mouse

Sometimes little tweaks can make a big difference, and that's definitely the case with AlwaysMouseWheel. This little utility allows you to scroll in windows that aren't active using your mouse wheel. It might not seem like a big deal, but it's a surprisingly useful feature to have when you do a lot of work that involves switching between windows.

The program's interface is no-nonsense; with radio buttons you select whether you want the program to bring the selected window to the front using the mouse wheel or just scroll the selected window while leaving it in … Read more

OS X Lion comes with a number of new and altered features, some of which, like Mission Control and full-screen options, can be avoided if you don't find them useful. However, Apple has also included a couple of alterations that cannot be quickly avoided and that new users might find a bit frustrating.

The first of these is the default scroll direction on Apple's multitouch trackpads. In prior versions of OS X the scroll direction mirrored that of scroll wheels on mice, which when rolled toward the user cause the page to scroll down. The trackpad likewise would … Read more

Computer peripheral maker Razer posted a question on its official Facebook page late last month asking if fans wanted another mouse built for left-handed gamers. The company requested at least 10,000 "Likes" on the post within a month to give the idea serious consideration. It only took a week to reach that number.

Several years ago, Razer launched a basic five-button gaming mouse for left-handed folk, the DeathAdder, giving everyone an equal opportunity at the perfect headshot.

Now, after the recent affirmative votes from Facebook-ers, Razer plans to release a left-handed mouse based on the Naga, which is designed specifically for massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).… Read more

I have tremendous respect for two groups of engineers: Apple's hardware designers and Google's Web programmers. But when it comes to Google Maps, boy, do I wish the two got along better.

For months now, I've suffered from a problem using the mouse on Google Maps: when I'd click and drag to pan the map using the Magic Mouse, the view would zoom out when I released the button. Instead of feeling the magic, I felt hexed.

The issue stems from the fact that sliding your finger forward or backward along the Magic Mouse is equivalent … Read more

Mickey Mouse is gearing up for another adventure. In an interview with the Associated Press, Junction Point co-founder Warren Spector revealed details about Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii.

Due out this fall, the sequel to the action-adventure game Epic Mickey will boast drop-in, drop-out cooperative play with Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald will be AI-controlled when another human player isn't available.

Another new design choice for Epic Mickey 2 is full-voice acting. Frank Welker (Abu from "Aladdin") is slated to play Oswald, with other cast members also featuring human voices.

Read more of "Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two due this fall" at GameSpot. … Read more

Fancy a fancier mouse?

Microsoft today announced five new additions to its lineup of artist-edition mice. The artists behind the bedecked peripherals, hailing from around the globe, include Kenzo Minami, Stina Persson, Tchmo, Sally Zou, and Oh Joy (that's the artist's name, not necessarily an editorial comment on the new products). … Read more

I may have saved my mother's sanity with this tip. She was enjoying her new Dell laptop except for the fact that it would suddenly zoom in and out when she was browsing the Web or using Outlook, sometimes deleting a half-penned e-mail in the process. (Not helping matters was the fact that my dad was not experiencing such mousing behaviors.) During my last visit, I discovered the problem: pinch zoom.

One of the many multitouch gestures on today's laptops is the ability to pinch two fingers to zoom in and out in a window. When viewing images … Read more

No, the Microsoft mouse isn't dead. But it is facing its biggest challenge yet from its creator, as Microsoft goes Metro.

First let's look at what Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows Division at Microsoft, said this week in Barcelona when he introduced the Consumer Preview of Windows 8.

"The Microsoft mouse this week turns 30 years old. It's hard to imagine not having a mouse, yet when they came out they were relatively controversial...[and] you couldn't find [at that time] a place to put it on your desk."

Sinofsky continued, mocking (in … Read more

The bottom-right corner of your desktop display will forever be known to most people as the place you put your mouse cursor when watching a movie or video in full-screen mode. If you want to view your movie or game sans mouse, your only real option is to move the mouse to the edge of the screen. Hopefully, there's no hidden control bar there, because that would cause it to display instead.

The problem is, at least on newer versions of Windows, that the cursor isn't designed to disappear after a period of inactivity. To solve … Read more