@Lathi.net

Further Mouse Woes

Posted by Doug Wed, 15 Feb 2006 18:04:54 GMT

So I returned my Logitec V270 Bluetooth Mouse (you can read about my less than ideal mouse experiences). I replaced it with the Kensington Pilotmouse Mini Bluetooth. Unfortunately, I’ve found it to be less than ideal as well.

I love the size and feel of the Kensington Pilotmouse Mini. It’s not really a “mini”. It’s only slightly smaller than my standard sized Kensington Iridio. I like the way the Pilotmouse Mini looks. The silver and blue is sleek. The rubberized feel is nice too. I have pretty much zero pairing problems with my 12” Aluminum Apple Powerbook (1.33GHz G4).

My main problem is that tracking is unpredictable. I got the Kensington Mouseworks driver (which, btw, bonus points for the cute icon) version 2.5 which didn’t recognize my bluetooth mouse even thought the release notes said it should. I waited on hold for however long to talk to some guy in India who finally told me version 2.5 of Mouseworks wasn’t compatible with Mac OS 10.4.4 and that a new version would be coming out shortly. In the meantime I kept wavering between the Pilotmouse and my Iridio depending on how much I hated wires at the moment. The Kensington software update didn’t notice when the new driver was released. I had to go find it myself. The good news is that it recognized my Pilotmouse Mini Bluetooth. The bad news is that I still have tracking problems.

So, I’m returning the Pilotmouse and I’ve just ordered the RadTech BT510. It’s not especially attractive, but it’s gotten some excellent reviews. I’m a little worried about this comment

Update: From John Grzeskowiak at RadTech; ”...we’re working to find out why some are having cursor instabilities with the 510 – we plan to release a button-mapping driver soon which will be able to slow the acceleration curve and prevent this condition which seems to affect about 20% of the folks using this mouse with a Mac.”

I’m assuming that the “button mapping driver” is the RadMouse Bluetooth HID Driver. Also, the above lined article doesn’t have a date. So I can’t really tell if RadTech has had time to release any updates to the driver or mouse to compensate for the problem.

What I’m really worried about is that my Powerbook somehow falls into that “20% of the folks using this mouse with a Mac” and will affect all my Bluetooth endeavors. For the record though, I do have the Apple Bluetooth keyboard and am quite happy with it.