Skip to main content

Microsoft debuts new multitouch mouse for Windows 7

Born from the Mouse 2.0 project conducted by Microsoft Research and the Applied Sciences Group, the Touch Mouse allows user to click, flick, scroll and swipe.

“The new Touch Mouse is a great way for customers to interact naturally with their Windows 7-based PC,” said Mark Relph, senior director of the Windows Developer and Ecosystem Team at Microsoft. “We worked closely with the Microsoft Hardware team to help develop the multitouch gestures that make Windows 7 easier, simpler and more fun to use. After just a few minutes with this mouse you’ll see why.”

Touch Mouse lets users use one, two or three fingers to amplify the Windows 7 operating system by creating simple shortcuts to the tasks people want to do most.

With one finger user can manage individual documents or pages by flicking to scroll, as well as pan and tilt. One thumb lets users move back and forward through a Web browser.

Two fingers is designed to manage windows, maximize, minimize, snap and restore them. Finally, three fingers lets users navigate the entire desktop.

The Touch Mouse is equipped with BlueTrack Technology, letting consumers track on virtually any surface, and the tiny Nano transceiver is so small it never needs to come out of the USB port.

Touch Mouse will be available in June 2011 for the estimated retail price of $79.95 (U.S.). It will be available for presale starting this week at the online Microsoft Store, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. Microsoft backs this mouse with a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty.

Laura Khalil
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Laura is a tech reporter for Digital Trends, the editor of Dorkbyte and a science blogger for PBS. She's been named one of…
A dangerous new jailbreak for AI chatbots was just discovered
the side of a Microsoft building

Microsoft has released more details about a troubling new generative AI jailbreak technique it has discovered, called "Skeleton Key." Using this prompt injection method, malicious users can effectively bypass a chatbot's safety guardrails, the security features that keeps ChatGPT from going full Taye.

Skeleton Key is an example of a prompt injection or prompt engineering attack. It's a multi-turn strategy designed to essentially convince an AI model to ignore its ingrained safety guardrails, "[causing] the system to violate its operators’ policies, make decisions unduly influenced by a user, or execute malicious instructions," Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure, wrote in the announcement.

Read more