Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse $69.95 MRSP Spotted; Due September?
Details on Microsoft's Arc Touch Mouse continue to dribble out, with the peripheral now showing up with an official MRSP on a reseller price list. According to that list, the Arc Touch Mouse will be priced at $69.95 – unsurprisingly falling into line with Apple's multitouch peripherals, the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. Meanwhile, there's also talk of when we can expect to see the Arc Touch Mouse arrive.
Neowin has heard from an insider source of their own that Microsoft plan to launch the Arc Touch Mouse in September 2010, though a specific timeframe within that month is unknown. The Arc Touch Mouse's functionality is tipped to initially launch with single-touch functionality only, though a multitouch upgrade seems likely (and is probably a case of software changes rather than hardware).
Microsoft Hardware released the (composite) image above via their Twitter account earlier this week; the company has previously registered arctouchmouse.com, though the URL currently redirects to a Bing search. A research paper last year suggested a multitouch mouse similar in design to the company's existing folding Arc mouse; that prototype used frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR). It's possible that in the partial image we're seeing, the shiny black panel is translucent for FTIR use, i.e. where the fingers would traditionally sit on mouse buttons.