AOpen Inc. is most commonly known for its PC-compatible peripherals, but the company today announced the O-35, an optical wheel mouse that works with PCs and Macs. The mouse features a design that’s suitable for both left and right handed use, and incorporates a three-button design including the scroll-wheel.
Like Apple’s own optical Pro Mouse, the O-35 doesn’t need a mouse pad — it’ll work on any reasonably smooth, non-reflective surface. The mouse is OHCI and UHCI compliant and operates on Windows 95, 98 and 2000, NT 4.0 and 6.0, and Mac OS 8.6 or later (although users will have to depend on a third-party application like USB Overdrive to program use of the multiple buttons in Mac OS). It’s a USB-native peripheral but AOpen includes a PS/2 converter just in case you want to use it on an older Windows box.
The AOpen Optical Mouse, part number 90.00026.972, is available for an estimated street price of US$22. The mouse is available through AOpen resellers and includes a limited one-year warranty. AOpen offered no information about future Mac OS X support.