Customer Reviews

Gear Head Wireless Optical Presenter Mouse

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I've waited to review this product until after having it for over a month and using it for a presentation. In a nutshell, it is a good product and worth the money. It is very satisfactory as an optical mouse (its main usage) and was very good as a remote presenter.

Cons:
- as noted, trackball is a little touchy, which means you need to monitor your hand waving while presenting -- but I think this would occur with any trackball device, and would only be avoided by getting a remote presenter with a joystick-type point device. It was not a problem for me.
- the USB receiver blinks as it receives input: this could be distracting if your computer's USB port is within sight of your audience. However, I used the included pouch to block the USB receiver's blinking from my audience and it looked fine while solving that issue
- the programmable 3rd button could have more features: in particular, the "magic" program list option would be more useful if one could assign its programs.
- I have more success with the USB receiver directly into my computer (perfect mouse recognition) than my other setup, which is USB receiver into cradle into USB hub into computer's USB port. This may have to do with my hub, and is merely occasionally annoying (the mouse not moving exactly as I expect it should), not problematic.
- installing the drivers seemed to affect, in my case, my laptop's touchpad driver. I lost the ability to change my touchpad tapping and scroll-area prefs -- I haven't played around with this, though, and it may be solvable.

Pros:
- the previous reviewer's rejoinder to the first reviewer is true: there is adequate programability of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th buttons.
- the mouse automatically switches from mouse to presenter mode using a sensor on the bottom -- nicely thought out
- the mouse seems to automatically lower mouse-sensing activity, probably to reserve battery life
- battery life looks to be good in the month i've had it: 4 full days of mouse work at a time without the low-batter indicator coming on
- good weight in your hand when presenting: this could have been a problem with a mouse-and-presenter device, but with this product it is not.
- pouch is nice and fits the mouse, charging cord, and USB receiver
- 4th and 5th buttons are great for presenting: the buttom-programming-options include good ones, including forward, back, up, down, switch application (it looks to scroll through the app list you get in XP by Alt+Tab), screen saver -- these are all useful for presenting
- comfortable in hand in mouse role or presenter role

In sum, I was pleasantly surprised by this device. I recommend the product.

I bought this to replace the Gyration wireless mouse I had been using with a Media Center PC. The GearHead mouse is a MUCH better product... The multi-function, programmable buttons are well-placed & responsive, and the laser pointer is a nice bonus. All in all, it's a great wireless mouse, and worth the price--if you need the extras.

A previous reviewer suggested the functions of the right & left buttons can't be switched for left-handed use; they can. Using the Mouse Properties, you can select: "Switch primary & secondary buttons." The same reviewer suggested that you can't click/hold/drag; you can. On the same Mouse Properties dialog box, you can select: "ClickLock," and you can adjust the click/hold settings to your liking.

I gave it 5 stars, but it's more like 4.5 - the trackball isn't as precise as I'd like, and I would have liked more options for each button, but compared to all the other similar products, this one is by far the best.

After purchasing the mouse I noticed it didn't list vista as a compatible O.S. This mouse worked fine at first then after a few days the optical mouse mode quit working. It only worked in presenter or ball mode. I went to their site and downloaded the newest drivers and it worked again but now after a few weeks the optical mode won't work again. The instructions warn that exposing the light sensor on the bottom of the mouse to bright light would damage it. I'm sure that never happened. My office is fairly dark. I will try to reinstall the drivers and the next time I purchase an wireless optical mouse I will make sure it lists vista as an compatible O.S.

I need a handheld optical trackball, so I bought this mouse as it is listed as a 'Wireless Optical Presenter Mouse'. But what it fails to state is that the trackball is totally mechanical - not optical. As if that were not bad enough, the trackball is so erratic and twitchy as to be totally useless.

I gave this product one star only because I cannot go lower. Definately NOT recommended.

I did quite a bit of research to try to find an alternative to my old hand-held track ball (which I loved but they don't make anymore) and this seemed to be the best of the bunch. I wanted it for comfort while working on a computer all day long. I didn't really need the presenter functions, they were just a bonus. Unfortunately the track ball would not move well to the right (or was it the left? it's been a while). This may have been my particular mouse, but I did not opt to have it replaced. I am still on the hunt to find a decent yet inexpensive wireless hand held track ball.

Out of the box this item felt flimsy. It wouldn't connect and the charging base wouldn't charge. The wires connecting the base to the computer would make the light flicker if touched very lightly. The trickle charger that connects the mouse to the computer didn't work either and would also make the light on it flicker if touched lightly. The software that it came with didn't run on Vista, so I had to download them from manufactures site. When I called the company I had to leave a message for them to call me back, and they never did.
I returned it and got my money back.

I bought it and worked fine for a couple of days .. then it just wouldnt work !!! i tried every thing .. used it on 2 laptops 3 pc`s yet it does not work .. very bad quality indeed and i dont recommend it !

As an engineer, I hate it when I see a product that's brilliant in theory but poorly executed. This had precisely the features and flexibility I was looking for - the ability to use it as a mouse or trackball meant no carpal tunnel, no redundant input devices, and the programmable buttons were a nice plus. Problem was I couldn't get it to work. Followed the instructions (sketchy and ambiguous as they were), unloaded and reloaded the drivers twice, rebooted, tried different ports, new batteies, etc., to no avail. After fiddling with the battery contacts I got it to function once for two seconds. Hmmmm. I called tech support and the first words spoken were, "Did you exchange it at the store?" Evidently they see a lot of their products delivered DOA. The 'technician' had no idea how the thing worked, forced me to walk all the way through the instructions with her before she said it was dead and to return it. When I went back to MicroCenter, they only had one other in stock so I made them try it out before I drove home. Right. That one didn't work either. Anybody know of a good portable wireless trackball?

I was looking for a wireless mouse to hook up to my PC/TV and didn't know what an Air Mouse was before I went looking for this product. All the features and programing looked fine on the specs but when I got this "mouse" the reality was much different.
The first mouse that I received worked for a week and then just stopped. I figured that it was a defective unit and returned it for a second. This one seemed to connect and work fine at first.
On my Desktop it works fine, but take it across a webpage and the frustration begins. Take it across any frame on a page and the mouse starts interprets it as a third button click and grabs the page. Every time I get the page to the correct place I want to view, if I move the trackball the whole page starts to scroll. No new drivers are available to stop this behavior and when I went to the support site I got a "404 Page Not Found" error.
This mouse is no end to frustrating and I'm returning this one also.

The mouse hooked up nicely to my Vista PC/TV setup. After about a week of use the roller ball could not function up and down, only side to side. Approximately a week later, I smelled something burning. After I decided that it wasn't my lamp, I then realized that it was the pointer mouse on the table next to the lamp. The mouse was very hot, and seemed about to catch fire. I will be returning the mouse and looking for a better product. I live overseas and purchase many things online and this is my first review that I've ever written. I don't want anyone else to go through the same frustrations that I went through. There is a reason for the price decrease...it's called faulty materials.