There’s been an awful lot of hype about this particular mouse. I’ve managed to resist for a few months, but I was really interested in seeing if this product had some significant benefits on the ergonomic, health and safety front. I have to admit my hand sometimes gets a little tired operating a traditional desk mouse and the chance to try using a mouse in a different way was tempting. Given some of the other reviews I’d seen into the product I was a little hesitant.
I’m very pleased to report that they were all wrong. The big technological leap with this mouse (although I do believe there are others on the market) is that you can use it off the desktop (or laptop) and in the air to interface with your computer. This has potential benefits on the ergonomic front as well as making it possible to have the laptop at a greater distance from the user - good for surfing the web etc. In fact, you can use this mouse more as a remote control than mouse. In any event, I think some early adopters have misrepresented this product. The YouTube reviews I think are most hilarious as you watch reviewers waving the mouse about like their directing a jumbo jet into a gate at an airport.
On the contrary, subtle movement is the order of the day. This mouse if very sensitive and using it in the air is really good. It took me about a minute to get used to the movement in the air and it is extremely accurate when pointing at objects and clicking on them on the screen.
You can use the mouse in the air in any direction - while this is potentially useful my brain hasn’t caught up with the spatial relations necessary to do this with any accuracy - I still find myself need to orient the mouse’s nose to the front of the screen.
It has some useful buttons on it, but I find it a little awkward to look at the mouse as I’m working on the PC so I’ll just keep using the basic right and left click and scroll buttons. Most programs have short cuts and other features that are more than adequate for two buttons and the scroller.
The mouse can be used to control a media player. I don’t have Windows Media Centre and so can’t really comment on its functionality from that perspective.
It does control the volume and track forward/back in Windows Media Player, but again, I don’t use that much.
The mouse can be used on the desktop where it behaves just like a normal mouse. It knows whether its meant to be an air mouse or a desktop mouse without any prompting from the user. Although it seems to want a flat level surface in order to be a desk mouse - pretty reasonable I would have thought.
All in all this is a very useful idea. And if you like lazing about on couches using your laptop your probably likely to enjoy the relief this device provides from having to hold traditional mice in a particular way. It is going to be quite liberating I think.
The only draw back is it’s price. Let’s hope they will become cheaper as the idea takes off - you can find some good bargains on the net, expect to pay about $150AUD.
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