Tags: Cottage Industries, Technology Industry
By Alexander Villafania
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA – In today’s PC-dependent society, perhaps one of the least understood and often taken for granted peripherals is the mouse, that ubiquitous device that lets users do a number of desktop actions that would have been difficult with just a keyboard.
A prototype of the mouse was invented by Dr. Doug Englebart in 1963, according to online reference site Wikipedia.
For the last 20 years, this pointing device has become integral to today’s PCs. Many variants have come and gone but what remains is still the basic shape, size, and overall feel of the mouse, a curved device with several buttons and a scroll wheel to navigate through tasks on a PC, be it Microsoft Windows-based PC or an Apple Mac.
Microsoft’s Jerry Dy, retail sales manager for Microsoft Philippines, describes the mouse as an augmenting device for the PC as it helps through numerous tasks that would have otherwise been difficult, if not impossible to do.
While people would be satisfied with just any ordinary mouse, he notes that improvements in the PC operating system, software, and even on the PC hardware have created new, complex tasks. “You can open numerous applications and clutter your desktop and lose track of your activities,” Dy says.
Thus, the mouse continues to go through changes. In the last several years, one of the more significant improvements in the PC mouse is the removal of the ball with optical or even laser mouse. Later, the mouse manufacturers, such as Microsoft and Logitech, have been releasing wireless mouse, which lessen clutter associated with wired devices.
Recently, manufacturers have up the ante when it comes to PC mouse innovation. The most important aspect is on the ability of the mouse to be used on any surface.
This led Microsoft to develop its BlueTrack technology, which uses blue light to track most surfaces. Taiwanese PC peripheral brand A4Tech introduced a similar technology called V-Track, which uses red LED and is claimed by the company to be more accurate than the BlueTrack.
Then again, Microsoft put forth a new line of mouse that the company claims to be exclusively efficient for Windows 7. The new model, called the Touch Mouse uses touch-sensitive, finger-based gesture motions to do a number of tasks, including scrolling through web pages, moving from one window to another, and cleaning up the desktop.
The surface of the Touch Mouse works like a laptop’s track pad only that it’s more accurate and has multi-touch function; the only finger not used for the mouse is the pinkie since even the thumb can be used for scrolling.
While the Touch Mouse does have some innovative features, it’s already preceded by Apple’s Magic Mouse, which already has a number of basic finger gesture controls. However, what still sets the Touch Mouse from the Magic Mouse is that nearly all fingers can be used, thus maximizing efficiency especially when using it with Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system.
Dy said that the mouse will only continue to experience numerous changes especially with more people using PCs. “It’s not going away. In fact, it’ll only get better,” he says.
Related stories:
PC makers see demand for fashionable yet functional peripherals
Setup boxes turn TVs into PCs
‘Thin-clients’ aim to revolutionize computing for Filipino SMEs
Advertising Agribusiness Agriculture Airline Industry Aquaculture Automobiles Banking Car Accessories consumer elec Consumer Electronics Consumer Goods and Concerns Cooperatives Cottage Industries Death Entrepreneurship Filipinos Abroad Food Establishments Groceries and Shopping Centers Handicraft Handicrafts hardware Hardware Solutions Horticulture Internet Livelihood Programs Malls Mass Media and Communications Mobile Phone Industry OFWs Outsourcing Real Estate Software Solutions technology Technology Industry teleco Telecommunications Tourism Transportation Vermiculture Wholesale and Retail
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
