The Chicago Apple User Group
Targus Bluetooth Laser Mouse, by Nathan Ebenroth
04/04/2009 09:15 PM
Targus Bluetooth Laser Mouse for Mac (Model #AMB08US)
Review by Nathan Ebenroth
http://www.targus.com/us/
Operating System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Hardware Requirements: Bluetooth-enabled notebook or desktop computer
Specifications:
Size: 4.64” x 2.51” x 1.45”
Weight: 4.4 oz
Range: Up to 33 feet
Sensor Technology: 1200 dpi laser
Battery Life: Up to 6 months (2 AA Batteries included), Touch Scroll blinks when less than 60 minutes of battery power remains
I tested this product with a Mac Pro desktop and the Mac OS X Leopard Version 10.5.
There is a simple, straightforward software installation of a driver utility required and a hard copy is included with the mouse. The directions were easy to follow and the basic set-up was completed in a matter of about 10 minutes. This included progressing through the Bluetooth Setup Assistant and the “pairing” of the wireless device with my computer.
The laser underneath the Targus mouse that directs the movement of the cursor/arrow is smooth and exact! For someone like me that has used an optical hard-wired standard issue Mac mouse forever, this was an amazing difference. Very tight, precision movement of the cursor to the point that I was constantly over correcting as I learned to adjust to the new exacting location of a laser.
There is also a laser eye on top of the Targus mouse that replaces that scroll button on the Mac mouse. The laser scroll is a revelation and a great use of technology. You barely need to touch it to scroll. The touch control is so light and responsive you can almost, but not quite, put your fingertip slightly over it to make it move in the direction you desire. Whenever you move the cursor over an active window, the laser scroll feature works easily and flawlessly up and down. Alas, I could not get the left and right scroll to work as advertised. The 4-way scrolling function did not work left and right on the model I tested. This was disappointing as 4-way scrolling was one of the unique features advertised for this mouse.
The ergonomic design of the Targus mouse makes it a pleasure to hold in your hand. Besides the laser scroll, the real design advantage of the product in terms of Mac users is the separate left and right click buttons. If you’ve already enabled your right click function in your computer’s System Preferences as I had, it makes right click so much easier than with a standard issue Mac mouse. Right click can still be used with the Mac mouse but I frequently right clicked when I was intending to left click. Functionality of the left and right click can get confused when you’re pushing on the right or left side of the single click Mac mouse rather than with the separate left and right click of the Targus mouse. Separate buttons to click – brilliant!
The directions don’t very clearly identify the buttons on the mouse that can be programmed. It took me a while to figure out that the “two programmable buttons” are actually one button on the left (right thumb) side of the mouse with a forward and back type toggle motion. You program the buttons by going to System Preferences and clicking on the Targus Mouse. The back toggle is labeled Programmable Button 4 and the forward toggle is labeled Programmable Button 5. Why? I have no idea. There are only 2 buttons and they aren’t labeled on the mouse itself. It took some trial and error to figure out what was activating what.
To further complicate matters, the laser scroll eye is also a button but has no functionality whatsoever – not even to Select or show the Dashboard. On the Mac mouse, clicking this button shows your Dashboard. I’m not sure why a button would be added without functionality but there was no explanation of the button under the laser eye in the directions and is can’t be programmed. Note to Targus: make the laser eye button a third programmable button.
The options for programming the 4 & 5 buttons include several predefined functions: Eject, Print Screen, Select All, Volume Up & Down, Mute, Hide All (F9), Show Desktop (F11), Dashboard (F12), Application Switcher, Internet Browser
Forward & Back, iTunes Play/Pause & Stop. Some of the predefined functions worked beautifully, others not at all.
Eject worked for both out and in on the CD/DVD drive. I could not get Print Screen to work. Select All worked when I tried it in Microsoft Word. Volume Up & Down worked well with the back and forth toggle-type movement of the button. Mute worked and the videos or songs muted continued to play as Mute was active; pressing the same button deactivated Mute. Hide All shrinks and displays all currently open windows worked when programmed to one of the buttons on the Targus mouse. Show Desktop worked and removes all the open windows until the same button is clicked again. Dashboard worked as a programmed function. I was not able to get the Internet Browser page back and forward to work with Firefox, it did, however, work with Safari. Most disappointedly, the iTunes functions all did the same thing, they stopped the song that was playing and wouldn’t restart it. I had to go to iTunes to restart the song and it restarted from the beginning of the song.
Another piece of advice for Targus: Include the standard functions of a Mac mouse and then add the programmable buttons rather than replacing the standard function buttons with programmable buttons. If you, like me, enjoy the standard functions of a Mac mouse, you’re not actually gaining two programmable buttons because you’re going to have to program them to do what all Mac mouses do. When I reprogrammed the buttons to be Volume Up & Down as I listened to iTunes, I lost the ability to Hide All (side squeeze buttons on the Mac mouse) or see my Dashboard (top scroll button click on the Mac mouse).
A few strange issues: there was a “floating” type continuation of my movement whenever I resized a window. I started making a window larger but after I stopped resizing it the window would continue to grow larger for a short time. This made it impossible to accurately size a window – larger or smaller. Just as strangely, I could not Select text in Microsoft Word. I could reposition my cursor but not highlight text I wanted to move or edit. I was able to highlight text in other applications.
Lastly, the Bluetooth connectivity worked perfectly. The only connectivity issue was related to the mouse’s sleep mode - which is used to conserve battery life. It runs on two AA batteries that are included. Whenever my computer was in sleep mode and the mouse turned off to sleep, my computer reactivated to tell me that the connection with that device was lost. I also received the “Connection Lost” message anytime was mouse was idle for more than a minute or so.
