This is one of the most over-hyped Microsoft products in years, so the most important thing to explain up front is that it's not a phone, or a time machine, or any of the other things that people might have speculated after the company's hardware group started posting teasers about a new device a few weeks ago.

It is the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse, and at long last, the company is putting us out of our misery by announcing it today. It's a new type of travel mouse, not a desktop mouse. Despite the use of "touch" in the name, it's actually not a direct competitor to Apple's fully touch-enabled Magic Mouse, although Microsoft is hinting that it still might have one of those in the works.

The left and right buttons on the Arc Touch Mouse are not-touch sensitive, but between them is a touch-sensitive strip that approximates the effect (and the sound) of a physical scroll wheel.

But the most interesting part is the bendable tail. It lets the mouse go flat for portability, and then curve and snap into a more mouse-like form for use on a tabletop. The neat trick is that the tail is also a switch, as well, turning the battery-powered mouse off when flat, and on when curved.

Flicking a finger up or down on the scroll strip moves the screen at the pace of the flick, and tapping stops the scroll. Tapping the top of the strip provides a page-up function, and tapping the bottom is page-down. The middle area of the strip can also be tapped and customized for whatever function the user prefers, using the software that works with the mouse on Windows PCs.

Microsoft says the mouse will ship in early December in the U.S., in time for the holiday season, with broader availability starting in January. It will retail for $69.95.

The company is positioning this as a portable travel mouse, and that's smart. It's definitely not up for being an everyday desktop mouse for hours of daily use. After using it for the past couple days, I was longing to get back to the bigger buttons and form of my traditional desktop mouse. That said, for more limited use with a laptop, it's at least worth considering as a replacement for one of those tiny travel mice.

The mouse works with in conjunction with a nano-tranceiver that plugs into a USB port and also sticks to the magnetized underside of the foldable tail. The hardware works on Windows and Macs, although the software for customizing the settings is Windows-only.