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By Tikkler (tikkler@onepc.net) - October 21, 2000

Computer mice, the rodents that can make or break your computing experience. Make the right choice and make sweet harmony with your applications and harness the power of 500 horses (or at least 500MHz), make the wrong choice, and down pours muscle aches and frustrated days. These devices have been around since the beginning of time (or at least technology time) and they're now one of the most basic components in any computer setup... or are they?

With so many different choices in the computer mice market, it becomes hard for one to choose. Those cheap mice that come with your computer are quickly becoming useless when compared to the wide variety of mice currently available on the market. From balled to ball-less, to roller or scroller, to even large or small, if one doesn't know what to look for or what their needs are. Would you prefer more accuracy? Or how about some freedom from a wireless mouse?

In this review, we feature computer mice from Belkin and AVB. Both of these products feature at least a unique feature or two that sets them apart from other mice currently on the market. How useful are these features? Are they worth the extra bucks? We break it down for you...

Infobox

Product Reviewed: Optical Mouse N/A Manufacturer: Belkin Components Home Page Suggested Retail Price: $29.99 USD

After 3 decades of innovation on a device that's basically a ball with a plastic encasement, the industry has pretty much seen everything! From the wackiest shapes, to the now popular scroll wheel, to physically moving the ball from the bottom of the mouse to the top of it (i.e. a trackball), the popular pointing device that we all call a mouse has gone through many different changes and transformations. Even after all these alterations, we're still left with a rubber ball encased in plastic to move around a pointer of some sorts.

So, it was a big move ahead when Microsoft first came out with a mouse that had no balls at all, called the IntelliMouse Explorer. A mouse without balls? No way!

Well, the IntelliMouse Explorer uses a camera instead of the conventional rubber ball. Underneath the mouse is a digital camera that takes pictures of the surface underneath it up to 1500 times per second and to help it take the pictures is the infamous glowing, red light. These pictures are then sent to a powerful processor built into the mouse so that it can change those pictures into movement coordinates. Voila! We have mousing capabilities!

After the release of the IntelliMouse Explorer, came Microsoft's own "IntelliMouse with IntelliEye" (that's what the no-balls technology is called over at Redmond), a trimmed-down version of the Explorer, or an upgraded version of the IntelliMouse Pro, and later, the IntelliMouse Optical. Of course, the other mouse manufacturers just couldn't stand around and watch Microsoft take away from their market share, so out comes the Wheel Mouse featuring optical technology from Logitech, and now, the Optical Mouse from Belkin.

First Impressions
Like its name suggests, the Optical Mouse from Belkin is a mouse based on the optical technology first pioneered by Microsoft. Now, I'm betting that the inner workings aren't exactly the same, but all the optical mice should work by the same concept.

The Belkin Optical Mouse has 5 buttons in total, 2 on the top, 2 on each side and one in between the 2 on top that can be used by pressing the scroll wheel down. It's a USB mouse, but there's also a USB to PS/2 converter included in the package for those people who either don't have a free USB port (or don't have one altogether) or would like to use an OS other than Windows 98/ME/2000 (such as Linux). The gray, semi-opaque color of the mouse (and even the cord) adds a certain level of "coolness" to the mouse, although the color scheme was almost a complete rip of the color scheme found on Microsoft optical mice. You'll also find the base and a little tip at the end of the mouse to be made of red, semi-translucent plastic, which should create a cool, glowing effect once we plug it in.

Powering Up...
Installation was a snap. I simply plugged the mouse into a free USB port at the back of the computer and Windows ME immediately detected it and, after a few seconds of the computer churning around, it was ready for use. I didn't even have to use the included driver disk, although the special software included will enable more options for the extra side buttons. For now, without the included software included, the only use that I found for the side buttons would be to go "Forward" and "Backward" in Internet Explorer, which I found to be very useful.

Unfortunately, the side buttons got in the way and I did find that I accidentally clicked on them quite often. This is cause by the slanted sides of the mouse that make it very hard to actually pick it up, something that I notice that I do very often with any mouse. This is one of the main reasons why I never bothered to set up these side buttons for use in games because during the heat of the action, you never know what you'll trigger if you accidentally press a button.

Other than that, the mouse functioned very well. Tracking was very smooth and the refresh rate was improved on considerably than my old generic PS/2 mouse that I had plugged into this test system before. I actually noticed that I could use the mouse at a higher level of precision, which is probably because of the smooth tracking caused by the optical technology and the lack of a heavy mouse ball, which helped to lighten up this mouse considerably.

One problem that I found to be quite annoying is that when I pick up the mouse, I must lift it higher than I usually would have to with balled mice or else the camera under the mouse keeps on taking pictures and the pointer keeps on tracking; a minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.

Conclusion
The Belkin Optical Mouse is, overall, a very attractive alternative to the usual batches of balled mouse out there at this moment. I must admit that, at first, I was a bit skeptical about how these optical mice can actually make the tracking more accurate, but after using the Optical Mouse from Belkin, I am truly convinced. Installation was a snap because of the USB connection, and the included PS/2 adapter allows you to use this mouse even on a computer without a USB port. The 5 buttons were a bit excessive, even to a point where I found that I would hit some buttons accidentally.

But is it worth it for the mediocre price tag of $30? Obviously, if you're on a tight budget, then I wouldn't burn too much cash to get this optical mouse, but if you would like second to none accuracy and would like to use one of the coolest-looking mice on this side of the galaxy, then I would shed out the cash to purchase one.

