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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

This just shows how cool games can get on the iPhone platform.

UDPATE: This app is real, and you can download it for free in the App Store.

Today was the official launch of Windows 7, Microsoft’s long awaited “Vista fix up OS.” While I’m still waiting to get a student discount on the super expensive operating system, Apple has come out with 3 new ads that attack Windows 7.

Today Apple announced refreshed iMacs, MacBooks, and Mac Minis. The new iMac offers a gigantic 27″ 16:9 HD LED display, but it also comes in a 21.5″ model. The processor comes standard with a speedy 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Standard memory is a whopping 4 GB, with a 500 GB hard disk. The 21.5″ iMac starts at $1200. That’s aggressive pricing, considering what you get.

The new iMac has a brilliant LED widescreen display.

Next up, the MacBook. Like its MacBook Pro counterpart, the new MacBook features a precision unibody polycarbonate enclosure, as well as a 7 hour battery life and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics. It also has a multitouch glass trackpad. The price is the same at $999 for a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 250 GB hard disk, and 2 GB of RAM.

The MacBook now looks almost like a MacBook Pro.

The Mac Mini was also refreshed. It now boasts more memory (up to 4 GB) and a faster processor (up to 2.66 GHz), and it also has an option for Snow Leopard Server preloaded, making it a viable, affordable option for a home server. The Mac Mini starts at $600.

The Mac Mini is just a little faster.

And finally, the very most awesomest thing of all…the wireless Magic Mouse. It’s Apple’s replacement to the Mighty Mouse, and it features multitouch gestures. Click, swipe, pan, zoom. It’s all there. It’s now shipping with every new Mac, and you can buy it for $70. At the moment, however, there is no Windows support.

The new Magic Mouse supports multitouch gestures.

So, I installed the Zune 4.0 software, and what do I see? An ad. But unlike the other “I’m a PC” ads I’ve seen, this one was actually quite cool. It proves that Microsoft can make good advertisements.

The music in the ad is Trash by The Whip, in case you were wondering.

Tweetie 2 was approved by Apple and got into the App Store yesterday. Now, many people are complaining about the super affordable $3 price tag. C’mon people. This developer, Loren Brichter, spent months working on this app. Software takes time and money to develop. So stop complaining. It’s only $3. I usually don’t pay for apps–I’ve only bought three apps since I got my iPod touch–but Tweetie 2 is such a well-designed app that it deserved my $3.

So what’s new? According to Loren Brichter, Tweetie 2 is a brand new app, based on a brand new, super efficient and speedy core called “Bigbird.” What’s that for the user? It puts Tweetie 2 ahead of all other Twitter cleints for the iPhone. Here’s just some things that it can do:

• An awesome UI. Super smooth scrolling; swipe over a tweet to reveal options, refresh your feed with a gesture…
• Full offline browsing. Yep. Tweetie 2 lets you compose tweets, read tweets, everything–all offline. Everything is seamlessly cached, even avatars.
• Persistence. If you quit the app, it opens instantly back to where you were the next time you open it.
• Post photos and videos with any service you want: TwitPic, yFrog, TweetPhoto, Mobypicture, Twitgoo, Posterous, img.ly, TwitVid…
• Shorten URLs with any service you want: j.mp, bit.ly, TinyURL, is.gd, l.pr, u.nu, Linkyy…
• Geotag your tweets.
• Draft tweets so that you can send them later.
• Threaded Direct Messages that make it look like a conversation.
• View nearby tweets and see what’s around you.
• Live filter your stream. Using the iPhone 3.0 SDK’s live search technology, you can instantly search for anything in your stream.
• Landscape support everywhere: composing tweets, reading tweets, etc.
• and much more…

A gallery of what Tweetie 2 can do is after the break.

The timeline.

The compose screen. Tapping the little button with your remaining characters alternates between keyboard and options view.

Landscape support with inline image preview.

Search for users instantly.

Draft manager. Write as many tweets as you like--then send them all off at the same time or individually if you want.

Edit your own profile.

See the latest trends, or save your own custom searches.

When you tap on a tweet, you can get options to go to the user, see the threaded conversation, reply, favorite, and more.

Tweetie automatically assembles the full reply conversation so you don't have to go remembering what you said.

Manage multiple accounts.

Direct messages are threaded.

Find nearby tweets.

Swipe over a tweet, and you get quick options to reply, favorite, or visit links.

Swipe down when you're at the top to refresh a list.

So is it worth it? Yes. So go and get it now!