cyberhomie.com / treo
Treo Addicts

More information can be found on the ebay action here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64355&item=5737983839

Please come bid on it or buy it now! Tell your friends!

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.

When buying Sarah her new iBook, I decided to upgrade to a new iPod. I mainly wanted a bigger one so I picked up a 40 GB one. I have no where near that much music, but I like using the iPod as a portable hard drive for my PowerBook. I do like my new iPod but I am disappointed that it doesn’t come with a case and a remote (not that I ever used the remote). And although I think the click wheel is great – I am guessing that it is a cheaper to manufacture then the separate touch sensitive buttons. One thing I didn’t have to worry about the 3G iPod was getting junk behind the buttons – with the click wheel, I think this is a greater possibility now.

Left Wing-> Mostly a paperwork area. Have a couple swappable drives sitting in the paper organizers. On the shelf is a Panasonic SA-EN7 micro stereo sytem – Radio / CD Player that plays MP3 CDs and an AUX in that I have my Apple 3G iPod connected to. Connected to the iPod is a Griffin Technology iTrip. Dilbert and Dogbert is to the left of the stereo. Under the desk is my new puppy, “Gadget”.

Center -> Where I spend most of my time. Left of the monitor is a Canon LiDE 30. To the left of the PowerBook is my Sony Ericsson T608 – buggy, but I love the thing – mainly because it is the only Bluetooth phone that works where I live and where I travel. My PowerBook: Apple 1.33 GHz 12″ PowerBook G4 w/ 768 MB RAM, 60 GB HD, SuperDrive, Bluetooth, Airport Extreme and Mac OS X 10.3.5. Connected to my PowerBook is an Apple iSight, a 17″ Flat-Screen Samsung CRT, Logitech’s Cordless Navigator Duo, and a set of Altec Lansing 2100 speakers. On the right side of the center section is a Panasonic Multi-Line MultiTalk Handset, my Sony Sony CLIE PEG-UX50, and my wife’s Sony CLIE PEG-TJ25(which she never uses).

Right Wing -> Um, the right side? My home-built Windows box – 1.7 GHz Pentium 4, 768 MB RAM, 20 GB HD, 256MB Geforce 4, 802.11G, and a Sony Superdrive (or whatever PC users call it). Connected to it – 17″ Flat-Screen Sony Trinitron, Microsoft’s Basic Wireless Optical Desktop, an eCam, and a cheap pair of Labtec speakers. Sitting on top of the PC (can’t see) is a portable, USB 2.0 & Firewire, swapable hard drive bay that I use with both my PCs and Macs. Brother MFC-6800 Laser Multi-Function machine. In front of the fax machine is a Sony Handycam DCR-HC40 and a Sony Cybershot DSC-S50. (The pictures were taken with a compact Sony Cybershot U DSC-U30.)

Right/Back-> Eh, whatever. Towards the end of the right wing of my desk is an old Apple Macintosh Performa 5300CD (for watching TV and working w/ old Macintosh software). To the right of the old Mac is an old TV, sitting on top of that is the DSL modem and an Apple Extreme Base Station (I have an Apple Airport Express in the kitchen). Below the desk is an assortment of different bags that I use, a different one depending how many gadgets I am bringing with me. In one of them is a portable Canon i70 printer. On the shelf is a bunch of books, a misc. junk bin, and a Brother HL-5140 laser printer.

Thats about it for my main office.

My other home office has my old Apple 400MHz PowerMac G4 w/ 768MB RAM, DVD, external Sony CD Burner, 3 Internal HDs, Belkin battery backup, Netgear 802.11b wireless-ethernet bridge, 17″ CRT Monitor, HP Deskjet 5550, and some cheap speakers. On her desk sits a Sony CLIE PEG-TJ25.

Maybe I will try to get a pic of my upstairs neighbor’s set up (He has a 12″ PowerBook, Sony CLIE, and a Z-Line desk too)

I have pictures of the little guy posted here: http://homepage.mac.com/cyberhomie/Gadget

I will post more movies and pictures as I get them.

I love this thing! It was super easy to set up and I haven’t had any trouble with it yet. I am mainly going to be using as a wireless extender at my house, but I will also be using as a porable wireless base station also. I have tested the AirTunes feature, works pretty good. Haven’t tried the built in print server.