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MacMcMacintosh · May 27, 2004, 09:14 AM

Recently purchased the microsoft bluetooth mouse and im very happy with it. I have bluetooth built in on my powerbook so i don't need to use the dongle that was supplied with the mouse, i was wondering if i can use that dongle on my dads PC as a normal bluetooth dongle?

Cheers for any advice

Phil

jparisi · May 27, 2004, 10:14 AM

I thought users couldnt get that mouse working on Macs. How did you go about doing this? Hows the battery life?

MacMcMacintosh · May 27, 2004, 11:41 AM

work perfectly with my 1ghz g4 17" powerbook, i just put the batteries in the mouse, went to the "set up bluetooth device" option and the mouse was decovered, easy. And as a bonus you can access button 4 and 5 as well, so ive set them for expose.

Battery isn't that special, 2AA went in a bout 2 weeks, i used the mouse every day for at least 5 hours, the only problem is that there isn't an off swith so if you keep your mouse in a laptop case and move it about the battery does drain quicker.

jparisi · May 27, 2004, 01:54 PM

Originally posted by MacMcMacintosh:
work perfectly with my 1ghz g4 17" powerbook, i just put the batteries in the mouse, went to the "set up bluetooth device" option and the mouse was decovered, easy. And as a bonus you can access button 4 and 5 as well, so ive set them for expose.

Battery isn't that special, 2AA went in a bout 2 weeks, i used the mouse every day for at least 5 hours, the only problem is that there isn't an off swith so if you keep your mouse in a laptop case and move it about the battery does drain quicker.

Sounds great. What about drivers? Do you just use the intellimouse drivers for it?

MacMcMacintosh · May 28, 2004, 05:57 AM

no i didn't need any drivers it just worked!!! To get access to the extra button i just went into the mouse option in system preferences and everything was accessably there.

Anyone know about the dongle the mouse came with?

Cheers

Phil

jorgem4 · May 28, 2004, 08:59 AM

Only 2 weeks of mouse use !?! That is terrible...I was going to buy that mouse cause it looks vey confortable....but now I am leaning more to the MX900 from logitech with the rechargeable batteries.

MacMcMacintosh · May 28, 2004, 10:04 AM

when you've got a free supply of batteries it doesn't seem so bad ;-) I did put 2 week because thats the worst amout of time i've had, the current bateries i've had are still going after a month of use. And yeah IMHO it is the most comforatably mouse around

Philip

Cadaver · May 28, 2004, 12:28 PM

Originally posted by MacMcMacintosh:
Recently purchased the microsoft bluetooth mouse and im very happy with it. I have bluetooth built in on my powerbook so i don't need to use the dongle that was supplied with the mouse, i was wondering if i can use that dongle on my dads PC as a normal bluetooth dongle?

Cheers for any advice

Phil

While I don't know for sure, I think the answer is no. I believe MS made the dongle strictly for their keyboard & mouse. Can't hurt to try, but do a google search before spending too much time trying to make it work

jboeskool · May 31, 2004, 02:44 PM

Originally posted by MacMcMacintosh:
work perfectly with my 1ghz g4 17" powerbook, i just put the batteries in the mouse, went to the "set up bluetooth device" option and the mouse was decovered, easy. And as a bonus you can access button 4 and 5 as well, so ive set them for expose.

Battery isn't that special, 2AA went in a bout 2 weeks, i used the mouse every day for at least 5 hours, the only problem is that there isn't an off swith so if you keep your mouse in a laptop case and move it about the battery does drain quicker.

Does your BT Intellimouse have the sideways scroll (tilt) function on the wheel? If so, how do you like it? I am trying to decide right now which mouse to get, and was leaning toward the USB Intellimouse (didn't think the BT version was compatible/functional), but your post has made me reconsider.

MacMcMacintosh · Jun 3, 2004, 04:13 AM

no the bluetooth mouse doesn't have the tilt function on the scroll wheel.

I also had a look at the usb intellimouse and it is nice but imho the bluetooth mouse was much more comforatable and wireless, the only disadvantage is the slightly poor battery life, but that aside it is my favourite mouse.

cheers for any feedback you gave me.

Phil

BigDaddy · Jun 5, 2004, 11:46 AM

Originally posted by jboeskool:
Does your BT Intellimouse have the sideways scroll (tilt) function on the wheel? If so, how do you like it? I am trying to decide right now which mouse to get, and was leaning toward the USB Intellimouse (didn't think the BT version was compatible/functional), but your post has made me reconsider.

I have the wireless non bluetooth with the scroll tilt and it is a great mouse. The battery life is good. I picked it up at Sams for pretty cheap.

jboeskool · Jun 5, 2004, 10:31 PM

Originally posted by BigDaddy:
I have the wireless non bluetooth with the scroll tilt and it is a great mouse. The battery life is good. I picked it up at Sams for pretty cheap.

Thanks BigD and MacMac for your advice. I'm still in a quandry. I like the idea of no dongle (and actually taking advantage of the built in bluetooth capability of my laptop) and thus like the BT version for that reason.

But I don't like the poor battery performance (no free battery supply here, MacMac:-)/no rechargeable ability, and I would wish for the BT to be as functional (fully OS X compatible and with the tilt function of the scroll wheel) as the non-BT wireless version.

<sigh> Maybe I need to just keep using this #@!X& touchpad until my dream mouse is finally made.

Cadaver · Jun 6, 2004, 08:42 AM

Originally posted by jboeskool:
<sigh> Maybe I need to just keep using this #@!X& touchpad until my dream mouse is finally made.

The BlueTake BT500 (also offered by several other manufacturers under slightly different names) is a great mini BT mouse. Good battery life (2xAAA), on/off switch, standard two-plus-scroll configuration, works w/out any additional drivers on OS X, good range, good build quality. Its a mini-sized mouse, so its a bit too small for daily use, but a great size to drop in the laptop bag and whip out at the coffee shop.

Do a search here and on the PowerBook/iBook forums for other peoples' reviews. I like mine.

MacMcMacintosh · Jun 7, 2004, 05:01 AM

just to note that my current batteries have lasted well over a month, which imho is pretty good, not sure why the first lot lasted only a couple of weeks (maybe dodgy batteries?)

jboeskool · 08:22 PM

Originally posted by MacMcMacintosh:
just to note that my current batteries have lasted well over a month, which imho is pretty good, not sure why the first lot lasted only a couple of weeks (maybe dodgy batteries?)

I've decided to solve my quandry in the following way; Decided the Bluetake BT500 is probably too small (looked like it was 2/3 the size of an Apple Optical mouse).

I found a used dongle/usb wireless intellimouse for $10 on ebay...so I can try it out, see how much I like the ergonomics/tilt scroll wheel, and having to deal with the dongle. If I don't like it, I'm not out much money and can probably obtain a BT version to try out the same way.