Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The Kensington Slimblade Presenter Media Mouse is two useful tools in one svelte package. It's a comfortable and capable Bluetooth laser mouse; but flip it over and find an ipod-like control pad for giving Keynote or Powerpoint presentations. The remote is also compatible with iTunes and FrontRow.
Now to the details. To use the SlimBlade, simply remove the USB transeiver from the battery compartment, plug it in and you're ready to go. There are Mac drivers to install before the first use. It seemed to work fine with the current version of Leopard.
I really have to compliment Kensington on the comfortable, sleek lines. The SlimBlade is easy to pack and comfortable for hours of use. The mouse-side of the unit features a two-button design with a 360-degree trackball, similar to that on an Apple Mighty-mouse. Unlike the Apple mouse, this ball is not rubberized, but also didn't seem to 'clog' the way my Mighty-mouse does. The mouse tracking is accurate with no noticeable latency. One warning : The SlimBlade USB bit MUST NOT BE PLUGGED IN BEFORE LOGGING INTO YOUR MAC USER ACCOUNT OR YOUR MAC WILL KERNAL PANIC. This seemed to be a consistent pattern. Log into your account FIRST, then plug-in the Kensington USB attachment. The batteries (two AAA's) are supposed to last six months and the SlimBlade has a low-battery light when it's time to swap them. Needless to say, with a 25-day review window, the batteries were still going strong with regular use.
Now for the other half of the SlimBlade. Flip the mouse over and you'll find a circular, rubberized control pad and a recessed toggle switch. Flip the switch and the 'presenter' controls are activated. The controls will advance your slideshow, and the top button on the pad activates a laser pointer built into the leading edge of the mouse. The presenter functions worked as promised. When the toggle is in 'media mode', the rubber control pad is still active, but will only work for iTunes and FrontRow and the like. One problem that I noticed is when the toggle is in media mode, the mouse buttons (now under your hand) are still active. So if I'm using the presenter side of the mouse for, say, iTunes, I find my fingers underneath the mouse constantly clicking the mouse buttons and affecting whatever is on my desktop! I can think of a couple of fixes to this in future SlimBlade releases. One would be to reverse the location of the media control wheel and battery compartment. So the media wheel is underneath the non-mouse button side of the mouse. Or, just install a mercury switch to sense the orientation of the mouse and disable the mouse-side controls accordingly. This may be problematic for space shuttle astronauts trying to give a Keynote slideshow, but would work for the rest of us.
On the whole, I liked the Kensington SlimBlade and do feel it's a quality product worth eighty bucks. I give it four out of five.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Kensington SlimBlade Presenter Media Mouse with Mouse, Presenter and Media Controller in One (Pewter) K72280US
Show and tell was never this cool.The mouse, presenter and media controller all converge in one slim, sleek unit that slips in your pocket. The Kensington SlimBlade(TM) Presenter Media Mouse goes beyond your expectation of what a mouse can do.Full featured laser mouse allows you to navigate through your documents with superior precision.Multifunction navigation pad lets you easily navigate through your presentation and digital media, and a built-in laser pointer give you the power to control your digital media from anywhere in the room.In Pewter.
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