The Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 is good hardware. It's a full-size Bluetooth mouse that works pretty well and is fairly inexpensive at $50.

The main feature that matters in a wireless mouse is power management, and the Microsoft mouse is great at it. It goes into sleep mode automatically, so the battery lasts a week. (Something Logitech mice didn't do, last I checked.) I also like the smooth scroll wheel, with no click-like resistance. And it's standard Bluetooth, not some silly proprietary wireless protocol.

It's not a perfect mouse. In theory clicking the scroll wheel is a middle button, but you usually end up triggering the useless side-to-side scrolling instead. But there's enough extra buttons that you can have another act like button 3. I prefer a right handed mouse to Microsoft's ambidextrous design. The charging connection isn't tight so you have to carefully place the mouse and verify it's charging. I've had the tracking go wonky a couple of times; rebooting the mouse fixed it. And randomly at night my computer is waking up from the screen saver; not positive it's the mouse, but that's my best guess.

That's a long list of problems, but they're all pretty minor. The convenience of a wireless mouse with long battery life outweighs the small issues. Recommended.

PS: Apple LOL.

techgood
  2008-03-07 19:29 Z