[bbales]

This is a pretty new bluetooth mouse. Anyone have any experience with it yet? It got a pretty good review from MacAddict, but I'd love to hear from someone who's actually been using it.

[fisherKing]

it's supposed to improve on the pocketmouse bluetooth (which i use & love);
if you like the look & features of it, should be worthwhile.

bluetooth mousing is great!

[escher]

Kensington's Pilot Mouse Bluetooth does look pretty good. After about a month with the Apple Wireless Mouse, I like its mechanical performance, but can't stand its ergonomics. With the Apple Mouse's full body button, I can't pick it up while holding the button pressed: very impractical. I also really want a second button and scroll wheel again.



The Pilot Mouse BT looks like the first viable alternative for me: two buttons, scroll whell, good symmetrical grip, AA batteries (instead of short-lived AAAs). Based on fisherKing's positive experience with the PocketMouse BT, the Pilot Mouse BT should work well too.

Escher

[bbales]

Well, I went ahead and ordered one! Found it on the cnet shopper comparison page for $53.37, plus $6 S&H. I'm thinking if I like it for my laptop, which has BT, I might get another, with an adaptor, for my desktop. But I already have a programmable logitech for my desktop, so I'll probably just stick with that.

[escher]

bbales: Make sure to report back when you receive your Pilot Mouse BT and start using it. If you are so inclined, I would also be interested in some real-life pictures, e.g. in comparison with Apple peripherals.

Escher

[bbales]

I'm stunned -- I just ordered this yesterday. Just checked on it, to see how many days off delivery was going to be -- and it's on a UPS truck already for delivery!

I should have it this afternoon. And I paid for ground shipping, with an estimated delivery time of 3 to 6 days. This is great.

[escher]

Excellent! Let us know how it does on arrival.

Escher

[clum]

I got a Kensington Pilotmouse Bluetooth 2 days ago with my NEW 12" Powerbook 1.33GHz. Very happy with the computer and the mouse so far. I too never liked the mac mice with single "button". I've been in the Windows world for a while and am coming back to Mac but have gotten used to the right button and the scroll wheel.

First thing I noticed is that the mouse if pretty big. I have a medium to large size hand and it pretty much fills my hand pretty well. Very good feel. What the pictures don't represent is that the grips on either side are rubber "gills" that improve the grip and feel very good and sturdy. I'm sure that this is smaller than the Macally or BT mouse that I was also considering but concluded that the small size might be a pain.

Connection to the powerbook was a cinch and no problem. The Pilotmouse does not have an on/off switch and is supposed to power down after 20min silent.

In terms of waking from sleep I can use the mouse. There is a delay as the computer wakes from sleep and then reestablishes connection to the mouse. Not annoying (yet) but noticable delay.

Sensitivity is excellent. Worked on a variety of surfaces so far. i have not problem porting it around.

Not running mouseworks yet but this is one of the advantages of the Kensington products I think...good software.

Hope this helps people choose. I bought it sight unseen and am happy so far. Would recommend it but only 2 days old.

-c

[Wiskedjak]

Looks like Kensington has given up on doing it's own design work ...

[bbales]

Originally posted by clum:
I got a Kensington Pilotmouse Bluetooth 2 days ago with my NEW 12" Powerbook 1.33GHz. Very happy with the computer and the mouse so far. I too never liked the mac mice with single "button". I've been in the Windows world for a while and am coming back to Mac but have gotten used to the right button and the scroll wheel.

In terms of waking from sleep I can use the mouse. There is a delay as the computer wakes from sleep and then reestablishes connection to the mouse. Not annoying (yet) but noticable delay.

-c

Clum -- I've been using mine too (and after 18 months of using the laptop with just the trackpad, it's taking some getting used to! I keep reverting to old habits.)

BUT -- When I haven't used the computer for a bit, I continually have to have the laptop "rediscover" the mouse. It does not sound like you are having the same experience. Am I missing a setting or something? It's irritating, and not at all what I was antifcipating. I haven't had time yet to look further.

That said, setup was extremely easy. I just don't want to have to do it every time I bring the computer out of sleep mode.

[clum]

Well.....until last night I would say that I haven't seen that but this AM I had rediscover the mouse. Don't know what was different about it. Also I just got a battery warning after 3 days?!!! I'll probably have to modify my review!!!

