Mouse Reviews

However, in terms of 'wireless', this mouse leaves a lot to be desired. I tried it on 4 PCs and one Mac, the mouse becomes useless if it is 1-2 feet away from the receiver! The mouse has to point directly to the base, and they'd better be at the same height with nothing in between, to get the 2 feet range...

I became accustomed to having keys for music, web browser, email, etc, on a previous wired Microsoft keyboard. This keyboard has these, too. All the functions are configurable if you don't use the default MS programs. Like all the MS keyboards, the feel of the keys is the best that is out on the market. The mouse is also top-quality.

I've found battery life to be just fine. My batteries have lasted for months now.

At first I thought it would be like other technology gimmicks, but couldn't resist the potential sweetness of the idea. Over a year of continuous use surfing the web, writing reports, playing games and programming without a hitch. I use it mostly as an optical mouse, occasionally surfing the web with my hand dangling below my chair simply moving my wrist. When I want to watch a movie on my computer, I just take the keyboard and mouse and recline to watch the movie in my recliner.

Installation couldn't be easier...pop in the usb connector to the receiver and push the "learn" button for each device as described in the quick start guide. No drivers required.

One note of concern, gyration claims a 25' range, however in my dorm room (where cell phones sometimes dont work either) the range is less than that. If i sit the receiver on my computer case or anything metal, the mouse movement sometimes is choppy. Simply moving the base or adjusting the antenna usually fixes this.

My friend also has the same keyboard/mouse combo and hasn't had any problems at all. I'd recommend this setup over logitech or any other brand. If you like a laptop keyboard, you'll love this keyboard as they are identical. Battery life is amazing in the keyboard, 4 AA batters require changing every 6 months or so with even heavy use.

Your friends WILL be impressed.

Let's dispense with the 'wow' factor stuff. It's pretty cool that this mouse lets you move the cursor by moving the mouse around in the air. In this mode, the mouse is accurate and reliable. If you're looking for a presentation device it's great, specially if you want to stand in front of the screen and use it like a laser pointer or something.

The thing of it is, the mouse is not really a very good mouse. It's strangely shaped. It's even a little strange when you're holding it as a presentation pointer, but sitting on the desk, in "optical" mode, it's borderline absurd. Also, if you are thinking you'll use it while kicking back in your chair at home, you're mistaken. You can sit a long way away from your computer and guide the mouse around fly-by-wire like, but once you set the mouse DOWN, it flips to OPTICAL MODE, so if you set it on your lap or on the floor or whatever, and movement will change the cursor position. Neat.

Now, the worst part -- the keyboard. What a joke. Sure, it has a long range. Otherwise, it's got really crummy response. The larger keys, like the spacebar, are especially sticky and slow to respond. The keys are mushy, hard to push and imprecise.

Actually though, while the keyboard is the worse "part" the worst thing this suite does is lose it's connection to the base every few hours. Not only that, but when this happens, the keyboard spazzes out, and can't be reeled in from the thicket without actually REMOVING THE BATTERIES. Fantastic. Then the whole suite has to be re-initialized with the whole "learn" -> "teach" thing.

One more thing to note is that a lot of the bases for these units have been recalled, so you will probably have to send your base back and wait a week for a new one. The good news is that the company seems quite responsive and good at customer service.

The gyroscopic thing is a neat idea -- too bad it's used in such cheap equipment. If you want a presentation device, just get the mouse. The keyboard is throw-away.

PROS: Neat-o Gyroscopic mouse provides hours of gee-wiz gawking.

CONS: Everything else. Shape of mouse, feel of keyboard, mechanics of wireless transmission. Just get the mouse.

But, don't buy them by mail order if they're a chance they will be shipped by air. I have two business trips and one ill-considered... order to support a guess that the gel can degrade in the low-pressure environment during flight. It goes flat. ...

It is a decent wrist rest, but nothing special. It has two gel-filled tubes that provide adequate support, but only if you follow the little instruction sheet and shorten the length of the tube (by squeezing the gel a bit to one side and adjusting the velcro strap). I agree with a previous reviewer that the material easily attracts dust, but that's not too big a deal for me. Someone else mentioned that the ends are not aesthetically pleasing because of the strap sticking out...well, the strap has a velcro tab on it that allows you to adjust the length...when you do that, the strap stays underneath and no longer sticks out.

Overall, this wrist rest is good enough for typing and using the mouse. It's relatively comfortable and cheap to buy, so if you don't want to shell out the big bucks for a $50 super-ergonomic rest, you could give this one a try.

The disadvantage of this mouse is that it is quite small, and perhaps for a person like me who would probably fit a brick in a hand, the mouse could have been bigger. I haven't found any other inconveniences, with the price tag on it I suspect it might die sooner, but don't want to predict.

Cons: Doesn't side scroll in Visio for enterprise architects as well as other programs. Do research is you want to use this mouse for specific programs. Does not have a true smooth scroll like advertised. It just feels like smooth scrolling but still notches down and up in the window. The side scrolling works but has different speeds in different applications. Ex. It is slow in VS.NET and fast in IE. Pretty nerve wracking. You must have "Terminal Services" turned on or the drivers will not work. I'm sure this is an early bug and will corrected shortly.

Overall: I am happy with this mouse. I use it for development purposes and it work quite nicely I must say.

After two years of heavy use, I'd say that it was certainly worth the ... I payed for it. Had I payed the $80 retail price, I may have been a little dissapointed. After a LAN party last year, I found that a couple of keys had broken off in my backpack. I was able to stick them back on but now they fall off every once in a while.

Also, you can't hold down key combinations while it's booting. For example, if you crash and need to boot from a CD, holding down C won't do anything. Same for shift to turn off extensions and option to pick your startup disk. I have to keep an old mac keyboard in my closet just in case. This is not a big deal, but for an ... keyboard it shouldn't have these kinds of issues.

Lastly, from time to time, after a soft reset, the keyboard input will not be recognized. A dialog will come up saying that it can't find drivers for this device and tries to find them on the web. It fails and you have to turn the machine all the way off and turn it back on again to get it to come back. It took me a couple hours of rebooting and pulling my hair out to figure that one out.

All that said, I have gotten a good two years of heavy use out of it and it's still going strong. It's very comfortable to type on and it looks pretty cool with any Mac. 4 out of 5 stars.

Another problem with the mouse is that it seems to go to "sleep" after 20 minutes of inactivity. Which means moving it does nothing. You have to click a button to wake it up. I've had a screensaver running and having to click a button to wake up the mouse has ended up sending that mouse click to an application running under the screensaver. I try to use the keyboard to turn off the screensaver before waking the mouse.

If that wasn't annoying enough, the mouse NEVER EVER worked! It was flaky. I'd right click on the desktop, not move the mouse at all, and by the time the menu popped up, I was unable to move the mouse pointer. Distance from the RF base had nothing to do with this, as I was able to duplicate this 1" away from the base. In the middle of a mouse operation, the mouse would stop working. This happens every time I use it. Imagine the frustration of trying to control a DVD app, hitting the seek button, then having the mouse stop working when you need to hit play again. I have never owned such a difficult to use mouse, wireless or otherwise. I eventually lost my temper with it one day and through it down the stairs. Remarkably, this seemed to fix it, although temporarily.

I have since paid up for the Gyration wireless combo and am happy I did. The keyboard may find another use in my house, but I cannot get the mouse out of my sight quick enough. Basically, if having a mouse is important to you, walk away from this combo.