comments
Would have been a great lookin phone!!
I bet the next thing Microsoft will release will be an external trackpad for desktop computers with multitouch.
That's ugly compared to apples mighty mouse
I do not like this at all.
Totally original!!!!!
I liked Amigas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_4000
see??? what did i tell you - its a mouse
wait so i was right with my prediction.. its microsofts answer to apples touch mouse. BUt i hate touch based, bad for FPS.
I would have bet money on this being a phone. I guess I would have lost that money....
It's funny, laptops have had these "magic mice" for a long time.....now they pull that track pad out and make it a peripheral.
i think this bears a resemblance.
http://www.vhxn.com/mouse-look-like-macbook-air/#respond
and with devices like the arc, which folds up for portability, Microsoft has
obviously shown interest in making a mouse more mobile.
Hey guys! Question here! I just bought the Arc Keyboard and it is beautiful, so much space I can draw even better so anyway, I was gonna get an Arc Mouse but they only had the red ones, the guy at COMPUSA told me they would have black ones this Saturday, and now my question is...is this Arc Touch Mouse gonna be half touch pad and half mouse? I mean should I go ahead and buy the Arc Mouse, because I really don't think I need a touch pad...someone please...answer me? 0_o?....