mouse – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Logitech Launches An “AI” Mouse That’s Just A 2022 Mouse With A Mappable Button

from the because-we-can dept

“AI,” or semi-cooked language learning models are very cool. There’s a world of possibility there in terms of creativity and productivity tools to scientific research.

But early adoption of AI has been more of a rushed mess driven by speculative VC bros who are more interested in making money off of hype (see: pointless AI badges), or cutting corners (see: journalism), or badly automating already broken systems (see: health insurance) or using it as a bludgeon against labor (also see: journalism and media), than any sort of serious beneficial application.

And a lot of these kinds of folks are absolutely obsessed with putting “AI” into products that don’t need it just to generate hype. Even if the actual use case makes no coherent sense.

We most recently saw this with the Human AI pin, which was hyped as some kind of game changing revelation pre-release, only for reviewers to realize it doesn’t really work, and doesn’t really provide much not already accomplished by the supercomputer sitting in everybody’s pocket. But even that’s not as bad as companies who claim they’re integrating AI — despite doing nothing of the sort.

Like Logitech, which recently released a new M750 wireless mouse it has branded as a “signature AI edition.” But as Ars Technica notes, all they did is rebrand a mouse released in 2022 while adding a customizable button:

“I was disappointed to learn that the most distinct feature of the Logitech Signature AI Edition M750 is a button located south of the scroll wheel. This button is preprogrammed to launch the ChatGPT prompt builder, which Logitech recently added to its peripherals configuration app Options+.

That’s pretty much it.”

Ars points to other, similarly pointless ventures, like earbuds with clunky ChatGPT gesture prompt integration or Microsoft’s CoPilot button; stuff that only kind of works and nobody actually asked for. It’s basically just an attempt to seem futuristic and cash in on the hype wave without bothering to see if the actually functionality works or works better than what already exists.

The AI hype cycle isn’t entirely unlike the 5G hype cycle, in that there certainly is interesting and beneficial technology under the hood, but the way it’s being presented or implemented by overzealous marketing types is so detached from reality as to not be entirely coherent.

That creates an association over time in the minds of consumers between the technology and empty bluster, undermining the tech itself and future, actually beneficial use cases.

When bankers and marketing departments took over Silicon Valley it resulted in the actual engineers (like Woz) getting shoved in the corner out of sight. We’re now seeing such a severe disconnect between hype and reality it’s resulting in a golden age of bullshit artists and actively harming everybody in the chain, including the marketing folks absolutely convinced they’re being exceptionally clever.

Filed Under: ai, artificial intelligence, hardware, language learning models, marketing, mouse
Companies: logitech

Apparently Someone Doesn't Want You To Buy Our Copymouse Shirt

from the the-mouse-strikes-again dept

You may remember that, a couple years ago, our line of Copying Is Not Theft t-shirts and other gear was suddenly taken down by Teespring (now just called Spring) — first based on the completely false assertion that it contained third-party content that we didn’t have the rights to use, then (after a very unhelpful discussion with their IP Escalations department) because it apparently violated some other policy that they refused to specify. That prompted us to open a new Techdirt Gear store on Threadless, where we’ve launched many of our old designs and all our new ones since the takedown. But we also kept the Spring store active for people who preferred it and for some old designs that we hadn’t yet moved — and a few weeks ago the site’s takedown regime struck again, wiping out our line of Copymouse gear that had lived there for nearly five years. So, once again, we’ve relaunched the design over on Threadless:

Of course, this takedown is a little different from the previous one. The Copying Is Not Theft gear contains no third-party material whatsoever, and there was simply no legitimate reason for Spring to have removed it — and they refused to even offer any explanation of what they thought that reason might be. In the case of Copymouse, it’s obvious that it makes use of a particular logo, though in an obviously transformative manner for the purpose of commentary. So, yes, there is an argument for taking it down. It’s just not a strong argument, since the design clearly falls within the bounds of fair use for the purposes of criticism and commentary, and it’s hard to argue that there’s any likelihood of confusion for consumers: nobody is going to think it’s a piece of official Disney merchandise. Nevertheless, it’s at least somewhat understandable that it caught the attention of either an automatic filter or a manual reviewer, and given the increased scrutiny and attempts to create third-party liability falling upon services that create products with user-uploaded artwork, it’s no real surprise that a massive site like Spring errs on the side of caution (indeed, we won’t be too surprised if the design ends up being removed from Threadless as well). It’s still disappointing though, and even more importantly, it’s yet another example of why third-party liability protections are so very, very important, and how when those protections are not strong, sites tend towards overblocking clearly legitimate works.

