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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse System
I realize this may not be "OSX Hint - worthy", but here it is:

The Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer for Bluetooth works out of the box with Apple's Powerbooks with built in bluetooth. All buttons and the scroll wheel are supported directly by OS X without any additional Microsoft drivers. In fact, Microsoft drivers for the Mac don't seem to exist for this product.

I ran across the mouse at a local retailer, and we had a heck of a time trying to figure out if this would work. We found plenty of evidence that it would work using the Bluetooth USB base unit bundled with the mouse, but found virtually nothing suggesting the mouse would work properly with Apple's built in module. I purchased the mouse anyway and had it working in about a minute using Apple's "Setup a Bluetooth Device" option from the Bluetooth menu item.

Unfortunately, although the mouse is supported by the OS, not a single game I've yet tried will recognize all five buttons properly. Most games see two, three or four buttons, plus the scroll wheel if applicable, but not all five. Does anyone know how to map bluetooth mouse buttons to keys? Something like USB Overdrive but for bluetooth?
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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: raider on Nov 13, '03 12:16:47PM
Do you know if it will support frequency hopping like Apple's? Bluetooth uses the same frequencies as Airport / AirportExtreme and they suck bandwidth from eachother. Apple uses the adaptive frequency hopping - if it gets too much activity on one frequency it jumps to another, reducing the conflicts / bandwidth shortage...

But of course Apple mice only have one button and no scroll wheel. But we don't need to go there, do we?

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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: encro on Nov 14, '03 08:58:13AM

The Bluetooth spec includes frequency hopping.



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: Drakino on Nov 13, '03 07:23:22PM

The Logitech MX 900 also works fine with any Bluetooth capable Apple computer. It is for sale from a few online vendors linked from Logitech.com. It is identical to the MX700, thus it has a base station to recharge it. I am not sure if the base station is compatible with the Mac though to add a Bluetooth adaptor.

For mobile users, consider one of these over the MS solution to avoid having to buy batteries due to the drain of carying around a mouse that can't be turned off in your bag.



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: dkulp on Jan 02, '04 12:51:31PM

Does anyone have experience with the MX900? Do I have to plug the MX900s recharger/hub into a USB port or can the mouse talk directly to a bluetooth enabled computer? If the latter, are all the extra MX900 buttons recognized and can they be programmed like the MX700?



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: PaulB on Jan 11, '04 03:53:48PM

I have a MX900s and I use the recharger/hub only to charge the mouse. It can talk directly to a bluetooth enabled computer. BUT: the extra MX900 buttons are not recognized and if anyone has a solution fort that: I'm very anxious to hear of it!



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: hangon on Nov 13, '03 07:32:19PM

But this microsoft bluetooth mouse is not as cool as its wireless brother....

no tilt wheel for horizontal scrolling....
a step by step wheel (not a smooth turning one)

and it sucks battery at a higher...much higher rate....

it's weird because bluetooth seems to drain batteries on all my bletooth devices ...phone...mouse...camera...
in the over hand their wireless brothers seems to handle power drain much better...

to bad because i thought bluetooth was for periphericals



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: shneusk on Nov 14, '03 11:49:07AM

I'm in the opposite boat: I have no built-in bluetooth. If I get the MS bluetooth mouse, does the USB base give me bluetooth support that OSX will use (like in Address Book and all that)?



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: peacemanjack on Jan 21, '04 11:01:24AM

I have been looking for a thread like this for a long time. I want a multi button mouse that will work with my built in bluetooth powerbook without the need for adaptors, etc. I see that both the microsoft and logitech mice will work. are there any others? Is one better than the other? I want to do video editing with it as well. thoughts?



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: RonEl on Feb 04, '04 08:48:31AM

havent tested any of these and am still collecting information, but from what ive gathered from web based sources, the following mice should work directly with Apple's bluetooth adapter (i.e. dont need the mouse's base station)
(1) Microsoft's Bluetooth mouse - (but seems that there is some slight jumping with 10.2 (solved in 10.3)
(2) Belkin Mouse - (but support only listed upto 10.2 (havent seen support for 10.3 explictly written yet).

Not sure about the 2 Logitech mice yet - MX900 and its bluetooth cousin with a built in laser-pointer (for when you are doing a presentation)



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: sunnychotai on Feb 17, '04 06:03:58AM

The apple mouse is nice - looks flush with the pwerbook - but it only has one click, not rechargeable and the batteries don't seem to last that long.

After days and weeks of research the MX900 is the best one to get - but you need to lug around the charger and the mouse is big - I have the MX700 on my Windows machine - it is awesome. All the buttons work.

On the powerbook the extra 5/6 buttons can only be used for expose. Hmmmmmm........

This is what we want - Bluetooth mouse, two buttons, scroll wheel, forward and backward buttons, small, light, optical and rechargeable batteries -

It does not exist. Oh well -



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: levicook on Mar 06, '04 10:40:36PM

Does anyone have experience with the Bluetake bt500? I have a powerbook w/ builtin bluetooth & would like to know if I can skip the Bluetake adapter that they (optionally) bundle. Oh yeah, anyone know where to buy these things if you're in the US? Their website wasn't too enlightening.



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An alternative to Apple's Bluetooth mouse
Authored by: levicook on Mar 06, '04 10:43:03PM

FYI; The all seeing eye of Google led me to (slightly) more info. over here:
http://sean.typepad.com/ditto/2004/01/obligatory_blue.html



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Does Intellipoint work?
Authored by: tddisc on Mar 30, '04 05:15:41PM

I haven't read if anyone has tried MS Intellipoint 5.0 with the MS Bluetooth Intellimouse. On the Microsoft site, when I tried to download the software for the Bluetooth mouse, it gave a message stating that the software is only available on the CD that came with it.

I realize that this is a long shot, since it just makes too much sense for it to work.

TD



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Does Intellipoint work?
Authored by: ehlwitz on Apr 08, '04 05:16:00AM

I have tried the IntelliPoint Driver 5.0 from Microsoft with the Bluetooth mouse and it actually doesn't recognise the mouse.

The driver on the CD comming with the mouse is only Windows compatible.

I have also tried to configure the mouse with USB Overdrive but this doesn't work either. Does anybody know a tool or something that can configure any input device (so as USB Overdrive does?) but working with the Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse?



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Does Intellipoint work?
Authored by: eh270 on Mar 04, '05 05:04:48PM

I bought the bluetooth intellimouse -- left click and right click work fine, as does the scroll wheel, but the forward/back buttons and the ability to tilt the scroll wheel or even click the scroll wheel are not enabled. Maybe in a future Intellipoint release.. :-\



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