Pros Look ma, no balls! Gray color scheme; futuristic look Very accurate and smooth tracking USB for ease of installation; PS/2 adapter for compatibility Cons Too many buttons; sometimes got in way Hard to pick up

Infobox

Product Reviewed: VM-1 Vmouse Product Page Manufacturer: AVB Home Page Suggested Retail Price: Unspecified

Now that we've covered a mouse with no balls, how's this for a change-a mouse that vibrates! The purpose of this function, of course, is not so you can use the mouse with other body parts, but to give you a sense of "feel" of what's going on as you use your computer.

Attempts to add a sense of "feel" to your mouse have been made by many companies in the past. For example, Logitech, my maker of choice for computer rodents, had a product called the WingMan Force Feedback. This product was a mouse designed specifically for gaming. Basically, it functions with a mouse stuck onto a mouse pad and then the mouse pad applies force to the mouse, giving the user a sense of force and feel in their hands. This worked fine, but there are a few limitations that I know I, personally, would hate. The main limitation is that because the mouse is secured onto the mouse pad, there's no way of lifting it up. When I mouse, I find that I always lift my mouse to keep it in the middle of the pad, and, without the capability of lifting the mouse, it would be like virtually paralyzing my mousing abilities.

Logitech's newest mouse, the iFeel, is a mouse that works on a very different concept. It uses a vibration mechanism to help to deliver varying vibrations to the hand of the user. Using software, it monitors the texture of where the mouse rolls over on the screen, and adjusts the strength of the vibrations accordingly. For example, if you roll your mouse over the border of a window, the mouse will "jump" slightly, simulating the effect that you're actually rolling your hand across the border of the window.

AVB's method of delivering the sense of "feel" to the user's hand is similar, yet very different to that of Logitech's iFeel method. The Vmouse is AVB's vibrating mouse and yes, it also uses a vibrating mechanism inside of it to generate varying vibrations. What sets the Vmouse apart from the iFeel is that, while the iFeel's vibrations are dependant on what's on the screen, the Vmouse's vibrations are dependant on sound. So, while you can feel your mouse rolling over a button with the iFeel, you can feel the rolling of a rocket flying across the sky.

First Impressions
The Vmouse is a USB mouse so it comes with a USB connection and also a PS/2 adapter so you can use this mouse on a computer without a USB port. The special part of this mouse is that there are 2 connectors, the USB connector and a sound pass-through connector to connect to a sound card (these connectors are split up in a Y-shape at the end of the main cable). Yes, you do need a sound card to utilize the vibration feature of this mouse, but if you don't have a sound card, you can simply use this mouse as a regular 2-button, wheeled mouse. The connector for the sound card is quite unique as it has a connector to plug into the speaker/line-out of your sound card, and also a pass-through jack so you can still plug in your speakers.

The mouse itself is huge, which could be a problem if you have small hands. For my hands, which are quite "medium-sized," this mouse was slightly too large, so you can imagine the problems that could arise you have a smaller hand. At the front is a turn-knob to control the intensity of the vibrations.

One thing that I must note is that the wheel in between the 2 mouse buttons is very skinny and hard to keep your fingers on. Made out of rubber that is slightly slipperier than you would like to have a mouse wheel be, this wheel was very loose so I could barely notice the "clicks" that I've grown accustomed to sensing with all other mouse wheels. Needless to say, I didn't like the mouse wheel at all.

Powering Up...
Installation of the Vmouse involved all of plugging it into a USB port at the back of the computer and plugging in the sound connector into the free line-out connector of my sound card. One complaint, though, is that I found the sound connector cable to be very short. This means that I can only plug the USB connector into the back of my computer and not into my USB hub because the cable for the sound connector simply would not reach (it's only a few inches long). After I plugged it in, Windows automatically detected it and I could use it just like any other regular mice. To use the vibration feature of the mouse, I had to install the software included on the floppy disk.

After all was installed, I cranked up the vibration control on the mouse and played an MP3 file. Sure enough, I could feel the music in my hands! Although sometimes the vibrations didn't quite match up with the beat of the music, the vibrations I sure felt.

I then fired up Quake 3 and played a game just to test it out (okay, maybe a couple games, but who's counting?). Sure enough, I could feel some of the action in the game.

Here's where things start to get annoying. For most of the game, I couldn't feel anything, but it's only when I fired a rocket that I felt it (because of the keep, roaring sound). If I cranked up the vibration control any higher, I wouldn't be able to control the mouse when I fired the rocket, but if I turned it down to a point where I could control the mouse again when firing a rocket, I couldn't feel anything else. I had expected to feel jolts when the machinegun was firing, but because of the previously mentioned annoyance, I didn't feel anything except for when using the rocket launcher. What a disappointment.

Conclusion
It's sad to say that I really can't find a use for this mouse. When using it in games, only the really deep, roaring sounds would be felt, and if the vibration control was turned up to generate vibrations for the other sounds, the mouse would be hard to control when the roaring sounds appeared again. Sure, it worked fine for MP3's, but that really doesn't add much to the value of this product either.

Add on the fact that this mouse is larger than others found on the market and the poorly designed wheel, and you really don't have much to praise for.

Pros Vibration capabilities USB for ease of installation; PS/2 adapter for compatibility Big physical size; good for big hands Cons Vibration technology, main selling point for product, not effective; either too strong or too weak Big physical size; bad for small-medium sized hands

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