But for now, at least, you can still get your Copymouse gear on Threadless while we all wait to see if history repeats itself and the design needs an update in 2023.

Filed Under: content moderation, copymouse, copyright, fair use, mouse, takedowns, trademark
Companies: spring, teespring, threadless

DailyDirt: It Turns Out People Want Keyboards… Until They Don't

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

We’ve seen plenty of different input devices, but it’s pretty hard to displace the traditional keyboard and mouse combination. Touchscreens have their usefulness (but perhaps not on a 20″ 4K display), and maybe someday gesture recognition will be more common outside of gaming. Ultimately, we’re likely to see more and more options for how to best interact with various kinds of software, and that’s a good thing. Here are just a few more examples of cool digital interfaces.

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: controller, crowdfunding, exoglove, exoskeleton, flow, gesture recognition, haptics, hmi, input devices, keyboard, mouse, newton, steve jobs, ui
Companies: dexta, indiegogo, kickstarter

Hot Mouse On Mau5 Action! Disney To Challenge Deadmau5's Latest Trademark Filing

from the rounded-ears-are-like-rounded-corners:-actionable dept

Disney is the country’s foremost copyright enthusiast, going so far as to have a law unofficially named for its most famous character, one whose very existence ensures the march towards copyright protection in perpetuity. But Disney is no slouch in the trademark department, especially if anything happens to slightly resemble its prized mouse.

Enter Deadmau5, DJ, producer and wearer of some of the most magnificent head accoutrements this side of pimps and/or Lady Gaga. Deadmau5, aka Joel Zimmerman, has finally caught the attention of Disney’s IP lawyers with his latest trademark registration, a head-on view of his logo.

This logo, which Deadmau5 has used for years (trademark registrations for another view of the logo/headgear dates back to 2009), has been greeted with this.

On Friday, Disney let it be known at the U.S. Trademark Office that it is investigating a trademark registration filed by Deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”).

Compare the above with Disney’s infamous, undead mouse.

Sure, there’s some comparison but it would take serious myopia to confuse the two. For one, Disney’s exploitation of this iconic image has imprinted it on the minds (and wallets) of millions of people worldwide. Plus, every piece of merchandise marketed by the Disney Corporation also contains its equally ubiquitous Disney scrawl, letting the purchaser know that they’re paying too much for this otherwise unremarkable product.

But to hold a trademark means defending it, even when “defending” more often resembles “attacking” and when a moron in a hurry not only wouldn’t be confused, but would bypass both products in his haste to spread ignorance at the nearest water cooler/house party/comment thread. It’s totally within Disney’s rights to contest this, and to protect its most cherished piece of IP, there’s no way it won’t. As far as Disney is concerned, there’s only one mouse logo in the world and it already owns it.

[Besides, I’ve seen worse go unpunished. Of course, it helps that the album using this artwork was never released…]

Filed Under: deadmau5, mouse, trademark
Companies: disney

To Honor Doug Engelbart, Who Passed Away Last Night, Please Go Watch His 1968 Demo

from the innovation-at-work dept

On the the 40th anniversary of Doug Engelbart’s famous 1968 demo of a personal computer system, we urged everyone to find some time to watch the video of his demo. Now, with the news that Engelbart passed away last night in his sleep, at age 88, we’ll once again suggest you find the 100 minutes necessary to rewatch the demo.

This is the birth of modern personal computing on so many levels. Engelbart, and his staff at SRI, more or less invented the very concept of a personal computer, including the mouse, the graphical user interface, hyperlinks, and so much more that is now standard today. So many of those concepts are now ubiquitous, in part, because of Engelbart’s brilliance, and his openness in sharing what he was working on and inspiring so many of those who came into contact with him over the years. Engelbart shared these concepts with the world, and the world took them and built so many useful things with them. The computing world we live in today would likely be very, very different if there had never been a Doug Engelbart.

