[Rickster]

I've got an AlBook 15". Got into the whole Bluetooth coolness thing with the cellphone and stuff... realized that the USB mouse I carry around in my laptop bag (for gaming and Photoshop, neither of which are great with a one-button trackpad) is now lacking in geek-cool factor.

I Went looking for Bluetooth mice and was disappointed. There are lots of wireless mice out there, but the only Bluetooth ones are Apple's (I want an external mouse for multi-button-requiring games), and various "power user" mice. Now, I don't mind having more than three buttons -- kinda like it, in fact -- but I do mind mice that are molded to only fit in Donkey Kong's right hand. Apparently Logitech, Microsoft, and Belkin think that the only people who want Bluetooth mice also want giant, right-handed, mega-multi-button mice... they make wireless mice that are sensibly sized and ambidextrous, but they all require a little USB dongle be plugged in... and for a mouse that's only used sometimes with a laptop, that's really no better than a wired mouse.

Anyhow, enough ranting: I finally found the perfect laptop mouse: the Bluetake BT-500. It's about the same size as the MacAlly iOptiJr I'd been using, so it's nice and small for portability but not too small to use (like some "travel" mice are). It's fully compliant with the Bluetooth HID profile, so the buttons and scroll wheel work in all apps without special drivers, and it sets up just like Apple's mouse does using the OS X Bluetooth assistant. And unlike some other Bluetooth mice, it stays paired when you turn it off and back on.

The downsides: It's from an obscure vendor that doesn't sell direct, so it may be a little hard to find. (I ordered mine for $60 from BuyPCDirect.com.) Also, like the MacAlly "Jr" mice, I find it a little small to use all the time -- for the occasional gaming and graphics tasks I do on my laptop, it's fine, but I wouldn't use it on my desktop at work all day. For that, I'd prefer a mouse sized more like Apple's or the "basic" mice available from Logitech, Microsoft, et al. I like a lot of Kensigton's designs, but I still feel a little silly plugging in a USB dongle for my wireless mouse when I already have a USB Bluetooth dongle for my other wireless devices, so the search continues...

[DanTM]

what about the mx900?

[Rickster]

The MX900 is large and right-handed. I'm not left-handed, and my hands are average-sized... but I prefer a mouse that doesn't require me to hold it in just the right position in order for it to be comfortable.

[ASIMO]

How does clicking feel on the thing? Decently solid? Overall build quality by your estimation? Any jerkiness in pointer movement, etc.?

And how many buttons on the thing? It looks like 2 in the pictures.

Thanks, Rick.

[Rickster]

it's the usual "3" buttons (2 + clickable wheel). The blue oval behind the buttons sort of looks like a button, but it isn't. (maybe it's there to give you something to push against when you're pulling off the "butt" of the mouse to replace batteries?)

Overall build quality is good, clicking doesn't really feel more or less solid than the mice I'm used to... pointer is a little jerky on my wood desk, but so are other mice -- it's just fine on other surfaces.

Can't tell you anything about battery life yet, of course.

[ASIMO]

Too bad it doesn't look more like this Logitech Cordless (RF, not BT) notebook mouse, what I currently use.

Still, the BT-ness of the Bluetake mouse will win me over.

[Boondoggle]

Originally posted by DanTM:
what about the mx900?

the mx900 says it requires a bluetooh hub... if that has to be plugged in to a USB port that blows the whole point of Bluetooth for us PB/BT users.

[Link]

The mx900 can be used directly with the pb and without that "hub"

[escher]

Originally posted by Rickster:
I finally found the perfect laptop mouse: the Bluetake BT-500.

Thanks for the review and link, Rickster. I'm planning on getting a new 'Book (12-inch PB or iBook G4) with BT soon, and was actually looking at mice this weekend. I can't stand the bulky asymetrical BT mice offered by MS and Logitech, so the Bluetake is a godsend.

My dream mouse would be modeled after Kensignton's Mouse-in-a-Box Scroll, which fits my hand and habits perfectly, but would have Bluetooth and an optical sensor.

Escher

[fizzlemynizzle]

Originally posted by Boondoggle:
the mx900 says it requires a bluetooh hub... if that has to be plugged in to a USB port that blows the whole point of Bluetooth for us PB/BT users.

you only need the hubs that come with the MS and Logitech bluetooth mice if you do not have native bluetooth support. Since the AlBook has integrated bluetooth you can chuck the hubs or use them on any other computers you have that don't support BT.

[Boondoggle]

Originally posted by Link:
The mx900 can be used directly with the pb and without that "hub"

spiffy!

[bitjumper]

For anyone else interested, I just ordered and received the BT500 from newegg.com in only four days. After shipping and handling it is $78.99 along with the Bluetooth USB adapter. Although my PB 12" has BlueTooth, I wanted the adapter for a PC laptop I use at work.

