A Mouse For The Other Hand

Living in a right-handed world, left-handers routinely encounter difficulties in their daily lives. Most of the challenges are trivial, but annoying and frustrating. No, I’m not a leftie, but I do sympathize with them since I do have a few friends that are left-handed. Since lefties account for approximately 10% of the world’s population, it also means the average computer mouse is made for the right hand . . . yet another thing that leaves the lefties feeling, well, left out.

When I was still doing technical support for the newspapers, I remember going to some computers and seeing the mouse on the complete other side of the keyboard. I would ask the user why it was like that. The answer would always be “because I’m left-handed, and it’s easier to use it on the left side of the keyboard.” I would feel sorry for them and think to myself that someone should invent a left-handed mouse someday. Well that day has arrived with Logitech’s latest creation, the MX610 Left-Hand Laser Cordless Mouse. I realize that some lefties will still prefer to stick with the right-hand mouse usage, but to each his own.

The MX610 Left-Hand mouse is a mirror image of Logitech’s award-winning MX610 Smart Mouse that you may remember me writing about a few months back, only this one is specifically sculpted to fit your left hand instead of the right. It features 10 buttons, including e-mail and instant messaging buttons that illuminate when new messages are received (with Microsoft Outlook, Windows Messenger and Yahoo! Instant Messenger). Its laser tracking allows you to work on just about any surface, even a wood table or a magazine. As with the other MX610, it features side-to-side scrolling and zoom with the tilt wheel, 2.4 GHz wireless (5x stronger than a standard cordless mouse) – use it about 30 feet away, and it comes with a five-year warranty with full product support.

The MX610 Left-Hand Laser has an approximate battery life of up to three months with regular usage (two AA batteries). It watches the power status of your computer so when your computer has gone to sleep or is shut down, the mouse also powers down accordingly. When the battery power is low (less than 10% of full charge), an indicator light illuminates and you’ll know to change the batteries.

Logitech’s MX610 Left-Hand Laser Cordless Mouse will be available sometime this month $59.99. Check out www.logitech.com for more information or notification registration of the MX610’s availability.