irgeek.net » technology http://irgeek.net Random Musings of a Random Geek Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:02:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Logitech MX Revolution http://irgeek.net/archives/2009/02/17/logitech-mx-revolution/ http://irgeek.net/archives/2009/02/17/logitech-mx-revolution/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:21:31 +0000 Robert http://irgeek.net/?p=479 For the entirety of my computing life(a little over 10 years now) I have never used anything more than a cheap 2 button optical mouse. Then about 4 months ago I bought an iMac. It came with their not so new anymore Mighty Mouse. After 4 months of using the Mighty Mouse I think it is the worst Apple product I have ever come across. I found myself wanting my cheap 2 button mouse again! I never bought into the $50-100 mice. I figured they don’t really point or click any better. I stumbled across a review of the Logitech MX Revolution at http://paulstamatiou.com and thought I might have found a reason to spend more than $10 on a mouse. This thing has 12 configurable buttons. That’s right, 12! That includes two regular buttons, a 5 way scroll wheel, a ‘quick search’ button, a back and forward button, and a 3 way toggle wheel.

Logitech MX Revolition Config Center

That’s my setup so far. I’ve only had it for a few hours though, after a few days I might change some things if they don’t work out. Here are some details on what all those mean.

  1. Normal left click
  2. Normal right click
  3. Standard scroll wheel with velocity free wheel
  4. Middle click on scroll wheel, configured to open the application switcher( command + tab )
  5. Tilt left on scroll wheel, set to scroll horizontally to the left
  6. Tilt right on scroll wheel, set to scroll horizontally to the right
  7. Back button by thumb, configured to firefox back key combo ( command + back arrow )
  8. Forward button by thumb, configured to firefox forward key combo( command + forward arrow )
  9. Logitech One Touch Search button, configured to toggle dashboard
  10. Thumb wheel toggle forward, configured to show desktop via expose
  11. Thumb wheel toggle backward, configured to show all windows via expose
  12. Thumb wheel toggle click, configured to start a skitch crosshair snapshot ( shift + command + 5 )

A few things might not make sense, for example the velocity scroll wheel. The logitech software allows you to configure the scroll wheel so that at a certain speed it unlocks the ratcheting mechanism and spins freely, making for very fast scrolling. The horizontal scrolling will probably be removed once I figure out what to put in place of them. I never used it on my mighty mouse either. The thumb toggle wheel might not make sense either. It’s shaped like a scroll wheel, but it does not scroll at all. You can push it forward a little and have it pop back, or you can push it back a little and it will pop back. It also appears to have two different thresholds of activation. If I start pushing it backwards, it will show all my windows, and I can mouse to one, and then release the wheel and it will deactivate expose with the selected window active. I can also push the button all the way back and let it go, activating expose until I perform another action. Make it very easy to get a quick look at the desktop or switch windows quickly. The last thing I want to talk about is the skitch crosshair snapshop. If you’re not familiar with skitch it’s a screenshot utility that lets you upload straight to flickr( or other photo sharing sites ) after taking it. When I click that button it opens two cross hairs which I can use to select an area and take a screen shot. I can also left click on any window to grab just that window, or right click anywhere to grab the entire desktop. So I now have one click access to any type of screen shot I want to take without even having to think about it. In short, I am in love with this mouse and I highly recommend it to anyone with a computer.

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