Prices: $149.99, $399.99, and $149.99, respectively

When it comes to Rock Band 3, gaming accessory kingpin Mad Catz is having it both ways: It offers both a fancy fake guitar and an adapter that lets musicians play with real MIDI instruments.

The Fender Mustang PRO (seen above) is a replica of a legendary real guitar. It works with Rock Band on the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 and includes 17 frets, a six-string strumming area, and a touch-sensitive string box for muting and cutting off notes. It’s also got MIDI output for use with sequencers and MIDI hardware. Meanwhile, Mad Catz’ MIDI Pro Controller lets music fans connect standard MIDI keyboard and drum sets to Rock Band via a USB connection. It sports a D-pad and gaming controller buttons, and lets you adjust velocity to reduce drum crosstalk during play; it can rest on a table or be worn on a belt during play.

On another note entirely, the Cyborg R.A.T.9 is a wireless mouse aimed at serious gamers. The macho-looking black mouse uses a 2.4-GHz wireless connection, and the company estimates its latency at less than a second. It comes with two hot-swappable battery packs and 42 grams of adjustable weights, letting gamers tweak the mouse’s heaviness; And there are five programmable buttons and a mode that lets you temporarily slow down the cursor for precise control.

While it may look like a response to Apple’s recently announced Magic Trackpad, it appears that the timing may be more coincidental than anything. The device is part of a larger project within Microsoft called “Mouse 2.0,” which has been underway since at least last year.

(See this research paper from Microsoft Research as evidence of what I’m talking about.)

Apple may have a leg up here on Microsoft: it appears at least initially the device is not multitouch. It may not really matter though either: neither is the Magic Trackpad on Windows for the time being.

It’s not clear whether touch is the name of the game here, or as the name suggests, traditional mouse use is also possible. If its the latter, it may be more accurate to put Apple’s Magic Mouse as its chief competitor instead.

Either way, it does seem to me that Apple may have been onto “the next big thing” as Harry asked last week. Maybe the mouse really is just about dead, after all.

(Apple says that the Magic Trackpad is for Macs only; I wonder if anyone will figure out how to make it work with Windows, or if the company would consider a PC-friendly model?)

I rarely use desktop computers these days, but I like the idea: I’m not exactly anti-mouse, but mice take up a lot of space, have a nasty habit of colliding with papers and other items, and are sometimes hostile to southpaws like me. Which is why I’m at least as likely to use a trackball as a mouse when I am at a desk.

Come to think of it, there was also a period way back in the nineties when I used one of Cirque’s standalone touchpads with my work desktop. Cirque still makes them, so there’s a market there–but it seems to be a small one.

Apple’s spin on the idea looks way more appealing than Cirque’s: The Magic Trackpad is larger, wireless, multi-touch, buttonless, and more stylish. Will a meaningful percentage of iMac and Mac Pro owners choose one over a mouse? I don’t have a clue, but I’m curious. Touchpads have been the dominant integrated pointing devices on laptops for a decade and a half, but I know plenty of people who still aren’t fans: They travel with mice–including miniature ones which look kinda clumsy to me–rather than be forced to use a touchpad.

Of course, if Apple wants to actively advocate for touchpads rather than simply offer them as an option, there’s a radical step it could take: making the Magic Trackpad the default pointing device it ships with iMacs and Mac Pros. It’s not doing that–in fact, as far as I can tell, you can’t even order a custom-configured Mac that comes with a Magic Trackpad but no mouse. (You can get one that comes with a mouse and a touchpad.)

I’d be perfectly happy to buy an iMac that came only with a touchpad–although, oddly enough, I’d prefer a corded USB one over one whose batteries I needed to worry about. (Speaking of which, Apple also introduced a $29 AA battery recharger today.) How about you?

Thus, it looks like the company’s next big thing is in accessories, and the two newest products fall under its Ergomotion line. Maxell debuted its laser and optical mice as well as its ergonomic keyboard this week in New York. As the name suggests the ergonomics of this line have to do with motion, and the way the company does it sure is interesting.

Beginning with the mice, the first thing you will notice with them is that they’re almost on a pedestal of sorts. This pedestal allows the mouse itself to be tilted around, which in turn allows users to find the way that is most comfortable to them instead the typical flat-handed hold we have been using to operate our mice for so long.

The real benefit of these mice could be found by standing up. When you’re operating a mouse from that position, your wrist must be bent back unnaturally for long periods of time. With the pedestal, the mouse could be tilted forward slightly, requiring less of that bend on your wrist and thus a more comfortable hold. Maxell argues that this will provide a larger benefit over the standard ergonomic mouse.

Two versions of the mouse are available, an optical and laser model, and will retail for $29.99 and $49.99 USD respectively. The laser version will only come in black, however the optical version is available in grey, blue, red, and purple.

The second Ergomotion product will be the Automatic Motion Keyboard, which will retail for $149.99 USD. While at its heart this keyboard is a standard ergonomic keyboard with the traditional bowed shape, its biggest feature is the fact that it actually moves.

Maxell’s argument for such a feature is this. By changing the shape of the keyboard ever so slightly every hour, it enhances the ergonomics by moving the hands slightly. If a user does find a setting they especially like, Maxell does give the option to stop the keyboard from moving. However, that just seems to defeat the purpose.

This keyboard requires power, so there isn’t a wireless version–it needs to be plugged into a USB port. There is also another downside, at least for Mac users: it’s PC only. The mice will work on either operating system, however.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other animated mice who’d probably be thrilled to have an Apple input device named after them. After the jump, a few nominees.

Then again, Steve Jobs sits on the board of a company that owns the most famous cartoon cheese-eater of them all:

Mickey probably doesn’t work cheap, though, and he’s already done pointing devices. Me, I’m betting it’ll be the Apple Little Roquefort…

View Mouse Trouble slideshow.

Microsoft has been a major PC accessory manufacturer for 25+ years, thanks to the Microsoft Mouse, and its move into the notebook accessory category is a logical extension of its hardware business.

Earlier this month, a Gartner Research report projected that notebook PC shipments would increase approximately 9 percent in 2009 from 2008 despite the worldwide economic downturn’s overall negative effect on global PC shipments.

While its hardware business is benefiting, the netbook trend has hurt Windows client licensing revenue. Microsoft’s diversification is filling its coffers, but it will have to sell a lot of Arc Mouses (Mice?) to make up the difference.

On December 9th, 1968, Stanford Research Institute scientist Douglas Engelbart demonstrated his unique invention–the computer mouse–for the first time in public. It took another decade and a half for it to catch on, but once it did, computing was never the same. And today, it’s hard to imagine using a desktop or laptop computer without a mouse (or one of its latter-day substitutes such as the touchpad). In celebration of the anniversary, here’s a gallery of some of the mightiest mice of the last four decades.