Filed under: Peripherals

Hopefully that'll be the last time we're forced to write "mouse" three times in a headline, although the quality of these two mouse mods makes it completely worth it. First is the Steampunk mouse, which would look brilliant sitting next to your steampunk laptop and steampunk keyboard. You could even get your steampunk robot to help out with the construction, which took around 10 hours and only cost the creator Jake $5 to make. If you skip to the real -- as opposed to steampunk roleplay -- description you'll see that it's made up of an nameless laptop mouse and a "big jumble of bits and bobs from [Jake's] parts bin", which tends to be the case with most steampunk efforts. We wouldn't be surprised if the next mouse mod, the mouse mouse, was made using material found in a bin either. In this mod, noahw and canida over at instructibles stuffed a real, taxidermy mouse with the parts from a hacked computer travel mouse. Words cannot describe the combination of horror and awe at seeing the electrical guts of a real rodent being splayed for all to see. Now all that's needed is a PC case modded into a burrow and a mousepad with fake droppings.

[Via MAKE; thanks, jiltedcitizen]

Read -- The mouse mouse
Read -- The Steampunk mouse

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Media PCs, Peripherals

We're hearing some fairly bold words from a startup company with a purported Wiimote killer, even though it's about as far from the gaming realm as it could possibly be. In what's likely a shameless attempt to link the WavIt 3D Media-PC Remote to the well-regarded Wiimote, ThinkOptics has reportedly "made a pointing system for the computer and TV that makes the Nintendo Wii's controller look downright primitive." Realistically, the Wavlt doesn't look much better than any other overachieving wireless pointing device, but it does hope to interact with TVs and HTPCs in order to make on-screen navigation a bit less painful. Additionally, the creator is looking to incorporate the motion-sensing device into home automation in order to raise and dim lights, crank up the furnace, or mute your youngster's blaring music from the living room. The controller supposedly utilizes both RF and infrared technologies, and although it can track minute twists, flips, and turns, it does lack both an accelerometer and built-in Bluetooth. Notably, the wand will rely on the 2.4GHz band as well as Zigbee's 802.15 protocol, and while no firm release date was set, official pricing information should be unveiled shortly. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Spherical challenge

Exclusive Apple and Google have abandoned their individual mobile phone projects for a joint venture, The Register has learned.