In our lounge room at home we use the Apple Bluetooth keyboard and mouse 
sitting on our coffee table or the arm of the sofa or up on our dining table 
(still in view of the Plasma) for controlling our Media Centre iMac which 
drives our 50" Plasma screen on the wall.  It works well in that scenario.

However, I also avoid a wireless mouse and keyboard for my office desktop Mac 
Pro as it does not make much sense in that scenario (though I have to say my 
mouse cable does get in the way an annoying number of times, so perhaps it is 
not such a silly idea even there).

-Mart

------------------------------------
Martin Hill
mailto:mart_h...@mac.com
homepages: http://web.mac.com/mart_hill
Mb: 0401-103-194  hm: (08)9314-5242

On 20/04/2010, at 8:36 AM, Peter Hinchliffe wrote:

> 
> 
> On 19/04/2010, at 5:16 PM, Reg Whitely wrote:
> 
>> Hi Peter
>> 
>> I have a Magic Mouse which I use in my classroom with my MacBook Pro hooked 
>> up to the data projector. All the kids can see the screen and pass the mouse 
>> around to select various items and highlight text for editing. A bluetooth 
>> keyboard would also be useful in this way. Today I had to smile as we had a 
>> lady doing a presentation at school to staff, using her little Acer or asus 
>> or whatever mini comp connected to her own data projector. She needed a DVD 
>> shown so I hooked up my MacBook to our school data projector and took my 
>> Magic Mouse to the table I was sitting at to control the movie. She didn't 
>> know I had the mouse and thought I'd forgotten to start the DVD so went to 
>> the Mac and used the trackpad. She couldn't understand what was happening ;-)
>> 
>> I have 2 rechargeable batteries in it and they are yet to need recharging, 
>> but I admit I use it only once or twice a week in class.
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Reg
> 
> I acknowledge that wireless mice and keyboards certainly have their place in 
> presentation environments, and in fact are often essential, such as in your 
> example. My original comment was that they are probably unnecessary for 
> desktop computers under general use. Laptops are a different matter as well. 
> For long periods of use, a wireless mouse is much easier to use than a 
> trackpad.
> 
> In particular, I find it rather galling that Apple have seen fit to supply, 
> by default and without real warning, a wireless, cut-down aluminium keyboard 
> out of the box with new iMacs. The user, who is generally expecting a numeric 
> keyboard, then has to go off and buy an extra one just to work in the way 
> they are used to. The logic of this decision by Apple escapes me completely.
> 
> 
> 
> Peter Hinchliffe        Apwin Computer Services
> FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer
> Perth, Western Australia
> Phone (618) 9332 6482    Mob 0403 064 948
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to.
> 
> 
> 
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