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Bluetooth Mouse That Stores And Charges In PC Slot
Road Warrior writes "The road warrior will appreciate the Mogo MouseBT. The Bluetooth-enabled mouse is a business-card sized mouse that stores and recharges inside your laptop's PC card slot. It will recharge in less than an hour and it will sell for $69.99. It will be interesting to see how the ergonomic of the mouse feels. The product will be introduced at CES."
The look of this thing reminds me of the Shinza MAPP mouse by Masamune Shiro.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
That's excellent! 've been looking for a semi-cheap bluetooth mouse for my laptop, so this will be just wonderf... oh wait, macs don't have PC Card slots.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
where does my bluetooth card go? Not everybody has built in bluetooth, and I'm sure as hell not having a dongle that can snap off and has to be disconnected every time I pack up my laptop. End result is PCMCIA bluetooth, and I've only got one slot for that.
Still, damn if it isn't an interesting idea. Maybe this will appeal to the powerbook crowd.
oh wait, macs don't have PC Card slots.
powerbooks do. ibooks don't.
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
What types of batteries does the MoGo MouseBT require?
MoGo MouseBT comes with a built-in, rechargeable battery, and is recharged when it is docked in your laptop's PC card slot. That's a major advantage over other wireless mice, which require frequent change of batteries.
I have two wireless mice and a wireless keyboard all powered by batteries. I'm not quite sure what they mean by "frequent change of batteries". I routinely get three or more months of frequent use out of my mice and six months or more out of the keyboard (and I'm not even using lithium batteries!)
I've always been afraid of getting a wireless mouse for my laptop. I'm worried I will accidentally leave it somewhere since it's not tethered to the laptop (which I definitely won't leave somewhere accidentally). On the other hand, I did damage a laptop screen once with the cord of a mouse. The cord got caught behind the hinge and as I pushed the monitor backwards the cord acted as a fulcrum and popped the screen off it's hinge.
Bradley Holt
Microsoft cordless usb laptop mice are comfortable, work very well and run for at least 6 months on a couple AAA batteries. Oh, but wait, this is slashdot...
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
When I got an eMac a year ago, I grabbed a cheap Kensington USB wireless mouse so I could right-click and use a scroll-wheel as I'm accustomed. It was a regular-sized mouse, not a teeny laptop version, but I was still impressed that the mouse itself had a compartment for storing the USB wireless dongle. That made it a much easier object to pack in a suitcase, without cables and without having to find the loose dongle buried in the luggage. Comfortable for such an inexpensive mouse, too. I'm just not happy with the bluetooth devices I've used. They seem to be much more problematic with lost connections. USB wireless is just fine for the usual small devices around the desktop.
[
From TFA:
Interesting...I wonder just how long those 'minute' batteries last before a recharge is necessary...let's check TFA.
From TFA: No word whatsoever on how long these batteries will last. That's not promising.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
How about a standard appearing soon? Does anyone else get frustrated carrying around 9 chargers for trips? My most powerful charger is a 2A 6V charger for an older PDA -- works fine, takes up little room, works internationally. 2A and 6V should be enough for anything, why bother with all the standards?
Well, using ziplinq mini cables can cut down on the charger clutter, and if that solution doesn't suit you, you can get a multi-output charger from radio shack that's really good.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I, personally, love slashvertisements. As a nerd on the run, I rarely have time for news that doesn't matter, and that counts DOUBLY for advertisements.
And not only is this an advertisement, but it's an ad for a product that hasn't even been released yet! Fantastic! When my private DC-10 next touches down a year from now after months of writing code and making executive network decisions from the air, I'll be able to pop into some store and pick one up! Maybe!
For the good old fashioned slashvertisements, I sure wish Slashdot would just put a 'Buy it now' button in the story so that I can do as I'm told (BUY BUY BUY) without having to puzzle out confusing websites or being forced to interact with humans on the other end of a telephone call.
That would be... fantastic.
What ever happened to comfort? Those mini-mice you can get are bad enough, but this looks worse then those apple puck mice. Where do you rest your wrist?
It may look cool, but just looking at it is giving me carpel tunnel!
It will be interesting to see how the ergonomic of the mouse feels.
Kind of like a gerbil.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
If this is meant as a mouse for a laptop I am curious to know how bluetooth usage will affect both the battery life of the mouse itself AND the battery life of the laptop. While this is definitely "cool," I don't think the form factor is very functional and then there's the battery issue.
That's just stupid.
