Discontinued and unreleased Microsoft peripherals revived by licensing deal

Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 49 points –
Discontinued and unreleased Microsoft peripherals revived by licensing deal
arstechnica.com
15

Revive the Trackball Explorer you cowards

Believe it or not I had that and the logitech ones. The index/middle finger track ball is a bit less precise due to how our fingers are built and it's a pita to clean them for both the ball and the rolling axis and the housing(since it's a concave shape). Eventually I caved to the modern censor mouse since no cleaning is required. (well, except those pads adhesive attracting dust etc. )

Ploopy might pique your interest then

Yep I’ll definitely going to build one some day but I already have a bit too much trackballs for it to be sane.

Microsoft's initial departure from Microsoft-brand peripherals meant it would only focus on more expensive, higher-end designs worthy of Surface branding.

They're saying this like we didn't all just read an article about the official Xbox Toaster yesterday...

I hope we'll see the return of some Bluetooth mice with the bluetrack sensor.

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary Beyond the computer accessories saying "Designed by Microsoft," they should be the same keyboards, mice, webcams, headsets, and speakers, Onward, Incase's parent company, said, per The Verge.

Onward CEO Charlie Tebele told The Verge that there's "potential" for Incase to release even more designs Microsoft never let us see.

That said, in Microsoft's old designs, Incase, whose website is currently filled with backpacks, bags, and laptop and AirPod cases, suddenly finds itself selling keyboards, mice, and other peripherals.

Onward's other brands, Griffin, Incipio, and Survivor, also don't sell the types of products that Incase is licensing here.

Microsoft's initial departure from Microsoft-brand peripherals meant it would only focus on more expensive, higher-end designs worthy of Surface branding.

Incase's venture could help serve those customers, while Microsoft's legacy with such products can continue without major investment from the tech giant.


Saved 67% of original text. :::

Bring back the Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro!

Optical sensors makes it very hard to fail, it basically lasts forever. Can't have that in this day and age anymore, poor companies need to sell new crap every year.

I actually use the ergo keyboard pictured in the thumbnail and I actually really like it. Not love, but for WHF CAD drafting its fantastic.

Like its all plastic build quality, and the buttons arent fantastic, but man is the built in wrist rest and the endless amount of availible keys It does its job great.

I hope they can maybe introduce higher quality materials, but I wont hold my breath. Overall this is a net positive buts its so weird how willing Microsoft is to cook up full products and axe official support seemingly randomly.

its so weird how willing Microsoft is to cook up full products and axe official support seemingly randomly.

They're learning from Google.

It's not completely random though. The issue is that when you have 100k users total, then you keep the product that only has 50k users, but when you have 1 billion users... maybe the product with only 1 million users is no longer worth your time.