Logitech Unveils Motorized Mouse

Logitech on Thursday introduced a motorized computer mouse for people who scroll through lengthy documents and spreadsheets.

The MX Revolution, which costs $100, can scroll through 10,000 lines of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in seven seconds, as opposed to seven minutes for the average person spinning a mouse wheel manually, the Fremont, Calif.-based, company said. The average person spins a scroll wheel about 26 feet during an eight-hour day.

The MX is configured to automatically switch between motorized and manual mode, based on the application being used, Logitech said. In Excel, for example, the mouse will go into free spin if the wheel is spun rapidly. People can also toggle manually between modes by pushing down and clicking the wheel.

Settings for the wheel, as well as the seven buttons on the mouse, can be customized with the configuration software that ships with the product for PCs. For Apple Mac users, the software is available via download.

Among the buttons' features is one-touch search. Clicking on a highlighted word or phrase in a document or Web page will launch the user's search application, such as Google's or Yahoo's. A second wheel is featured on the mouse for zooming in and out of photos or documents, or to switch between applications.