I was asked at the last meeting what I was using to change the slides of our trip to CES 2008 and proudly showed my MoGo Mouse that I had received as a gift about 2 years ago and it is still going strong. In October I was rewarded with another as an MVP gift for being reawarded as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and my children quickly scooped it up to use it with the laptop they share for school and entertainment.
They are pretty cool to use and now they are even cooler to use with a free software update that allows you to scroll, yes scroll! The new MoGo Mouse BT™ Scrolling Software takes your MoGo Mouse BT to a whole new level by adding the ability to scroll, which is a feature many people who have a MoGo Mouse wish it had and now your wish has been granted more on this later. :)
Currently I use the MoGo with my Fujitsu P1610 since it has a full PCMCIA slot and the two work so well together for the times I need a mouse and the built-in trackpoint mouse nor touch screen can do the job like fine manipulation of photos, video editing, screen captures with TechSmith's SnagIt software.
It it is surprising comfortable for short usage of around a half-hour or less or in times when your laptop's Trackstick or Touchpad just doesn't work you have an alternative mousing device that stores in an empty PCMCIA PC card slot. Its best usage as I mentioned before is for doing presentations and when not in use can easily be slipped into any pocket.
The box the unit comes in is your standard cardboard/plastic packaging, which almost seems to me a waste given its small size.
Installation on 64-bit systems won't work since there are no drivers for it unfortunately.
On the bottom of the device there is the optical laser port, a Bluetooth connect/pairing button as well as the kickstand. Underneath the kickstand is the on and off switch.
Flipping the kickstand on the bottom out turns the unit on and provides some height to the mouse as well providing an incline for use and rear legs for the mouse to glide around on. The mouse should automatically start working after turning on. With some Bluetooth stacks I found it necessary to click a mouse button for the MoGo and laptop to re-pair up this usually happened if the mouse fell asleep from inactivity.
Specifications:
- Hardware: PC Card Slot, USB Bluetooth adaptor or embedded Bluetooth,Bluetooth-enabled XP and Vista laptops,
- Operating System: Macintosh running Mac OS X, Vista Supported
- Bluetooth Specification: 1.1 and 1.2 compliant
- Resolution: 500 DPI
- Working range: Up to 30 feet (10 m)
- RF transmit power: <4 dBm
- Operating Battery Voltage: 4.2V
- Operating Current: 165 mAh Internal Rechargable
- Standby Curren: 32mA
- Sleep Mode Current: 22 ma and .04mA
- Dimensions: 3.4 x 2.125" x .21 inches (86 x 54 x 5 mm)
- Weight: 1.5 oz or 41 grams
The mouse works well on clean flat surfaces and in a pinch can be used on your cloth material as well, but at as with most optical mice there are some surfaces that prevent proper usage of the mouse. The buttons have a pretty sensitive click to it, but my older one doesn't have quite the "clicking sound and feel" on the left mouse button that the right one has. It still works, but its seems like the button or spring mechanism is a bit worn.
The Mogo mouse easily pairs with the built-in radio stack of your laptop or if you don't have a bluetooth radio set in your laptop, which almost a minority in today's modern age of mobile technology you can add the ability with the MoGo Dapter.
This is a small low profile bluetooth adapter that plugs into your USB port with out adding much to the profile of your laptop. It also has rounded edges so it won't snag or get caught on things like external USB bluetooth adapters or PCMCIA based ones tend to do at least once in a while.
Once paired it uses Microsoft's Bluetooth stack in Windows to pair with the HID profile.
If you are looking at getting high speed data access through AT&T you can get MoGo Mouse and the Dapter free through this offer. It is mainly for BellSouth Customers, but nothing beats free!
Back to the scrolling software, Pointix Scroll ++, this is software that used to cost money, but is no longer produced and the laws on unsupported software leads it to public domain "abandonware". The directions for installation look to be the same ones found on Carlton Bale's blog, which gives an explanation why the software is no longer available and the US Copyright office has given approval to share abandoned software. So I guess its legit.
So when you install it and you have to apply a crack to use it, you may be a bit wary of it, but I scanned it and looked at the code and it is free of malware, viruses, and trojans. The software works fine on Windows Vista 32, I don't know about Vista 64bit since the MoGo doesn't work with it, but I am sure it will still work with no problems.
The complete data sheet on the MoGo Mouse is here. The MoGo can be found at online retailers like Amazon for $53.50 for the PCMCIA card version as well as the Express Card 54 versions the MoGo Mouse X54 Pro that has a Presenter Mode for Powerpoint presentations and the MoGo Mouse X54 that allows for media playback with a MultiMedia Mode both of which have built-in touch scrollers.