I don't frequently have my laptop on for "less than an hour" without using it. When do they suppose the mouse should recharge?
It is a little tough to see from the images, but it appears that this mouse has no moving parts. This is probably a good thing. Are the two mice buttons and scroll "wheel" are touch sensitive? It also appears that the bottom of the mouse is not in contact with whatever surface you are using for a mousepad. It has a little arm that props it up a bit, so your fingers can grasp around the edges. How does it get translational information? Is it an optical mouse that can "see" further than a typical mouse? Just as a little test, the Dell optical mouse I'm using at work stops translating if it is even 1/4" from the mousepad.
I am big on ergonomic design because when programming for a living, I don't want a lousy keyboard or mouse combo to cause me pain and misery.
Most notebook mice comprimise on ergonomics for style, and I can see this one having this problem. If your debating if this mouse will work well for you, take a box of cards and rest your hand on it and move it around for a few hours. I think most people's issues from using mice is that they grip them too hard or pound on the buttons, perhaps a slim design like this one will get people used to the idea of simply resting their hand on a mouse and tapping the buttons rather then putting the mouse in a death grip.
I guess for short stints this product would work well and its nice to finally find a use for that PC Slot. Anything is better then those touch pads or track sticks in the long run.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
I got a Dell bluetooth adaptor for 20 bucks on ebay - it is installed inside the laptop in a little port. Does not use any PC slots or USB ports.
Otherwise, it's a great idea since most newer laptops have unused PC slots because the BT/Wireless/Firewire is all integrated.
If my boss actually used his laptop, I'd get him one. Since he has a 17" PowerBook for the "Me too" factor I got him a cheap BT mouse just in case he gets a wild hair up his ass to use it since he hates track pads.
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
It is usually an option, one I did not choose when I configured my recently purchased Sager NP5720 - I use a cordless USB with batteries which will supposedly last for more than a year..? (Cordless MS laser mouse I purchased at Costco)
IMO bluetooth is not a technology a lot of people have embraced - Was'nt it going to be the next wireless/communications revolution...
While this story is a legitimate cue for a rant about charger proliferation, I don't think "not another charging option" is really a legitimate criticism of this product. For those who have bluetooth-enabled laptops and an empty PC card slot, this gives you charging and convenient storage of the mouse in one hit.
If you don't have those things, it's probably not for you, but if you do, it's not requiring you to carry an extra charger, it's definitely more compact and convenient than regular external mouse of any sort. I want one.
Oh no... it's the future.
I personally think the best new mouse is the YapperMouse. It's got a speakerphone for Skype. A speakerphone. In a mouse. You can also pick up the mouse to answer calls. How very Get Smart.
Anybody else have any good 'multi-function' mouse sightings?
Ok, so your complaint is a mouse for use in a portable system, in this case a laptop, has a different charging mechanism? This thing charges in the PC-Card slot; it is not like you are having to carry around a whole new charger. Actually this is probably a good idea since a great majority of people nowadays do not even need the PC-Card slot for anything. Most every drive accessory you might need can be swapped with drive bays now, and there is not much need for the expansion, unless you happen to get a laptop without firewire and you really need the connection or maybe some card reader.
I think your post is sorely off topic. Did you even bother to rtfa? I mean besides the fact I would probably crush this thing it is actually somewhat useful, and more so then that ridiculously tiny travel mouse that is the size of my thumb.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
Hey kids of America. It's machine painted plastic mouse-in-a-slot. Mogo's favorite mouse for over two months. Who needs constant comforting ergonomic stimulation when there's mouse-in-a-slot? You just use the mouse, put it in the slot, pull it out of the slot, use it, and put it in the slot again. The mouse is not on a wire and unattached to the slot, so there's no worry if you don't put the mouse in the slot. And clean up is as easy as putting a mouse, in a slot. So why spend another day not putting a mouse in a slot when you can be using a mouse-in-a-slot?
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
The subject says it all. You'd think they'd be cheaper since they are based on a standard platform with chips readily available.
But in reality you can get a basic cordless mouse for under $20, even a freakin' laser cordless mouse for $40, while you can't find a basic optical bluetooth mouse from a legitimate retailer for less than $60-70 and they are usualy $80+ in retail stores.
What is the deal?
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
How about a standard appearing soon? Does anyone else get frustrated carrying around 9 chargers for trips?
Yes, I get frustrated too.
