14 DAY TRIAL // Logitech appears to have taken quite the liking to the idea of mice without buttons, as its newest peripheral is this very sort of item.
The name of the Logitech Touch Mouse M600 does a fairly good job of describing that this is not the sort of thing people are accustomed to.
Quite simply, instead of implementing the standard left- and right-finger buttons, as well as a scroll wheel/middle button, the company used touch input.
In other words, the top side of the newcomer is essentially a touchpad.
“People are growing accustomed to using fingertip gestures to navigate on their smartphones and tablets,” said Todd Walker, brand manager for Logitech.
“In fact, for many people these gestures have become second nature. The Logitech Touch Mouse M600 reflects this evolution in how we interact with the digital world and extends to the computer what have become natural, intuitive motions.”
Taps on the upper side of the mouse initiate the “left click” and “right click” functions depending on where contact is made.
Meanwhile, swipes across the pad are interpreted by the Flow Scroll software, filling in the role of the scroll wheel.
For those who were wondering, this is an ambidextrous product: the click areas can be reconfigured with the SetPoint software.
Finally, as if the touch-based controls weren't already enough of a change, Logitech even turned this into a wireless peripheral.
Logitech should start shipping this device by the end of the month, for the price of $69.99, or 52.73 Euro according to exchange rates.
Those who are particularly eager to make this mouse theirs can go here to place an order.
As for whether or not this heralds the downfall of mice with buttons, the likelihood is low. Touch interfaces aren't to everyone's tastes, they use more power, cost more to implement and will never actually lead to the disappearance of MMO mice, whose existence is practically defined by dozens of programmable buttons.