Microsoft Mouse Frees Lefties

$54.95 IntelliMouse uses an optical sensor to work as a truly ambidextrous pointing device.

Stan Miastkowski, special to PC World

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Many companies claim that their mouse designs are equally useful by both southpaws and northpaws, but most left-handed people beg to differ. My wife, who is left-handed, has found most mice essentially unusable, including those from Microsoft. But last week at the Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft introduced what it's claiming is its first truly ambidextrous rodent.

The IntelliMouse Optical, which will be available in April, will list for $54.95. The device will have five programmable buttons, and will use Microsoft's IntelliEye technology, which uses an optical sensor along with a digital signal processor chip instead of a mouse ball. The sensor captures "snapshots" of the work surface at 1500 times per second, and the DSP translates the changes in images into on-screen movement.

The unit sports silver detailing, a red "taillight," and a glowing underside.

The IntelliMouse Optical will work with Windows 95.98, NT, and Windows 2000, as well as the Mac OS 8.5.1 and later. It can be used with either Universal Serial Bus ports or PS/2 mouse ports, but not serial ports.

Microsoft offered a list of famous left-handers who may find the new IntelliMouse Optical useful. The list includes President Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, rock singer Sting, Kermit the Frog, and Bart Simpson.

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