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Mouse innovation

November 10, 2003 › Sandy McMurray | comment

Mac users like to tease Microsoft about the company's boasts of innovation. Bill & Co. are an easy target -- they've been known to list "Color Variety" under the heading of "Innovations."

Truth be told, where Microsoft excels is in packaging and marketing existing ideas, but there's no denying that the company sometimes comes up a few gems. Consider, for example, the holiday lineup of computer mice from Microsoft. In addition to some aesthetic changes and some improvements in power usage, the best new feature in this year's mice is something called "Tilt Wheel Technology."

Simply put, the new Tilt Wheel makes it possible to scroll left and right on your computer screen as well as up and down using the mouse. It's a logical extension of the up and down scroll wheel.

Why would you use this? It's a natural for anyone who has to work with documents like spreadsheets. Rather than moving your hands to the arrow keys on the keyboard, you can now scroll up or down and left or right using the mouse. It's a simple thing, really, but quite useful.

The new mice from Microsoft also promise longer battery life, through a redesigned power-saving mode that uses less juice when the mouse is at rest. Rather than opt for rechargeable batteries, as some manufacturers have done, Microsoft is sticking with normal batteries.

The Microsoft hardware folks say they've done testing on rechargeable mice, and report that users seem to be happy if their batteries last six months or more. The trouble with rechargeable batteries is that you have no mouse if the battery runs out when you need it.

We may all soon be in the habit of changing mouse batteries along with smoke detector batteries, when we turn the clocks back or forward for Daylight Saving Time.

November 10, 2003 › Sandy McMurray | comment on this item