Microsoft restores classic mouse

FORGET TERROR ATTACKS, snakes on planes, Ben Thatcher's tackle and battery recalls, the big news in the people-who-never-leave-their-rooms community is that the IntelliMouse Explorer is back.

Microsoft said it will reintroduce the device that is sainted among gamers in October, with a few added gewgaws for zapping alien life forms, shooting avatars, driving with reckless abandon and all those other things that make life worthwhile.

The new IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 can run at 9,000 frames per second, lets you toggle between default and precision modes, and, ulp, switch weapons. I hope these things are only available to over-18s that have some insight into their own issues.

The mouse is being revived because of that old favourite, popular demand, Microsoft said. "People were literally carrying around their IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0s in protective glass cases, and rightly so -- there isn't a mouse on the market that can beat this design for comfortable play and precision for low-sensitivity first-person shooter games," said Bill Jukes, product marketing manager for Microsoft Hardware, in a press release.

Which begs a few questions, such as:

Shouldn't they use something more solid than glass?

Aren't people who shoot things all low in sensitivity?

If the mouse is so great, why ditch it way back when?

Anyway, Microsoft's hardware unit is a lot more active than in the old days when it denied all plans for keyboards until they shipped.

Adding Pelion on Ossa, the next biggie, due in the autumn, will be the Ultimate Keyboard that is designed for Vista and has a 30-feet wireless range, sleek finish and backlighting that knows when it's needed.

Still, Logitech remains the Switzerland of input devices, if only because it's based in Switzerland.

The company earlier this week released MX and VX Revolution mice with super-fast scroll-wheels and a game controller with a fan to keep those sweaty gamer hands cool.

Even if the firm might be winging it a bit with the suggestion that the new mice constitute a "revolution", Logitech has always made gorgeous designs, including a design for children that looked a lot like a... mouse.

And of course, these being modern times, there are also some interesting modded devices out there. µ