MoGo MouseBT - a mouse has never been so thin

Friday, July 28, 2006

If you own a laptop and you neither like track pads and track points nor you want to carry a full size mouse now you have a great alternative. Newton Peripherals in fact created MoGo MouseBT, a business-card sized mouse that provides the basic functionalities and can be stored inside the laptop when it is turned off.

Once you do not need the mouse anymore you just need to put it into the PCMCIA slot and you will be able to carry the laptop away without worrying about an external mouse. The slot is also used to charge the MoGo MouseBT and while Newton reports a one hour charge time after several minutes you can just start using it again (obviously it will not last as if it was charged for one hour). The manufacturer did not report how much time will last the mouse once it has been fully charged but early reports by people who tried it say that 8 hours is a good indication.

The Bluetooth compatibility enables to use the mouse without recurring to wires and you can use up to 30 feet away the laptop (if you are able to read the display from that far). Newton when designing the mouse was careful to make certain that the mouse easily connected with Bluetooth devices and judging from the results they were successful. Pairing the MoGo MouseBT with a Bluetooth laptop is so easy that it makes you wonder why all the Bluetooth devices do not work in this way.

Since it is business-card sized you may wonder how much its size compromises the usability of the mouse. This limitation forced Newton Peripherals to include only two buttons (the usual left and right click) but they come up with a great solution to solve any annoyance that the flat aspect could create.

They inserted in the MoGo MouseBT a kickstand that raises the lower part of it to improve usability and to simulate the usual hand positioning on the device (it also helps the optical components to detect mouse movements). The kickstand is designed so that you have to press a tab to use it and this prevents any problem of auto opening when the mouse is placed in the PCMCIA slot.

This is really a good product and its only two “drawbacks” are the lack of a scroll wheel and the price that initially may seem a little bit too high for a mouse (it’s quite subjective though). Besides the producers already said that they plan to include the scroll wheel in the next versions so they certainly go in the right direction with the MoGo MouseBT.