The BT500 is very small. Like a mini travel mouse. Interestingly though within only minutes I'm prefering it over the Apple BlueTooth mouse (which now feels huge and heavy). I guess something inbetween in size would be my preference.

After a couple retries, my PB 12" found the new device and the mouse started working right away. The track speed is faster than the Apple mouse, so I needed to turn down the speed. Too bad I can't see away to set different speeds for the two mice.

Apple's BlueTooth mouse and the BT500 are both sitting on my desk and both controlling my PB at the same time. I'm grabbing either without thinking about it. Only the speed and the feeling of size and weight are different.

Finally I have a scroll wheel and a 2nd button !! I got so much in the habit of having to grap those darn scroll bars that I forget that the wheel is there.

Too bad the wheels aren't smooth motion though - I don't care for the stepping feeling.

Erik

[Rickster]

A followup...

The good news: battery life is pretty decent. It's hard to quantify, since I only use the mouse occasionally (for gaming, mostly), but I've gone most of the time since I got the mouse on a single pair of Duracells.

The bad news: the battery door has started popping off on its own -- there's a tug of war between the little tiny plastic tab holding it on and the two springs that force the batteries against their contacts, and the springs are winning. A little tab of scotch tape holds it, but it's kinda ugly.

Word has it The Mouse from MacMice.com will go Bluetooth in a few months... maybe I'll keep an eye out for that.

[hostvisions]

Thank you for the review. This seems to be a good BT mouse.

Personally, I'll continue to use the Apple BT mouse with my 17" PB untill they release a new device, or there's some dedicated drivers released for the MX900

[-Q-]

Originally posted by Rickster:
A followup...

The good news: battery life is pretty decent. It's hard to quantify, since I only use the mouse occasionally (for gaming, mostly), but I've gone most of the time since I got the mouse on a single pair of Duracells.

Rick - what kind of gaming do you do? I"m considering this mouse, but I'd like to know if you have experienced any lag issues or any other oddities while using the mouse? I don't play many FPSes, but the occasional NWN session has required some quick mousing...

[macintologist]

Could you post a pic comparing the Bluetake to the Kensington Pocketmouse pro? I have the Kensington and it's size is a bit small but works ok for me. Is the Bluetake quieter? Does it have fairly quiet buttons and scroll wheel?

[penum6ra]

It's not just a rumour that the Mouse will go Bluetooth... look for it in June 2004 according to the Mac Mice FAQ

[cerfdog]

I have a collection of mice here that I have purchased since I got my PBG4 17", Logitech and Kensington. The Kensington Optical Wireless with the USB dongle was my next favorite, but absolutely hate the dongle, I have BT why do I need a dongle!

I like the ergonomic form of the BT500 and it's compact size. I use a laptop because I want a portable workstation, but I don't want the baggage, so the BT500 is nice for that.

I do wish that I could use the BT Mouse Control Panel to name and see the battery life. I do like being able to re-pair it just by turning it on. I did see it go brain dead once when the batteries got low though.

I have used it now for nigh on a month, and am very pleased with it.

I do have one question for you all. I get poor battery life out of it. When i first got it I tried your Energizers and Duracels, then opted for the rechargables. What type do you all recommend for rechargables? I am getting 2 - 3 days battery life out of the nickel metal hydride ones when I use it 12 - 15 hours a day, I also had the same results with the non-rechargable types. It does a lot of going to standby and turning back on from use.

[macintologist]

Does the BT500 have an off/on switch? What happens when you throw it in your bag? Does it turn on in your bag and waste battery? How does it know when to go out of standby? Is it just from movement?

[thrust]

I've been trying to find a decent bt mouse to use w/ my powerbook for quite a while now as well, and thought I'd share my findings so far. I bought an M$ bluetooth kbd/mouse combo for a work pc as I needed better wireless range than the straight rf models could offer, so I have a small review on this unit.

the keyboard works, although I would consider it to have poor quality construction and design compared to other keyboards I'm used to using, even other M$ units such as their excellent split ergo. it would be nice if someone made a split bt keyboard as they're so much nicer to use once you've gotten used to them, especially if you have big hands. the media keys are an unnecessary annoyance, and the fkeys are re-mapped to all sorts of crap much like current apple fkeys. on my pb I find this to be quite acceptable as I _do use the vol/brightness keys much more than fkeys, but on the windows box where I use this bt kbd, legit fkeys are quite common and often used so it's a hassle to have to toggle into fkey mode all the time. why provide 17(!) media keys, and then by default additionally use the 12 fkeys as custom keys as well? have users been screaming out that they just don't have enough 1-touch-to-open-my-email,-compose-a-reply-and-send-it-(with-virus-attached) buttons? worse yet, the keyboard doesn't have any indicator leds for capslock, numlock, fkey mode etc, instead the provided driver pops up a little onscreen display whenever the modifier state changes. I would rather be able to look at the kbd and figure out the state at a glance, but maybe I'm just being picky. anyway for basic use (ie typing) it works well. you press a key, and a letter shows up on screen. at least they got that much right.

