Tuesday, October 15, 2002
Microsoft Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse are Coming
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 04:48 PM
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,105945,00.asp
It's finally been announced! The Microsoft Bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo will be hitting store shelves in November. The Bluetooth "hub" will have a range of 30 feet, and they keyboard and mouse combo will sell for $159. Not bad! The more advanced mouse will sell for $84.95, though without seeing any photos it's hard to tell what it will offer. I'm assuming that it will have buttons on the side like other advanced Microsoft mouse products. I find them so essential it's almost a shame to sell a mouse without them. :?
I'm looking forward to this product being released for one simple reason: I think it brings a legitimacy to Bluetooth that thus far it has lacked in the computing world. Microsoft is big enough to bring legitimacy to a standard (although Microsoft's involvement doesn't guarantee success by any means). I know that for many of you, Bluetooth works perfectly and you found it easy to set up. But for myself, and for many others based on what I've read, it wasn't so easy. Socket Bluetooth products are really well done, but not all drivers and wizards are created equally - I found Anycom's Bluetooth CF card to utterly be confusing. One of the things that Microsoft is good at is designing a solid user interface and making things easy to use. Some of you may not agree, but trust me, compared to what I've seen from some Bluetooth vendors, anything that Microsoft does will be light years beyond what we have now. Right now I don't use Bluetooth in any way, because I've been waiting for this exact event to occur - a major player like Microsoft to step in and make Bluetooth actually WORK for the average person. The concept and the spec may be solid, but the implementations I've seen so far have not been. I'm hoping Microsoft is going to get this one right.
I'm excited, but a little leery too - the first Microsoft wireless product I bought was the rather expensive Wireless Intellimouse Explorer, and it wasn't very impressive. The response time was poor (you'd have to shake the mouse back and forth to make your cursor "live again"), and the accuracy of the tracking left a lot to be desired. I tried repositioning the receiver several times, but it didn't help. I found it odd that my wireless Logitech mouse that was nearly five years old functioned better than this new Microsoft product. I'm generally a big fan of Microsoft hardware (I only use Microsoft keyboards and mice), so I hope that they've put some quality into their first Bluetooth product.
So what are your thoughts on this? Will Microsoft's offering be enough to make you take the plunge to Bluetooth if you haven't already? If you're already using Bluetooth, will this be a "must have" for you? Cast your vote in the survey.
It's finally been announced! The Microsoft Bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo will be hitting store shelves in November. The Bluetooth "hub" will have a range of 30 feet, and they keyboard and mouse combo will sell for $159. Not bad! The more advanced mouse will sell for $84.95, though without seeing any photos it's hard to tell what it will offer. I'm assuming that it will have buttons on the side like other advanced Microsoft mouse products. I find them so essential it's almost a shame to sell a mouse without them. :?
I'm looking forward to this product being released for one simple reason: I think it brings a legitimacy to Bluetooth that thus far it has lacked in the computing world. Microsoft is big enough to bring legitimacy to a standard (although Microsoft's involvement doesn't guarantee success by any means). I know that for many of you, Bluetooth works perfectly and you found it easy to set up. But for myself, and for many others based on what I've read, it wasn't so easy. Socket Bluetooth products are really well done, but not all drivers and wizards are created equally - I found Anycom's Bluetooth CF card to utterly be confusing. One of the things that Microsoft is good at is designing a solid user interface and making things easy to use. Some of you may not agree, but trust me, compared to what I've seen from some Bluetooth vendors, anything that Microsoft does will be light years beyond what we have now. Right now I don't use Bluetooth in any way, because I've been waiting for this exact event to occur - a major player like Microsoft to step in and make Bluetooth actually WORK for the average person. The concept and the spec may be solid, but the implementations I've seen so far have not been. I'm hoping Microsoft is going to get this one right.
I'm excited, but a little leery too - the first Microsoft wireless product I bought was the rather expensive Wireless Intellimouse Explorer, and it wasn't very impressive. The response time was poor (you'd have to shake the mouse back and forth to make your cursor "live again"), and the accuracy of the tracking left a lot to be desired. I tried repositioning the receiver several times, but it didn't help. I found it odd that my wireless Logitech mouse that was nearly five years old functioned better than this new Microsoft product. I'm generally a big fan of Microsoft hardware (I only use Microsoft keyboards and mice), so I hope that they've put some quality into their first Bluetooth product.
So what are your thoughts on this? Will Microsoft's offering be enough to make you take the plunge to Bluetooth if you haven't already? If you're already using Bluetooth, will this be a "must have" for you? Cast your vote in the survey.
