Bluetooth mouse showdown
One of the great things about Apple’s laptops is the integrated bluetooth, which allows, amongst other things, for easy syncronization with phones and PDAs, simple files transfers, and the use of wireless peripherals like headsets and mice.
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Shortly after I bought my PowerBook about two years ago, I started looking for a suitable mouse. The selection at the time was slim, but I finally decided on DV Forge’s The Mouse BT (now built and sold by Chwang Yi). I mainly decided on this model based on the smooth scroll wheel, and the fact that the design matched that of Apple’s own bluetooth mouse closely while adding a right button and middle button / scroll wheel.
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p>While the tracking and scrolling on The Mouse BT have been flawless, and reconnection after sleep / losing the bluetooth connection is pretty fast, there have been two substantial flaws that started annoying me increasingly over the last months: battery life seems extremely short, and button clicks often trigger the other button as well. This is due to the single-piece top case of the mouse. I can only speak for my particular model, but if I click solidly on the left button, the right button will also be depressed. While this may not immediately seem like a problem, it becomes a real hassle when you start using things like Firefox’s wonderful Mouse Gestures plugin.
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p>Chwang Yi’s site says that The Mouse BT has undergone constant improvement since its release two years ago, but they make reference only to the bluetooth wireless performance, not the physical build quality issues.
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p>When looking at the current offerings, I was surprised to find there was still very little available. Both Microsoft and Logitech didn’t seem to offer anything compelling, although Logi is selling the basic V270.
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The smallest mouse I could find was IOGEAR’s Bluetooth Optical Mini Mouse. Aside from the size, it also has a smooth-scrolling wheel and rechargeable AAA batteries. The batteries can be charged in the mouse using the included USB cable, even while the mouse is in use.
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p>Solid features aside, the primary feature is also the biggest drawback: the size. I liked the mouse overall, although the design isn’t exactly inspiring, but the mouse is so narrow that any extended use is painful – my wrist started stinging after just 20 minutes.
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p>My next attempt was Microsoft’s IntelliMouse Explorer for Bluetooth. Unlike many other BT mice, Microsoft’s offering came complete with a bluetooth dongle for use with computers that do not have integrated bluetooth wireless — a nice touch, since such an adapter can cost up to $60 if purchased alone.
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p>Feature-wise, this again looked like a great choice: sidescrolling wheel / middle button, and two additional buttons on the left side if the mouse, which can easily be mapped to OS X’s Expose, for example.
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p>Although Microsoft makes no mention of this, and it was hard to find any information elsewhere online as well, I can confirm that the IntelliMouse does in fact work under Mac OS X and is recognized without the need for any software installation.
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p>Unfortunately, the MS mouse had its drawbacks as well: although I didn’t have the mouse long enough to test battery life properly, the lack of rechargeable batteries just doesn’t seem up-to-date. Worse though, tracking performance was simply miserable. I was actually quite surprised. Although this is one of the older bluetooth products available, tracking speed/resolution was unacceptable, and when coming out of sleep mode, the mouse would react erratically.
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Now close to simply settling with my existing The Mouse BT, I decided to give it one more go and picked up Macally’s BTMICRO, and I’m very glad I did. Although this is also a miniature formfactor mouse, it’s nearly twice as wide as IOgear’s, and I experienced none of the wrist pain or fatigue. The mouse also comes with rechargeable batteries as well as a charging cradle. Tracking speed is excellent, and the buttons have a solid feel. The scrollwheel is of the clieking variety, which I had no problem adjusting to. My only complaint is that clicking the middle button requires a little more pressure than I would prefer, but overall, I am very happy with this mouse, and will be using it full-time now.
