MacAlly BTMouseJr

I have been waiting for over a year to get a portable bluetooth mouse. Yesterday I finally got one.

Although the Bluetake BT-500 has been out for a while, I have held up getting a bluetooth mouse – mainly because I like being able to go to a brick and mortar store and picking it up right away. And the BT-500 isn’t in stores anywhere near me. It just really confused me for the longest time that none of the bigger companies put out travel BT mice – and most of the BT Keyboards/Mice out there didn’t work with the Mac, came with a BT adapter (which I didn’t need), and were pretty expensive. Before the BT-500 came out – my only real choice was the Apple Wireless Mouse. But that wasn’t acceptable because 1 – its too big and 2 – 1 button. So now finally some of the peripheral companies have finally caught on to what I think is a better idea all along – I mean why do I want a stupid RF dongle plugged into my laptop when I have wireless stuff already built in?

So here were my choices:

The Bluetake/RadTech BT-500 – almost got this a few times. From what I have heard it is an ok mouse but the tracking is jumpy and at first ranged around $80 (now it is in the fifties). A friend of mine has one of these, I am going to see if I can grab it from him one of these days to do a review.

The Targus Bluetooth Mini Mouse with Bluetooth Adapter. This was what finally inspired me to finally get a bluetooth mouse, but not in a good way. I was at CompUSA this past weekend and noticed the first portable Bluetooth mouse that I have got to see in a store, IRL, the Targus Bluetooth Mini Mouse. So first thing I do was look on the back for System Requirements – no Macintosh support – even looked on Targus’ website – no Mac support – I am sick and tired of Targus with this. Plus it had a dongle with it. Then the price – $80. Yuck Yuck Yuck. Now I’m not sure if it will work or not with a Mac, but since I tried one of their RF portable mice before and it didn’t work, not taking the chance anymore. Dongle & Price – not going to pay and extra $20 – $30 more for something I have in my computer already. KEYBOARD & MICE MAKERS! – SELL THE BT ADAPTER SEPARATE! WE MAY ALREADY HAVE ONE OR TWO! Plus the thing looks kinda goofy. Good side – 800dpi would provide more precise tracking and the Class 2 Bluetooth should give it a good range. A feature this thing has that I like – a ON/OFF switch.

The IOGEAR Bluetooth Mini Mouse. This thing was displayed at Macworld Boston, but other than that no sign of it. It has 800dpi and has a 66 ft range. It will be small and look like the other Mini mice. No word on price or availability yet. I was really wanting to check one of these out, but I got sick of waiting. Plus I have played with some of the other mini mice and I think they are a little too small.

The Kensington PocketMouse Bluetooth. I am guessing that I will see this in CompUSA within the next couple months. I seems to have the same dimensions and features as the MacAlly mouse but a blue color. Difference – comes with a travel bag – I don’t know if that is worth an extra $20 over the MacAlly mouse.

THE MACALLY BTMouseJr(BTMINI) – the one I bought.
So after seeing the Targus one at CompUSA – I was sick of waiting for a Mac-supported portable mouse to hit the shelves. So I went with the one that was most economical and since I have previously had a couple of their portable mice before (iOptiJr &IceMouseJr), I knew that it should be a perfect shape/sized mouse and perform well. I was correct. It is slightly bigger then the other two, but fairly close to the same shape – I actually like the slight increase in size. It is also silver and looks great with my PowerBook. Pairing was a breeze. It seems to have nice range and tracking is very smooth. But here is my first problem with it – not a big problem – but the tracking is slower then the other mice that I use with my PowerBook. When I use it I have bumped up the tracking speed a little higher and when I am using my other mice I bump it back down. That is kinda annoying but not a big deal as long as the tracking isn’t jumpy. My other issue – no ON/OFF switch. Although it has some slick power saving features, I would like to just be able to flip a switch and throw it in my bag so that I don’t have to worry every time the mouse buttons get hit that it wakes for a brief moment and tries connecting to a computer. Right now I pull one of the batteries to make sure that doesn’t happen. Although the BTMouseJr lists for $49.99, you can pick one up through NewEgg for $39.99 – great price – I think the best.

I will try to post a better review of it once I get more use out of it (like battery life). I will also try to get a hold of the Bluetake BT-500 and do a review on that also.

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