Bluetooth mouse for Powerbook?

Check out Macmice - there was a reference to one that has just been anounced -

Derek

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Bluetooth seems pointless on a mouse to me when RF is just as good and cheaper.

Logitech make the best, if not the cheapest, optical mice and the new laser powered one sounds ace.

Matthew

I don't know if Bluetooth is pointless for mice, Matthew - it's in the laptop, whereas RF isn't (thus requiring some kind of adaptor, no doubt). I liked the look of the Logitech MX700 (I think it was) but it has no mention of OSX compatibility and I wondered whether the base-station/charger (which has the Bluetooth receiver) can be turned onto charge-only (as I expect it might conflict with the integrated Bluetooth). Ah, maybe I'll just say 'sod it' and get a wired USB mouse and be done with it

Macmice? Is that a website or a company? I'll do a search and have a look...

Ta,

John

John,

This probably is the mouse Derek means.

By the way, if matching the aesthetic of your Mac isn't an issue, an optical Logitech mouse is the way to go as Matthew noted. Macmice mice are about twice the price but they aren't twice as good -- they just look nicer.

Joe

Joe - Yes that is the one - I do not know if it has reached our shores yet - I bought the USB version yessterday - productivity shot up immediately

TC - a good starter for looking for Mc compatible hardware is at the

Apple site Made4MAC

Derek

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Hmmmm... interesting indeed. I've had a good surf around now and reckon that I might just forgo the Bluetooth (as I am going to be using this with a Powerbook and therefore fairly close to it) and perhaps even forgo wireless connectivity entirely*.

I'm now looking at the MX510 which is corded, optical but well regarded. It has that all-important central scroll wheel and is Mac compatible. I love the idea of the MX Laser mouse, but am put off by the fact that I'd have to lug its charger around which would be a nuisance as I carry the PB around in a fairly small Quicksilver carry bag.

Anyone using the 510? What do you think of it? Any problems?

John

* wireless seemed like a good idea but only if I could do it with minimal extra bits. Though I think they'd be perfect for a desktop, I can't spare the space in my bag for anything too big, yet I wasn't convinced by the styling of the MacMouse. The Logitechs I have seen before (in a PC World, for my sins) and I liked them then.

The corded Macmouse works - you can d/l an additional driver to get control over the speed of all the actions.

And it is an comfortable as the original Mac mouse or not

Derek

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Get the macmouse jobbie very good fun.

Otherwise yes the range of logitech is very good however the software blows badly. OSX will work with it anyway but for a full range of options download the excellent USBoverdrive which costs a few bob its the best out there however as it allows you set buttons for each and every application it is a must!

Mat because I am soft in the head I got the MX1000 and yes it is Ace.

Gary,

Price is as ever a consideration - £30 for the corded MX510 - and I could always relegate it to PC use for any of those occasional and reluctant forays back to the world of Bill.

I take it that OSX wouldn't see any more than the two main buttons and the wheel without additional software (such as the USBoverdrive app you mention)?

All I really need is 'twa buttons an a wee wheel' - the rest would be a bonus but not that important.

John

Topcat it depends very much on what functionality you want. USBoverdrive for instance will allow the two side buttons on an MX700 control back and forwards in Safari and then zoom in and out in Photoshop, this is very handy.

The logitech software is infact not rubbish, its just very limited, so if you did plumb for logitech you would be OK with the supplied software.

TBH I am not sure of OSX would see other buttons on a mouse, but things such as games will do.

Hmmmm... I might take the plunge anyway. £30 isn't a fortune for a mouse - my first ever mouse was an AMX Mark 2 (little plastic grey thing with three buttons and a stainless steel ball) and I think it cost £100+ back in 1985 or 1986...

...and since then I've stuck by MS mice (or variants) for the PC and been reasonably happy. However, perhaps the time has come to get something more worthy!

John

PS. FAO Garyi: Looking for a really good, syntax-highlighting programmer's text editor - for my new PHP, CSS and MySQL project ("ASP.NET is so passé") - I've downloaded Eclipse, but it's pretty slow - any recommendations for a decent, inexpensive, native OSX option? BBEdit would be great if it weren't so damned pricy...

John,

Here's another contender for a corded, optical mouse if swanky design matters to you. The designer of the mouse is so cool that his name includes a non-alpha character -- a + sign -- so you know it's got to be the business.

√Ø€

[This message was edited by Joe Petrik on Thu 21 October 2004 at 14:52.]

Is there nothing in the developers toolkit Topcat, I have to be honest and say I don't understand any of that stuff.

√Ø€, interesting design. However, I'm wary of 'design for its own sake' ever since that unfortunate incident with the corkscrew*.

Garyi, don't think so: I've been fighting it out with vim (the unix editor based on vi, not the detergent) but vim is winning, and my patience is running out...

¥ô#^

The designer formerly known as "Starck", is so cool that he allegedly has a Harley-Davidson stashed in every major capital in the world. All with same key.

It's UNIX so that must mean EMACS

Matthew

Nah, I'm trying to get away from obscure key commands and back to what the Mac does best: i.e. mouse-orientated interfaces...

Emacs is just too much work for a lazy John...

Emacs hard work too much like, as Yoda said would have.

Too many cryptic key combinations and I am really thinking of a GUI-based, Carbon-or-Cocoa text editor...

Emacs I'm sure is where it's at for console-based text editors, but... but...

JOhn

Have you looked on

Version Tracker

Which lists many Mac applications

eg

Text Edit PLus for example

Derek

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Hi Derek, thanks for the link. I'll go and have a look. I've decided to take my chances with the Logitech, as it is less than I was expecting to have to spend and seems universally praised. £30 inc. P&P seems fair for something which could change the way I use my Mac!

Thanks everyone,

John

garyi - didn't you have a nice new Logitech MX700 when you showed us all pictures of your lovely new screen? .... And now you tell us you've got a MX1000?? ....you Mouselut you!

Actually, I've found the Logitech designs seem to be giving me a bit of RSI in my thumb, & was going to join your debate with this nugget when yours cleared up.

Me, I'm such a cheapskate that I'm adjusting to living with crumbling carpal tunnels because I'm too tight to buy a FOURTH mouse in about two years. It gradually dawned on me that my Outrageous Faggage [45+ a day ] was the root of the problem. Mousing with an eternal flame-stylee Superking in the right hand was encouraging sticky nicotine goo to seep into the mouse's leaf switches and make them go all peculiar - hence the MX700, which doesn't have buttons on top as such for nasty tar to get into.

Fortunately as an 11 week non-smoker, I'm no longer worried by such things, - if I need a bit of worry now, I just play with my stomach and impersonate various types of loaf with it, which eliminates awkward silences at some social gatherings, and induces them in others.

The problem is that Logitech mice are so deep - I prefer a flatter mouse, but it must have forward & back buttons, which I really can't live without anymore - otherwise I would have snapped up the MS Starck [IMO a very good designer, in spite of the posturing] at once. Roll on Minority Report style leaping about, which would eliminate both RSI and stomach loaf impressionas at a stroke.

throb

Throb - do not let your Carpel Tunnel problem hang around - get it seen to - the delay in the NHS is quite long so get on the queue now - by the time they get round to treating you you may have lost sensory and motor function - probably for good.

Derek

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On the editor question, there's an OS X version of Visual Slickedit, many moons ago I used the Windows version when I had to do some Windows coding, it was pretty good. Not cheap though.

What's wrong with emacs anyway? ;-)

-- Ian

As far as the RSI goes it went.

Sorry but I can't blame the mouse as it has totally gone now, I must have slpet on it funny.