At Microsoft's London Christmas in July event, a new peripheral was quietly on display: The Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse. Yet to be announced, the blue mouse was spotted by Pocket-lint.
Positioned between the Touch Mouse and the Arc Touch Mouse in the company's range, the Explorer Touch Mouse was given a small demonstration by a Microsoft employee. Other than that, the company doesn't appear to be talking about it very much, at least not yet.
Just like all of Microsoft's mice and keyboards, this one uses the company's proprietary BlueTrack Technology, which means it can works on virtually any surface (except glass and mirrored surfaces). It has five customizable buttons, which can be configured for right or left-hand use. Also like all of Microsoft's recent mice, a small USB receiver clicks into the mouse's undercarriage when not in use.
The Touch part in the name is for the haptic touch scroll pad that the mouse borrows from the Arc Touch. It lightly vibrates when in use so that you can feel what you're doing (thankfully, you can turn the feedback function on or off). The Explorer part in the name is assumed to come from the mouse's shape, which is similar to the company's former non-touch Explorer Mouse.
The unnamed Microsoft employee said the mouse is expected to hit stores around the end of July, for a price tag of £69.99 (the same estimated retail price as the Arc Touch Mouse). All this leaked information, including specifications and pricing, is of course not final. We'll have to wait for Microsoft's official announcement to confirm and give further details.
In the meantime, I've pinged Microsoft to see if the company will comment on this leak. I will update this post if it does.