I love my PowerBook. Up till now I've been using the trackpad almost exclusively (and like it), but sometimes a mouse is good too. Since getting my PowerBook I wanted a wireless optical 3-button scroll-wheel mouse that was small enough for travel but reasonably sized for full time use. I also wanted it to use the builtin Bluetooth so I didn't have a separate dongle connected to a USB port.
Those requirements proved difficult. The Mouse BT was the leading contender but reportedly had tracking problems. Apple has long been rumored to be producing a multi-button mouse, but I'm tired of waiting. The Logitech V500 Cordless Notebook Mouse is very cool but there's no middle mouse button and I'd still need a dongle.
I bought the Kensington PilotMouse Mini Bluetooth at buy.com. They had a sale and I got it for $53 delivered, better than the $70 list + tax I could have gotten it for at my local Apple Store. It arrived Tuesday. I'm still amazed that I knew it arrived not by hearing the doorbell or seeing it on the front porch but by looking at the PackageTracker Dashboard Widget and seeing that its status was delivered. I opened the front door and found the package sitting there. There's something wrong with that.
So how is the mouse? It's great so far. The size is good, small yet perfectly usable. The Bluetooth connection works great with minimal setup. It seems to track well except on a desktop surface I have nothing seems to track on (need a mouse pad there but not on other tables). I haven't had it long enough to comment on battery (2 AAs) life. The mouse goes to sleep to save the batteries and a right click wakes it up and the PowerBook notices it fine. It came with Alkaline batteries but no case, which doesn't bother me.
I did have one glitch. I read manuals. This one was small enough and most of it was about setup on Windows which I could skip. A section said specifically for a Mac I could download their driver, MouseWorks, for "additional button programmability". I downloaded and installed it and it did nothing. A bit of digging and I found it was not supported for the PilotMouse Bluetooth Mini. So why was it in the manual? And yes the manual was only for this product, not for several similar ones. I should just stop reading manuals.
Anyway, very good product. If the battery life turns out to be good I'd call it great.
2 comments:
Instead of sitting at your computer and watching the package tracker, you could have been watching The Godfather Part 2. We are all waiting for your review.
Drumroll.... here it is MightyMouse!
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