Apple releases fancy new mouse. At $49, reasonably compelling. Like the iPod, it might take a few generations to refine it a bit, but the first offering looks cool. This ArsTechnica review is informative.

The mouse includes some neato changes to standard mice designs, but I think the cool part here is the possibility that Apple will include this mouse with all new Macs at some point (still speculation at this point), and the prospects of Mac OS X (and apps) taking advantage of the mouse's abilities in new ways that we haven't seen yet. We've had an up-down scroll wheel and extra buttons on our (non-Apple) mice for a while, and 2D scroll apparatuses showed up in some mice last year already. But if Apple makes sure everyone has these features, then apps can really start to take advantage. Use the scroll ball to edit video! Squeeze the sides for drag-and-drop of heavy objects... or something...

P.S. Why do people like wireless mice and keyboards so much? Good for laptops, sure, but why else? I've seen a bunch of complaints about Apple not releasing a Bluetooth model of the Mighty Mouse right away, and an equal helping of speculation that of course they will do so. (It's standard Apple practice to launch a new product with one and only one version, then release variants later. It focuses our attention on the message, without the distraction of choice.)