Think Outside Bluetooth Mouse
www.ThinkOutside.com
Price: $79.99

The Think Outside Bluetooth Mouse is designed to be a mouse that works with not only your PC, but also your Pocket PC! This is a first, and the Think Outside Mouse is the ONLY* Mouse that works with Pocket PCs (*As of the Date of this Review, 2/28/05). The mouse is designed to be small and portable, yet very usable.

Like the Think Outside Keyboard, the Mouse comes in a very nice looking retail blister pack. Inside you find:

• The Mouse Itself
• Driver CD
• Soft Pouch
• Manual
• 2 Batteries

I started off by unpacking everything. Then I took out the mouse and started to put in the batteries. The back of the mouse slides off so that you can insert the 2 AAA batteries.

The Mouse is a very nice size. Very compact, yet still easy to use. It features the normal right and left click buttons and even a scroll wheel! It is totally optical also, so it works on almost any flat surface with very good accuracy.

Once you have the batteries in, I took a look around the mouse. On the bottom, there is a slide switch to turn the mouse on and off. There also is a red button recessed (reachable through a hole in the bottom) that you can use a pen or stylus to click. The button is to turn the mouse into connect mode to pair it with your PC or PPC. The whole bottom half is clear so when in use the mouse glows a red color.

Now onto setting up the Mouse with your device. The first thing you will want to do is install the drivers off the included CD. Also make sure to check Think Outside's website for updated drivers. The driver install is very easy and goes very smoothly. If you are using the Mouse with your Windows XP PC you do not need to install any drivers, they are built in. On my Dell Axim, I did have to install the drivers though. It installs the driver for the Mouse and Keyboard as they are built into the same package.

Once the driver is installed, you will see two icons on the bottom of your Today Screen on your Pocket PC. One looks like the keys of a keyboard and one looks like a mouse. To setup the Mouse simply click on the one that looks like the Mouse. You can also get to the setup screen by going into the Programs menu and clicking on the Think Outside Mouse icon. Once in the setup program, simply press the enable button. It will automatically turn on the Bluetooth on your Pocket PC. On the Mouse you must put it into setup mode by pressing the red button on the bottom, a green light will turn on then. Then you can click connect to connect to the Mouse. It will also ask you if you want to use the mouse in safe or enhanced mode. They recommend enhanced mode, but on my Dell X50v I found that in enhanced mode when I did not have the mouse connected it would still display the pointer where I left it. In safe mode this did not happen and I did not notice any reduced functionality. Now when ever you want to use the Mouse with your PPC again, you simple turn on Bluetooth on your Pocket PC, turn on the mouse, move the mouse around a few times, and then you are ready to go! Also in the setup are options like assigning keys to certain things and setting the speed of the cursor. It all works great and I have had no problems connecting the two devices.

I also tried the mouse with my Windows XP SP1 and SP2 PC and it worked perfectly. I was using a 100 meter Adapter and it worked perfectly up to 200ft away!

One thing to note is that the mouse does not work when your force your Dell X50v into True VGA Mode with a Program like OZ_VGA or SE_VGA. It only works in the upper left hand corner (as this is the size of the normal screen). Do not get me wrong though, that is in True VGA Mode, it works fine on VGA PPCs like the Dell X50v when they are in their standard VGA mode (like when they come out of the box from Dell).

The mouse is very accurate and works on a wide range of surfaces. I personally tried:

• Wood Desk
• Wood Desk (Shiny Coating)
• Granite Table
• Leather Mouse Pad
• Standard Mouse Pad
• Wood Veneer (Plastic) Table
• Cloth on a Chair

All worked pretty well, but the most accurate were the Mouse Pads and the Wood Desk.

Included is a black velvet like pouch that works good to store the mouse in. It is of course not of super high quality, but it works great and does help protect the mouse during travel.

Overall the Think Outside Bluetooth Mouse is awesome. It is very cool being able to use a mouse on your pocket pc, and in conjunction with the Think Outside Keyboard, you can use your Pocket PC like a mini laptop. The only thing that I would like to see improved is the ability to use the Mouse in True VGA mode, but that would be a driver issue, not a hardware issue, so it may happen in the future.

Thanks to Think Outside for the Review Sample!