Average Reviews:
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I bought this mouse for using with my laptop in bed, and the 9" hard plastic pad works out very well on top of the bedding. The mouse is great, and I actually like that it's active only when on the pad (it dies when you move it more than about an inch away). If I want to disable the mouse completely, while typing, for example, all I have to do is movie it off the pad, then put it back on the pad when I'm ready to use it again. But as much as I like the mouse, I have some concerns that cause me to deduct a couple of stars.
First of all, there doesn't seem to be a software driver for this mouse for Windows Vista. The specs says this mouse works with Vista, and it does, but only partly, using the native Windows driver or the Synaptics touchpad driver that came with my laptop. The problem with those drivers is that they don't allow reprogramming all five programmable buttons on this mouse, so I'm stuck with functions I don't want on two of the buttons, and one button that evidently isn't programmed to do anything at all.
Both the mini-CD that came with the mouse and the manufacturer's website (more about that later) install a driver that doesn't recognize this particular model, with the horizontal scroll wheel. It thinks it's a different model with a completely different set of buttons and no horizontal wheel. With that driver I can manage through trial and error to program the buttons the way I want, but the horizontal wheel doesn't work at all. So I've gone back to the Synaptics driver, which does (surprisingly) let the horizontal wheel work, although it doesn't allow its function to be reprogrammed as the mouse documentation claims.
Horizontal scrolling with the wheel is more important to me than reprogramming the buttons, which is why I'm using the Synaptics driver. But there's no excuse for the manufacturer's own driver not working correctly with an OS as old and well-established as Vista was even before this mouse hit the market. The instruction booklet shows screenshots of a driver for this mouse, so it must exist somewhere, but it may be on an older Windows version.
My second major concern is the lack of support from the manufacturer. The manufacturer, by the way, is NOT Cables Unlimited, and neither that name nor the USB2545 part number is anywhere on the mouse or its packaging. I have no idea where Amazon got that.
The manufacturer is called A4Tech, which you can see if you look closely at the photo Amazon uses (which is accurate, by the way, except that the wheels on mine are black like the rest of it, which I like), and their part number for this mouse is NB-75D. Their website [...] displays an impressive variety of similar products and gives the impression that it's a decent company, with a friendly site and lots of downloadable documentation and software. My problem, as I said, is that the Vista driver they provide for this mouse doesn't recognize it, whether I download it or install it from the disc. I have gotten no response at all to the request for help I sent them more than a week ago, although they said they'd respond within 72 hours. That is not encouraging.
I do have one additional concern that may turn out to be unfounded. The very minimal operating instructions that came with the mouse warn against putting credit cards on the pad, since it powers the mouse by generating a magnetic field that can erase the magnetic stripe on a card. They don't mention any possible threat that magnetic field might pose to a laptop hard drive, but I keep my laptop a foot or so away from the mouse pad anyway, just in case.
If A4Tech comes through with a solution to the driver problem, I'll update this review, but having to go through this hassle justifies the reduced rating in any case. That's a shame, because this product deserves better support than they're giving it.
>> Update 7/23/2009 <<
A4Tech tech support finally responded with an alternate driver, and although it works a little better than the first one, it still is not the right driver for this model (it is for a two-wheel mouse, but with both wheels oriented vertically) and still fails to activate all the features on this mouse. I reported the problem and have been met with silence. I've given up. As I said before, it's a shame, because this product deserves better support than they're giving it.
By the way, I suspect (obviously I don't know for sure) that the other, excessively positive reviews of this mouse are plants by employees of the manufacturer or distributor, or other interested parties. They just sound phony and suspiciously similar to each other.
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Product Description:
This Innovative Eco-friendly, Battery free, Wireless Optical USB Mouse is the perfect solution for eliminating cable clutter. With the help of RFID technology this mouse is constantly supplied with eco-friendly energy via the specially designed mouse pad. This avoids unnecessary pollution caused by disposing used batteries. Long recharging times and annoying cables are a thing of the past.
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