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Bluetooth mouse for Powerbook

P

powerofthekiwi

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 18, 2004
60
0
just ordered my new powerbook last week - oh yeah!!!

now I want to get myself a nice bluetooth mouse for it. I want a regular sized mouse - doesn't have to be super tiny. I was looking at the microsoft's bluetooth mouse (i know, i know...) and it looks pretty nice and I had read the buttons could be configured with expose. Anyone know of any other nice bluetooth mice out right now? Anyone have experience with the microsoft mouse?

things I need: 2 buttons and a scroll whell (sorry apple, I hate you BT mouse!)
 
I'm getting my 15" Powerbook very soon, and I'm going to wait for the MacMice.com bluetooth mouse they are releasing in June. If it gets bad reviews or something, I'm just gonna go with the Logitech one.
 
I bought an Apple BlueTooth Mouse because it looks awesome and I dont need 9 buttons and 2 scroll wheels.

It's quite possibly the best mouse I've used, it fits my hand perfectly and it serves its purpose, in style. :D
 
Huezo said:
I bought an Apple BlueTooth Mouse because it looks awesome and I dont need 9 buttons and 2 scroll wheels.

It's quite possibly the best mouse I've used, it fits my hand perfectly and it serves its purpose, in style. :D
Click to expand...

The problem is that when working in photoshop and FCP that 2nd button is nearly required ands speeds up workflow considerably, at least for me....

that and scroll wheels are great for websites like this one ;)
 
Gherkin said:
I'm getting my 15" Powerbook very soon, and I'm going to wait for the MacMice.com bluetooth mouse they are releasing in June. If it gets bad reviews or something, I'm just gonna go with the Logitech one.
Click to expand...

Same here. I really like all of the MacMice products, and am planning on getting an iBreeze as well as the graphite 2 button scroll wheel mouse this summer.
 
I am eagerly waiting the Bluetooth MacMice, if their past products are any indication- it will be impressive.

June release!

I have the Logitech MX900 with all the buttons, but I wont miss em expose hasnt spoiled me that much hehe :)
 
Phatpat said:
I'd suggest the logitech MX900. It works great and you can configure the buttons in expose.
Click to expand...

hmm... looks nice but it comes with a charging "dock" that works as a bluetooth hub as well, my pbook will already have this built in. my ideal solution would be something i could just pull out and turn on and it would be going, nothing that would need me to "plug in" a dock
 
MacFan26 said:
Macally is also coming out with a BlueTooth mouse, it's listed at $49. I really love the Macally mouse that I have now, which it basically the same as this one, but USB.

edit: link
http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/input_device/btmini.html
Click to expand...

:eek: ooooohhhh.... drool!

I'm definatly waiting for that - It will match my PB perfect, its small, it has an off switch, and it only costs $50!

Hooray! any idea when they'll ship? thanks macfan
 
MacFan26 said:
Macally is also coming out with a BlueTooth mouse, it's listed at $49. I really love the Macally mouse that I have now, which it basically the same as this one, but USB.

edit: link
http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/input_device/btmini.html
Click to expand...

Very nice, but unless it's shipping much earlier than mid-June, I'll wait for the macmice one since I really like the Apple-esque look it has.
 
powerofthekiwi said:
The problem is that when working in photoshop and FCP that 2nd button is nearly required ands speeds up workflow considerably, at least for me....

that and scroll wheels are great for websites like this one ;)
Click to expand...

everything you get used to speeds up the workflow, and that speedup doesn't require more buttons. i don't have a problem in keeping my left index finger on control button of the keyboard, because that's where it rests anyway.

in fact, because i have a powerbook and half of the time am using its trackpad, i've got used to it so much i would in fact now have difficulties using multi-button-scrollwheel kind of rat. my workflow in photoshop is much faster with single-button mouse, because i have absolutely no need to think about what additional buttons do - the 2nd button functionality i have under my left index finger.

but maybe that's just me.

i think single-button is good, because when you need to hit that control button, you know better what you are doing. in my office many windows users [here mac is a minority] ckick a million times and get nothing done, and that's because they don't KNOW what they wish to do and therefore try clicking everything. the clickety-clickety-clickety sound gets sometimes very annoying. me and other mac users rarely click the mouse button, and when we do, something gets done.

