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A Mouse in the House

#196 | 21:07 |

Lab Rats

Monday November 9, 2009

The lowly mouse. It sits upon your desktop and is so much a part of your computer you probably don't give it a second thought. However, there have been great strides made in mouse tech; from wireless to optical, laser and now, improved tracking that lets you use your mouse in more places. Sean and Andy take a look at the evolution of the computer mouse, and take a look at some of the newest improvements in this everyday object.

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Show Notes

Mice vs. Mouses? More on this at: labratsonline.com/mice.

Actually, Engelbart invented the mouse at Stanford. The ball mouse was created at Xerox PARC.

Xerox made mice in 1975 but they were only used for specialty applications.

Optical was first demo'd in the early 1980's but didn't go commercial until late 1990's. The red light is actually a red Light Emitting Diode or LED.

Apple Mighty Mouse = $50 US.

Microsoft Arc Mouse (red) = $49.99 US.

Microsoft Explorer Mouse = $79.99 US.

Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX = $79.99 US.

Wacom Bamboo tablet = $99 US and up.

Microsoft Trackball Optical = discontinued.

Apple Magic Mouse = $69 US.

See the Apple video showing the gestures at labratsonline.com/magicmouse.

Wikipedia sez: "Gunk, another name for filthy, sticky, greasy substances." Yuck.

See more on Bluetooth in episode 5 of The Noob.

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