IntelliMouse Introduction

Father and son

Old technology, new again

The concept of the mouse as a computing device dates back to before 1970, prehistory as far as PCs are concerned. Even before graphical interfaces made their dominant mark on the world, man has been sliding small, brick-like pucks around a table in order to impart movement on a small on-screen cursor. The mouse is such an integrated part of our computers that it's hard to imagine ever replacing it.

That doesn't mean people haven't tried, however. Over the years, we've seen a rash of mouse replacements devices, from trackballs (inverted mice) to trackpads (standard on Macintosh notebooks) to trackpoints (eraserheads), many of which have had some degree of success based on convenience, ergonomics, or space savings. In general though, most people are so accustomed to the mouse, that only something that proves itself to be an order of magnitude better will replace it.

Moving along a tangent

Economically or just plain realistically, there really isn't anything on the near horizon that's going to dethrone the mouse (last we checked, retinal tracking is still a ways off). So what's the next-best thing? How about bringing the old rodent into the information age?

That's exactly what Microsoft is planning on doing with their newest mouse, the "Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer." Quite possibly the longest name ever given to a mouse, Microsoft is interested not only in furthering their agenda of "Explorerism" in products, but also in ushering in some truly innovative technology into a field we hardly knew needed improvement...until now.

FiringSquad presents a world exclusive preview of Microsoft's newest mouse, the IntelliMouse Explorer USB. Slated for an October release, the IntelliMouse is remarkable in its design and motion-sensing mechanism, dubbed the "IntelliEye." With this, Microsoft hopes to change the way you see mice forever. How? Read on, and see the light!