Maria’s Guides

I see the difference with a wireless Mighty Mouse.

I’ve been using a dual G5 computer for about 4 years now. Just this week, I finally set up its replacement, a 24″ iMac.

At least six months ago, I treated myself to a wireless Mighty Mouse. I knew I needed to write about it for my upcoming Leopard book and wanted to get the hang of using it.

Trouble was, my G5 didn’t have Bluetooth built in. No problem, I figured. I’d just use the Bluetooth adapter I’d bought years ago when I had to write about Bluetooth for my Tiger book. The adapter is a USB device that plugs into one of the computer’s USB ports. I plugged it into the keyboard, which had two ports.

That started a love-hate relationship with the Mighty Mouse. At first, it worked perfectly fine. I got used to the little roller ball on top and loved being able to scroll in any direction. Although it took a while to get used to clicking on the left — rather than middle — of the mouse for a standard click, I was soon clicking flawlessly with left and right clicks as needed. I really loved the mouse.

But, after a while, the mouse started losing its connection with the Mac multiple times throughout the day. It got so bad that I kept the old mouse connected via USB, just so I could mouse around when the wireless mouse got disconnected. That made me hate the mouse.

I was so discouraged that when I bought my new iMac, I decided to buy a wired keyboard and mouse. I simply wasn’t prepared to continue dealing with this problem.

Long story short — I wound up using the wired mouse with my G5 until I got the iMac set up. So I tried the wireless Mighty Mouse with the iMac during the setup process. And guess what? It worked flawlessly and continues to do so.

My conclusion from all this: a Bluetooth adapter is not as reliable as a built-in Bluetooth connection. I don’t know if the problem lies with where the adapter was connected — I tried it in the keyboard, on the G5’s front USB port, and in a powered USB hub with the same results (although the adapter made an audible whine when plugged into the hub). Or if the problem is with the adapter itself — I can’t find a brand name on it, although it does have a logo.

Having trouble with your wireless Mighty Mouse? If you’re using a Bluetooth adapter, it might be the adapter and not the mouse.

Related Articles on this Site:

• How to Configure a Mighty Mouse
• More on Mighty Mouse
• Putting Your Keyboard in the Dishwasher

The race is on.

It’s now official. You can read the press release here.

This is one of the two dates I’d been debating with my editors at Peachpit. Cliff says that Apple likes to release hardware and software on Fridays. That would put it on October 26, the last Friday of the month.

But lots of folks thought that Apple needed every single day of October to be sure the software would be ready. That would put the release date on October 31 (trick or treat?).

Friday wins it.

This should be interesting. My Leopard book went to the printer last week. It should be done with the printing process next week. It’ll be drop-shipped to Apple stores. Will it get there on time? I guess we’ll find out. As you can imagine, I have a lot riding on this one (again).

Don’t plan on visiting an Apple Store? You can pre-order the book at a discount from Peachpit Press or Amazon.com.