Yeah, that's great. But sorry, I got to go. I got to get some work done. Ever since that first demo back in the 1960s, people have been looking for ways to improve the mouse. And while some of these innovations have become standards like scroll wheels, additional buttons, or optical sensors, others have been trying to solve problems that didn't really exist. This mouse-phone, for example, which yes, is exactly what we're looking at here, is one such example. But believe it or not, it is far from the weirdest thing in the bin today. What exactly is it that I'm looking at here? That is the Sony Vaio Mouse Talk from 2006. It's a combination of optical mouse and VoIP phone. Yes, Internet telephone. There you go. Which makes sense because OG Skype got popular around 2005 as broadband Internet costs came down, making it a much more affordable way to talk to friends and family overseas. And this is full of lots of cool features. You've got scroll wheel volume control, and it even works as a speakerphone. Maybe I can use it to tell the people about our sponsor, MSI. Their GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X Slim 12 gig graphics card is thinner than other graphics cards. But if you think that makes it less hardcore, why don't you challenge it to an arm wrestle and see how that goes? Tough guy. Check it out of the link below. That was fun. What's next? Not yet. You've got to complete your challenge first. A challenge using only that mouse record and playback a message for us. Okay. Well, I mean, Audacity is right here on the desktop. This couldn’t be that hard. USB audio device, start monitoring. blah, blah. Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy. You know, I haven't used Windows 98 in a while. Oh, 2000. Sorry. Excuse me. Maybe there's a mode switch. Oh, there's a button. Oh, balls. It only- It only works in one mode at a time. That's right. I can't use it as a mouse like this. And also- I mean, that kind of makes sense. Look at this thing. It’s obviously designed for use with a laptop where you would also have a trackpad. But still, do we just need some gain? Just need them gains. Hello? Hello. No? Stereo. Maybe it's a different. Different one. Hello? Hello. I thought you said it works as a speakerphone too. If you open it halfway, then it's speakerphone mode. Oh, my God. Am I drunk? Volume. The bottom. Yeah. Top option. Volume Control. Options, Properties. Recording. Okay, look at that level. What, why? But I wasn't getting anything. Are you for real right now? Oh, this is going to sound awful. I'm so sorry, everyone's ears. I guess I could talk a little quieter. Yeah, that’s not much better. Maybe turn your volume down a little bit. Oh, wow. This is at minimum, though. What happens when we crank it up
even higher? Wait. Oh, I can play back on this. I didn’t say it was a good speakerphone. Oh, yeah. Crank it up. That'll help. I'm going to say 60 bucks. You are dead on the money. Oh, really? Yep. That's awesome. That would be $91 in today's money. What do you think we actually paid for it? Oh, I hope it's not more than 50 bucks. 69. Okay. Nice. Oh. Oh, oh. Discover the easy to use mouse that gives children ages 2 to 6 a big head start with computer. Look at this kid. This is a microsoft product? This is a Microsoft product. The Easy Ball includes Freddy Fish and the case of the missing kelp seeds. Got to get the kelp. This does not look easier. Wow. This packaging is in great shape. Oh, no way. Who would have a complete in-box this thing? Set up disc. Wow. Humungous entertainment. I have the following CD rom titles. Check all that apply. I have Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo. No way. Are we going to play Freddy Fish? We can play Freddy Fish. Of course. The real star of the show is this mouse for Ballers. Eat your heart out. Mac versus PC ad campaign. Because this box contains the biggest zing that I have ever seen. Single button design adds to the ease of use. There's no confusion about which button to press. Oh, checkmate. Remember, this is a serial mouse, so you're gonna have to turn off
the computer and plug it in. Every once in a while they do work hot plug. It's worth a shot. You break it, you bought it, and you already bought it, so hey. And that's a negatory. Yep. Dang. It's the Easy Ball. What do you think? I mean, it's a ball mouse, but bigger. Oh. What do you think you'd pay for that? Oh, no. Anything for kids is going to come with a bit of a premium. There was obviously some molding costs, and they couldn't have sold that many of this thing. This actually one some awards, it won CES best of show. And it was displayed at the Smithsonian for an input device exhibition. I don't think that makes it worth more money. I'm going to say $99.99. You're actually high. 60 bucks. It was 55 USD. Really? That's actually pretty reasonable. Yeah, we've about 105 today. So we got Freddy Fish or Diablo. Truthfully, if all I had to do was line up a cursor for interactive storybook games and stuff like that. It gets done. This is kind of awesome. I'm not sure I