Mouse Reviews

The receiver for this mouse is almost as big as the mouse itself and is connected to a long cord, making it pointless for use with a laptop. I wish Amazon had a picture that showed the receiver... if they had, I would not have ordered this mouse.

This is a great basic wireless mouse , for your desktop. Nothing fancy. Just the basics.

If you have a desk top, and you want to go wireless. This is a great basic mouse.

This product sounds great. Control your PC from anywhere in your room!! Cool!! It even installed easily. But that's when the problems started. Programs just don't listen to the remote. I'll be listening to a song on itunes, and want to change it. I take the remote, point it at the reciever, press the button, the little activity light on the reiver lights up and....nothing happens. The song doesnt change, the cursor doesn't move, zippo. So i push the button again, this time it will work. Or maybe it doesn't, so you push it again, then five minutes latter, suddenly, the playlist skips twice.

To make a long story short, this product is just plain unreliable. When it works, it is awsome. When it doesn't, there is no explanation. I think it is a great concept, that needs some serious refinement.

I love my PC Remote. It's easy to use and easy to set up. I use it for one at the office and one at home every day to run presentations and my pc jukebox at home. I just bought four more for my friends and family. I read another review about someone having problems. I have not had one. It just works!

This remote is great for those of you with the ATI tuner cards! The remote ATI features is nowhere in the same league as this remote. It has 4 different preset "hot buttons" that will launch the programs you want from a distance. I see FAR more features than the Mfr. supplied remote. I love it! You can just sit back in your recliner and fast forward through the commercials of recorded programs, you no longer have to sit in front of the PC to do it anymore! Highly recommended! Whatcha waitin' for! Buy it already!

In case someone is interested here's some more information I gleaned about this product. The product appears rather old. The page I found about it was copyright 1998...

If the link doesn't appear, here is the info:

1. Size: there are two.
You can determine which size you need by measuring the distance between the base of your palm and your index (finger closest to thumb) finger. (My hands are pretty small, but it seems I need the large "mouse".)

Small/Medium (2.75 - 3.50 inches)
Large (3.50 - 4.0 inches)

2. OS supported:
PC windows 95 & 98, NT4, 2000 (the latest revision of the software was on Dec. 12 2000)

MAC OS 8.1+ (usb only on mac, no software for mac, device is plug and play.)

3. Buttons - three. The third button is programmable only in windows.

4. Type: 3M site says PS/2 and USB, but not to use a PS/2 to serial adapter (site says trying to plug mouse into serial port could harm your computer.)

5. Right handed only.

6. 3M Site says to make sure your forearm is resting on something while using the mouse. Site recommends that you move the mouse by moving your arm, not your wrist. Apparently if the mouse hurts, you're using it incorrectly.

Carpal Tunnel? Can't work due to pain? Can't use a computer because your wrist hurts?

I answered "yes" to all three questions and was on workman's comp. and then I found this mouse. Back to using the computer eight hours a day with no problems. This is the way mice SHOULD be made to fit your hand.

The mouse looks strange at first and feels even more so, but after about three months you won't ever notice. It does take patience at first, but just keep at it and it becomes second nature. Works great in most every app you can use. I'm a heavy gamer and it works a treat. Don't expect to be the master first person shooter around any longer, but you will be able to finish a game like Half-Life on its hardest difficulty without problem. Best of all you will BE ABLE to play without pain!

Cons:
- Mouse feet too small. This mouse takes the full weight your lower arm which puts a lot of pressure on the feet. They wear down fast! I use Everglide's mouse feet tape to help extend the life of the pads.

- Not optical! This is a huge drawback to this product. Mouse balls are a thing of the past and this product is made with an inferior one at that. It's already hard to be precise moving your entire arm and having to fight an inprecise ball makes it all the more difficult. Still, it will do the job.

- You can't click on both the left and right mouse buttons at the same time. Not a problem for most apps, but certain games require both buttons to be pressed at the same time. You just can't by design.

- More buttons needed. They could have fit a fourth button in on the middle of the handle shaft.

- Very poor drivers. Actually, you will probably use the standard Windows drivers which are not feature rich.

3M, give us a optical version!!! I love this mouse!

Note: Just got this email from 3M, "We do indeed have an optical version of our mouse. It was put on the market about 5 or 6 months ago [Spring '03]. The product number for the optical version is EM500 GPS (small/medium) or GPL (large). The look and fit is the same as the mechanical version."

Many years of using standard mice had left my hand with ever-increasing pain, and I had a hard time holding or squeezing things. I visited many electronics stores, but didn't find a mouse that felt very comfortable. I did find that the joysticks felt more comfortable and natural than the mice did. I decided to buy this mouse because it was designed with ergonomics in mind, and because it looked a lot like a joystick.

