Razer launches new pwnage tool – Naga 17 button gaming mouse

Aug 20, 2009 by Dan Taylor    32 Comments    Posted under: Games, Technology

As a gamer, of course I’m aware of Razer’s line of products, but sadly, they’re still serving the winblows world, and only offer one mac supported mouse. It’s white and cute, but feels more like a laptop, on the go business type mouse, rather than something substantial under hand. And while Razer’s still sticking with the Redmond crowd, they have recently announced that they’ve started shipping an industry first: and MMO specific mouse.

Dubbed the Naga, Razer bills this new input device as the next level in gaming mice for MMO players. Tested in combination with leading MMO gamers and community sites, including the number one MMO addon go to, curse.com.

“Gaming interfaces have been growing but there’s a gap in providing gamers a true experience of control in the virtual world,” said Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff, president, Razer. “Razer’s engineering team addresses this issue with the Razer Naga, designed to be unique and innovative by offering MMO players more customization and balance in-game. “

If you’re not familiar with the typical MMO setup, the quick and dirty looks like this: Most have an action bar at the bottom of the screen that corresponds to the number keys 1-12 (1-0 plus the – and = key). This action bar allows you to press a number that corresponds to the action that you want to take, while leaving your mouse hand free to target, move, etc. Personally, I’ve developed what I consider a great skill in being able to run forward (the W key) while still being able to click on the 2 or 3 key (depending on which spell I need) to cast while on the move. What the Razer Naga seeks to address here is freeing up the left hand from having to turn/twist into unnatural key combinations (think photoshop ‘save for web’ keyboard shortcut – or the PSclaw as I’ve heard it referred to). This industry first 12 button thumb grid allows players to map the 1-12 keyboard commands to the mouse, and access them via a thumb click. Optimally, I could see this remapping allowing for a full 1-12 action bar full of macros or modifier keys.

Razer has already lined up a number of supported titles (can you have a guess which one tops the list? WoW, I knew you could do it!) and includes add-on software that will allow players to save an unlimited number of profiles. These profiles allow for thousands of in-game commands for each individual character, thereby eliminating the need to re-map every time a player re-specs a character.

Again, I’m a mac gamer, and won’t be able to test this one out in person, but admittedly, the concept is intriguing. I guess the only thing that I’d worry about is mis-clicking. Heck, I’ve been known to have a click fail now and again, and that’s with a full sized keyboard. Trying to touch feel 12 buttons under thumb might be quite a challenge. Having said that, I’m sure the average 14 year old would have it mastered in just under half an hour, and 12 additional ‘don’t click – push the button’ macros could be quite handy.

Razer Naga Stats:

COST: US: $79.99, Europe: euro 79.99

AVAILABILITY: Worldwide

Technical Specifications:

• 5600dpi Razer Precision 3.5G Laser Sensor
• 1000Hz Ultrapolling(TM) / 1ms response time
• 200 inches per second max tracking speed
• Zero-acoustic Ultraslick(TM) Teflon feet
• 17 MMO-optimized buttons (including 12 button thumb grid)
• Optional MMO-specific software AddOns
• Unlimited character profiles with AddOns
• Approximate size: 116L x 69W x 41.6H (in mm)

Maclust Realized

Apr 16, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: Technology

An ongoing review of Me and my MacBook Pro.

As Brent pointed out, I’ve not yet done a post about the shiny new bundle of joy that’s come into my life.  Well, let’s just say I’ve got a new toy.  More so than a toy, I’ve actually got my hands on a professional tool that’s going to allow me to be more productive, creative, and generally a better all around person (ok…that might be pushing it a bit far).  In other words…Maclust realized!

So dear readers, this is the first post I’m writing on the new MacBook Pro, and I’m sure you’ll understand and forgive me if the ‘screw doesn’t have a few posts for a few days….I’ve still got to use this darn thing. Biggest difference right off the bat; what’s the funny command key for, and I have to mount applications to install them?

I say a few days…probably more like a few hours. But all in all, thanks to all of you who’ve already sent me congrats messages. I’m incredibly happy already, and she’s only 6 hours old!’

A few days later (edit update) …

I’m just a little short of one week with my new MacBook Pro, and I’ve already decided that it’s (almost) the love of my life. I was talking with an uninitiated the other day, and she asked me why I love it. I honestly had to stop and think for a minute, as there are so many reasons, but I wanted to put it in plain and simple words she could understand. My answer? ‘Because it just works’.

