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Bluetooth Batteries?

Re: What about a cord that winds up?

Originally posted by bhayek3
I think it would be really cool if the mouse or the keyboard had like a button that you pused and it wound up automaticlly like a cord thing on a vaccume.
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A mouse with a retractable cord is available, but its not exactly stylish. Also, by having to house the cable, you end up with a bigger mouse. I'll stick with the wireless ones.

http://www.logitech.com/cf/products/productoverview.cfm/3443
 

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USB Charger

Originally posted by madamimadamtimallen


Let me put it to you this way, iPod takes 3 hours to fully charge doesn't it (I did not bother looking up the fact just threw in what I thought was correct) and FireWire has far more power than USB. Therefore, if iPod was on USB, how long do you think it would take to charge? I would not imagine that there would be too much difference in battery charge time between an iPod and a BlueTooth device battery. So, working on that basis, do you really think that Apple would release something that takes that long to charge?
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I think they would make something that might charge while you sleep, for example. Trickle charge in a little dock.

Even if the amount of power is the same between iPod and any bluetooth device, there is no need for it to be plugged into firewire for its juice. What if it were more like the power needs of a remote control? Or a Cellphone? The way I watch TV, its almost like typing. I change the batteries in a remote perhaps once a year. A cellphone can die fairly quickly during airtime, but its signal strength has to reach a tower that may be miles away during that time, not something across the room. On standby, a cellphone can last a week or more.

If you are so desparate that you need your mouse and keyboard right away, and the battery is dead, it would probably double as a USB keyboard under such dire circumstances. And if you have a firewire port you can afford to use as a 'quick charger' you probably have some other handy source of electricity as well that could pump it with juice everybit as quickly.
 
Re: USB Charger

Originally posted by Wry Cooter
If you are so desparate that you need your mouse and keyboard right away, and the battery is dead, it would probably double as a USB keyboard under such dire circumstances. And if you have a firewire port you can afford to use as a 'quick charger' you probably have some other handy source of electricity as well that could pump it with juice everybit as quickly.
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You saying that most PowerBook and iBook users use their FireWire ports all the time and that, if they don't, they carry around portable generators?
 
Re: Re: USB Charger

Originally posted by madamimadamtimallen


You saying that most PowerBook and iBook users use their FireWire ports all the time and that, if they don't, they carry around portable generators?
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No.

Its good that firewire CAN power something such as an external drive. That doesn't mean firewire should be the first place to turn to charge your PDA, keyboard, mouse or cell phone. Its a communications port, not a electrical outlet.
 
Re: Re: Re: USB Charger

Originally posted by Wry Cooter


No.

Its good that firewire CAN power something such as an external drive. That doesn't mean firewire should be the first place to turn to charge your PDA, keyboard, mouse or cell phone. Its a communications port, not a electrical outlet.
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And, working on the factor that Apple tries to minimise cables and powerpoints, where would you charge the battery?
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: USB Charger

Originally posted by madamimadamtimallen



And, working on the factor that Apple tries to minimise cables and powerpoints, where would you charge the battery?
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One way they minimize cables is by having cables serve a dual function. If that cable is ideal for sending pictures to a monitor, highbandth data to or from storage or capture devices, or low bandwidth data from input devices, there is the monitor cable, the firewire cable, and the USB cable respectively.

One could possibly charge a PalmPilot by hooking it up to a powered monitor cable, but it wouldn't be a terribly elegant solution. One might have to unplug the monitor. But boy does it recharge fast!

Perhaps they could create a wireless power source by putting your quotes in a hamster cage, because they represent a perpetual motion circular argument, to create the Apple iTroll Tesla Coil Negative field charged response generator. Although totally wireless, it requires 6 firewire cables and an *******. Or someone with poor reading comprehension and too much time on their hands.

My bets are that if you want a bluetooth mouse or keyboard to recharge via firewire, rather than using some other source of power, either trickling from USB overnight, or some other sort of wall wart, you will have to build your own. Thing is, these wireless keyboards will not have to be charged THAT often or THAT quickly in most cases. Probably not too many people using firewire to charge cellphones or PDAs either. Firewire does make sense charging something with considerable bandwidth needs and high power needs- Charging on the same port the item is connecting and sending data on.

There have been solar powered PowerBooks. You could use the sun to power your Powerbook battery to power your firewire circuit to recharge your bluetooth keyboard that for some odd reason won't connect to USB although the bandwidth is more ideal for USB than firewire, because your Notebook not only never needs electricity, it doesn't have any AC adapted to DC source input at all, except this mythical powerbook can charge by firewire, apparently in some minds, the standard Apple created for charging batteries.
 
Wirelessly Rechard

Hey All. Long time lurker here. But i wanted to post this because i remembered something that may be useful here. Remember not too long ago when doctors put the first artificial heart in a human again after like twenty years? This new heart was all self contained. Its internal battery was recharged through the skin by placing some sort of power charging unit over the skin. I don't know exactly how it works, but the point is...it's wirelessly rechargable. Could this somehow or the other find its way into new mice/keyboards?
 