fully understand the ergonomics of these handles, but then, okay, I started trying to use them. It's like, oh yeah, that holds it steady. If you're sitting on the floor, you know, criss-cross-applesauce kind of style, maybe. You know what, I kind of like it. Let's go with Diablo. Hey these loading times, though. I don't think my computer was that fast when I first played Diablo. The magic of SSD. Oh, is this an SSD? That explains a lot. It's too big, actually. Impractically large. Yeah. It's not bad, though. Bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah. Oh yeah. If you kill anything else these fallen ones like take off, so just get the other ones for now. Oh yeah. You're not getting away. Now we're back in time to Windows 98. Just need to- Hang on, hang on, hang on You gotta plug the mouse in first. Oh, Mouse Pen Pro From Appoint. Natural pen shaped design. Great for artists and children, perfect for high dexterity applications, Saying that you need high dexterity to use your input device, that's uh, it's honest. Oh, no. Like a ballpoint pen, the mouse pen works great on an ordinary pad of paper. No mouse pad required. And you can even put your feet up and use the mouse pen on your pant leg or the cover of your favorite magazine. Wow. A magazine. You remember magazines? Barely, actually Guide to operations. Is that what they use this for? Oh, she works, but hold on a second. I don't think we're using this right, because rather than clearing a space on top of your desk to use the mouse pen, you can use it on top of your stuff stuff. “Stuff.” So you could just be a slob. Nice. It's terrible. Little bit. The switch is for DPI changes. Oh. Oh, that's a little faster. It's still terrible, but- She loses traction sometimes, though in fairness, I do wonder if part of this is just due to the plastics aging. It might be. We found, there's a mouse pad there somewhere Colin, if you want to grab that. Maybe she was a little grippier back in the day. It worked okay on this mouse pad. P.T Cruiser mouse pad. Wow. And I found you need to press a little harder than you would with like a Wacom pen. Still pretty crap. They advocate hard for the pant leg. Why don't we try that and I'll show off these prototype LTT cargo pants? Awful. What do you think people paid for that back in the day? There's no way this was cheaper than, like, 150 bucks. Super specialized hardware, limited lifetime warranty, patented design. That was $99. Oh, not bad. From about 1991. And you get two whole button clicks. Not to mention that if your software requires you to press both buttons at the same time, you can do that by simply adjusting the
position of your knuckle. That's in here. It's in the book? Yeah. Free tech tip. Wow. You ready for your challenge? Oh, no. Open up the pen tester, if you could, sir. Then draw- No, no, no, no. The rest of the owl. No! Are you kidding me? Wait, is this serious- Is this a meme? Yeah. I mean, I can't draw at the best of times. Oh, my goodness. Oh man, it doesn't. It doesn't have good traction on anything. No. Maybe the backside of this. Hey. That's not bad. Oh, that's quite square. Beautiful circle. Now, let's draw an egg. Oh, diagonals. Not good. It's kind of Etch-A-Sketchy. Yeah. See, I thought it was me at first, but I actually don't think it is. I think it's a good thing we have an art department. Look, you guys set me up to fail here. I gave you an appropriate pointing device. Oh, no, it- What happened there? When you're going backand forth, It doesn't. Oh, wait. I angled it. I angled it in a natural writing position and I stopped touching the- No, no you can't do that. It's got to be flat. Yeah. You gotta get the branch it’s sitting on. Oh, yeah. Shoot. Sorry. I think that is actually recognizable as an owl. Yeah, I'm giving myself a B. B minus. B, as in be confident. This one is not actually a mouse, or so they claim. Neither was the last one. Felix outruns any mouse. Wow. Great job, Felix. Do it all in one square inch. That's what I tell my wife. So this was designed to solve a problem that didn't exist. You know how people would, like, have trouble finding the mouse when you're trying to help them with the computer back in the day, you know? I guess. This way, wherever the Felix is on here, that's where your cursor is going to be on the screen. I see. So if I want it to be in the bottom left corner. You put it in the bottom left corner. I could just go like that. That’s where it's going to be. And that's so much simpler than if it was just a mouse that I just moved to the bottom left. Apparently. This is from 1990. So what do you think you would have paid for it? Oh, based on how well it works- Oh. Oh, wait. What? Oh yeah. No way. It’s terrible. That's a feature. Are you kidding me right now? That’s a feature, hear me out. This is set up, so it's 640 by 480. It would be a 1 to 1 ratio of your screen, so if you knock your resolution down to 640 by 480, then it won't do that ghosting thing. If you get to the edge of the inch, that ought to be enough for anybody, and you haven't made it to