18 programmable mouse buttons with double-click functionality

One button. One button. One button. So goes the mantra at Apple, chanted before and after the compulsory morning yoga sessions, watched over by Steve Jobs in his cube-shaped glass office as he meditates on the minimal over steepled fingers.

Over on the free-software side of the world, things are a little different. If the phrase “design by committeeâ ever sent an icy pang of fear into your heart, then look away now. The Open Office organization, behind the splendid free MS Word alternative of the same name, have come up with a mouse with not one button, but 18, all of which can be double clicked, if you can actually contort your fingers to reach them.

And of course, all these buttons can be configured, tweaked and customized as you’d expect from an open-source design. Here, in it’s confusing glory, is the (not even full) run down:

18 programmable mouse buttons with double-click functionality

Three different button modes: Key, Keypress, and Macro

Analog Xbox 360-style joystick with optional 4, 8, and 16-key command modes

Clickable scroll wheel

512k of flash memory

63 on-mouse application profiles with hardware, software, and autoswitching capability

1024-character macro support.

Open source support software for creating, managing, and customizing application profiles

Import and export of custom profiles in XML format

Optional audio notification of profile switching with customizable wave files

PDF export of profile button assignments

Adjustable resolution from 400 to 1,600 CPI

20 default profiles for popular games and applications, including OpenOffice.org
3.1, Adobe Photoshop, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, World of Warcraft, and the Call of Duty series.

One of those stands out: “PDF export of profile button assignments”. A mouse so complicated that you need a cheat-sheet to use it. What’s more, it is butt-ugly. looking like somebody cut holes in a generic dime-store mouse and inserted the plastic leftovers of pill-bottle lids.

The saving feature, if indeed this thing can be saved, is the analog control stick, very similar to the Nintendo 64 controller’s mushroom stick. Unlike the nodule on the mighty mouse or the tipping, clicking scroll wheels of any other mouse, the stick is on the side, under your thumb. This strikes us a dead handy.

The pictures you see are either mockups or prototypes, and the actual mouse should be available in February for $75. It’ll work with Windows, OS X and of course, Linux.