Filed Under: computers, doug engelbart, gui, hyperlinks, innovation, mouse

Awesome Stuff: Rethinking The Mouse (Finally!)

from the crowdfunding-picks dept

So folks seemed to enjoy last week’s crowdfunding picks post, and the Saturday morning time slot seemed to work, so we’ll stick with it. Still not sure on a name, but someone suggested “awesome stuff,” and it’s hard to argue with that. I reserve the right to change it at some point, but at least this week, we’re going with Awesome Stuff. And, this week we’re also going to test out a “theme.” These are three crowdfunding projects that all revolve around reinventing the mouse. It’s been almost 45 years since the humble computer mouse was first demonstrated by Doug Engelbart, in a presentation that I rewatch every so often. It’s quite incredible when you realize just how much of the future he’s showing off. The clip below should start right at the point where he discusses the mouse (if not, it’s right around 30 minutes, 45 seconds):

The humble mouse really hasn’t changed that much in all those years, though we’re starting to see the rise of so-called “smart mouses” (sometimes they don’t seem so smart). Here are three crowdfunding projects that struck me as interesting, in that they really attempt to update the mouse in unique ways.

And there you go. It appears that the mouse is finally the center of some significant innovation. Of course, that might be happening just as all of our screens are becoming touchscreens, and the entire concept of the mouse becomes less relevant.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, crowdfunding, input, mice, mouse

Razer Updates Synapse Software With Better 'Offline Mode,' Other Problematic 'Features' Remain Unchanged

from the i've-got-some-'ok'-news-and-some-'still-bad'-news dept

A couple of months ago, we brought you the unlikely story of a mouse that required an internet connection to fully function. Razer, for whatever reason, had sold itself on the idea that cloud-based storage was preferable for configuration setups and user profiles, rather than simply storing these settings locally in the mouse itself, as it had done in the past.

It cited a variety of reasons for this move, including the laughable suggestion that physical memory was too expensive, but when all the rationalizing was done, the mouse still required an internet connection to utilize all the extra functions customers had paid a premium price for. The “offline mode” still required an internet connection, as users would be left with running $80 mice on standard drivers if they attempted to forgo the registration process and the downloading of additional Razer Synapse software.

Nathan F sends in the (somewhat) good news that Razer has issued an update to its Synapse 2.0 software, adding an improved Offline Mode that can be used to avoid depending on its still rather iffy cloud service. This would be great news, except for the fact that Razer still requires online activation and installation of its Synapse software, whether you plan to use it or not. Rather than allow users to opt out of the cloud before registration, Razer is still requiring all of its proprietary hoops be jumped through before cutting its customers loose.

In other bad news, those using the cloud service are still reporting issues with Razer’s software, including the failure to recognize installed devices and lag when switching settings on the fly, the latter of which wasn’t an issue with local storage. The release notes (which are far from thorough) also point out that purchasers of certain peripherals will no longer be able to use legacy drivers if they’ve installed and used the Synapse 2.0 software. In other words, if you purchased certain mice and followed the setup instructions, you’re cut off from rolling back your drivers — something that’s a bit underhanded when delivered via mandatory installation.

Then there’s the ongoing issues arising from Razer’s decision to ditch physical memory in favor of the cloud. This installation process will need to be repeated for each computer the peripheral is attached to. Offline mode improvements are useless if all your settings and profiles are stored on your “home” computer. There’s nothing people love more than installing software, especially repeatedly. (This repeated process seems to be an issue even if you never change computers, as connection glitches can cause profile information to become corrupted — or vanish completely.)

So, while improving the Offline Mode and giving users the option to ditch the cloud altogether is a step in the right direction, Razer seriously needs to consider making the entire process optional. It also should reconsider its cloud-based storage push, seeing as the potential for problems is nearly unlimited. Update or no, Razer is still pushing hardware that won’t function without connecting to the internet at least once. It also should reconsider physical storage. If this storage is really as expensive as Razer’s talking points insist it is, it could always charge a bit more for a truly portable mouse/keyboard that isn’t reliant on an internet connection to unlock its functions.

Filed Under: cloud computing, mouse, offline mode
Companies: razer

When A Mouse Requires An Internet Connection, You're Doing 'Cloud' Wrong

from the so-many-options-for-the-hardware,-so-few-for-the-users dept

In a situation eerily similar to “always-on” DRM schemes, Razer mouse and keyboard purchasers are finding their high-end peripherals bricked by software that requires an internet connection to function.

