Gizmodo: optical mouse

Road Mice Help You Burn Out at Work (Sales Pitch Needs Work)

Mark Wilson — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:20:00 EST

Sometimes you don't want a mouse that looks like a mouse. Sometimes you want a mouse that looks like a Hot Wheels toy.

Road Mice are $45, officially licensed sports car versions of wireless optical mice. Infused with scroll wheels and LED headlights, the Ford Mustang, Chevy Z06 Corvette, Dodge Charger SRT8 and more are all ready to burn through some spreadsheets during your otherwise humdrum workday.

Plus, we're pretty sure that there's a decent cruising for chicks/internet porn pun you could tell all of your coworkers 100 or so times before realizing that it probably wasn't all that funny in the first place. [Road Mice]

Mouse-Calculator-Numeric Keypad Mashup is From Canon, Confusingly

Kit Eaton — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:40:00 EDT

Forget DSLRs: Canon has a new gizmo for us. The "industry's first" mouse with a calculator and numeric keypad is a 1000dpi optical USB mouse that flips open to a full keypad and 10-digit LCD screen. And yes, you read that correctly: the LS-100TKM is from Canon, not Brando. Strange... but if you're an accounting type who needs a calculator and keypad for your notebook, this might be the ticket. Available in Japan at first for around $32, in early July. [Impress]

Slide Controller Turns Nintendo DS into Optical Mouse

Mark Wilson — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:00:07 EDT

A new Japanese import for the Nintendo DS, Slide Adventure: Mag Kid, comes with a never-before-seen peripheral called the Slide Controller—converting the DS into a sort of optical mouse.

Interfacing through the large, generally unused GBA port, the Slide Controller allows you to move the DS around on a flat surface, just like a mouse. The game then registers the controls and responds accordingly (it has something to do with robots, magnetism, and we're sure, the end of the world).

We're excited about the peripheral for other prospects—like the simulation of a magnifying glass or—we're actually out of ideas. Still, adding a screen to a mouse with 1:1 controls is brilliant. But adding a mouse to a screen of the DS could be genius...assuming there are at least a couple of decent titles.

[product via technabob

i-rocks RF-6570 Wireless Keyboard/Mouse Has 8,388,608 Channels and Nothing On

Charlie White — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 12:23:32 EDT

There are so many cordless devices hanging around these days, they can interfere with each other, but not the i-rocks RF-6570 Wireless Keyboard and Optical Mouse Combo. That's because it's using a 2.4GHz wireless link with four automatically-selected frequencies. Using FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) technology, it's actually able to detect if other devices are using a particular frequency and ID, and if so, politely stays out of the way. Besides that wireless wizardry, we're also digging the keyboard's enlarged enter key, and the way the mouse's scroll wheel glows red when batteries are low.

We've seen a few i-rocks products before, such as the back-lit X-Slim Mac keyboard, and like their clean and simple design. Plus, this RF technology has over 8,388,608 unique IDs, ensuring that it won't clash with your other gear. Might be great for controlling a home theater PC. – Charlie White

Product Page [i-rocks, via uber gizmo]