#142 - The end of the mouse?

No Mickey Mouse is safe as is the common house mouse (mus musculus). The mouse we are worried about is the PC mouse. Way back in March of last year we did a blog on the humble beginnings of the PC Mouse: #23 Mousing Around. Now we are talking about its demise?

Well technology changes and here are some of the successors to the mouse. Every laptop owner has an alternative to the mouse. The touch pad or the IBM eraser head is standard input devise on most laptops. Tablet PCs also have touch screens or stylus screens to get their input. The latest smart phones have touch screens and the newest Apple Mac laptops have no buttons just the Multi touch Track Pad. The Track Pad like the iPhone lets you pinch, drag or tap the pad to make know your desires to the computer. We've also seen cameras installed in displays the record your motions and translate them to selections on the PC. People have been embedded with chips that let your muscles tell the PC what to do (Sci Fi fans are thrilled, the ACLU not so much). Everyone in the Technology game is trying to get away from the electronic rodent.

Now you may say "Not so Fast" Nick! I love my mouse or my wireless mouse. I even bought one to use with my laptop because I hate the touch pad thingy. We'll that may be the case. However if touch screens become less expensive, I doubt you will still request a mouse when a simple point and tap will do. Virginia Tech has placed PCs with just touch screens as public PCs in the Inn at Virginia Tech. They take some getting used to, but it does seem like a better way to input your needs to the PC.

Now lets not talk about the end of the keyboard quite yet.

#141 - Windows 7 - Microsoft's Answer to the Vista disaster

Good news. Microsoft supposedly listened to the avalanche of customer complaints about Windows Vista. A new version called Windows 7 is on the drawing board and supposedly fixes all the Vista glitches. Here is an excellent early preview: Windows 7 Preview.

Bad news is the predicted release date (the earliest we would see it) is for holiday season 2009. Only a year away! Also bad news is that Microsoft is still saying no more XP after January 2009. So Microsoft will have almost a full year of nothing but Vista complaints to wallow through from its customers.

Remember the preview version is just that and Microsoft has been know to carve out any "feature" that doesn't really work before publishing the software(and they've been know to leave in quite a few that don't work right!).

We will continue to sell and recommend XP until the last day it ships in new PCs.