So, why would a mouse need an internet connection to be usable? Well, it's supposed to be a feature, but it's behaving more like a bug. A forum member at Overclock.net explains the problem with his new ~$80 mouse:

This really took me by surprise. Just bought a new Naga 2012 mouse, installed the software and get greeted by a login screen right after. No option to bypass it to use the software to configure the mouse, set the options, sensitivity, shortcuts, macros etc.

So I go ahead and create an account and try to log in. Nothing. Try several more times, and still nothing. Try to make new accounts with different email addresses and it still wont work.

Finally call Razer who tells me the activation server is down, and I wont be able to use the mouse until it goes back up and will only be able to use it as a standard plug and play mouse til then. I ask about a workaround to use the mouse offline and they say there is none. Supposedly once the mouse is activated on the computer offline mode will work, but it needs to upload my profile and activate my account first and since their server is down its not going to happen. I ask for a supervisor to confirm this is the case and ask again for a workaround to use it offline. He said sorry theres nothing they can do, tells me the call center is closing and hangs up on me.

I'm pretty shocked Razer thought it was a good idea to do this to customers. Nowhere on the box does it say anything about needing an internet connection to “activate” a mouse. If the servers go down in the future, anyone who buys this mouse is out of luck.

The idea behind this unfortunate requirement is to save your gaming preferences for supported mice and keyboards to the cloud so the next time you're at a LAN party (assuming your LAN party lets you “dial out,” so to speak), for example, you would just log in and retrieve your settings, rather than start from scratch on a new computer. Unfortunately, the execution is all effed up.

Synapse, the software driving the cloud setup, has both an online and offline mode. Unfortunately, you can't access the offline portion until you've registered your new hardware. This is a problem, especially when the company forcing you to create an account before you can use your mouse can't keep its servers up. Furthermore, if you're away from your own computer (with its offline settings synched) and without an internet connection, your mouse becomes useless again. And it's not just spotty internet connections that cause a problem. It's also other software.

If you work somewhere that has a network behind firewalls, chances are even though you can download the Synapse software, the firewall may also block you from activating and using the software as well.

As for Razer's suggested workaround (“standard plug and play”)? No one spends 80fora“plugandplay”mouse(orover80 for a “plug and play” mouse (or over 80fora“plugandplay”mouse(orover300 with the keyboard — which also requires a connection and an account). The FAQ for Synapse (required going forward for Razer's products) suggests that once your setup is complete, moving between online and offline modes will be a “seamless experience.” The definition of “seamless” seems to vary from person to person.

If your connection drops out for any reason, the Synapse software will make a habit of locking up on you while it transitions to offline mode. During that time your settings may revert or possibly not be saved.

Google disagrees with Razer's definition of “seamless” as well. Searching for “Razer Synapse” autosuggests the following, which hardly inspires confidence.

Reviews of Razer hardware requiring Synapse haven't been too kind either (at least not to the software). Here's what the person shelling out nearly $400 for just a Razer keyboard has in store for them:

As of this writing the Razer Synapse driver software is easy to download and frustrating to use. Conceptually, it's great: download Synapse and create a free Razer account, then customize your peripherals and your settings will be saved to Razer servers automatically, meaning you can take your Razer gear anywhere and simply download Synapse to have access to your custom configuration. In practice, Synapse runs slowly and sports an unintuitive interface.

Most frustrating of all, during testing Synapse had a hard time reliably detecting Razer peripherals; while testing the DeathStalker Ultimate I had to install Razer Synapse three times across three different PCs, and each time I had problems convincing the software that I had in fact connected our review keyboard. I was able to solve the problem on all of our test machines by either rebooting the PC or reinstalling the software, but it was always a headache.

Fun stuff. All this hassle for a “seamless experience.” Min-Liang Tan of Razer had this to say in defense of the Synapse software (via a Facebook post):

We invented onboard memory for gaming mice many years ago and called it Synapse to allow gamers to bring their profiles with them on the go. However, we realized that we ran into another issue where we had to keep increasing the amount of memory onboard to provide for more storage and this resulted in higher and higher prices for gamers.

