Tales of battery operated mice

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): Have you been handling your mouse like a matchbox? Do you have to drag it all over your desktop to get the cursor to the spot where you want it on the screen? Then it is time to go out and buy a new mouse. That was just what I did last week.

No mouse lives forever. I had been using my Logitech Cordless MouseMan Pro for at least four years. I ordered it directly from the U.S.-based Outpost.com, part of a testing project in which I was commissioned to check whether it would be cheaper to order computer products from a U.S. direct mail store than to go Glodok Plaza. The result, of course, was negative. Even if you included all the taxi fares, the time you would have to spend just to get this one piece of equipment, and the hassle of having to haggle over the price, it would still be cheaper to get the mouse locally.

Back to the Cordless MouseMan Pro, which we could consider one of the high-end mice at that time, was a treat to my palm. The useful third button was right there on the left side, just where my thumb usually rested. I set it to simulate doubleclicking. In the past couple of months, however, the cursor became increasingly less responsive to the mouse's movements. I had to shove it around quite a bit to use it. The problem would abate when I put the receiver closer to where the mouse was. That was actually an indication that the transmitter inside the mouse was losing its strength.

Finally, changing the batteries did not help much. I realized then that it was time to put the MouseMan Pro to pasture. At any rate, it had been serving me for four productive years, so now it had earned the right to rest peacefully as a proud, dead mouse.

Cordless

The convenience of a cordless mouse is clear. Once you have tried it, you will not go back to the corded one. The mouse itself contains a small transmitter that sends a digital radio frequency (RF) signal to a receiver to tell the computer where the cursor should be. To be able to do this, the mouse needs two AA batteries, which can last for up to six months. The receiver is connected to the PC via the USB, PS/2 or serial port, and draws power from the computer.

In the case of the MouseMan Pro, we could use two cordless mice with one single receiver, too, or combine the cordless mouse with a cordless keyboard.

Logitech has always been my top choice among mouse makers. During my brief visit to Ratu Plaza, I was able to find only two models of cordless mice: The Cordless Wheel Mouse and the more expensive Cordless MouseMan Wheel. The price difference was around Rp 100,000, but, like my old Cordless MouseMan Pro, the Cordless MouseMan Wheel has an additional button on the left side. Both models came with Duracell batteries included. One of the stores there gave me the final price of Rp 535,000 for the Cordless MouseMan Wheel and I almost bought it. Luckily, I did not have enough money with me at that time. On my way to the ATM, I stopped at another store and the guy there offered the same mouse for Rp 495,000. I took it right away.

I have also fallen in love with the scroll button, which came with the USB mouse for my new HP Pavilion. Like using any cordless device, once you have tried using the scroll button, you will not even glance a mouse without a scroll button, which will drag the screen up and down for you. Almost all of Logitech's mice now come with this really useful button.

Installing the mouse gave me no problem at all. This USB mouse came with an adaptor for the PS/2 port, which I used as the old MouseMan Pro was connected to my PC via the PS/2 port. The setup program in the CD-ROM also ran smoothly.

It asked me whether I would like to set up the new mouse and, after a couple of adjustments, it worked flawlessly.

Wheel of Fortune

The mouse's zoom function, which I can enable by pressing the Ctrl key while moving the scroll button, allows me to enlarge the display of the characters in a Word document or a Web page on the fly. For someone with rather limited vision, this is quite a helpful feature.

In addition, as the name indicates, MouseMan Wheel came with an extra mouse interface, the WebWheel, which is part of Logitech's MouseWare. WebWheel is useful if you have a permanent connection to the Web. Each time we press the scroll button down, a wheel appears on the screen, as shown in the accompanying picture. Using the wheel, we can tell the browser to go back to the previous Web page, reload the current page, stop loading a page or jump to any of the links on the wheel.

If you can wait, however, you had better buy the newer Cordless MouseMan Optical. I was unable to find one in Ratu Plaza, mainly because I was in a bit of a hurry when I shopped for the mouse. There may be a store in Ratu Plaza or other computer shopping centers that has this model. The good thing about an optical mouse is that there is no ball, roller or chamber to clean up. It hardly requires any maintenance, is more precise and can work on almost any surface.

Another thing worth noting about the new mouse lineup is that they do not come with any serial port adaptor. Thus, they are not for your old PCs, which may not have a PS/2 mouse port or a USB port. However, it is definitely not for left-handed users. If you are left-handed, you should buy either the Cordless MouseMan Optical or the less expensive Cordless Wheel Mouse.

For now, I am quite happy with my new Cordless MouseMan Wheel, although I should admit I was deeply shocked with the price myself. Still, compared with the US$59.95 price that Outpost.com posts on its Web site for this mouse, the price I paid was still cheaper. (zatni@cbn.net.id)