Regular readers will know my mouse fetish and my new found love the for Microsoft Arc Mouse. Well I have a dirty secret…for the last few weeks the Arc has been sitting in the bottom of my laptop bag and has been replaced by the Explorer Mini Mouse. Meanwhile, my desktop mouse of choice is now the Explorer Mouse
Why so Professor Clayton? It’s all down to BlueTrack comrades. Whassat? Quite…allow me to explain.
BlueTrack is the next evolution of mouse technology from Microsoft and combines optical and laser technology to product something better than both – with the advantage being mice that work on pretty much any surface.
72% of PC’s sold are of the mobile kind meaning the days of the humble mouse mat may be numbered. We need our mice to work on surfaces as varied as granite to the leg of your jeans :) For those interested in the geek tech:
The large, blue beam and specular optics architecture, in conjunction with a Microsoft-designed image sensor and proprietary pixel geometry, generates a high-contrast picture of the mousing surface that allows exceptional tracking accuracy. The BlueTrack Technology light beam emanating from the bottom of the mouse is more than four times as large as the average laser beam used in today’s mice, enabling reliable mouse tracking even on difficult surfaces such as carpet.
In plain English, you can use these things almost anywhere (apart from glass) and they’re incredibly responsive. Added to that, I personally found both mice extremely comfortable despite always being sceptical of these moulded type designs.
You can check out a number of videos about BlueTrack and get more info on our website of course. The mini sells for £32 on Amazon and the regular Explorer Mouse sells for £45 on Amazon
In summary here’s my scores on the doors
On a positive note, if you have dirty glass, the mouses will work judt fine.