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Optical mouse

  • Thread starter jimscott
  • Start date

jimscott

Tropical Fish Enthusiast
A friend of mine was telling me about an optical mouse and when Home Depot brought them in, made by General Electric, I picked one up for $5.95. Anybody else use them? Whaddya think?
 
i have a mini one for the laptop and Darla and a few others use one here at work. they work fine, but have issues with some mouse pads/surfaces.
 
My Logitech is 5 years old and works as good today as the first day. Rattler is right though some times they have issues with certain surfaces.

Joe
 
I have a wireless optical mouse. Lovely little thing.
 
Wireless? Hmmm.... Anyways, aside from the fact that it isn't connected to the back of my outdated tower, what advantage would it have over the thing that I just bought?
 
basically what you just mentioned - it's not connected to anything, so allows greater freedom of movement and mouse placement. Also nice if you have the urge to use your mouse from the other side of the room
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i use one. it's GREAT!
 
They eat batteries. My mother in law has one. Personally I do not see the point.

As for an optical mouse I have a Logitech which I've had for several years. I got tired of cleaning the cat hair out of the mouse ball all the time.
 
The problem with optical mice is that even a tiny hair trapped inside can make your pointer whiz all of the place. The lense is also quite delicate.
At least you don't have an Apple mouse. Apple stuff is great, but so unreliable. Apple mice break all the time, iPod batteries last two years then the whole thing has to go in the bin, iBook keyboards always break. Apple is like Alfa Romeo - great to look at, but unreliable.
 
  • #10
you are supposed to sent the ipod in and get a new lithium battery for 50 bucks or so.
 
  • #11
I have a wireless optical mouse and i have to change the batteries every 4-5 months, thats not bad for me. I love them
 
  • #12
I have one, much better than the old roll mouse one. (mine's from IBM apparently... I thought it was from logitech!)

don't forget-recycle your batteries!
 
  • #13
the battery thing is probably directly related to brand and model. the newspaper i work at has a Canon 35mm SLR(model # escapes me at the moment) that eats batteries like they are going out of style, we replaced them every week before we got the digital Rebel. my 35mm Canon Rebel will get used just as much and not have to replace the batteries for 6 months or more. brand and even model number, and brand of battery can have alot to do with battery life.
 
  • #14
Switched to a Logitech optical a few years ago and never looked back. It seemed like I was always taking the ball out and finding a hair or tiny glob of dirt or needing to clean the 2 rollers that contact the ball....

I'll never willingly go back....
 
  • #15
I have a wireless RF optical mouse and wireless RF keyboard. They came as a set from Logitech. Thing is AWESOME, it is actually my second one of these... On this one the transmiter is a charger... So every couple of weeks I toss the mouse on the charger... As far as the keyboard, it needs to have the batteries (rechargables) changed out every 3 months or so.... Here is what i've got logitech mouse/keyboard set.
If you want to know more about my computer you can see it at this topic.
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LOL
Andrew

OH, and I use mine right on the wood desk... yeah, you can see the wear mark but i don't care. I've never liked to use mouse pads... I never have any problem with it freaking out at all... I had my last Logitech RF keyboard/mouse kit for about 2 years and was still in working condition when i up graded and gave the old one to my neighbor... Who it still works perfectly for. My new one I got from Sams Club for about 60 bucks.
 
  • #16
You'll have a laser-related freakout about 5% as often as you'll have a gummed-up-ball-related freakout.
 
  • #17
i didnt say the optical had issues on a regular basis, just that it doesnt like some surfaces. ive got a mouse pad in the drawer beside me that will not work with an optical mouse. but ive never had a problem yet with any desk or table top ive used my mini one on. just be aware that its a possibility at some point
 
  • #18
I had an optical mouse freakout a while back, and I was trying to figure out what was wrong with it... then I realized I'd sat down at a glass table.
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  • #19
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]you are supposed to sent the ipod in and get a new lithium battery for 50 bucks or so

I didn't know that. Still, that's like Ford saying it'll only cost you $1000 when your engine goes after 20,000 miles.
 
  • #20
I have an optical mouse at work...I like it.
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