Simplicity

Since this silver bundle of joy is brand spanking new, it shipped with Leopard, so I don\’t really have a version comparison to make, but all I can say is that OSX Leopard is probably the most intuitive OS I’ve ever worked with. Sure, it’s different from winblows and yes, it’s going to take you a minute or two to get used to it. But once you do…things just start making sense all of a sudden. There’s that lightbulb moment of, yeah…that was easy, why was that so complex with winblows?

Included Goodies

I’ve not yet done it, but I’ll be reformatting my old pc soon and rebuilding winblows xp. This got me to thinking, when I install winblows, what ‘extras’ and ‘goodies’ come with it? The core OS sure, along with solitaire, a calculator, and Internet Explorer. Oh wait…there’s defrag as well. If you buy your dell/hp/toshiba/sony, they often come preloaded with a boatload of crap that most of us go ahead and delete right off the bat anyway, so these do NOT count as goodies.

Upon booting up the Mac, I was delighted to find iTunes, iPhoto, Garageband, AppleMail, iMovie, Dashboard, Frontrow, (shall I continue?) preinstalled. Ok, I’ll admit it, one of the first things I unchecked as default was Safari in favor of Firefox, but hey…can you blame me?

It’s HOT!

Actually, quite the opposite. Coming off a 1.5gHz Centrino processor where I could more or less fry an egg on the keyboard after about an hour of usage, this duocore 2.5 gHz could keep my drink chilled. The secret? Aluminum. The mac comes in a super sexy aluminum casing. The aluminum acts as a heat sink and wicks heat away from the key components inside, thereby increasing overall operating stability and speed. Conversely, take a look at your PC notebook. I’m going to take a wild guess, and assume that it’s probably made from plastic? Plastic. Un huh…a heat INSULATING material. Along this same line, I was told before my purchase that one of the most frequent gestures I was going to make was to hit the shift key just to make sure that the machine was actually on. Whereas the fan on Compaq could sound quite close to a vaccum cleaner running at full speed, the Mac is virtually silent.

Power for Days

I think it’s no secret that I like to watch my American television here in Austria. That requires and download, and then a trip over to the TV to have a watch (the other monitor isn’t actually required, I just like to watch TV in the living room). Normally, I’d have another dedicated power source in the living room to plug the computer in, as I know it’d never make it through more than 1 one hour program. My first reaction after recabling my desk was, hmmm…I’ve probably got to go get another power adapter for the mac now as well. But I figured at least we could watch one episode of American Idol (I know…don’t hate, but David Cook IS seriously a good singer) before I’d have to recharge. Well, low and behold, I cued up 2 episodes, and watched them both back to back without the battery even flinching. Upon taking it back to my desk, the battery meter indicated that I wasn’t even half way empty. Doing a quick mathematical equation, this means that I could potentially get almost 4 hours of computing time from this battery in minimal conditions? WOW! Now that’s what I call power management!

BuiltIns

It’s just a bunch of the little things built into this quite possibly perfect mixture of function and form. Everything from the built in iSight webcam and microphone (making skype calls an absolute pleasure), to the magsafe power cable (I can be a bit of a klutz sometimes, and have tripped over a cable or two in my day). The environmentally sensitive ambient lighting feature knocks me out every time I watch it in action. The iSight webcam actually monitors the ambient lighting around you, and automagically adjusts screen brightness and illuminates the keyboard. I didn’t mention that already? Yeah, the keyboard f#(ing lights up in dim conditions. The 1440 x 900 display is absolutely breath taking (and I’m already trying to figure out how I can swing one of Apple’s 23″ cinema displays), and the 512mb NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT doesn’t hurt either.

Conclusion

I’ll keep this one very short. Have I mastered this beauty yet? Not even close. Has Apple made the (almost) perfect machine and OS, whereby I can get my way around and utilize some of it’s super fun and cool features within a few days? Absolutely.

A few moths later (edit update):

Things are still rock solid here at camp mac, chez DT.  Since the addition of a Vestax VCI-100 that I use to controll Traktor (thanks Ludwig), the mac now replaces my down dust collector Technics.  The Canon Vixia HF10 in combination with Final Cut Express is about as close as I’m going to get to Hollywood, and while I’ve completed the 12 step process for my World of Warcraft addiction, gaming on a Mac is still a heckuva lot better than my winblows experiences.

I’m still a VERY happy MacBook Pro owner, and want to buy the world a Mac.