Forget everything you know about mouses (the ones used to navigate computers, that is), because Logitech`s new MX and VX Revolution cordless laser mouses make the ones we are used to look as sophisticated as the car Fred Flintstone `drives`.
Enthusiasts have probably read all the releases about Logitech`s new super mouses, which are currently available in the UK and the States, but the South African market has yet to be formally introduced to the MX and VX Revolution mouses, and with these two beauties being made available locally by Rectron on 15 September, consider this your introduction.
The first question most would probably ask when told that Logitech has reinvented the mouse would be, `Why reinvent a device that is already a proven success?`
Says Brendan Franklin, Logitech Product Manager at Rectron: "With PCs becoming more integral to our day to day lives and the time being spent on them increasing exponentially, it is becoming necessary to streamline our experiences to extract maximum value and efficiency for our time. Computers have evolved into professional workstations, power-hungry gaming machines and slim, aesthetically pleasing media centres. It is only natural that the devices that we use to interact with these machines should evolve as well."
To navigate the vast content at your disposal, the average person will spin their mouse`s scroll wheel approximately 26 feet in an eight-hour day - that`s the vertical equivalent of two-and-a-half stories of scrolling.
For this reason, Logitech has pioneered Hyper Scrolling Technology, which is one of the features in its new Revolution MX/VX mouses. Traditional mouse wheels weigh 2.4 grams, are made of plastic and rubber and are sticky and clumsy. Logitech has designed a 14-gram machine alloy wheel, almost exactly the same weight as two new R5 coins, and it scrolls like a dream.
This is made possible by a built-in ratchet mechanism that controls the speed at which the wheel spins. When engaged, the ratchet mechanism allows click-by-click scrolling, but when disengaged, the wheel spins freely for up to seven seconds, yielding 10 000 lines of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet - a feat that would take 500 spins and seven minutes to accomplish with your average mouse.
The beauty of it all is that the ratchet mechanism is disengaged to allow free scrolling by a microprocessor in the mouse that detects when the wheel is flicked, and it re-engages when the wheel comes to a stop.
Another breakthrough in the design of these new mouses is the One Touch Search feature that can be married to a user`s search application, such as Yahoo or Google. When a word or phrase is highlighted by the user in a document or on a Web page, a click of the One-Touch Search button, located beneath the scroll wheel, automatically begins a search of the Web or your computer system, depending which application you marry the feature to.
The Logitech MX Revolution mouse also features Smartshift technology, which detects the current application window and automatically applies the scrolling mode that best fits the task at hand. This can be toggled manually by pushing down and clicking on the wheel. It also features a second wheel near the thumb that can be used to zoom in and out of documents or quickly switch between applications.
The VX Revolution mouse is designed more for notebook users; it is smaller in size and includes a slot to store the 2.4GHz micro-receiver, making it more portable. A switch located at the base of the mouse shifts it from free spin mode to click-by-click mode, while the zoom slider makes it easier to zoom in and out of open documents and photos.
Says Franklin: "With the release of the MX and VX Revolution mouses we are witnessing the evolution of the mouse from simple pointing and clicking devices into tools that will revolutionise the way we use our PCs."
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