-Carey

[OAW]

I've been looking for a Kensington bluetooth mouse in the stores (Best Buy, Circuit City, Comp USA) to no avail. I want a multi-button mouse with software to control the button assignments and this appears to be the only one available. I actually am using a MS Intellimouse Explorer with 5 buttons (love the 2 extra buttons when browsing the web) and would go with a BT version of this one if it had software drivers. But since it doesn't and MS doesn't seem to be in a hurry to release OS X drivers I will look into the Kensington that has software that will allow me to "chord" the two buttons and make a "back" button when browsing the internet.

Anyhoo, I have one problem with the Kensington mice I've come across. I don't particularly care for the fact that scroll wheel is "notched", quite unlike the MS mice which scroll very smoothly. Actually, it's not the notching itself that bothers me, it's the fact that the notching causes the scroll wheel to be loud that's the problem. When you are working in a quiet office setting, it's very disconcerting to have everyone around you able to hear it every time you scroll a page. I actually took a PocketMouse Pro back to store because of this and this alone. Logitech mice seem to be notched, but less so than Kensington. And as I said before, MS mice (my favorite) have no notching at all.

So my question is for those who have a PocketMouse Bluetooth or the PilotMouse Bluetooh ... what's up with the notching? Can you hear the scroll wheel when you scroll because of the notching?

Thanks!

OAW

[bbales]

Yes, you can hear the notching. But to tell you the truth, it didn't bother me until you mentioned it! Hadn't even noticed it.

MY question -- I'm only getting a few days on the batteries! I have checked the web site and supposedly this thing turns itself off. But I'm literally getting only a day or two on the batteries, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Anyone else having this issue?

[fisherKing]

Originally posted by bbales:
Yes, you can hear the notching. But to tell you the truth, it didn't bother me until you mentioned it! Hadn't even noticed it.

MY question -- I'm only getting a few days on the batteries! I have checked the web site and supposedly this thing turns itself off. But I'm literally getting only a day or two on the batteries, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Anyone else having this issue?

i've contacted kensington about this (on my pocketmouse bluetooth); when i put new batteries in, i get a low battery warning soon after anyway (warnings seem random).
of course, i've gotten no response from kensington (and it's been weeks!)

one thing: watch for erratic or sluggish behavior with the bt mouse, a better indicator that you need new batteries...

[bbales]

so -- you ignore the warning and just keep using it? I kind of decided last night that's what I should do, as the mouse seems to be working fine.

Kensington is promising me a response in the next 2, 3 days, so we'll see. Other than the battery issue, the mouse seems great.

[fisherKing]

if you get a response, post it?
have a request in with kensington, but waiting waiting waiting.

yeah, i will just use the mouse until it acts up...

[OAW]

What combinations of buttons can you press to activate the chording. I know you can do the left and right buttons, but are there others? I might go with a Kensington if I can program the mouse to emulate the Back and Forward buttons on my MS Intellimouse Explorer.

OAW

[OAW]

Originally posted by fisherKing:
i've contacted kensington about this (on my pocketmouse bluetooth); when i put new batteries in, i get a low battery warning soon after anyway (warnings seem random).
of course, i've gotten no response from kensington (and it's been weeks!)

one thing: watch for erratic or sluggish behavior with the bt mouse, a better indicator that you need new batteries...

I got the low battery warning message after about 30 minutes with my new bluetooth PilotMouse. The mouse seems to work fine though. Not sure what's up with that. Anyway, the manual said that the scroll wheel will blink red when the batteries start to get low, and I have not seen that yet. Will just have to keep an eye on the situation I suppose.

OAW

[OAW]

Originally posted by OAW:
What combinations of buttons can you press to activate the chording. I know you can do the left and right buttons, but are there others? I might go with a Kensington if I can program the mouse to emulate the Back and Forward buttons on my MS Intellimouse Explorer.

OAW

To answer my own question for those who might be interested, you can only chord the Left and Right buttons. But the clickable scroll wheel is programmable, so this is essentially a 4 button mouse (Left, Right, Scroll Wheel, Left + Right).

Another thing to note ....

The notching in the scroll wheel is not as loud as the PocketMouse Pro I returned some time ago. It's not as quiet as the MS mouse, but it isn't loud enough to get on my nerves. The scrolling speed is a bit slower than the MS Intellimouse Explorer. I have it set to the fastest setting but it still is not as fast as the Intellimouse Explorer speed to which I am accustomed. Other than that, the mouse seems to work as advertised.

OAW