New 3D Mouse from 3D Connexion Launches

Today 3D Connexion announced its SpaceNavigator, a 3D mouse for notebooks that lets you zoom around within any 3D environment you’re creating. It’s a fraction smaller than the original SpaceNavigator mouse. The company claims it’s supported by over 120 applications, including Google Earth, 3ds Max, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, Microsoft Live Search Maps, and 3D CAD. To navigate throughout each world, you can either push or pull up/down on the device, push forward, pull backward, or pan left and right. You can even twist it to rotate the environment currently on screen.

We just got one of the units in our office, and we’ll have a review up shortly. So far, we’re big fans of the smooth controls and sturdy base. We can say for certain that we definitely wouldn’t replace our regular mouse with the SpaceNavigator, like we could with the Sandio 3D Game O2 mouse, but it’s a pretty cool addition to a standard keyboard/mouse combo in Microsoft Live Search Maps. Stay tuned for our full review of this $129 peripheral.