These chargers are affectionately called Wall-marts and they often have a large power rectifier that is right where the wall plug is. Its often difficult to plug more than one of these things into a standard 2 outlet wall receptacle or a power strip without. They add up, and are ugly to have lying around the house. I too am pissed that I have to buy a few extra chargers/power supplies to keep around my house and for work. Its too difficult to unpack them and remember to pack them up in the morning.
My favorite cell phone (besides it sucked for talking on it) was an older flip phone that had a cradle charger _AND_ a holder for a second battery _AND_ it could charge both at the same time. Battery running low and low on time? Swap the batteries, and your off. I don't remember the make or model of the phone, I believe it was from Sprint, and their coverage sucked in my area at the time.
I would, however, hope that a little design/engineering work would be done. It's FLAT. I hate those tiny little baby-mice things I see everywhere. They don't feel right. The smallest mouse I can stand is the wireless laptop mouse from logitech (the one I currently use). But this sort of thing would be perfect if only it could be made thicker and more mouse-like feeling. The way it feels is EVERYTHING of course.
I imagine some sort of spring-loaded outer shell or skeleton that pops up when it's not in a PCMCIA slot. Then when not in use, it would collapse back into the card shape. But I wonder, then, how sturdy it would actually be.
I haven't used a single PCMCIA device since I got this laptop. My laptop already has ieee1394 (firewire/ilink) USB 2.0, a modem, ethernet, wireless, and bluetooth built-in. At the moment, there just isn't much I can imagine putting into the PCMCIA slot, although I'm sure something will come up eventually.
As for advantage of using this over a regular wireless mouse? Not much. The current version of the logitech mouse claims to have a battery life of close to a year. I've left it on for several months with no sign of problem... at that rate, I could deal with the cost of battery replacement.
While I don't see this new mouse replacing my current setup, I would like to play with this new toy even though it is a bit pricy.
What I would really like to see is a more standard charging mechanism.
I'm with you on that one. I'd even like to see standard battery/power options across all devices, like the mythical "power pack" you see in games and sci-fi movies. These power packs work in just about anything: pull a few off the main environmental system circulating air and use it to power the radio to call for help. Then, just as the monster is crashing into the room, pop the same power pack into your plasma rifle to take that hellspawn down. Once the monster has been killed, put the power pack into your cell phone to order your victory pizza. Just remember to put it back into the environmental control system, or you might all die of oxygen deprevation before you even get to the free cinnamon sticks.
For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
I agree that there seems to be a market for this mouse. Since I use 2 laptops, 2 PDAs and 3 cell phones (off and on, not all at the exact same time!) as well as some other portable devices (GPS, etc), this mouse isn't for me. I like the form factor and the idea behind it, but I'm happy with my "other" bluetooth standard sized mouse. I just wish it had a standard charging port :)
How very Get Smart.
I'd have gone for Scotty myself
Oh yes! At last my dream will be fullfilled an application for an inflatable mouse. It would be perfect for this, and there sure would be enough space on a PC card for the fabric. You don't need much more "height" to make this mouse comfortable/ergonomical.
The problem is inflating it...
Something I've never understood about having the ability charge portable devices on the road. I can somewhat understand using the last hour of juice on your laptop to charge up your ipod but what would you do with a burnt out computer and a fully charged bt mouse. If you're a true "road warrior" wouldn't you use your trackpad in lue of wasting precious minutes of battery that could be used to check your myspace messages one more time? And if you're at home with a an ac adapter, is it that much trouble to put your bt mouse back on the charging dock once every few days?
Yup. That's true. I screwed up (: Oops!
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
These chargers are affectionately called Wall-marts...
I think you mean wall-wart. Huge difference from a wall-mart...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
I can't find any evidence that it actually has a wheel or middle button, the latter is essential for me as I can't stand 'Option "Emulate3Buttons"' in X, it's just not confortable (if you're a windows or mac user and don't understand this, don't stress it, just ignore this post).
It looks like it might have a sort of touch pad middle for perhaps click and scrape-like scroll. I'd have to try to see.
I guess in the mean time we can practice what this'll be like with any other pcmcia^WPCcard devices, some sellotape and a plastic leg, to see if it's as uncomfortable as people are saying they think it'll be.
I was going to patent this idea but... what the heck, here it goes:
Why not use our own electric static charge to charge things we touch? C'mon, it can't be THAT hard. Remember that aussie mate who walked up for an interview and set the place on fire with his static electricty? Why can't we safely collect some of that energy into a small battery that we'd use to charge other stuff?
Well, that goes my million dollar idea.
