[MacMaui]

Aloha,

My new 900mhz combo drive ibook should be arriving next week. I need suggestions for decent 2 button (3 is ok also) mouse with scroll wheel that works well with the ibook. Doesn't have to be an ultra portable mouse, a normal sized mouse will do.

The priority is inexpensive, functional, and as Mac OSX friendly as possible.

Are all USB mice plug and play on Macs? Or do you have to download drivers? Is that difficult to do?

I've seen threads for "the best" mouse, but I don't really need a big 5 button one.

Thanks!

[-Q-]

You'll probably have better luck in the peripheral forum. Logitech and Kensington seem to be the big favorites.

[nredman]

i have an old intellimouse optical from microsoft ...has worked great for me ever since i got it...

[Ryøkan]

I'm very happy with Logitech's optical mouse. I've got one on an iBook 500, and another on a CRT iMac. Works fine with OS X.

The scroll wheel is also a button. Program it for "Control + Click" and it opens links in a new Tab in Safari. Very convenient. (Programming the buttons is very easy.)

Some people like the wireless -- but then you have to replace batteries.

[MilkmanDan]

Look at the wireless mice. Some are really ncie with very small adaptors. It seems to work for my roomie and his 12in Powerbook.

[biscuit]

Well I was going to post about the optical mouse at MacMice , but it seems to have disappeared! This thing was cool, had a tilting action for two buttons and a glowing scroll-wheel. Should've got one while I had the chance. The MiniMouse they have now is horrible.

BTW, OSX supports all two-button, scroll-wheel mice without drivers. Anything else needs drivers, but they should be in the box with it methinks.

biscuit

edit: Here's a link to a thread featuring said mouse.

[MacMaui]

Originally posted by biscuit:
Well I was going to post about the optical mouse at MacMice , but it seems to have disappeared! This thing was cool, had a tilting action for two buttons and a glowing scroll-wheel. Should've got one while I had the chance. The MiniMouse they have now is horrible.

BTW, OSX supports all two-button, scroll-wheel mice without drivers. Anything else needs drivers, but they should be in the box with it methinks.

biscuit

edit: Here's a link to a thread featuring said mouse.

Thanks all for the ideas.....

Biscuit,

Yeah, that is strange, the MacMice regular sized Mouse was only on sale for a month or two.

The Logitech Optical Mouse at $17.99 would've done nicely. However, Amazon has the Kensington Pocket Pro Wireless on sale for $38.99 thus I've decided to splurge a bit!

[-Q-]

Originally posted by MacMaui:
The Logitech Optical Mouse at $17.99 would've done nicely. However, Amazon has the Kensington Pocket Pro Wireless on sale for $38.99 thus I've decided to splurge a bit!

Budget that extra savings for the batteries you'll need to replace.

[MacMaui]

Originally posted by -Q-:
Budget that extra savings for the batteries you'll need to replace.

Could be, could be. However, that was one of the things that I liked about the Kensington, it has a power saving feature where the mouse shuts off when not in use. So hopefully it won't be too bad......

[-Q-]

Originally posted by MacMaui:
Could be, could be. However, that was one of the things that I liked about the Kensington, it has a power saving feature where the mouse shuts off when not in use. So hopefully it won't be too bad......

If you think of it, dig this topic up when you have to replace the batteries the first time. I'm truly curious as to the battery life of one of the wireless mini mice. The full-size stuff we use in our conference rooms at work barely go a month before dying. But they're under some heavy use on a daily basis, so I wonder what a more normal schedule would provide in terms of battery life?

[MacMaui]

Originally posted by -Q-:
If you think of it, dig this topic up when you have to replace the batteries the first time. I'm truly curious as to the battery life of one of the wireless mini mice. The full-size stuff we use in our conference rooms at work barely go a month before dying. But they're under some heavy use on a daily basis, so I wonder what a more normal schedule would provide in terms of battery life?

iShall try! Actually, the specs on the Kensington say it's 4.35 inches long so it's not entirely a mini-mouse, which is something else I liked. We'll see how it goes..... but they do state "battery saving technology"....

[biscuit]

Just a bit of a follow up on the MacMice issue; it turns out the whole thing was a bit of a scam.

Reading through the thread I linked above and some stuff at MacInTouch, it appears that MacMice is run by Jack Campbell of SpyMac and MacWhispers fame. The optical mouse is one actually made by Adomax (Flash site), which Jack was selling on at a profit. It seems he was doing the same with some tables and such and got exposed by MacInTouch. And I always kinda liked him...

The mouse is available through other channels, sometimes called Crystal Neon I think. I've found a UK supplyer (Lindy) but this one has a red scroll-wheel. I'm afraid that'll just clash with aqua

Hope this was of use/interest.

biscuit

edit: And with yet more digging, it turns out it's made by Samsung too!

[slider]

Another place to get the crystal mouse, just don't buy it from MacMice.

http://www.colorcase.com/mice.html