It took about a week for me to get used to the new design. For example, both the left- and right-click buttons are controlled with the thumb. There is a second, squeezable button that can function like a scroll-wheel, and it took a while to get used to moving my arm when I wanted to the page to scroll.

I was a bit worried that the software wouldn't be fully compatible with my PC (Windows Me), but I have found very few problems. Occasionally, I'll find a problem with scrolling, especially horizontal scrolling, but this doesn't bother me very much. Also, I was worried that the software wouldn't let me play 3D games. I haven't had any problems with it, though, even with games such as the demo of Unreal Tournament 2003.

It really works - after about two months, my hand feels as though it's almost back to normal. It's much easier to hold and squeeze things, and the constant clicks and double-clicks (especially in the games) no longer create such pain. The mouse has come to feel very natural. In fact, standard mice now feel very strange and unnatural. I have the large mouse, and I think that it would fit most people's hands. If anything, it feels slightly small to me.

One of my favorite things about this mouse is that other people who use my computer and who don't have problems with standard mice, use a standard mouse without restarting the PC or making changes to software settings. They simply move the ergonomic mouse off of the pad, and use up the standard mouse. They can do this because my ergonomic mouse is plugged into a USB port, and the standard mouse is plugged into its standard port.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this mouse. I'm very happy with it.

I'm focusing the functionality of this mouse to other cordless mice.

Overall, the product is very good. It works very well as a regular cordless optical mouse. From my vantage point, this makes it a very good deal, if this alone makes it worth spending about $30 more than a comparable cordless optical mouse (based on street price for the Gyration). The two buttons have a very solid tactile feel yet have a good balance that makes it easy to press yet not too easy to accidentally press a button without intention. The scroll wheel also has a nice tactile feel and scrolls easily but not too easily.

The bonus of the Gyration comes when you lift it off of the desk. You can use the Gyration in the air and replicate any function while holding the mouse up. This makes it great as a full-function mouse for when you do anything from presentations to web surfing in a more distant, relaxed position away from your desk. When you press the button on the underside, the position of your hand/arm at that moment is considered the neutral position. If you then move your arm to the right, the mouse cursor goes right. If you move your arm to the left, the mouse cursor goes left. The motion does take some getting used to, but generally speaking it is quite easy. It is particularly easy for anyone that is used to playing video games.

The range of the mouse is essentially as advertised. I have used the mouse from a distance of over 20' for a presentation. In household usage, I have not had the mouse farther away than I can read my monitor, which is around 4'.

Another special feature of this mouse is the rechargeable battery. The mouse has a cradle for charging. This feature is great in that you don't have to worry about purchasing batteries. The down side to this is the lack of a power meter -- you have no idea when the battery is about to run down. The optical beam is constantly working on the mouse, which also means that the battery power is constantly being run down. In practice, the mouse ran out of battery left out of the cradle after 2 1/2 days. When the battery runs down, there are only 2 choices: either get your old spare mouse, or wait until the battery is charged again, which will take between 2 to 3 hours. The solution to this is to always keep the mouse in the cradle.

In sum, if you are going to do any off-desk web surfing or conducting a presentation, this is a great mouse. If you don't plan on doing either of these activities, you are probably better off purchasing a Logitech cordless optical mouse.

Does what it claims, but takes getting used to. But, why would anyone want to use a mouse away from his computer? Aside from the business/presentation usage, my computer is off to the side of my recliner. So with this little baby I basically set the resolution to 800x600, raise the fonts in my browser to largest, and surf the 'Net and read my email while reclining!

The final product is great -- sharp colors, very little bleeding, no peeling. Much better than I would have expected from a do-it-yourself kit. I printed these on a couple different printers, and even the ones done on my cheap little $50 printer ended up looking as good as the ones you get from the copy stores or mall kiosks, plus you get the satisfaction of saying you made it yourself.

Getting to the finished mousepad takes a bit a patience though, as the one problem with this product is the packaging. There's no cardboard reinforcement to keep the sheets flat inside the box, and they get a bit wrinkled and bent up somewhere between the factory and you (it's not Amazon's fault, you get the same results if you buy them in the store). I had several get jammed up in the printer because they kept curling up (at 4 bucks a sheet, it's frustrating). Oh yeah, and make sure you're not going to run out of ink in the middle of printing. Buy some fresh cartridges while you're here online.

