Bought a new Intellimouse Explorer

I bought the first Intellimouse Explorer back in... uh, well, actually I don't know when it came out. It actually crapped out on my in the first year, but Microsoft sent me a replacement. I've had that one ever since. It has been at least four years, maybe as many as six.

In the past few months, it started cutting in and out on me, and it wasn't a short in the cable. If I'd cross from the far end of one screen to the opposite end of the other (I use a pair of LCD's), Windows would make the disconnect then connect noise and I'd lose the cursor somewhere. I could almost deal with that if it wasn't for the noises! :) Alas, I decided it was finally time to retire it. It had been good to me. The Microsoft logo had long since been worn off and there are actual grooves in the plastic from my fingers.

I replaced it with the new v4.0. Why not? The last one lasted so long. I got the wired version since I hate changing batteries (as my wife does this regularly on hers). The new version is roughly the same shape, but lighter. The only thing I don't get is why they made the forward and back buttons smaller. Then again, I don't know how many times I've accidentally hit them when grabbing the mouse on the old one.

My Natural Keyboard Pro is still working. It looks disgusting, but it works. I hope it continues to hold on, because I haven't found any other keyboards that have the same tactile feedback I like.

5 Comments

  • I totally agree with you, I picked up a v4.0 (the black & silver one with the finger grooves already built in, right?) wired as well... I love it.

  • I've used intellimouse for years...but recently switched to a logitech MX510..those scrollbuttons are really useful...hard to go back after that...

  • I had an Intellimouse Explorer 3 for some years, but since some months the 3rd button was pressed down by spinning the mouse wheel and did not get up again without some hard finger work :-/.



    A friend of mine hat the same problem with the same mouse ... soooo back to Logitech :-)

  • I bought a couple of cheap $20 optical Logitechs to tote around with the laptops. Dropped them, many, many times. I thought about getting another one but I really didn't like the shape of it.

  • I've tried tens of keyboards in the past, hoping to upgrade to something with all the cool one-touch launch buttons and what not. I always go back to the Natural Keyboard Pro because it is the SINGLE ONLY keyboard I've been able to find that has a quality feel to it. I currently have it connected to my laptop using a PS/2 -> USB adapter. I would spent $200 on a modern keyboard if it had any quality whatsoever.

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