HP Mini MacBook 311 Accessories : Wireless Mouse

As you know, I've just delivered part of my report for my MA class last Saturday, before I went to the Silent Film Festival (4th Silent Film Fest, that is) and tomorrow, the torture continues. You see, I used the HP Mini 311 to present my report last weekend.

And now you ask, whatever's unusual with that? Well, our MA class, Français 240 :  Traduction des œuvres littéraires is composed of only six students (there were nine of us when the sem started, three ended up dropping the subject). Given the small size of the class, we're lazy enough not to get to the officially designated classroom and have resolved to just camp inside our professor's office at the faculty center. We do have an audio-visual room but, as it is, we're pretty much happy inside the office though it's somewhat cramped even with only the six of us, actually seven including our professor.

You can very well deduce that I didn't get to use any projector for the presentation. Yes, that's seven grown ups peering into the Mini 311's 11.6" screen for some half an hour or so. And of course I had to play operator to transition my keynote slides and reaching out for the arrow buttons effortlessly obscured what little screen real estate was available then to my audience. In short, I wish I had something with which to control the slides without having to draw myself anywhere near the Mini 311 as to block viewing of the tiny screen.*

So today, after going off work, I prepared body, soul, and wallet to get me a new wireless mouse. It's that mouse in the picture above.

It's amazing how simple it is to add peripherals or accessories in Mac OS X whether the machine it's running on is a true-blue Mac or a Mac-wannabe hackintosh like the HP Mini 311. Microsoft's "Plug and play" technology has never been better nor more beautifully demonstrated before!

Performance is good enough: I'd be able to transition those slides three feet away. The sales lady at CDR-King said it should work up to a distance of ten feet. So although I do have qualms about its quirky pointing abilities - it's from CDR-King, what can one possibly expect anyway?? - my overall verdict is still positive: it will serve the purpose I got it for.

Below are some more pics of my new wireless mouse. Too bad; they don't have it in silver and black which would've matched the 311 perfectly. But I guess metallic beige and black is fine. Looks quite good (now that the paint hasn't faded yet).

CDR-King M Series RF wireless (non BT) mouse
Php 480 (approx. $10)

Runs on a single AAA battery. Which reminds me I should get a rechargeable one next week. Or perhaps the mouse itself would meet its death before the new rechargeable battery would even show the first signs of charge capacity loss?

The receiver (which has the word "nano" on it), plugged into one of the USB ports, doesn't get in the way. It also can be tucked away in a slot on the underside of the minuscule mouse which is neat cause it'll lower a bit my chances of losing it forever.

There's also a sliding switch on the underside. It's better to switch the mouse on before plugging in the receiver to the HP Mini 311 or OS X would think you're trying to connect a keyboard instead but that because you're obviously trying to connect a mouse, then this connection attempt would fail. You'd have to do it all over the right way.

*One classmate of mine has a pink Lenovo S10 which she also used to present her slides with during her report. Now that's a 10" screen! @_@