My children just finished making a mousepad to give Grandma for Mothers' Day. Please note you will need your own creative software to design the layout (we used Hanes T-Shirt maker as it has a mousepad option, then combined the program's graphics with an imported image of the children). The mousepad turned out wonderfully, the colors were sharp and not faded, and the directions for transferring the image were simple. I've used other transfer papers and found the paper included in this kit was sturdier and held the ink colors better without oversaturating in spots as can happen with other brands. The children are already planning on making end-of-year gifts for their teachers, scanning in class photos to make the mousepads.

This mouse is handly little thing with a nice self-retracting cord to keep everything tidy. Only problem I had was that when I received it, McAfee anti-virus detected Redlof@M on the disk. (I had just taken it out of a blister pack) So, I just clicked delete, an the virus was gone, and I've got a nice little mouse.

Windows 2000 requires no drivers to make this work.

...The Iogear USB 800 DPI Mini Mouse (w/ 32MB Flash Drive) works like a dream with MAC OS X Panther. Especially w/ a AlPowerbook or G4 ibook. Just plugin & scroll away! It's incredibly "smart", just like you've come to demand in our world. Life is good......

If you've ever used a trackball before, this is nothing different. The only thing about it that struck me as unique was the blue ball, and the erginomic design. All in all, it's not worth it's price.

Kensington's products are, in my experience, well worth the money---they are EXTREMELY well-made and tech support is top-notch. I find the Orbit very comfortable and the included software allows a lot of control and customization (I've used this trackball on both Windows and Mac OS). As far as physical quality of the product, only Logitech's input devices come close.

As with any input device, it's best to try this one on for size before you buy. I find it very comfortable and a good way to minimize joint-related problems in my right wrist and hand, but the only way to figure out whether it's comfortable for you is to try it out in person, preferably in a store where you can compare it side-by-side with other ones.

this mouse is the reason i embrace multi-colored waffle dwarves when the moon sets

I would always buy a Kensington product over any other. Plus their stuff is always looks good. They always make quality material and this is no exception. The mouse is responsive and reliable.

I love the gel rest part of this mousepad. My problem with this product is the mousepad surface is way too small. I find myself running off the edge alot and having to pickup the mouse and reset it. It is almost impossible to play any pc games with this. If all you use it for is web surfing and business applications I would recommend it. I have carpal tunnel syndrome and this gel rest feels great. If the mousepad surface was bigger i'd give this 5 stars.

I got this mouse pad about a month ago and I love it. The wrist rest is very comfortable and the copy holder -- well, it has made my desk a lot neater. The copy holder is also very easy to take off when you just want to play a game. I only wish that the colors were customizable and the mouse pad didn't stand off so much on my desk. But for the price at which Amazon is giving it away, it is definitely worth.

I was looking for something like this to play keyboard/mouse type of games (I'm a Diablo II junkie).

Unfortunately, the pad has the feel of a really cheap game pad (well, probably worse). Don't expect to use the pad's 8-way control or the mouse's 4-way button correctly. You should expect to get about half their functionality (4 and 2) - don't expect any accuracy if you try to use more.

If you're a Diablo II player (or play another game that requires the use of many keyboard buttons) don't expect this to fulfill your need to remove the keyboard completely from the gameplay; so if you want to replace the keyboard, look elsewhere - just not enough functionality here.

Excellent idea though and I really do like the idea of the mult-way button, but just very poor execution. I don't know how good Microsoft's implemention is, so I can't compare the two; however, my next step is to get a better mouse with some more functionality (ie 1 or 2 more programmable buttons).

I have never liked the keyboard for use with action/shooter type games (Doom, Unreal, Elite Forces)..
I would have to look down at the keys and my fingers would move and it was very fustrating.

I was actually looking for a mouse with a hat where the scroll
wheel usually is (I never found one) when I stumbled upon the
Saitek GM3 Action Pad.

The reviews were mixed but I decided to buy it.

It works GREAT!! I think the SHIFT key could be better placed..it so far from the other keys I don't use it. But everything else is AWESOME! The hat keeps you from having to press the keys on the keyboard and the scroll wheel is great for strafing..and the other buttons are placed fairly well.

One thing I have noticed. I used to have a larger desk and I had room to place the GM3 at the 2:00/8:00 position for the most comfort. I now have a much smaller desk and I have to place the controller almost straight up and down. It's harder to get to some of the keys in that position. I want my old desk back!

I recommend this for any 3rd person shooter game!

I was going to buy the Belkin hand pad, but found this one at a local retailer for really cheap. I figured for that price I could take the risk. Boy was I surprised! Not only was it worth more than I had anticipated, I couldn't game without it anymore. Once you figure out how to program the buttons, this little number is GREAT!!! Unfortunately, it is difficult getting this thing to work with the Cyborg Feedback joystick from Saitek.