the end of the screen. It just- just goes for it. Like panning in an RTS except way harder to control. What does rotation do? Absolutely nothing. How could they say this is good for ergonomics? Look at what I'm doing to myself. I'm contorting. Maintenance free so it never needs cleaning. Let me tell you, if the setup roasts that we've done are anything to go by, it needs cleaning. In its range, actually kind of great. Yeah. As soon as you go outside of the range. Just don't do that. Off the rails. What are the other selling points? Pinpoint precision, ergonomic handle. I've got to give them full points for the precision handling. When you compare this to a ball mouse from back in 1990, this would crush it. And let's try what you said. Let's change the resolution to the one you recommended. Now, I actually don't need the whole inch to make it all the way to the edge. Oh. Yeah. Maybe they can’t do their math very well. I mean, they can’t do ergonomics very well. This would destroy my wrist. Yeah, I'm pretty sensitive to, like, non-erganomic devices. What's my challenge? Pull up our temp folder here. I think I have it in here. Woo! Oh, arcade. All right, here we go, here we go. Left button to start. Hey, actually. Oh, yeah, bop, bop, bop. Oh, shoot! Oh, civillian. Not supposed to- Oh. Oh, I didn't reload. Reload, reload. I'm trying. I'm trying, geez. Aw, my poor wrist. My poor wrist. I’m so tense right now. Okay. What was your score, smart guy? Like 55,000, somewhere in there. When my wrist gave up. Oh, dang! Let's go. No, no, no, no. I died. This is from 1990. What would you have paid? Would I have paid? Nothing. Because in 1990 I was 4. What would they have asked for it? You were 4? 100 bucks. Not even close. 150 bucks? Not even close. No, stop. 200? This was $200 in 1990. That a mac version, and a PC version. You’re looking around 400 bucks in today's money. How much did I pay for it? 35 dollars. Okay, good. What's our next mouse? This is an upgrade from the last one. The Atom Mouse saves space with every move. Move, move! Oh, no. This is another one of those. I have my coffee and my notepads and all of my garbage all over my desk solutions. Exactly. This is only like four square inches they say they need for this one. Wow. It's just like a regular mouse, except can't move for crap. Like the kind of fine motor control they're expecting me to have to cover my whole screen with just this. I mean, that's like. That's like just having a modern mouse and having your sensitivity set like this. That's not a good experience. I mean, maybe it is. That’s not nearly accurate enough to do that, right? Like- I have, well, maybe it is, Jordan. You ever think of that? Boom got ‘em. So this is similar. Oh, you know what? You like it better? I don't know what it is. It’s not bad. Oh. Wait, I lied. Though? I'm overshooting everything. Sensitivity is way too high. Well, turn it down. When I was just moving it around. It feels fine. Well, Oh, you can turn down- Well, no. Well, it's like a mouse. Yeah, well, you can't pick it up and go to the edge of the mouse pad again very well, can you? Oh, well, that's fair. It's a similar deal where it's mapped 1 to 1 to your screen, but this one can handle higher resolutions. Interesting. Let’s play some Starcraft. SCV good to go, sir. You gonna provide the soundtrack for us? Yeah, I mean, I can. I can do that. What do you want? It sucks, but not as much. In the context of, you know, a random ball mouse, like you said. Yeah, this is a lot better than that. Oh, it's a Zurgling. Kill it, kill it! Kill it with Fire! I got to say, your clicks per second is not amazing. Look, I got to say, this is very hard to click on anything accurately with, okay? Oh, man, I, uh my wrist is dying here. Look at this. Look what you have to do to move all the way to the top and all the way to the bottom. It’s a weird hand exercise. It's really awful. So this one’s from 1998. What do you think you would have paid for this? I hope I wouldn't pay more than 60 bucks. Well, to be truthful, I have no idea. Oh, okay. How about now? And now we paid 30 bucks for it. Okay, that's fine. All right, well, let's move on to the next mouse then. Oh, is that an external power supply? It is. It didn't come with a power brick. We improvised. Novint Falcon. Is this a three dimensional mouse? Yep. I feel like I'm shaking hands with the machine. Wait. It's got to have force feedback. That's why it needs an external power supply. Good gravy. What are these buttons? Plus, play or back, Lightning bolt and whirlpool. All the normal ones. Wow. Look at all these patents use with Novint supplied power supply only. 30 volt DC one amp. A 30 watt mouse? Yeah. Oh, the colors, the the front of it is changing colors. It's red now. Oh. Does this thing have RGB? Kind of. Blue! There you go, it’s connected. That's R&B. R&B, you know? Oh look at that. It zeros to- Oh, it's strong. Yeah. It pushes back with apparently about 2 lbs of force. Maybe a little better, because. That's the thing I wanted a mouse that fights back. Exactly. This is the