Re: Wirelessly Rechard

Originally posted by Trebor
Hey All. Long time lurker here. But i wanted to post this because i remembered something that may be useful here. Remember not too long ago when doctors put the first artificial heart in a human again after like twenty years? This new heart was all self contained. Its internal battery was recharged through the skin by placing some sort of power charging unit over the skin. I don't know exactly how it works, but the point is...it's wirelessly rechargable. Could this somehow or the other find its way into new mice/keyboards?
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That is VERY possible and about 1 million times cooler but sounds FAR to expensive.

I'm gonna dream though
:)
 
Wireless recharging is quite simple actually using RF and/or microwaves. But power supply and battery still need to be relatively close. This means it would still be a caddy of somesort, not across the desktop, or across the room.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USB Charger

Originally posted by Wry Cooter
Perhaps they could create a wireless power source by putting your quotes in a hamster cage, because they represent a perpetual motion circular argument, to create the Apple iTroll Tesla Coil Negative field charged response generator. Although totally wireless, it requires 6 firewire cables and an *******. Or someone with poor reading comprehension and too much time on their hands.
Click to expand...
Am I the only person lurking around who finds watching smelly teenagers getting worked up over Bluetooth mice so inexplicably amusing? There are starving children in the world, and you zit-faced tossers are having a ruck over, of all things, Bluetooth computer peripherals. Go get drunk or something, wankers.

Alex
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USB Charger

Originally posted by alex_ant

Am I the only person lurking around who finds watching smelly teenagers getting worked up over Bluetooth mice so inexplicably amusing? There are starving children in the world, and you zit-faced tossers are having a ruck over, of all things, Bluetooth computer peripherals. Go get drunk or something, wankers.

Alex
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Couldn't have said it better myself.
 
I reckon that rechargeable mouses and keyboards aren't really needed. I'd rather see an Apple-branded multi-button mouse. I really can't see the need for a wireless keyboard though.

-Dreg-
 
Originally posted by mmmdreg
I reckon that rechargeable mouses and keyboards aren't really needed. I'd rather see an Apple-branded multi-button mouse. I really can't see the need for a wireless keyboard though.

-Dreg-
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I generally find that the extension cord that came with my G4 is MORE than enough to last all situations with my keyboard and I RARELY have trouble with my mouse. On the other hand, I am always up for bringing in a cool new product to do things slightly differently.
 
Originally posted by madamimadamtimallen


I generally find that the extension cord that came with my G4 is MORE than enough to last all situations with my keyboard and I RARELY have trouble with my mouse. On the other hand, I am always up for bringing in a cool new product to do things slightly differently.
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I have been in a situation where wireless keyboard could have come in handy... moving about... no desk yet no real computer furniture for weeks at a time. I have had macs set up on coffee tables, and on top of dressers and have sometimes been over six feet away from the monitor while typing (If the only seat around is a couch or bed, you tend to want to put your feet up) I don't think wireless keyboards are the be all end all, but I would very possibly purchase one if available.
 
Re: Re: dear AmbitiousLemon

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
all i can say is you are wrong. period. you can check product descriptions and will find they last many months (some up to a year) and you could even use one and see for yourself how long it lasts. guess what? they last over 6 months. but i should say these are modern models. i have knowledge or experience with old wireless mice (this stuff has been out for many years).
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I have a black IBM desktop computer that I bought. It runs a 200 Mhz MMX processor. I bought it when it was top of the top of the line.

It came with a wireless mouse. I've used, or my wife has used, that computer since my second year of law school. (1996 until now), and I've only replaced the battery once.

I know the battery wasn't anything special, but it lasted for a long long time, and it never was recharged. I think it was 1 or 2 AAA batteries, and they lasted wireless that whole time.
 
Re: Re: Re: dear AmbitiousLemon

Originally posted by mcrain


I have a black IBM desktop computer that I bought. It runs a 200 Mhz MMX processor. I bought it when it was top of the top of the line.

It came with a wireless mouse. I've used, or my wife has used, that computer since my second year of law school. (1996 until now), and I've only replaced the battery once.

I know the battery wasn't anything special, but it lasted for a long long time, and it never was recharged. I think it was 1 or 2 AAA batteries, and they lasted wireless that whole time.
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If I bought a machine like that, my batteries would still be full.... why.... because I wouldn't EVER use it.
;)
 
I was just wathing TechTV and seen a boot with a sensor in its heel that could generate power by waling on the heel if Apple could put the sensors under each key and in the mouse click it would charge my Mouse and keyboard I am alway on my Mac.
 
Originally posted by iGAV
Wellllllll........

If the batteries can last 1.5 months per charge then that is pretty good..... the same with the keyboard...... if it's this amount of usage I could probably use it......:p

What happens though (sorry I'm not upto speed on Bluetooth yet) if you have more than one mac, all with bluetooth and using wireless keyboards... they wouldn't interfere with each other would they?? Or would it be dependant on range?? or is there a imited amount of macs you could have together???

Just wondering.....:D
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chances are you would plug in the keyboard/mouse to the comp the first time you use it and that would tell the comp the keyboard/mouse's serial number, so they wouldn't interfere. Comp 1 would respond to keyboard 1 and mouse 1, not keyboard 2 and mouse 2 because it's set up to listen to keyboard and mouse 1
 
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