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Bluetooth mouse. Will it eat up my MacBook's battery?

A

amiskwia

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 1, 2007
24
0
Seville - Spain
Hello everyone! This is my first thread on MacRumors, and I wanted to say that this is a great forum with lots of info for us newbies.

I have finally decided to become a switcher and leave the PC world behind. My first mac is on it's way and while I am (anxiously) waiting for my Santa Rosa MacBook, I am looking for a suitable mouse. As the MB only has two USB ports I was thinking along the line of a Bluetooth mouse. But this brings many questions regarding the use of one.

How will it affect the battery of the MB? Will usage time be noticeably decreased?
Do the mouse and MB pair automatically everytime I turn the Mac on? Or do I have to pair them each time?
Can I use the BT mouse and a BT headset at the same time?
Will the mouse work perfectly under WinXP in BootCamp?

I know that's a fair number of questions, but I would greatly appreciate any answers or opinions.
Thanks for your help.
 
Not related to using a bluetooth mouse in particular, but having bluetooth (or wireless networking etc) turned on does result in slightly heavier battery usage. However, I wouldn't worry too much about it - you should still get 4 hours ish unless you're running heavy-weight applications (high processor and drive usage also affect battery life).
 
amiskwia said:
How will it affect the battery of the MB? Will usage time be noticeably decreased?
Click to expand...
There will be a decrease due to having bluetooth on. You'll probably lose around 10-20 mins off your run time.

amiskwia said:
Do the mouse and MB pair automatically everytime I turn the Mac on? Or do I have to pair them each time?
Click to expand...

Yes they will pair automatically. Unless you repair in windows (read below)

amiskwia said:
Can I use the BT mouse and a BT headset at the same time?
Click to expand...

Yes, i can't remember the max amount of devices you can have on bluetooth at one time but it's more than 7!

amiskwia said:
Will the mouse work perfectly under WinXP in BootCamp?
Click to expand...

Yes but you'll have to re-pair it and this will kill the pairing in OSX. (I'm not positive on this one but that's what i find when using my BT keyboard on my mac!)
 
TBi said:
Yes they will pair automatically. Unless you repair in windows (read below)

Yes but you'll have to re-pair it and this will kill the pairing in OSX. (I'm not positive on this one but that's what i find when using my BT keyboard on my mac!)
Click to expand...

Actually, my BT mouse keeps its pairing with XP and Leopard simultaneously in Parallels, or automatically on reboots. Never had a problem. (Logitech, BTW, I think the v200)
 
firstly congrats on the purchase! "once you got mac, you never go back". ive got a bluetooth (BT) mighty mouse with my macbook pro and heres what i think.

- using the macbook with bluetooth turned on will only shorten the battery life by a little bit. hardly noticeable. the bluetooth mighty mouse only uses its battery power when you move it or click. im not sure about other BT mice.
- once you pair your mouse with the macbook for the first time you wont have to pair it again. when you start up or resume from a sleep the mouse is accessible instantly.
- not sure about using a BT headset at the same time as the BT mouse. but i assume you can as you can add multiple devices in bluetooth prefs in the system prefs.
- BT mice work fine in boot camp. the boot camp drivers allow you to add BT devices. but it takes a little bit for windows to "see" the mouse after you startup though. you have to move it around and click until its accessible.
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
Actually, my BT mouse keeps its pairing with XP and Leopard simultaneously in Parallels, or automatically on reboots. Never had a problem. (Logitech, BTW, I think the v200)
Click to expand...

Parallels != Bootcamp.

However it's been a while since i did it so apple might have fixed the drivers!
 
richthomas said:
parallels keeps the BT mouse pair albeit in boot camp you have to wait a little for BT mice to pair. see my post above
Click to expand...

Windows running in parallels nevers sees the mouse as BT. It sees a virtual mouse created by parallels. So that should never ever be an issue (unless you tell parallels to assign/redirect the BT controller to the virtualised windows).

Under bootcamp it is a totally different issue and it seems apple might have finally fixed it.
 
TBi said:
There will be a decrease due to having bluetooth on. You'll probably lose around 10-20 mins off your run time.
Click to expand...
Ok, that is perfectly acceptable. 10 or 20 minutes out of 4 hours is like 5%, I'd say barely noticeable.

TBi said:
Yes, i can't remember the max amount of devices you can have on bluetooth at one time but it's more than 7!
Click to expand...
That's great. That way I'll be able to use my Skype headset and the mouse.

Thanks for yor help!
 
richthomas said:
- once you pair your mouse with the macbook for the first time you wont have to pair it again. when you start up or resume from a sleep the mouse is accessible instantly.
Click to expand...
I'm glad to hear that. I imagined that would be the case, because having to pair each time would be very annoying. But just wanted to make sure.

richthomas said:
- BT mice work fine in boot camp. the boot camp drivers allow you to add BT devices. but it takes a little bit for windows to "see" the mouse after you startup though. you have to move it around and click until its accessible.
Click to expand...
Perfect. After all, since it's my first mac, I suspect I'll have to use WinXP a bit at first untill I get used to OS X.

Thanks for your help!
 
richthomas said:
no way man! jump straight into OS X its the only way to learn it properly. if you have any questions you can always ask the friendly members of macrumors.
Click to expand...

No kidding. I predict you'll use XP for a couple of days and then give up, unless there's an app. you absolutely have to use.

Anyway, we know the minimum pairing number is at least 2, because one can certainly have a keyboard and mouse both bluetooth. The devices themselves may be limited, however (for example, headsets often can be paired to only one device at a time).
 
amiskwia said:
Well, I've decided that a bluetooth mouse is the way to go, so now I have to decide wich one.
I am debating between Logitech V470 and Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000.
Are there any other BT mice I should consider? I don't like the Mighty Mouse, so that's not an option.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have the V470 since two weeks and I really like it, the design fits perfect to my Macbook and it works great. I can definitely recommend it
 
cvahl said:
I have the V470 since two weeks and I really like it, the design fits perfect to my Macbook and it works great. I can definitely recommend it
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip. I was already favoring the V470 because I really like Logitech products, I have used many of them in the past and always had good results.
 
I can't speak to their Bluetooth-interfaced offerings specifically, but I am a big fan of Logitech, and have been for the last couple decades.

It goes without saying make sure it's a laser-based optical mouse, since the tracking, stability, and surface compatibility is much, much improved over standard optical mice.

And yeah, I'd have to agree about Apple's Mighty Mouse. They don't make very many dud products, but that sure is one of them. No way I'd ever own one!
 
MikeTheC said:
It goes without saying make sure it's a laser-based optical mouse, since the tracking, stability, and surface compatibility is much, much improved over standard optical mice.
Click to expand...
I hadn't checked that, as I didn't know there were different types of optical mice. Fortunately it seems the V470 is indeed laser-based :)
Thanks for your help.
 
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