The foldable OriMouse is a mere 5 mm thick and weighs just 38 g but the photos give me a serious case of the heebie-jeebies
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Out of all the objects we interact with on a regular basis, I think the humble mouse is the one with the most hand-time. At least, it is if you use a PC for hours every day. Depending on how you hold it, your fingers and palm are in near-constant contact with a digital rodent, so it had better feel good underneath your most sensitive appendages.
Stop giggling at the back, I know where you were going. Anyway, the myAir.0 OriMouse came to my attention this morning (via PC Watch). It’s a clever foldable mouse that can be squashed flat to a mere 5 mm thick—but every time I look at the photos and think about holding one, something uncomfortable happens to the back of my neck.
I think it’s got something to do with the texture of the materials (two different forms of vegan leather, apparently) in combination with the angle of the “hump” that would rest in the centre of your palm, which looks to be almost a corner. An inevitable result of the foldable design, I assume, but it gives me a proper case of the heebie-jeebies when I think about placing my hand on one.
Which, let’s face it, is probably a me thing. Otherwise, I think it looks like a pretty neat technical achievement. The sensor underneath is only a 4000 DPI model, so it’s not likely to make for a great gaming mouse, and there’s no traditional scroll wheel, instead relying on a virtual scroll touch sensor for vertical page movement. Oh, and it’s Bluetooth only, which means no flat dongle for you.
But otherwise, this looks like a mouse you could flatten down and stick alongside a 14-inch laptop in a shoulder bag, and that’d be a really handy thing for those who like to travel light. It pops back together with a magnetic attachment, and it’s got a three-month battery life, which likely means you can charge it up, leave it in your bag, and have a little pop-up squeaker available wherever you go.
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Plus, it comes in a variety of colours, and starts at $69, which I wouldn’t say is unreasonable given the uniqueness of the design. It’d be nice to see a better sensor, and I think both the texture and the touch pad scroll would take a lot of getting used to, but it’s an innovative little device by the looks of things.
Still, I’m not sure I could get over my textural issues. Perhaps its the padding? Or the idea that it might suddenly fall flat as I was using it, like a spider landing as it jumps from the top of a wardrobe—despite the FAQ’s protestations that it wont. This is definitely a me thing, isn’t it? I’ll shut up now.
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