Review by Nathan Ebenroth
http://www.targus.com/us/
Operating System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Hardware Requirements: Bluetooth-enabled notebook or desktop computer
Specifications:
Size: 4.64” x 2.51” x 1.45”
Weight: 4.4 oz
Range: Up to 33 feet
Sensor Technology: 1200 dpi laser
Battery Life: Up to 6 months (2 AA Batteries included), Touch Scroll blinks when less than 60 minutes of battery power remains
I tested this product with a Mac Pro desktop and the Mac OS X Leopard Version 10.5.
There is a simple, straightforward software installation of a driver utility required and a hard copy is included with the mouse. The directions were easy to follow and the basic set-up was completed in a matter of about 10 minutes. This included progressing through the Bluetooth Setup Assistant and the “pairing” of the wireless device with my computer.
The laser underneath the Targus mouse that directs the movement of the cursor/arrow is smooth and exact! For someone like me that has used an optical hard-wired standard issue Mac mouse forever, this was an amazing difference. Very tight, precision movement of the cursor to the point that I was constantly over correcting as I learned to adjust to the new exacting location of a laser.
There is also a laser eye on top of the Targus mouse that replaces that scroll button on the Mac mouse. The laser scroll is a revelation and a great use of technology. You barely need to touch it to scroll. The touch control is so light and responsive you can almost, but not quite, put your fingertip slightly over it to make it move in the direction you desire. Whenever you move the cursor over an active window, the laser scroll feature works easily and flawlessly up and down. Alas, I could not get the left and right scroll to work as advertised. The 4-way scrolling function did not work left and right on the model I tested. This was disappointing as 4-way scrolling was one of the unique features advertised for this mouse.
The ergonomic design of the Targus mouse makes it a pleasure to hold in your hand. Besides the laser scroll, the real design advantage of the product in terms of Mac users is the separate left and right click buttons. If you’ve already enabled your right click function in your computer’s System Preferences as I had, it makes right click so much easier than with a standard issue Mac mouse. Right click can still be used with the Mac mouse but I frequently right clicked when I was intending to left click. Functionality of the left and right click can get confused when you’re pushing on the right or left side of the single click Mac mouse rather than with the separate left and right click of the Targus mouse. Separate buttons to click – brilliant!
The directions don’t very clearly identify the buttons on the mouse that can be programmed. It took me a while to figure out that the “two programmable buttons” are actually one button on the left (right thumb) side of the mouse with a forward and back type toggle motion. You program the buttons by going to System Preferences and clicking on the Targus Mouse. The back toggle is labeled Programmable Button 4 and the forward toggle is labeled Programmable Button 5. Why? I have no idea. There are only 2 buttons and they aren’t labeled on the mouse itself. It took some trial and error to figure out what was activating what.
To further complicate matters, the laser scroll eye is also a button but has no functionality whatsoever – not even to Select or show the Dashboard. On the Mac mouse, clicking this button shows your Dashboard. I’m not sure why a button would be added without functionality but there was no explanation of the button under the laser eye in the directions and is can’t be programmed. Note to Targus: make the laser eye button a third programmable button.
The options for programming the 4 & 5 buttons include several predefined functions: Eject, Print Screen, Select All, Volume Up & Down, Mute, Hide All (F9), Show Desktop (F11), Dashboard (F12), Application Switcher, Internet Browser
Forward & Back, iTunes Play/Pause & Stop. Some of the predefined functions worked beautifully, others not at all.
Eject worked for both out and in on the CD/DVD drive. I could not get Print Screen to work. Select All worked when I tried it in Microsoft Word. Volume Up & Down worked well with the back and forth toggle-type movement of the button. Mute worked and the videos or songs muted continued to play as Mute was active; pressing the same button deactivated Mute. Hide All shrinks and displays all currently open windows worked when programmed to one of the buttons on the Targus mouse. Show Desktop worked and removes all the open windows until the same button is clicked again. Dashboard worked as a programmed function. I was not able to get the Internet Browser page back and forward to work with Firefox, it did, however, work with Safari. Most disappointedly, the iTunes functions all did the same thing, they stopped the song that was playing and wouldn’t restart it. I had to go to iTunes to restart the song and it restarted from the beginning of the song.
Another piece of advice for Targus: Include the standard functions of a Mac mouse and then add the programmable buttons rather than replacing the standard function buttons with programmable buttons. If you, like me, enjoy the standard functions of a Mac mouse, you’re not actually gaining two programmable buttons because you’re going to have to program them to do what all Mac mouses do. When I reprogrammed the buttons to be Volume Up & Down as I listened to iTunes, I lost the ability to Hide All (side squeeze buttons on the Mac mouse) or see my Dashboard (top scroll button click on the Mac mouse).
A few strange issues: there was a “floating” type continuation of my movement whenever I resized a window. I started making a window larger but after I stopped resizing it the window would continue to grow larger for a short time. This made it impossible to accurately size a window – larger or smaller. Just as strangely, I could not Select text in Microsoft Word. I could reposition my cursor but not highlight text I wanted to move or edit. I was able to highlight text in other applications.
Lastly, the Bluetooth connectivity worked perfectly. The only connectivity issue was related to the mouse’s sleep mode - which is used to conserve battery life. It runs on two AA batteries that are included. Whenever my computer was in sleep mode and the mouse turned off to sleep, my computer reactivated to tell me that the connection with that device was lost. I also received the “Connection Lost” message anytime was mouse was idle for more than a minute or so.