[Razer]

The Elecom “Like a Spoon!” mouse wraps stainless steel around plastic like a little, electronic amuse-bouche. Of course, given its $US90 price and necessity to import (it’s Japan-only), the satisfaction had better last more than a moment.

[Elecom via Akihabara News via Engadget]

The system rotates the coin, sampling its surface using the 30 x 30 pixel resolution optical sensor. Then it compares it to a stored model, giving you the nay or the yay with more accuracy than anyone, or about the same accuracy as an expert. [El Mundo — In Spanish]

SteelSeries’ Kinzu pulls off the bargain gaming mouse gambit way better, at $US35. Or you can get more aggressively armed gaming mice at Amazon for about the same price, even from Razer.

RAZER ABYSSUS™ GIVES GAMERS THE COMPETITIVE EDGE BY FOCUSING ON THE FUNDAMENTALS

Carlsbad, Calif. – Nov. 10, 2009 – Razer™, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, today launched the Razer Abyssus™ gaming mouse. By combining simplicity with a state-of-the-art 3.5G 3500dpi infrared sensor, the Razer Abyssus stands ready to frag.

“Less is more,” said Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff, president, Razer. “We’ve taken our ambidextrous three-button mouse design and loaded it with our industry-leading technology without the added cost of too many bells and whistles. Our goal with the Razer Abyssus is to give competitive gamers access to gaming grade hardware without breaking the bank.”

About the Razer Abyssus
The Razer Abyssus mouse is designed for gamers that demand reliability and functionality under the fiercest gameplay conditions. The Razer Abyssus is armed with two large non-slip buttons tuned for maximum tactile feedback and features Razer’s built-in Hyperesponse™ technology. Underneath, Razer has placed two easily accessible mechanical switches — one on-the-fly dpi switch giving the user their choice of 450, 1800, or 3500dpi; and one polling rate switch allowing instant adjustment from a standard 125hz to 1000hz Ultrapolling™.

Razer Abyssus
COST: US $US49.99, Europe €39.99

AVAILABILITY:
Razerzone.com – Available Now
China – In Stores Now
Worldwide –Late December 2009

Product Features:
3500dpi Razer Precision™ 3.5G infrared sensor
1000Hz Ultrapolling™ / 1ms response time
Mechanical dpi/polling rate switches
On-The-Fly Sensitivity™ adjustment
Always-On™ mode
Ultra-large non-slip buttons
16-bit ultra-wide data path
60-120 inches per second and 15g of acceleration
Three independently programmable Hyperesponse™ buttons
Ambidextrous design
Scroll wheel with 24 individual click positions
Zero-acoustic Ultraslick™ Teflon feet
Seven-foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord
Approx. size in mm 115(L) x 63(W) x 40(H)

[Razer]

Sure, it’s not that attractive-looking and it’s probably awkward as all hell to use, but the prospect of programming all those buttons has me giddy. The guy who designed it thinks it’s great for World of Warcraft or OpenOffice tasks, but while I don’t know what exactly I’ll assign to those buttons, I know it won’t be either of those things. Any suggestions? [Open Office Mouse—Thanks, Joel!]

And you thought that the Magic Mouse was expensive. Seriously, who the hell spends $US1200 in a mouse? [Intelligent Design via The Design Blog]

Major findings (and we use the word major so loosely we might as well not have bothered): The Magic Mouse uses the Broadcom BCM2042 Bluetooth chip, it’s covered in capacitive sensors from the Apple logo on up, and it’s hard to break into. Science fails to beat magic once again. [iFixit]

As we said in the hands-on, the mouse has one piece of clear white plastic on the top, curved, like a Dove bar. It has both right and left clicks, like the Mighty Mouse, but differentiates itself from other mice with its touch-sensitive scrolling and two-fingered gestures. That’s the big selling feature (other than the fact that it is a beautiful-looking mouse).

As a mouse

The Magic Mouse is a very, very pretty mouse—something you wouldn’t feel like you had to hide when not in use—and looks different enough from other mice that people will ask who made it, before awkwardly mumbling a nevermind as they spot the grey Apple logo.

Compared to ergonomic mice, the Magic Mouse is really low and aerodynamic, which means it doesn’t contour to your hand and doesn’t give the sensation that the mouse is a part of your hand, like Logitech mice tend to. But it is Bluetooth, so you don’t need an extra dongle, and it’s powered by two AA batteries, which get up to four months of use per charge, according to Apple.

Physically moving the mouse and mousing is fine and smooth, since there are two plastic bars on the mouse’s underside that minimise contact with whatever surface you’re on.

Even though there’s no clear delineation between right and left buttons on the mouse itself, the Magic Mouse knows to interpret a click on the left or right half appropriately (though right click needs to be activated from inside System Preferences before you can use it).

As for tracking, it’s a pretty standard laser technology that tracks decently on most surfaces, including jeans and chairs. Still, the Magic Mouse doesn’t have the crazy tracking ability that Logitech’s MX mice just introduced — so it can’t track on glass, and it can’t track on glossy surfaces like the 13-inch MacBook.

The scrolling

The one thing Apple did completely right in the Magic Mouse was the touch scrolling. It’s fluid, natural and works with any amount of fingers on over 75 per cent of the mouse surface (all the way down to the Apple logo). Flicking up and down gets you up and down web pages fast, as long as you have “momentum” turned on in the settings. Turn it off and you get fine-grained 1:1 scrolling — good if you want to slowly navigate through a PDF doc.

You can also click with one finger and scroll with another, letting you highlight blocks of text like you would on a normal scrolling mouse. On the whole, there’s no major piece of scrolling functionality (other than a middle click) that you lose transitioning from a standard scroll wheel to this touch-sensitive solution. You just get the ability to scroll in 360 degrees as a bonus.

The only flaw is that you sometimes activate the left (or right) click when you’re scrolling too emphatically. I suspect this is just something you’ll get used to over time, but it can be annoying when you’re trying to scroll and you navigate somewhere else instead.

Using two finger swiping to navigate web pages, on the other hand, is a bit more awkward. You’ll need to pinch the mouse on the sides with your thumb and fourth/pinkie finger while you’re scrolling, forcing you to make a painful eagle claw all the time.

What it can’t do

As good as the swiping gestures are, they’re limited in what you can actually accomplish with them. You can’t use more than three fingers at a time, because you won’t have enough fingers left to hold the mouse. There’s also no option for touch-sensitive clicking, like in trackpads, something that would have been cool to have just as a bonus. You also can’t tell which side is up just from touch until you click down and feel nothing happen.

So far the Magic Mouse is only compatible with the iMacs that they ship with, but will get broad support soon.

It also can’t manage to stay free from scratches, similar to white MacBooks that also get scratched very easily. But the blemishes don’t interfere with the mouse’s functionality — it’s just painful to watch any new product lose its pristine finish so quickly.

Is this the best mouse Apple has ever made?

Yeah, it is. The Magic Mouse is much better than the Mighty Mouse, which people hated, and might actually be good enough that non-Mac users might want to pick it up as well, supposing that they don’t really care about ergonomics. Since it fills the gap between a tiny travel mouse and a full sized desktop mouse, the Magic is in a good position to grab users on both ends.

It looks very nice

Touch scrolling works well

Swiping is less comfortable

Not very ergonomic