I’ve seen some awkward-looking mouse designs, but these Japanese guys won’t give it up that easy. Actbrise Electronics put together a series of three mouse concepts that are making quite a big impact on the Asian market.

First is the “Jupiter” mouse, made from wood and is named so for its resemblance with the largest planet of our Solar system. The wood grain swirls and the buttons imitate the gaseous and weather features of the giant planet. Apart from the non-conventional spherical design of this series, the devices function in a different way, too. Actually this design is more of a suspended joystick, the cursor moves in a particular direction and velocity according to the tilt of the ball.

Not impressed with wood and planets? Actbrise also recommend the heavily blinged Deco mouse and the stainless steel Escher flavor.

The Jupiter mouse from Actbrise is hand made in Japan’s rural Gunma prefecture. It costs $137. The Escher mouse costs $88 and is available for Macs as well. Finally, the Deco flavor is priced between $124 and $153. Hey, are those real diamonds?

Here you have an example of how it works.

How about a life-saver mouse? Actually it’s more of a job-saver kind. When working for some obscure company, it’s not that awkward to go ahead and search for your next career, especially if you can’t stand the boss or some freaky colleagues. Or you might consider that every now and then you deserve a break from all those pesky assignments and you figure a short clip or even something a little bit nastier would cheer you up. But things don’t always turn out to be that simple, as the boss could crash your party anytime. That’s when the USB Smart Privacy Mouse can come in handy.

OK, it’s sort of an average mouse, but it has an interesting feature: the “secret” button, which can be configured to hide the current displayed window, all displayed windows or all but the ones defined by user. This means that all those programs that are quite private for you, are instantly hidden and replaced with some some other “decent” programs that wouldn’t jeopardize you immaculate employee image. So your boss sees that big report that you’ve been working so eagerly on and walks away thinking you are doing a hell of a job, while you live to fight another day.

Want to buy this thing? Check this page out. The “smarty pants” mouse sells for only $19.99.

Razer is mostly known for its top quality gaming peripherals. If you are looking for the best gaming mice, you should be taking a look at what Razer has to offer. However, the guys over at Razer thought that their entry-level array was poorly represented and decided to showcase a less sophisticated design at CeBIT 2008.

Codenamed Salmosa, this entry-level mouse is not your average mouse in any case. It might not be too precise, but it has a 1800 dpi 3G infrared sensor clocked at 1000Hz, making for 1 ms response time. Not bad at all. It even has a mechanical dpi/polling rate switch that allows users to adjust the sensitivity on-the-fly. So far, it doesn’t look to be an entry-level peripheral at all.And that’s not all. It has an always-on mode for those who don’t like the brief latencies when not moving the mouse for a while. Comfortable non-slip large buttons can fit any hand size and it also has a ambidextrous design.

Here are some more specifications:

* 16-bit ultra-wide data path

* 60-120 inches per second

* Three independently programmable Hyperesponse buttons

* Scroll wheel with 24 individual click positions

* Zero-acoustic Ultraslick Teflon feet

* Seven-foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord

* Approximate size: 115mm (length) x 63mm (width) x 37mm (height)

Razer claims that Salmosa is the lightest input device in its class and it should be available worldwide in Q3 2008 for about $40 in the USA and €30 in the EU.