as for the mouse, I'm left handed, and so far this bluetake mouse is the first ambidextrous bt mouse I've heard of. for my current project I don't mind using the M$ right handed mouse as it's just for pointing and clicking, not drawing or gaming. I have big hands, and it fits well. the main drawback however is that it goes to sleep in a ridiculously short amount of time - I'd say less than a minute - and you have to click a button to wake it up. unfortunately these wake-up clicks get sent by the mouse, so you end up clicking wherever the cursor is since you can't move the cursor first. very f&#*$&#ing annoying. I've resorted to clicking with the funny side buttons just so I don't send a btn1 or btn2 event, but it basically makes this mouse worthless for long-term use. if there was a configurable sleep time and it was ambidextrous it would get high marks, but currently it is "just barely usable".

for a package that cost $240cdn for keyboard, mouse and (also poorly designed) bt usb dongle, I would not recommend it unless you absolutely need the wireless distance that bt offers. overall I'd give it a 3/10. it works, but it doesn't work well.

[cerfdog]

Originally posted by macintologist:
Does the BT500 have an off/on switch? What happens when you throw it in your bag? Does it turn on in your bag and waste battery? How does it know when to go out of standby? Is it just from movement?

Yes it has an on/off switch, and a pairing button as well on the bottom of the mouse, and when I stop using it I turn it off. It recognizes motion and button clicks to come out of standby. It has a timer it uses to go into standby.

The buttons are no noisier than any other mouse, nor the roller for that matter.

I have not had the battery cover problem as of yet, where it pops off due to the battery tensioners/contacts. It does come with a three year warranty, so the cover or the mouse could be replaced for those folks who have that problem.

[Rickster]

what kind of gaming do you do?

NWN, Warcraft, FPS games. No problem with any as long as I have a decent mousing surface underneath. (The couch is not a decent mousing surface.)

[/quote]Could you post a pic comparing the Bluetake to the Kensington Pocketmouse pro?[/quote]
Don't have one to compare with. Here's a comparison to the basic Logitech mouse I use at work, though.

2-3 days sounds awfully short for alkaline batteries... I haven't tried rechargeable. I've been on the same pair of batteries (regular Duracell) for about a month, with maybe 10 hours/week of usage, so unless you're using yours 24/7 it sounds like you've either got bad batteries or a bad mouse.

Thanks for reminding me about the warranty, cerfdog... I'll have to check that out.

[MilkmanDan]

Apple updated its bluetooth drives a bit ago, has this improved the quality of the connection? My roomie bought a M$ bluetooth mouse the day he bought his 867 12in, and it kinda sucked. The lag was quite bad. I'm guessing from your posts that things are better now?

[slider]

http://iocombo.com/product/showprodu...productid=083I

Where to buy and links to reviews.

[tekno_geek911]

I just got my BT500 in today...Works great!

[rag on a muffin]

i have a logitech and its great. i havent ran the battery down yet, and i use it all day and just drop it in the charger at night. the longest time i have used it is 6 am to 3 am (the next day obviously). every other feature seems to be good, except i cant remap the buttons.

[macintologist]

This is good. So far I'm finding more reasons to like the Bt500. It's the size I like (not too big), on/off switch, relatively quiet buttons and scroll, no extra buttons (don't care for them), relatively cheap compared to logitech and M$ mouse. I'm still gonna wait for the macmice Mouse bluetooth to come out and see what people say about that before making a decision. I'm in no hurry

[ryanjo]

Here's a link to a review and pictures of the BlueTake BT-500 mouse compared to the Logitech Cordless mouse:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=2102

[yticolev]

Just received my new Bluetake mouse. $51.94 on eBay with shipping. Paired perfectly, only a couple seconds delay when turning mouse on. Size is great for portability. Takes up little room in the bag and is nicely sized for using on top of the PowerBook next to the trackpad.

But... Before I even used it, the scroll wheel seemed cheap. And using the scroll is not wonderful, it does jump and very occasionally "stick". This is somewhat dependent on the speed you scroll and is magnified by your scrolling speed setting in the mouse preference panel. The Apple preference panel works great by the way but a third party might allow more options. The scroll wheel does click, same as a left click under Apple's preference pane. It would be a plus to map it to Expose. The on/off button is poorly placed for one handed use. If my laptop was awake, I always ended up performing some action I did not intend.

