BlueTrack is the new tracking technology on their Explorer Mouse and Explorer Mini Mouse; not to be confused with their IntelliMouse Explorer line.  The new way to track movement should be able to handle wood, marble, granite, carpet and other such surfaces that tend to cause problems for mice.  ExtremeTech tested it out on a variety of surfaces, and while it doesn’t have the precision of high DPI gaming mice on normal mousing surfaces, it completely shames those gaming mice on the non-standard surfaces.  You can also get an explantion of what the BlueTrack sensor is in the full article.

“In the beginning, there were mechanical mice. These little rodents scurried across mousing surfaces with the aid of a mouse ball and X/Y rollers to transfer data to a computer. Then along came the maintenance-free optical mouse followed by its better tracking cousin: the laser mouse. Microsoft’s patented BlueTrack Technology, which is the tracking engine inside the Explorer Mouse and Explorer Mini Mouse we review today, may very well be the next step in this evolutionary sequence.

BlueTrack Technology combines the power of optical and the precision of laser to track across multiple surfaces, anywhere from marble kitchen-tops to granite to carpet; glass and mirrored surfaces need not apply, however. Given that 72% of all PCs sold are notebooks, Microsoft is marketing a mouse for the notebook warrior who can take his or her computer anywhere. Throw in the fact that both mice are wireless and each have a snap-in receiver and you have yourself an even stronger selling pitch.”

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