| by David
Engstrom
Last year's big craze was optical mice. These were
a tremendous leap forward in mice technology. Gone were the times you watched the cursor go skidding across the screen like a drunken sailor .. a sure sign that it was time to take apart your mouse and clean the grime encrusted rollers. It seemed like I was constantly performing this chore in the pre-optical era.
If last year was optical mice, this year the new thing
is wireless optical mice. The Butcher's Wife has got out her knife and cut the mouse tail anchoring
it to the computer. In its place are radio signals tethering your input device to your computer
invisibly through the ether.
We took three of Logitech's wireless mice for a test
drive, two of them optical, and one still relying on
roller technology. What we found were three very
serviceable mice, whose wireless technology worked
well .. with some limitations.
However on the
software front, Logitech has some work to do.
MX700 Cordless Optical Mouse
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Mice Meet Man
The choice of what input device to choose is a very
individual one. Most people probably just get by with
the mouse that came with their computer and leave it
at that. However there is a thriving market for
for third party mice that offer more features than the
stock one button mouse that comes with every Macintosh. Apple's current mouse offering is sleek in design,
but I find it awkward to use. Despite the fact that
it is an optical mouse, in functionality there is little difference from the Apple mice versions that came before it.
If you are a power user, you need a mouse with multiple
buttons, a scroll wheel and excellent software to control
it all
The Logitech Wireless Mice
The three wireless mice from Logitech we looked at
were; the MX
700, the MouseMan
Optical and the Cordless
Mouse Color Select. The first two are optical mice,
and the Color Select is a budget mouse that still
relies on roller ball technology. All three mice are
stylishly designed, and, after an initial period of adjustment, will fit well in the palm
of your hand. I have used various mice in my career
and always have found it an initial shock
changing mice. The mouse I have been using for the last
year is an MacAlly optical one. It has been a great
mouse. It lacks only sufficient buttons to make my workflow easier.
The MacAlly mouse is about a third the size of any of the Logitech
mice listed above and about a third the weight.
So initially the Logitech mice felt clumsy and awkward
in my hand. The reason the Logitech mice are so much
heavier is because each one has to have a power source built into
the mouse. This allows them to make the radio
frequency connection with the base unit which is connected to the USB port of
your computer,. For these mice that power source is a pair of batteries.
The batteries weigh as much, if not more, than the mouse
itself. Again I thought that the weight of the mice
would be a problem, but I quickly adjusted to the new
specs, and the mice became very much the same appendage
that my previous tethered mouse had been. It was nice
not to have to drag that tail around every time I picked
up the mouse.
In operation all three mice glide easily and the operation
is smooth. The exception might be the budget Color Select
mouse whose scroll wheel was somewhat rougher than the
other two (actually much the same as my current
MacAlly mouse).
Cordless MouseMan Optical
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Ok so the mice look good (though they are not in the
shiny plastic motif that has been the rage at Apple
for some years now .. they are, after all, designed
to be cross platform, and thus must express some form
of neutrality). They feel good. Anything wrong with
them? Yes. There are some hardware design issues that
I think might present some users with problems. But
the big problem is with the current state of the software
that drives the mice.
The software interface is spare but offers a gamut
of straight forward options for assigning the buttons
different actions, including the helpful ability to
assign keystrokes to buttons. The software adjusts automatically to whichever Logitech mouse
you have connected to you computer. This is, of course,
not something that the average user would ever run across.
But I was impressed how the software transformed itself
to each mouse, offering options specific to that mouse
and putting up a picture of the mouse currently connected
in the main preference interface panel.
Cordless Mouse Color Select
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No, the problem with the software in not with what it
does, but with what it doesn't do. You cannot set separate
preferences for different applications. This is almost
a show stopper for me. All the other multi-button mice
I have used had the ability to map different actions
to the buttons depending on which application you were
currently working in. For example you could set the
right button to copy selected text in Internet
Explorer and have the same button cause a hard return
in AppleWorks. With my MacAlly mouse this takes place seamlessly. Once you
set the preferences for an application you can just
forget about them and get on with your work.
Not so with the Logitech software. The setting you
set for the buttons and scroll wheel are universal ..
they apply to all applications. The only way to do something
different with a button is to change it on a case by
case basis. This is something akin to calling a meeting
of the UN assembly and providing only one translator.
It makes the Logitech 4 button mouse much less versatile
than my MacAlly 3 button mouse.
According to LogiTech
they are mulling the idea of adding this functionality,
but have no firm plans to do so to date.
The Mice
Mx700: The Big Kahuna of Logitech's wireless mice lineup is
the Mx700. This is a power users mouse with 8 functioning
buttons. After some initial adjustment it feels nice
in your hand. However if you are left-handed this mouse
will not work for you.
It is designed to fit the right hand and its two side
buttons are both made to be triggered by the right thumb.
The placement of the buttons is OK. I like the placement
of the side buttons which are placed high enough so
that they are not accidentally triggered. I am less
enthusiastic about the middle button that is
furthest toward the front of the mouse. It is awkward to reach
it, unless I guess if you have very long fingers. The
default setting for this button is 'Cruse Up' but you
can assign it to any of a dozen other settings. I set
it to to hide all applications except the Finder. I
don't do this often, so it worked well for that.
