HP Shipping a Mouse That Connects Using Wi-Fi

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erichoyt

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May 24, 2011
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This is pretty cool....it's one less piece of hardware to keep track of at the minimum.

Does anyone know why it has taken so long for a wi-fi mouse to be released? I assume the problems that were previously preventing this are fixed - or are there potential pitfalls?
 

N.Broekhuijsen

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I like the idea of one less piece of hardware, but as it looks this will be a bigger pain:
- price: $50 is a lot for a mouse like that I see in the picture
- need 2 wifi adapters? 1 adapter can only connect to one device, not two, correct me if im wrong
- desktops: I refuse to put wi-fi in desktops, wires so much better and it's stationary anyways...
- compatibility: probably need to install a bunch of drivers and configure... much rather just have plug and play.
- performance: I doubt its gonna be low latency, but I could be wrong.

so yeah.... It's a nice concept, but I can't see it getting very far
 

arakis

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I just noticed a virutal wireless adapter on a 7 laptop one of my users had. They said they didn't do anything to add it, so after a little googling I found out about something pretty cool Microsoft made to make this device possible. They call it MultiNet and it is already in Win7 and will appear after a driver update for your wifi adapter. It is a virtualization approach that allows your adapter to function in two contexts at once. You can connect to an AP, then another AP or host ad-hoc connections for sharing or in this case device connections. Really smart to see such an established idea as virtualized networking turned into such a game changer. Wonder when Apple will claim to invent it? MS tried up to four simultaneous contexts, but the switching made the latency unbearable and it is now capped to two contexts at once.
 
[citation][nom]im_caius[/nom]But it would have to have 2 wifi adaptors otherwise you wouldn't be able to connect to a Wi-Fi internet network[/citation]

You must not of read the article fully. It gives some info of how it might/should work.

We surmise that the HP Wi-Fi mobile mouse connects to the Windows 7 machine's Wi-Fi hardware directly through an ad hoc connection. This should not upset the computer's ability to connect to an access point for internet connectivity.
 
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Not nice at all, now we have yet another thing polluting wifi needlessly.
 

carsontl

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i've been using logitech setpoint on my iphone to use the iphone like a touchpad/mouse and it does everything through a wifi connection and a piece of server software located on the desktop... I don't think this mouse is the same way but it could be...
 

dotaloc

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article indicates that no mouse activity will not interfere with standard wifi network connection. if that is the case, and the latency isn't bad, this is a nice option!

bluetooth is pretty standard on notebooks, these days, i think? maybe just high end ones...i guess if this can knock $30 of the price of laptops, and other devices can also be added by wifi, this could be a good feature.
 

fball922

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I would guess if this worked through an ad-hoc connection, it would be Windows 7 compatible only. I am not sure what they mean by an ad-hoc network not disrupting the computer's other network connection as most drivers support only one connection at a time, IIRC, i.e. connection to ONE infrastructure network or ad-hoc network, not mixed. Win7 introduces the ability to simultaneously broadcast a network and be connected to another network.

I think it most likely works by connecting through an existing infrastructure network and pairing with your computer somehow.

I wonder how they measured battery life. WiFi is somewhat power hungry, I think, so it would seem their maximum battery life is in standby (or at least not real-life usage... No battery claims ever are).
 

cookoy

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i'll wait a little more for the technology to mature and price to go down. (real reason is i just bought a regular wireless mouse with a small dongle, timing sucks)
 
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I see one major benefit of connecting via WiFi over bluetooth, and that's range. If you needed to control a computer from a very long distance (like flipping through powerpoint slides in a big conference room where the machine running powerpoint is not nearby).
 

rodney_ws

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If your internet connection is faster than your wireless connection, this mouse will just make your internet connection even slower. Now if you have a 3 mb/s internet connection and your wireless is sailing along at 54 mb/s I suppose this is a non-issue.
 

husker

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Wow, I can't believe the negative comments here. This is clearly marketed for laptop users, since an RF dongle on a desktop is not a big deal. However anything sticking out of a laptop is a big deal and this just gives people another option. Are there downsides? Yes. But the other options also have downsides, just different ones. If you give some people a solid gold brick all they would do is complain about how heavy it is.
 
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Wireless keyboard/mice suck, and they suck bad. Nothing worse then constantly having to charge or change batteries because the damn things are dead. Especially if you are in the middle of a game or something.

I had a wireless mouse for a couple years, i finally got tired of changing the crappy ass batteries and went back to wired, never regretted going back to coords.
 

alidan

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my a$$ that thing lasts 9 months.

but instead of making bluetooth standard on all laptops (im guessing a 5-15$ cost) they go wifi, something i can see as laggy as hell.

granted you aren't playing games on it, so the lag could be half a second and wouldn't matter to much, but still.
 

husker

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[citation][nom]adsjfk2jkl5j2j542[/nom]Wireless keyboard/mice suck, and they suck bad. Nothing worse then constantly having to charge or change batteries because the damn things are dead. Especially if you are in the middle of a game or something.I had a wireless mouse for a couple years, i finally got tired of changing the crappy ass batteries and went back to wired, never regretted going back to coords.[/citation]
Don't condemn an entire technology for life just because you went the cheap route a few years back and had a bad experience.
What kind did you buy? I have a Logitech G700, which you can use corded or wireless. While it's corded, it recharges the battery and is total usable. Unplug the cord from the mouse and it is an awesome wireless mouse - the best of both worlds.
 

lamorpa

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[citation][nom]ReggieRay[/nom]WiFi is slow enough without this turd sucking up more bits. I will stick with RF.[/citation]
What? Seriously. WHAT?
 
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