Uncopyrightable: The longest word you can write without repeating a letter.
Not to rain on their parade, but most laptops i've seen only have Bluetooth as an optional extra which most non technical folks end up not getting.
Apart from the sales reps who will want this device to try to convince their non-technical customers that they (the sales reps) are the real digital superheros of this information age, only a few executives with big egos and no sense of self worth will find a real use for this device. Why not innovate a little bit beyond the mouse. Were this a PC-card touch-pad that could sit in one hand and be controlled by my thumb, I might be interested. [Note to self: send patent application for PC-card thumb pad device ASAP, or find rich industrialist who will pay me $50 for the idea.] It's just a mouse. I've used nothing but a laptop for four years now, and I have learned to be very efficient with keyboard shortcuts and my stick mouse. For your typical data pusher (I won't insult any gamers or casual surfers by suggesting that a mouse is useless), that's all you really need. The mouse is really only useful when the tab stops are not set well, or when you don't know your shortcut menus. So to me, this is a notch on a manufacturer's belt, or a trophy piece for a gadget freak. Dang, give me a gyroscopic bluetooth wristband that will respond to my hand movements--then you'll be talking innovation. [Second note to self: Stop posting all of your potential money-making ideas through my comments on Slashdot.]
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
Just looking at this picture makes my wrist hurt. Of course, there are a lot of pictures online that can male my wrist hust ;-)
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
If you REALLY want an all-in-one device charger check out http://www.igo.com/. Buy one charger and a bunch of different power tips. I've found, however, that the extra USB charger lets me do a quick recharge when I don't want to dig out the notebook, or let's me charge one device in it while the notebook's ports are in use.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
You're contradicting yourself in one post. You say you're tired of carrying around tons of different plugs and chargers and converters but then you bash this device. Your gripe is exactly one of those solved by this mouse. You need no batteries and no cables to use this mouse. What could be better? A majority of laptops have PC card slots but they're hardly used anymore.
Slashdotters these days. Yeesh.
You should only feel a mouse on its ergonomic if the mouse says it is ok.
2 amps at 6 volts is 12 watts. The output spec for the power supply for this laptop is 19.5 volts and 6.7 amps. That's 130 watts. Granted, it's a dell and not a pentium-M, but I don't think your 'anything' includes most laptops.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Truly, I think battery life is a much more serious concern than how ergonomic it is. I would become accustomed to the mouse no matter what shape it was within a matter of hours.
The mouse I use is not rechargeable for exactly this reason. It works for 2-3 months of 8 hours per day use on a pair of AAAs.
Furthermore, when my mouse batteries die I can just go get some new ones rather than having to waste even an hour of productive time while the damn thing charges.
Any mouse that costs me time would end up in the circular file in short order.
Sounds like the Samsung SPH-N200 or SPH-N400, depending on how long ago you had it. They were very hit-and-miss in terms of reception (my roommate at the time and I had the same model; he got reception in lots of places I didn't), but they were just about perfect in every respect. And the cradle charger was absolutely brilliant.
I had that phone for three years, and, in retrospect, I'm still not certain why I bought a new one a year ago.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Buy my new PCMCIA powered mouse pump! I can see it even being included as a standard feature of the all-in-one phones.
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I picked up something from Radio Shack about a year ago called iGo. little universal charging thing that you can just swap out tips for. Now instead of having 9 chargers, I have one charger and 9 tips that I can't remember what the hell they go to. Shame it doesn't work with my Dell laptop though.
Evil Walrus >83=
I think you missed the point that this mouse charges in the PC card slot so you don't have another charger dongle for it.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
The movie add says that they are ok to use on an airplane. I thought that ALL RF devices had to be off while in flight. Anybody know anything about that?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein
How about "minute" as in very small or tiny, instead as a unit of time?
The word does have more than one meaning.
I've seen a Genius mouse that flashes a LED and plays a tune when you get new mail.
I also remember Force Feedback Logitech mice, some people said it was kind of cool to feel all the interface.
My current A4Tech mouse uses TWO USB ports (one for the wireless transmitter, one for charging). I like to charge batteries for my Palm M105 in it, because the mouse generates quite a lot of heat. Great when there's +15C in the room.
The amount of energy stored on your person from a static charge is miniscule. Energy = voltage*current*time. It may be thousands of volts but the current is miniscule and the length of time discharging is very short too.
-- SIGFPE
Actually this is probably a good idea since a great majority of people nowadays do not even need the PC-Card slot for anything.