The Mx700 is the only mouse in the bunch that comes
with a re-charger. This is because the mouse is power
hungry. The mouse is suppose to give 10 days of use
after a full charge (a full charge takes 7-8 hours) It should also provide a days worth of use after sitting
in its charging cradle for 10 minutes. We had our review unit run out
of gas several times after only a few days use, but
then miraculously endure for a week before we had to
put it in its cradle. This of course was a little disconcerting,
but Logitech's position is that a charge should last
approximately 10 days and will replace yours if you
are getting significantly less than that.
All in all this is a very good mouse, and of the bunch,
as a Power User, it would be the mouse I would choose.
The only thing that would hold me back would be Logitech's
limiting software.
| Product: MX700 Cordless Optical Mouse |
| Company: Logitech |
| Street Price: $80 |
| Hits: Nicely designed, 8 programmable buttons, good button programming options, smooth movement and operation, has recharging cradle (will give you about 5 - 8 hours of use after a 10 minute recharge), 6 foot range, 5 year warranty |
| Misses: The biggie is that you can't program the buttons to trigger different actions in different software programs, the battery life is between 5 days to a week, batteries make the mouse somewhat heavy, some of the buttons are a little awkward to reach, base station must be 20 inches away from electrical devices (such as your computer or monitor) |
| Requirements: Macintosh OS 8.6 or later
USB port
CD-ROM drive (10.2 compatible) |
Rating:  
(5 possible) |
Cordless MouseMan Optical: The Cordless MouseMan Optical is Logitech's the middle of of the road wireless mouse. It has four buttons, when the scroll wheel button is included. It is a good mouse but not a great one. One of the buttons is a thumb button (again this is a mouse for the right-handed only). However I found the thumb button awkward to use. This button, unlike the thumb buttons on the Mx700, which are placed out of the way above the thumb area, is placed below the thumb space but still over-lapping into the area. I found myself naturally applying thumb pressure to this area when moving the mouse around. It was too easy to accidentally trigger the button when I wanted to move the mouse, or gripped it a little tighter for some reason. This of course puts into effect whatever you have programmed the button to do . Disconcerting if you are working along and suddenly realize that you have just unknowingly added 5 carriage returns to your document .. for instance. We experienced the same problem with the Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical we reviewed. The IntelliMouse has thumb buttons, one on each side, running down almost the full length of the mouse. The thumb button on the Logitech mouse is much less obtrusive, and no doubt one can learn to be more sensitive about how you handle the mouse. But mice should be robust and you should not have to handle them gingerly. We think that Logitech would have been better off following the standard they set with the Mx700, and placed the button (or better yet two buttons) above the thumb area where they could be willingly triggered instead of inadvertently so.
The MouseMan is stylish and flows easily across the mouse pad. Having only 4 buttons it is a somewhat more limited than the Mx700, but is a good choice for those whose needs are more modest.
| Product: Cordless MouseMan Optical |
| Company: Logitech |
| Street Price: $60 |
| Hits: Stylishly designed, 4 programmable buttons, good button programming options, smooth movement and operation, battery life several months, 6 foot range, 5 year warranty, |
| Misses: Again the lack of different programming options for different applications is a minus, batteries make the mouse somewhat heavy, the thumb button placement makes it easy to trigger accidentally |
| Requirements: Macintosh OS 8.6 or later
USB port
CD-ROM drive (10.2 compatible) |
| Rating:
(5 possible) |
Logitech's budget mouse is the Cordless Mouse Color Select .. Color Select because you can change the top faceplate to any one of 3 color snap on inserts.This mouse has 3 programmable buttons, one on either side of the scroll wheel and the scroll wheel itself. Though it is wireless it still uses roller ball technology .. I did say it was a budget mouse! The mouse is comfortable and has an advantage over the other two mice described above, in that it can be used by either hand. So left-handers can apply. Given that, as of the time this review is being written, you can pick up this mouse for about $30, it is hard to fault the antiquated roller ball technology. Just remember you will be cleaning the inside of your mouse as lint and other gunk builds up on the rollers.
| Product: Cordless Mouse Color Select |
| Company: Logitech |
| Street Price: $30 |
| Hits: Nicely designed, good button programming options, smooth movement and operation, 6 foot range, batteries last up to 6 months, three-year warranty |
| Misses: Again the lack of different programming options for different applications is a minus, batteries make the mouse somewhat heavy, non-optical mouse |
| Requirements: Macintosh OS 8.6 or later
USB port
CD-ROM drive (10.2 compatible) |
| Rating:
(5 possible) |
Conclusion
These are all adequate mice that we can recommend for those whose mousing needs are not highly demanding. And in truth that is probably most consumers. However, because the software that Logitech offers is not more robust, specifically allowing for different setting in different applications, it is hard to recommend even the MX700 to power users. Our recommendation would be different when/if Logitech adds this functionality to the software driver.
The computing world is moving towards wireless connections and networks. Cordless keyboards and mice are a natural for this type of connectivity. However adoption of this technology might be somewhat slower than the rapid rate at which optical sensing replaced roller ball movement as a means for moving your cursor across the screen. The reason for a slower adoption rate might be that the problem of being wired to your computer, as opposed to wire free, is not as acute a problem as the one optical technology solved ..dirty roller balls. Also wireless connections require batteries which introduces hassles of its own. The Logitech Mx700 has it's own re-charger, which is to be commended, but the other two mice do not. So if you get one of these mice you will be replacing the battery every few months. You should have some replacements at hand, should your mouse tank run dry in the middle of some important project.
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