[going strictly off topic, but the many-clicks-few-actions mouse behaviour appears strangely in the windows networks also. interestingly. windows network transfers many packages, but getting little throughput. at home where there are only macs, every time the hub flashes, something gets transferred. unix just uses network resources sparingly, unlike windows that says "hi" to other computers every ten seconds.]

so, to summarize: no, you don't get faster workflow by adding more buttons to your mouse. you get faster workflow by knowing better what you are doing.
 
I really like a scroll wheel for internet page nevigation and reading/posting on message boards. However, since I've never seen one-button scroll wheel mouses, I'm going to have to settle for a two+scroll.

After having used windows though, you use both buttons so frequently, that I don't think you could operate the computer using only one button.
 
JFreak said:
but maybe that's just me.
Click to expand...
I use a two button+scroll microsoft optical mouse at work with windows and an Apple Bluetooth mouse on my mac at home. Personally I don't have a problem with either. I can't honestly see why people get so uptight about an extra button.

I do find the Apple mouse a lot more ergonomic - it feels nicer and the whole-mouse-is-the-button idea works for me but a standard mouse is fine as well.
 
stoid said:
I really like a scroll wheel.
Click to expand...

i have also noted that people like it a lot. people actually like it so much they tend to drive the scrollwheel even when it's a lot slower than dragging the scrollbar.

in my office anyway [where there are mostly windows pc:s], people seem to forget the point: scrollwheel was introduced to speed up things, but nowadays it instead slows things down [because people seem to think the scrollwheel is the only way to scroll] and makes people have handaches.

but maybe it's just my office; however, just recently one man got a two-week sick leave because of the almighty scrollwheel. what a great productivity gain by scrollwheel :rolleyes:

remember, by definition mouse is a pointing device. not a scrolling device. you can point what you want to scroll and just do it. a mouse only needs to be able to click and move the pointer. nothing else. i'm glad apple keeps things simple and intuitive.
 
JFreak said:
everything you get used to speeds up the workflow, and that speedup doesn't require more buttons. i don't have a problem in keeping my left index finger on control button of the keyboard, because that's where it rests anyway.

in fact, because i have a powerbook and half of the time am using its trackpad, i've got used to it so much i would in fact now have difficulties using multi-button-scrollwheel kind of rat. my workflow in photoshop is much faster with single-button mouse, because i have absolutely no need to think about what additional buttons do - the 2nd button functionality i have under my left index finger.

but maybe that's just me.

i think single-button is good, because when you need to hit that control button, you know better what you are doing. in my office many windows users [here mac is a minority] ckick a million times and get nothing done, and that's because they don't KNOW what they wish to do and therefore try clicking everything. the clickety-clickety-clickety sound gets sometimes very annoying. me and other mac users rarely click the mouse button, and when we do, something gets done.

[going strictly off topic, but the many-clicks-few-actions mouse behaviour appears strangely in the windows networks also. interestingly. windows network transfers many packages, but getting little throughput. at home where there are only macs, every time the hub flashes, something gets transferred. unix just uses network resources sparingly, unlike windows that says "hi" to other computers every ten seconds.]

so, to summarize: no, you don't get faster workflow by adding more buttons to your mouse. you get faster workflow by knowing better what you are doing.
Click to expand...

I enjoyed reading this post - everyone is always up in arms for multi button mice and this is a very interesting angle to the situation. I believe the last statement you mentioned is most likely true - and how you prefer a one button mouse I simply prefer a multi-button mouse.

Another reason I (and I'm sure many others) enjoy a multi-button mouse w/scroll is for games. Assigning the scroll to "switch" weapons and as alternatate fire in FPS (such as halo) is very very convienient and Black and White requires so much right clicking that a multi-button mouse is almost required.
 
MacFan26 said:
Macally is also coming out with a BlueTooth mouse, it's listed at $49. I really love the Macally mouse that I have now, which it basically the same as this one, but USB.

edit: link
http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/input_device/btmini.html
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that this is a MINI Bluetooth mouse. There is one like this on the market right now that some people think is too small. just sayin...
 
I would probably go with the Apple mouse, I hate the fact that it is only one button and no scroll wheel.

However the Apple mouse can be turned off. I am not sure if the Microsoft one or the Logitech one has an off switch on it for when you put it in your bag.

Anyone have the answer to this??
 
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