On the plus side, it does track very accurately. And I like using a scroll again, even a crappy one. And I am online through my bluetooth phone, no interference or lag or pause with either device.

[slider]

I got my Bluetake in today. This thing is tiny, really really tiny. The whole thing fits almost perfectly in the touch pad and button of a 15" pb diagonally. I take the point of the previous poster about the scroll well feeling a bit cheap, but I think he relays it a bit too negatively. My thoughts on the wheel are, mostly positive, there is a bit of play in the wheel, but nothing noticeable. The wheel has a rubberized feel on the fingers for good traction, I feel the scroll is precise, but I should mention I did install Apples latest BT update, so that might be why I am having a better experience with it. I use the scroll wheel button with expose' (all windows) right click is perfect. I should also mention that I did not set up my mouse the way the inserted paper instructions called for. Instead of "other device", I selected "mouse" and it paired perfectly. This is my third BT mouse, I use a logitech 900MX at work with this same laptop, which I think is a great mouse. I got this one to use anytime I am not at my desk which is where the MX stays i.e. road, home, some other part of the office. This mouse was meant to be thrown into a bag, for moving around. I think this thing is fantastic and fits my needs to a T.

[Ken Masters]

Too bad the Apple W-less mouse was probably the most useless thing since the original imac mouse.

[pingn]

Is there such a thing as a bluetooth trackball mouse? Been looking for that online but hasn't had any luck. They are always either one or the other. Will appreciate some tips.

[Elevin]

This looks to be the same mouse, but slightly different. The price is relatively good. Plus, its from radtech, which I hear is a good company.
http://www.radtech.us/Products/BT500.aspx

Really does look the same, doesn't it?

-Ezra

[slider]

Originally posted by Elevin:
This looks to be the same mouse, but slightly different. The price is relatively good. Plus, its from radtech, which I hear is a good company.
http://www.radtech.us/Products/BT500.aspx

Really does look the same, doesn't it?

-Ezra

It is the same mouse, it even says its a Bluetake 500, it just as the radtech logo on it where a bluetake from somewhere else has no logo.

[Kenstee]

Just a note that you must be running 10.3.2 or higher to use the BT-500.

This isn't good news for me because I've stayed with 10.3.1 on my Rev A PB12" to avoid the contently running fan problem.

BTW, I really enjoy my Kensington PocketMouse Pro wireless! Works and looks great. But, that said, I'd like to get the BT to get rid of the USB dongle you need with the Kensignton.

[sbc]

Originally posted by pingn:
Is there such a thing as a bluetooth trackball mouse? Been looking for that online but hasn't had any luck. They are always either one or the other. Will appreciate some tips.

I have been searching for the same combination: a mouse with BT, trackball, and 2+ buttons. As of yet, I have not seen this combination. Logitech has a wireless, optical trackball minus the BT capabilities. Please share if you have better luck in the search.

[wschultz]

Thanks for the input on the BT500.... I just ordered one yesterday based on these reviews. Saw it on dealmac - 49.95$ w/ free shipping (from iocombo.com). Will let you know my experience with it once it's inhand

[wschultz]

Got the BT mouse and ibook yesterday @ work
Just setup the bt mouse - took about 30 seconds & it works perfectly - scroll wheel, left and right buttons... and its so nice and lil!

[TheMosco]

SO is there no difference between the bluetake 500, the one from radtech, and thermaltake xwing?

[meatyocre]

The Radtech is indeed a simple re-branded Bluetake BT-500 mouse. The Radtech model does NOT come with the Bluetooth adapter and costs more. I got the Bluetake with the BT adapter and it works pretty good. I am kinda disappointed to see Radtech is simply rebranding stuff made in Taiwan and charging more for it.

[TheMosco]

I don't see how it costs more. The cheapest place i found the bt500 from bluetake zimpzoomfly.com for 58.95 without the bluetooth adapter. Newegg has it for 59.99. The radtech costs only 54 so it seems to cost about the same as the other bt500s that don't come with the buetooth adapter(which i don't need because of built in bluetooth).

[Zim]

Another happy Bluetake owner here. In use with 12" PB rev C. So far used for several hours of Diablo II gaming, no problems. Suddenly my Cordless Optical Mouseman on my desktop feels like an elephant

Mike

[Lancer409]

sorry .. i'm not a fan of the aesthetics of the radtech/thermaltake/bt500 ... any more appealing ones that is of that size? i am using a optical mouse from microsoft (the wired travel sized one) which is perfectly sized, and it fits my hand really well (not odd shaped) .. the side panels glow .. as does the bottom and the scroller ... it's silvery colored too .. kinda like the powerbook. if it was btoothed i'd be happy .. any other btooth design of this size?