![]()
Laser mice have long been seen as the kings of the mouse kingdom but now a new technology from Microsoft might just steal the crown. Move over Laser, it’s time for BlueTrack…
Laser mice have long been seen as the kings of the mouse kingdom, a rodent population filled with trackpads, trackballs, nibs, and red-light optical mouse. You’ve seen them everywhere and while the optical mouse is now the “cheap” mouse and the laser mouse has been the “best” mouse (so to speak), a new technology from Microsoft is now attempting to pry that title from laser’s hands… or paws… or feet…
Coming into a world of its own is Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology, a new optical sensor said to perform better than anything else out there. Using a blue beam of light that’s four times as large than a regular laser used in current laser mice, the Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse takes better pictures of surfaces which also allow it to be used on virtually any surface. Those are Microsoft’s words, not ours, and with a technology poised to take on the tried-and-true laser technology, it may well be right.
Here at CyberShack though, we’ve been taking the Microsoft “Works on Virtually Any Surface” shtick with a bit of curiosity and seeing if we can’t poke some holes into it. So far, we’ve tested it on a plethora of surfaces and found that it worked!
So it seems that Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology does indeed live up to its hype & promise by working on virtually any surface. Microsoft say virtually because the technology won’t make a lick of a difference on clear glass or mirrored surfaces. Don’t even try it as the nothingness result it yields means you would have better spent your time actually using your mouse for something good, not something stupid.
The results are pretty good to be honest. Most of the time, the Explorer Mini Mouse worked flawlessly providing us with a great amount of control and precision while even on some unusual surfaces. We were even able to get pretty far with our mouse working as far back a distance as we could go without somehow going through the far wall of our building and – you know – falling to our deaths & dying.
The BlueTrack technology does have its limitations with clear glass and mirror’s being more or less the “limitations” we’re talking about. The software isn’t too brilliant either, but most of you won’t be bothered about installing it and that’s fine as the Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse is about as Plug N Play as it gets.
We tested under both Mac OS X 10.5, Windows XP, and Windows 7 and had good results each time.
Overall, we found the new BlueTrack technology to be an excellent idea that really works. This isn’t one of those concepts that you go “oh, good idea, lousy execution” because Microsoft have really made a technology that does what it says and trounces over laser mice.
Product: Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse
Vendor: Microsoft
RRP: $129.95
Website: Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse
