First Impressions: Logitech V450 Nano

I recently purchased the Logitech V450 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse (from Amazon), because I felt that dragging around a wired mouse was too big of a hassle. Should you buy it? Well…

The mouse arrived fairly quickly (within 3 days) from Amazon, even though I used free super-saver shipping. Inside the package, there was the mouse, the receiver, 2 Duracell alkaline AA batteries, a getting started guide wrapped in plastic, and an extension cable (why?). I was surprised that there wasn’t a bundled CD. Or maybe they just forgot to put it in.

I inserted the batteries into the mouse and plugged the Logitech Nano Receiver into my Windows 7 laptop. Windows recognized it and installed the driver automatically. Logitech’s SetPoint software wasn’t even needed. Install speed was quick, but compared to the Mac, it was a snail. Hey, but at least the plug-and-play aspect worked. Within a minute, I was mousing around. The mouse supports Windows XP, Vista, 7, and OS X 10.4+.

The Nano Receiver is really small. It operates on the 2.4 GHz wireless spectrum, so there may be possible wireless interference with your router and such. But I was able to use the mouse even across the room (20 feet), so it shouldn’t be an issue. A big plus is that because the receiver is so small, I can just leave it plugged in.

Logitech’s mouse feels ergonomic. The rubbery grips on the side of the mouse are welcome, but the glossy top shell is a fingerprint magnet. The scroll wheel scrolls up, down, left, and right.

On the other hand, the mouse is extremely sensitive. One small movement can send the pointer flying across the screen. I suspect that it must be because of the high quality laser sensor, which is more precise than optical sensors. Unfortunately, that means that I had to turn down the pointer speed setting, which basically renders my trackpad useless. It would be nice if Windows had two separate pointer speed settings…

I tested the mouse on an extremely reflective tabletop, and the pointer didn’t budge. If you’re considering using this mouse on glass or other shiny surfaces, I recommend the Darkfield line of mice that Logitech makes.

Logitech also claims that the mouse will last a full year on one set of batteries. I have yet to test this out. There is a manual on/off switch, if you don’t want to leave the mouse on at all times.

If you’re looking for a great wireless mouse, but you don’t need all the bells and whistles like Darkfield laser tracking, the Logitech V450 Nano Wireless is a great choice. Maybe you can consider it as a gift to a fellow laptop user. At $38 on Amazon, it isn’t a great bargain, but it is much cheaper than Apple’s Magic Mouse.

Magnetosphere: Fireflies

Another Magnetosphere visualization of Fireflies by Owl City. But this time, it’s in HD! Unfortunately, it’s in 16:10.

I always produce videos that are 1280 x 720, which qualifies as 720p HD. But, you may be asking, why aren’t any other videos on my YouTube channel HD? Because of QuickTime. That’s right. Apparently Apple converts all your videos to the iFrame format before uploading it to YouTube, which makes all my videos 960 x 540, or HQ. So this time, I decided to try out the YouTube web uploader. And it works! Glorious HD. In my hurry, though, I didn’t convert my video to 1280 x 720. Instead, it’s still stuck at 16:10. Oh well. Expect future videos to be 16:9 HD.

Magnetosphere: Tidal Wave

You may have noticed that I am addicted to Owl City. It just so happens that I have the Magnetosphere plugin for iTunes. And here’s what I made.

A new easy to defeat Pong bot

If you thought that Electrocuter and Stealth were too hard to defeat, try out my latest bot: Anakin. Because it features “live” prediction, where it predicts based on your current paddle location, all you have to do is fool the prediction.

So go and get it now!

A status update on Pong

I’ve been hard at work developing a new Pong bot: this one’s called Stealth. You can find it on the new Pong page, which now lets you choose which bot you want to download!

So what does Stealth do? As its name suggests, it is stealthy. It may seem easy to defeat, but at the last moment, it will change its behavior and cause you to lose. Give it a try, and tell me what you think!