Novint Falcon from about 2006. And the point of it is? It is a 3D force feedback input device. Yeah, I didn’t ask what it is. I asked what the point of it is. So people used it for like 3D sculpting as well as for gaming. And this, the ball deal actually came off and you could replace it with different things, and- I see. How do I click? The middle button here, is your normal click. This one seems to be- That is horrendous. A little bit. Depends how you hold it, if you hold it kind of like this, maybe? Oh, okay. I could try that, sure. If you go into your Novint Falcon folder there. Hi, Computer. Nice to meet you. There you go. Man, fine control. Really hard. Yeah, very tough. Especially when fighting back like that. You got three different dead zones you're contending with here. Yeah. All right, you want me to click Novint Falcon here? So you got three motors in there that are basically constantly adjusting themselves to where they want to be. Up is up. Yep. Down is down. Yep. Right is right. Left is left. Yep. Pulled toward me is- Kind of nothing-ish. And push toward it is kind of nothing. Kind of nothing-ish. Actually a good example for this is delay here. This is a 3D sculpting program that is specifically designed
for this sort of input. So if you can draw yourself a face or something here? Not easily. Why so serious? I think if you hold this button and move, it will rotate the- Oh whoa. Oh he's awful. Yeah. It’s face-like. There are face like qualities. I appreciate that. Good work, boss. I'm going to give him an ear. Alright, yeah he could use some ears. How about a crease ear. Okay, what’s that do? I don't know. Makes a crease presumably. Ohh. This must have cost a fortune. Surprisingly, not. 200 bucks. Yeah. MSRP was 175 to 240. Okay. Depending on your accessories. That's a lot for a mouse, but not that much for a CAD input device, for example. What do you think we paid? This has got to be collector's item at this point, I'm going to say we paid like 400 bucks for it. 150 bucks. Oh, okay. That's pretty good. Power supply was missing and no cables or anything. Right that's fine. We solved that. All right, so feel around here, okay. Just feel the sphere. Feel the sphere. Yeah, it’s like ride the walrus, you know. Then when we change your texture here, it'll feel different in your hand. Oh. Oh. Weird. You can kind of like, push into the sphere and it kind of slips around it and it like bumps. Oh, yep. Yeah. It gets worse. It’s like putting your hand in the schmoo. Yeah. We'll keep going here. Eww. Oh and the ice is slippery. Okay, this is a pretty cool demo. If I saw this at CES, I'd be like, dang, that's really cool. I'll never buy it. See you later. Yeah. Sandpaper. You can feel and hear the sandpaper. It’s actually like gritty, right? Wow. Magnetic. Oh man, I don’t know. This is just weird, right? Yeah. Rubber, this one you can push against it and it’ll fight back kind of the other way. All right. Okay. I think we can try the next demo with this one. I have to play me some Homerun Smashout. See how it goes. The drivers all work on Windows 10. Oh, geez. Oh, hold on. Oh, okay. It's this way. Well, I could do this with a mouse. Oh, come on. Boom, it’s smoking it’s gone! Let's go! Monkey Sports Network! Boom! Fireworks. Fireworks! Better or worse than Wii sports? Oh, so much worse, Jordan. So much worse. Not even- Boom! Fair ball! Oh, it's all the way out. I hit the edge of the map! Linus. Top score. Nice. Your score is 3. I mean if I can play badminton, I can play table tennis. Oh yeah, I tried this. Oh wow! Destroyed me. Hey, I got a point. What? How? What just happened? What just happened? I'm going to quit while I’m ahead. Quit telling you about our sponsor, Vessi. Here in Vancouver, the weather can be so unpredictable, but thankfully, we have a secret weapon. Vessi claims their shoes are 100% waterproof. Thanks to their Dyma-tex technology. It laughs in the face of a torrential downpour. They didn't claim that that that was me. But all of a sudden you look outside and boom, it's sunny again because Vancouver. Oop, time to switch into my summer shoes. Just kidding! Vessi’s are stylish and fashion forward, meaning you can wear them rain or shine or cloudy or just sprinkling a bit. You can- They're good for anything stretchy and comfortable putting on a pair of Vessi’s is a breeze and thanks to their sock like fit, you'll feel like you're walking on a cloud that is still somehow solid enough to walk on. I mean, nothing beats my sandals, but these sure come close, is what Linus would say if he wasn't in a meeting right now. So go treat your feet. Head over to vessi.com, slash Linus Tech Tips and get 50% off your purchase with code Linus Tech Tips. If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe check out the time we looked at some weird game controllers. For my part, I think my favorite today is going to be- Oh, man they all suck. I'm going to go with the kid ball. You want to phrase it differently? Sure. Oh, well, gee. What's it called again? Easy Ball. Let's just cut it there, yeah.
