Published 2005-12-04 10:30:15
On almost every PC I use, I still have a nice reliable ball mouse, usually wireless, and every few months, it get's a small clean and new batteries. But one of them is now at least 4 years old, and is showing it's age a little, so off I went hunting for a replacement.
To my horror, nobody is selling mice with balls these days (male mice are extinct!!! - female only versions available?). They only sell the optical crap. I've tried optical mouses quite a few times, you always get really bad feedback and the mouse behaviour is eratic at best of times. I usually end up bining them. But I'm still in shock today, that it's so increadibly difficult to buy them. So if you know of any good on-line resellers who sell real mice.. let me know..
On a side line to this, I ended up with a dud piece of hardware from Targus (Note Mac unfriendly supplier!) - their cute looking wireless presenter mouse, has no drivers for OSX, so looks like that one's going back to the shop.. (even linux had support for this!)
[update] I took the Wireless presenter mouse (Targus ARM01AP) back to the shop, after a bit of wiggling by the sales assistant, and pressing buttons on the USB bit, suddly it came to life on the OSX desktop, so after spending 2hours+ trying to find a solution last night, minutes after I plugged it in today, it worked out the box, without any extra software...agghhhh
Comments
don't be a luddite! :)
meh, as if optical mice are 'erratic'. I play a lot of FPS games so I know what I'm talking about. I need precision.
Using a logitech mx510, disabled mouse acceleration using a registry tweak and I'm good to go.
Razer, all the way
Am typing this having clicked here via a stunning Razer Diamondback Blue Crystal mouse, on an eXactMat X Control, plugged into my Mac. This is the smoothest mouse you'll find, but also the most sensitive, designed for hardcore FPS gamers, it is pixel perfect, very comfortable and..err.. has a price tag to match this elite status ;)
Tried the Logitechs, hated them, too 'fat'. Hated the Microsoft 'leather feel' Intellimouse even more.
Stay away from Wireless
After I retired my last male mouse, I got a wireless logitech optical. Terrible thing. The powersaving mode would make it terribly unresponsive, plus it used up batteries like crazy, even though it had a charging dock.
I chucked it after a month, and went back to cables. I agree with the sometime erratic behaviour of optical mice, but I'm a keyboard guy... so the fact that I don't need a mousepad, and don't need to clean it makes up for it.
Mouse Has to Be Optical
For starters, old ball mice don't last. They collect dirt and finally you can't fix them despite how much you try to clean them.
Secondly, optical mouse is very accurate. If you have problems with it, check your mouse pad. The pad has to be dark. (If you use light mouse pad, the cursor will jump on the screen.)
Finally, I don't either like the wireless versions. The battery always wears out, which is not nice at all. Also, I guess those would require special drivers. (I'd like the mouse to work even with trim down computers, like specialized linux servers...) And why would you use wireless mouse with non-wireless PC (well, sometimes that is usefull, but not usually).
Good optical is better than a bad one
Stay away from the Laser ones... but the Logitech MX700 with your Mac or PC is fantastic, and with it's rechargable batteries and dock you don't have to buy batteries for it either.
It's the best mouse I've ever owned and is having a good innings!
