OpenOfficeMouse
Latest
18-button WarMouse Meta mouse shipping June 28th
You've seen our review of the WarMouse Meta mouse (once more infamously known as the Open Office mouse), and it looks like you'll soon be able to get your hands on all eighteen of those buttons yourself -- the company has just announced that the mouse will finally start shipping on June 28th. As expected, it will set you back $79.99, and give you an analog joystick and a 5600-CPI laser sensor to go along with all those buttons and endless configuration options. It doesn't exactly look like it'll be widely available just yet, though -- especially considering that the WarMouse website still requires that you fill out a .doc file and send it in to place your order.
WarMouse Meta review
A mouse with eighteen buttons! Does the WarMouse Meta – or what used to be known as the OpenOffice Mouse – need any further introduction? We didn't think so, and ever since we laid eyes on this thing we've been dying to know how you'd even go about using the programmable point-and-clicker. There's no doubt that the $79.99 Meta with its 512K of memory is the most advanced mouse we've ever seen – each of its 18 buttons along with their double-click functions can be configured for different applications, and its analog joystick can be customized to perform eight different commands. Indeed, it's as overwhelming as it sounds, but have we always needed an extra sixteen buttons on our mouse? The answer may shock you. Or it may not. You'll never know unless you hit the break for our full review. %Gallery-92100%
OpenOffice distances itself from OpenOfficeMouse, joins everyone else
Well, the OpenOfficeMouse rightly caused a bit of skepticism when it was officially announced earlier this week, and it turns out it is something non-involved after all -- just not the way you might think. Yes, the multi-buttoned mouse is still all too real (in prototype form, at least), and supposedly set for a release... sometime, but it seems that mouse's creator got a bit ahead of himself in slapping the OpenOffice name on it. As it happens, the mouse was apparently officially presented at the recent OOoConference in Italy to judge the reaction from the OpenOffice community, but the relationship ended there, and the mouse's creator was never given permission to market the mouse with the OpenOffice name (probably a wise move). Not one to be deterred, WarMouse now seems to simply be referring to the mouse as the OOMouse -- don't worry though, you can still call it "ugly." Update: The OOMouse creators have contacted us to give their side of the story, claiming that they have emails granting permission to use OpenOffice.org's logo. In their words, "Due to the massive confusion about OpenOffice.org producing the mouse and the numerous questions about the mouse working with programs other than OpenOffice.org, we have mutually agreed with Sun to change the name of the mouse and cease using the OpenOffice.org logo."
OpenOfficeMouse isn't free, isn't pretty
Think it's only gamers that require mice with more buttons than a scientific calculator? Then you've probably not met a die hard OpenOffice user, who now finally have a mouse to call their own in the form of the OpenOfficeMouse. Developed by WarMouse in partnership with the OpenOffice.org community, this corded point-and-clicker packs no less than 18 programmable buttons (each with double-click functionality), along with support for up to 63 separate profiles, a clickable scroll wheel, an adjustable resolution from 400 to 1,600 CPI, and, get this, a built-in analog joystick that can itself be used to store up to sixteen different keys or macros. Still no firm word on availability, it seems, but you can expect to pay $74.99 for this one.
