National   

Logitech’s new pointing device does double duty

— Photo: Special arrangement

AIRY-FAIRY MOUSE: The Logitech MX Air (left) can be used like a TV remote and recharged in a docking station.

Bangalore: When Shakespeare wrote in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ about “a tool that gives to airy nothing, a local habitation and a name,” he had the poet’s pen in mind. Five centuries later, it is another device that has gone all airy-fairy, providing an altogether new “habitation” to a familiar tool, the computer mouse.

Logitech, the Swiss leader in ‘pointing technology,’ has launched in India the MX Air Rechargeable Cordless Mouse that does double duty as a normal PC mouse and a TV-style “remote.” Unlike the cordless mouse available, the MX Air does not work off batteries — it comes with a docking station-cum-charger that can be plugged into the A/c mains — and a ‘dongle’ that can be plugged into the USB port of the PC, to create a wireless link for about 10 metres.

The Hindu evaluated the “air” mouse and found that if pointed at the PC, as you would a TV remote, it functions exactly as a mouse placed on a mouse-pad would. The scroll bar is sensitive and one can skim through multiple web pages rapidly.

If the special software provided on a CD is loaded, functions available in a MediaCenter PC like music or video ‘play’, ‘pause’ or ‘volume’ can be controlled from the additional buttons provided on the mouse.

It uses new ‘motion control’ technology called “FreeSpace” created by an U.S. company, Hillcrest.

Watching TV, is what is known as a ‘lean back,’ 3-metre experience — that is how far from the set, we typically sit, leaning back on sofas or whatever. Working on a PC is a ‘lean forward,’ 1-metre experience. The MX Air has merged the twin worlds of lean back and lean forward into one handy device. It costs just under Rs. 9,000.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Don’t see the nuclear deal in isolation: CPI(M)
Deal will push India into U.S. strategic orbit, say experts
Left won’t allow UPA to go back on CMP
Double standards, says Kapil Sibal
Advantage UPA, says opinion poll
Top militant shot dead in Doda
“National interest vs. U.S. strategic partnership”
Karat declines to speculate on mid-term poll
“Total literacy makes a nation powerful”
Broadcast Bill to be redrafted: Dasmunsi
Court notice to magazine
Sting case reporter sent to judicial custody
Joint venture to service Russian radars right here
“Laws should fulfil needs of people”
A nameless village in south Kashmir
Woman arms courier held
And now, a desi mobile search tool
A multimedia phone at an affordable price
Logitech’s new pointing device does double duty
NSUI sweeps Delhi varsity polls
CPI(M) plea to Manmohan
BJP demands payment of sugarcane dues to Uttar Pradesh farmers
Naval coordination
For a better future
Probe into tribal “attack”
Passengers evacuated after bomb threat
Clarification
Poll panel should frame policy, says Yuva JD(U)
Amendment for higher bonus slab before festival season
Students protest U.P. ban on union elections
No need for JPC, says Rahman Khan
Gender gap in literacy rate unacceptably high, says President
RTOs to be computerised, uniform tax planned

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu