You wouldn’t think much can be done with the humble mouse. After we gave up trackball for laser-guided technology, where else could the mouse go?
Accessories-manufacturer Logitech has the answer. Simply pick your mouse up and point it in midair. Besides being a traditional wireless mouse, you can lift the MX Air off your desk and send the pointer across your screen at the flick of a wrist.
A sensor inside measures the orientation and direction of the device, transmitting the movement to the Bluetooth transceiver plugged into a USB port, so going from mouse to ‘remote’ mouse is seamless. It’s used in the air the same way you use a desktop-bound mouse — opening and closing windows and applications, clicking and dragging and scrolling.
The top of the device has a few backlit controls such as a ‘back’ button while you’re browsing, a ‘select’ button for capturing text, left and right click arrows, superfast scrolling controls and rudimentary multimedia controls.
Manipulating your way around your OS and documents takes some getting used to when you’re using the MX in the air as a pointer rather than a desk-bound mouse. It’s not as precise and you’ll find yourself clicking all over the place while you perfect your aim for the first little while.
Ordinarily that would make the MX Air a cool looking waste of money. But it can also be used to control multimedia through a utility called Menucast. While the MX Air working up to ten metres away is useless if you’re trying to aim at the red cross to close a window, you can click and hold specific buttons and then skip forward in songs or slideshows, pause, backtrack and more. Although the mouse is compatible for Mac and Windows, Menucast only works with Windows Vista and XP.
The MX Air comes with a charging cradle so it never need run out of power, and while it’s expensive for what it does, it’s the Ferrari of mice.
Price: $229.95