As a PC user, I must admit to having suffered from a little Mac envy when Apple let loose its Magic Mouse. So I was pleased when Microsoft announced its new Arc Touch mouse, at least initially. Now Speedlink is about to introduce its CUE multi-touch mouse for PC users where the upper surface translates swipes, strokes and touches into onscreen actions. It also benefits from a high precision optical sensor and connects wirelessly to a compact nano receiver from up to 26 feet away.
Whereas Microsoft's Arc Touch limits its touch capability to the position where you would normally find the scroll wheel, which is all well and good, Speedlink's new CUE mouse turns over the whole surface to multi-touch gesturing. Okay, so Apple has done that already but such delights have been sadly lacking for PC users.
Sensors integrated into the CUE's upper surface recognize gesture input, allowing users to flick through photo collections or swipe scroll through web pages and so on.
Speedlink's driver software caters for user command customization and the company says that just a "small movement of the finger is all that's needed to start programmes, copy text or input key sequences." The CUE hooks up to the small format USB receiver seated in the computer via auto Smartlink over a 2.4GHz wireless connection and conserves battery life with both a battery-saving mode and physical on/off switch.
The CUE will be available in black, white, metallic red and silver from November for EUR39.99 (US$55.40).
