Hasta La Gadget!

Genius quietly introduced the Ring Mouse back at Computex, but little was said about the curious critter up until last week. Our pals over at Engadget Spanish managed some alone time with the device at IFA, and while we can’t imagine any long-term mouse user being able to grasp this (mentally, not physically) without first overcoming a steep learning curve, those more accustomed to cellphone optical pads may be in good shape. Put simply, the ring has an optical trackpad (“Opto Touch Wheel”) and an embedded 2.4GHz wireless model; wearers use their thumb to navigate the cursor, while miniature left / right click buttons do exactly what you’d expect. There’s still nary a word on price, but here’s hoping that we can wrap our hands — er, something — around this in the not-too-distant future.

P.S. – These guys are big, big fans.

Genius Ring Mouse slips around your finger, cues up Beyonce jams originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Promotional Image from Apple.com.

The App Store has offered a Remote app for iOS devices for a while now, but the new Apple TV might be the best use-case to show what an app-based touchscreen remote can do.

The new Apple TV had two remotes. The first is the minimalist metal slab that will ship with your tiny box. The second is the iOS application that you’ll download from the App store.

The first iteration of Apple TV had the same little white infrared remote the company used to ship with laptops. It was great for clicking through a slideshow presentation. It wasn’t very good to keep around your living room, unless you stuck it in a bowl with your keys. It wasn’t a real remote, and most people hated keeping track of another remote anyway, especially one that got lost at the drop of a hat.

The new remote, released earlier this year, isn’t a lot different from that old white remote. It’s a nicer device; like everything else Apple makes now besides the new square iPods, it’s a long strip of aluminum. It’s still got just six buttons: up, down, right, left, play/pause and menu.

But that minimalism seems almost smarter now. Apple now seems to be figuring out the exact number of hardware buttons it needs on each device. It took away too much on the iPod Shuffle, so now some buttons are coming back. It wanted to get rid of the buttons on the Nano, so it changed it to touchscreen.

For the Apple TV, it’s keeping the action on the screen, with the software interface. Make that easy to navigate, give people the exact options they need depending on context, and you don’t need dozens of buttons on the remote/media player/phone.

Maybe you don’t even need a remote, though. That’s because Apple TV’s second remote control is the Apple-made mobile device that Apple TV customers probably already own.

Seriously — what are the chances of someone buying Apple TV who doesn’t have an iPod, iPad or iPhone?

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The Navigator 905BT wireless mouse from Genius might be the perfect thing for that back-to-school shopping list.

The latest wireless mouse from Genius is Bluetooth enabled and connects wirelessly to both PCs and Macs instantly. What’s that? You don’t have Bluetooth connectivity on your computer? The mouse comes with a Stick-N-Go mount that you can plug into the USB port, and voila! 905BT is connected to the computer.

This latest Navigator gives you a range of up to 10 meters, or approximately 33 feet. This would work great for presentations since you can walk around the room and not be limited to standing in front of the PC.

The “Flying Scroll” – or the ability to scroll in eight directions using the scroll wheel – is available. Even more interestingly, Genius is bundling the Navigator 905BT with a 60-day free trial of Norton Symantec anti-virus software.

Available in royal ruby or cold silver, the mouse is priced at $32.99 and is available now at various retailers.

There’s an entire booming market of ergonomic computer peripherals that have strange designs but are all built to help you reduce stress on your hands and wrists. Joining that market is the ErgoMotion Mouse, a mouse that lives on a flexible pedestal a few inches off of the ground. You still slide the mouse across the desk surface to move the cursor across the screen, but you can tilt the mouse in any direction to reduce wrist-strain. This keeps your hand and wrist in one position, and if you need to move the mouse up or down, you can move the mouse and tilt the mouse forward or back. To move the cursor left or right, move the mouse left or right. You still move the mouse around the desk to move the cursor, but the tilt action reduces wrist-strain.

The ErgoMotion mouse has all of the features of a standard mouse, aside from the pedestal. There are two mouse buttons for left and right click and a four-way scroll wheel. The mouse connects to your computer via USB, and is compatible with both Mac OS and Windows. The ErgoMotion Mouse is available from Smartfish now for $49.95 list. 

Psst, Microsoft: A secret’s not a secret if more than one person knows it. Thanks to a trigger-happy German retailer updating its product page (now removed), the world now knows what the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse looks like and when to expect it.

According to the retailer, the Arc Touch will be available October 13. Speculation has been rampant that next month’s peripheral announcement would refer to a new Arc Touch, and if the pictures are anything to go buy, it’s going to be pretty exciting.

With a multi-surface sensor, the Arc Touch’s big thing is that it folds. As in, it packs flat when you’re on the go and arches back up when in use. With Microsoft’s Blue Track system, the wireless mouse is designed to track on almost any surface.

Arc Touch connects to the computer via a 2.4-GHz nano transceiver that plugs in to the USB port and stows in a compartment under the mouse when it is folded. There’s also a battery indicator and physical power controls.

The Arc Touch Mouse is expected to be priced in-line with Apple’s multi-touch peripherals, at €69.99 in Europe, and $69.95 in the US.

Dear Microsoft: Official confirmation of this touch-scrolling mouse would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Via Slashgear