We then invented Synapse 2.0 where we could provide almost limitless amount of storage for profiles, macros, etc in the cloud as opposed to being limited by physical memory.

We wanted to avoid raising prices to gamers for higher memory space onboard (think about it like having to buy bigger and bigger hard drives as opposed to having all your storage on the cloud) and provide a much better service for our users.

Synapse 2.0 is NOT DRM. Our products work perfectly well out of the box without Synapse 2.0. Synapse 2.0 provides ADDITIONAL functionality of almost limitless memory in the cloud as opposed to taking away functionality (which is what DRM is).

We recognize that gamers will want to be able to use their gear without an online connection, and that's why Synapse 2.0 has an OFFLINE mode. Basically you have to register, create an account, save your initial settings and if you so prefer, you can stay in offline mode all the time without going online.

I realize that we have had issues with the activation server, and we're making sure we get that sorted out.

First off, it would appear that Razer's products don't work perfectly well out of the box, seeing as they require activation and a registered account before settings can be tweaked. They make work as well as much, much cheaper plug-and-play peripherals but people don't buy Razer devices with the intention of using them like a $10 Kensington vanilla mouse. Second, claiming additional functionality is a bit rich when the software itself is too flaky to guarantee this additional functionality. “Limitless memory in the cloud” is only as good as the software connecting it to the user and, so far, it looks like Synapse 2.0 isn't getting it done reliably.

Third, while it's true that Synapse has an offline mode, it's completely unusable until everything else has been connected via registration. It would be preferable to have a choice before all the extra steps (register, create account, save settings, etc.), rather than be forced to utilize the online version first. (One helpful user of Overclock.net has helpfully posted a real workaround that allows Razer purchasers to use their peripherals and preferred settings, rather than settling for plug-and-play limitations.)

Last, if internal storage is so expensive, why are competitors able to keep their peripheral prices in line with Razer's while still offering the same options and functions? If the price is an object, why not give users the option to store their settings on something else equally portable, like a USB drive?

And then there's the data harvesting. This post at Overclock.net goes on at great length about Synapse's terms of service even though there's nothing really unusual about them. Razer wants as much data as it can get ahold of, much like any other company or online service. The difference here is that registration is forced, with the device pretty much held hostage until the purchaser jumps through all the hoops, hopefully dropping lots of usable information along the way.

Registration for computer hardware is nothing new, but for the most part, people could just indefinitely delay the process if they so chose, or eliminate it completely. I've installed hard drives, DVD writers, printers, etc., all of which asked me to register and voluntarily hand over personally identifiable information. Whether I did this or not had no effect on my usage of these products. Sure, anyone can fill out a form with a bunch of fake information, but Razer will still collect usage data and specific computer information from every computer it comes in contact with. Bringing your mouse with you to a LAN party and downloading the Synapse to access your settings just gives Razer more data to work with.

While some people are referring to this internet-connection-required aspect as “DRM,” it really isn't. What it is though, is a consumer-unfriendly choice. If your customers are going to shell out $300+ for a keyboard, wouldn't you think they deserve more than one badly implemented “option?”

Perhaps its Razer's lack of an online help forum that has shielded it (until now) from the complaints of Synapse users. Sure, it has an email address for technical support, but most people probably consider that a last-ditch option at best and a customer service black hole at worst.

Bottom line: people loathe software that requires internet access to use. Pushing Synapse going forward doesn't necessarily make Razer a bad company, but the insistence that users log in and register first certainly plays right into its desire to collect information on its customers. Compounding this misstep with a party line that basically states “Synapse is great and works great” is a large step in the wrong direction. Razer claims to crafting a better user experience, but perhaps it should actually listen to its users, rather than telling them what they'll like and getting defensive when users express their displeasure.

Filed Under: cloud computing, drm, hardware, internet connection, mouse
Companies: razer

DailyDirt: Input Devices Beyond The Mouse

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Computers have used the keyboard and mouse combination for several decades now, so it seems like it’s about time for some new input devices. It looks like gaming consoles have introduced some interesting alternatives that are a bit more useful than the joystick. The mouse and QWERTY aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, but here are some quick links on some other kinds of input devices.

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: hmi, input devices, mouse, touchpad