On Fri, Jan 04, 2002 at 11:24:04AM +0100, Tomasz Matuszczyk wrote:
> On Fri, 2002-01-04 at 00:07, Rogério Brito wrote:
> >
> > Besides, I actually like tapping the trackpad as a substitute
> > for clicking (which I'm also assuming is possible with the pbs
> > and ibooks).
>
> I don't know how much battery an external mouse consumes but it shouldnt
> be too much. Hoever I don't feel like using one since it's not to
> practical to always carry one more thing around... Plus the use of an
> externaö mouse limits use of the laptop to fairly flat surfaces which
> means, no sitting in the coach, bed, on the bus, in the car etc... No
> good idea... I think I'll have a go with the emulation first...
>
Don't say so! You have obviously never used an optical mouse. They really
work on the arm of your couch, or the leg of your pants -- actually the
only thing that stops them is too flat a surface, like a polished lacquered
table or a glass plate. I've got a small optical "notebook" mouse, about
the size of the ole' puck, but with two buttons + wheel, that goes wonder-
fully with my PB G3 and is smaller than the AC adapter, and a fraction of the
weight. I was concerned that the size might come as a handicap in
handling, but I have discovered that the way Apple had in mind with the
Puck (holding it just between the tips of three or four fingers instead of
the palm) works quite well -- for me at least. I haven't ever used another
mouse with this machine since I got it, though I have a few full-size
mice at home and work.
The consumption is also rated at 100 mA, BTW, although optical mice in
general have a slightly higher drain than mechanical. Doesn't seem very
significant compared to the 1100-1500 mA the PB typically consumes.
You might want to be careful with the combination optical/cordless, though,
'cause they seem to put a really heavy drain, and apparently the PowerBooks'
USB bus doesn't handle this well (especially the iBooks, I have heard many
won't even boot with an external keyboard attached).
One last word on models: they might be supposed to work all the same, but
I have heard a number of reports about the middle and right buttons of
M$-mice not working properly in rootless X, that I never could reproduce
with any of my mice, so if you have any plans to use XFree under MacOS X
you might want to take this into consideration. The Saitek notebook mouse
and all my Logitech mice have allways worked very well for me (in fact,
I might still go with one of their Trackmans, if only they had a smaller
version available).
HTH,
Derek
