Visit the red light district! (Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer)

Member Name: charliebrown

Product:	Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
Date:	18/02/01 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great looks and performance, will enhance your browsing experience

Disadvantages: Far too expensive for just a mouse!

There's no doubt about it. It's sexy! Sleek silver body, with streamlined contours, and a wonderful red light which lights up the table in it's deep glow. This is a mouse like no other, and it comes from Microsoft!

The Intellimouse works on optical technology. Instead of using a rolling ball underneath the mouse to detect which way the mouse was moving, it uses an 'optical eye' which beams a red light thousands of time a second to detect the mouse's movement.

This gets rids of the problems of conventional mice where the ball gets clogged up with dirt and grime, leading to skipping and sticking, and many frustrated hours of non-mouse movement.

In contrast the optical eye of this mouse means there's no moving parts. Thus no dirt to clog up the mouse. Far greater accuracy is the result, with the mouse's thousands of scans a second. Your mouse will now go exactly where you want it to.

Even better is the fact that you no longer need a mousemat to provide friction for conventional mice. You can use this mouse on virtually any surface at all. I often use it on my thigh while I am sitting at the desk with my feet up ... and it works fine! It will even work on bare skin, if you are so inclined!

The mouse also works seemlessly with internet browsing. Using the supplied software, the mouse is programmed to provide extra features via it's two buttons on the side of the mouse, where your thumb is, and the roller wheel on top of the mouse.

The two buttons for your thumb can be used to move forwards and backwards through web pages or word processing pages. The wheel can move up or down through web pages or other documents, thus saving you having to physically move the mouse.

You can even move through documents at extra speed by keeping the wheel held down while you move the mouse - very small movements of the mouse will now produce rapid movements up and down on the page.

T
he mouse itself comes with a USB connection, so you can plug it into the front of your computer or into a hub to make your desk more tidy. However, if your computer does not have a free USB port, the mouse comes with an adapter so you can plug it into conventional PS2 ports. You will need to install the provided software to make the mouse's extra features work. If you find yourself with an old software version that does not work with Windows Me or 2000, then you can download a new version from the Microsoft web site.

Now the bad part: you are salivating for one of these new sexy mice to put on your table, adn you go to the shops and look at the price ... gulp! I'm afraid you can expect to find the mouse retailing at around £35 - 50 (there are big differences so shop around!)

Whether you feel the money is worth it is really up to you. On the whole, I think it is too expensive, but using the mouse is very addictive, and I wouldn't want to go back to a traditional mouse. All I can say is the mouse is excellent to use, fits very comfortably in the palm thanks to it's large ergonomic design, and works a treat!

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