If you are using the laptop, then you are likely using the mouse thus the port would be available for other PC cards. So unless you need to keep a PC card in your laptop while you are not using it (actively interacting with the mouse and keyboard) you would not loose your ability to use your PC card for other things.
I try very hard to make sure that accessories I buy (camera, cel phone, garmin forerunner gps, etc) all charge over the standard micro usb port. Its damned convenient to have one car charger for everything, and I absolutely adore being able to charge my phone off my laptop when I'm travelling. I still need the laptop charger, but that's all I need (and I use a 12V/110V vers. model).
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
http://www.newtonperipherals.com/MogoMercial.htm
Too bad it doesn't really doesn't tell you anything about the product that you probably haven't guessed already.
Still cool, though.
Evolution is a fact. Darwinism is a joke.
Perhaps you should consider un-subscribing from the Input devices and portables category under Preferences. Or perhaps un-subscribe from hardware altogether.
While the idea of a flatpack mouse is interesting, battery-life concerns (why does anyone need a bluetooth mouse for their NOTEBOOK?) and the ergonomic horror apparent from the photos lead me to give this one a pass. I'll stick with my compact, ergonomic, lightweight, batteryless, cord-storing, and inexpensive Logitech notebook mouse, thanks.
The road warrior will appreciate the Mogo MouseBT.
Yes. Yes he will. Whether fighting for fuel, or just hangin' out in the Thunderdome, the Road Warrior will certainly love this. If only it came with a sawed-off shotgun option, or a recharge-with-pigshit option, it'd be perfect.
What's that? You're talking about regular people who travel with a laptop?
They aren't fucking road warriors! They don't kill, they don't fight; fuck, they don't even do anything FUCKING INTERESTING! They are generally the most pretentious, most boring people in the fucking world! They are not road warriors! If they wanna call themselves a "road warrior," they can meet me in the Thunderdome. Chainsaws, baby, mono-a-mono.
Any article that refers to assholes with laptops as "road warriors" automatically rates the roundfile.
Jeez.
Now, where's my lithium?
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
19V seems to be fairly standard for laptops already, they just need to pick a standard plug (the round one seems fairly common already) and polarity.. It's also fairly common for a lot of printers.
How about having just two standards for portable device power?
"high-power" - 19 v, 2A , round plug with +ve in the middle like many laptops, printers and scanners already use.
"Low-power" - 5v, 500ma, square plug with the option of also carrying serial data. aka USB. Like almost all low-power external devices already use.
We seem to be drifting that way already..
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
Interesting, I have a Logitech MX700, and the batteries only last 2-3 days between charges. A few months ago, the mouse completely stopped recharging. I now have to use an external charger and I rotate a couple pairs of batteries. Since you can't access your batteries, it sounds like your mouse will become useless if/when the charger or battery fails.
even better, I have a very small USB optical mouse with a retractable cable that I use with my laptop... Kensington make it
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Like the guy that said there isnt much of a BT userbase, except on Macs - supply and demand. If they arent selling em, they cant make money, so they figure they jack the price up to make more per unit, when in reality, the smarter thing to do would be to lower (oh my friggin God!!! the thought of a company lowering their prices - pure InsANiTy) so that people wouldnt have to spend 70 bucks to get a damn mouse, and therefore be willing to buy their BT mouse.
They have to pay for the license to use the bluetooth specification and i assume its due to patents.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
How's this work? Normally my laptop is OFF when I'm not using the mouse.. so it won't charge.. hope that's not the ONLY way to charge it!
My PowerBook is a universal charger already! (When plugged into the wall, the FireWire and USB ports remain charged while asleep)
....just get two of them, keep one in the charger and be using the other...although I don't know if this would confuse the bluetooth receiver in the laptop itself. It would solve the dilemma though if it worked.
me, no wireless*, I never minded cords/cables at all, even with the laptop. I hardly ever use the builtin keyboard or track device anyway, always just stuck a normal keyboard and mouse on to use them.
*although I am a radio freak, so go figger
I like my wireless / usb / microsoft mouse. ... the suck ass.
It's tooth fits into the bottom of the mouse when not in use.
It rocks.
And cords.
HARD
http://www.macally.com/spec/bluetooth/btmouse.html
Macally has 3 models, each with $50 MSRP, but yeah, that's still pretty expensive compared to the non-bt mice out there.
when oh when will they bring out a decent sized bluetooth mouse that has a retractable USB charging cable?
How many laptops keep the PC-Card slot powered when the laptop is off?