I
just got a
new Logitech I-Feel
Mouse. It's...
interesting.
The
key point of this
mouse, aside from being a
really nice
USB optical mouse, is that it can let you "
feel"
Windows.
Yes, now
you too can
feel the
SLIME that
windows REALLY is. (j/k)
This
feedback is not
tactile in the
sense of "I feel it in my
fingertips," but
more like bumps or
short vibrations,
depending on the
theme you have. One
feels like you're
scrolling the
wheel, with
short bumps.
Others make it feel like
a toy that just vibrates softly. One
makes it feel
like there's
crap on your desk (I don't like that one).
The
feedback is
provided by
a small motor contained in the
mouse. It's
fired whenever you
pass over a
GUI Object,
such as a
button, a
menu item,
hyperlinks,
icons,
window borders, anything that is a
standard Win32 GUI object (which
means it doesn't work with
anything nonstandard, like
mIRC buttons, or the buttons in
AIM).
Unfortunately, this doesn't
affect the
motion of the
mouse, so you don't get
cool springy action when
dragging things, but it
does add
another (if
a bit annoying)
dimension to your
mouse. Whee.
As a side note, 30 minutes after I got the mouse, I turned the "feel" feature off. I haven't turned it on since. (ed May 11, 2001)