More Than Peripheral Interest

One measure of Apple's apparent resurgence is that high-volume peripheral makers have decided that the market is big enough to warrant Mac-specific desktop sets.

Admittedly, it's not that much of a step. Most Windows keyboards and mice long have been Mac compatible. It always has been a source of amusement that Microsoft hardware did a better job of accessing Mac features than Apple's own products did. Cupertino stubbornly insisted until last year on offering only single-button mice even though the Mac OS long has had right-click options (accessible as an option key/mouse click on single button mice).

Still, keyboards and mice are not Apple's strongest suit. falling short in both usability and ergonomics. Apple's venture into multi-button mice, the Mighty Mouse and it new cordless version, rates as just so-so. Options are nice, especially when they are available from the market-leaders, Logitech and Microsoft.

Logitech was first to unveil a new Mac offering, with last year's roll out of its Cordless Desktop S 530 Laser for Mac (below). It's basically the company's S 510 Windows desktop redone in Mac white and silver, but with Mac-specific keys and a matching-color version of Logitech's MX 610 laser mouse. The keyboard uses Logitech's "zero-degree tilt" approach to ergonomics -- which is a fancy way of saying that the keyboard is very flat (the bottom row of keys is only slightly lower than the top) so you can keep your hand and fingers relatively straight. The mouse is a right-handed item that molds to the hand. A nice touch is that the wireless transmitter is a stick that can go right in the USB port of a desktop or laptop. An extension cord and stand for the transmitter is provided if you need to fiddle with placement.

One thing that makes the Logitech product a big deal is that the company for a time had discontinued its support for the Mac and stop updating its Mac drivers. But now the company is fully back into the Apple peripherals market.

Microsoft followed suit this year with its first Mac-specific product -- its Wireless Laser Desktop for Mac (below). This one is a straight out copy of the Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 for Windows with the addition of Mac-specific keys and new Mac drivers. There was an amusing little flap over the fact that Apple did not grant Microsoft rights to use the Apple logo on the keyboard's "command" or "Apple" key -- where the "Alt" key is on Windows boards. (Logitech's desktop has it.)

As with the Logitech bundle, the mouse is a right-handed multi-button laser unit. The keyboard is Microsoft's "comfort" design. It's flatter and less curved than its full-tilt ergonomic designs (such as the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000) and seems to be intended for those who find the ergonomic keyboard's curved and shaped approach too radical. Color scheme for the desktop set is silver and a translucent white. It comes with the basic oval Microsoft wireless transmitter in matching color.

One of the most important aspects of the Microsoft set is the updated drivers, which now allow users to custom map virtually all the keys and buttons on the mouse and keyboard.

Current street prices are under $70 for the the Logitech and around $80 for Microsoft.

Of course, true Mac support would mean making the desktop sets Bluetooth compatible to take advantage of the Apple's built-in support for that wireless technology and eliminate the need for giving up a USB port to a transmitter. A Logitech spokesperson acknowledged that cost considerations ruled out Bluetooth. Neither Microsoft's nor Logitech's Bluetooth desktop sets for Windows will work with a Mac.

The best you can do in the way of a Bluetooth input device is a mouse from Kensington -- the full-sized PilotMouse (below top) for desktops and the PilotMouse Mini for notebooks (below bottom).

Both are ambidextrous designs, which I favor and both have a rubberized coating on the grip areas to make them easy to maneuver. Downsides are that they use the cliche blue color scheme peripheral makers seem to love for Bluetooth input devices and neither is laser or high-resolution. That may be an issue for gamers, but I had no problem using them. I recommend them, especially to Apple notebook users.

Acessorize Your Treo

Three things can help enhance your Treo 700p experience: an adapter plug, a leather case, and some software.

First off, although Treos come with music player software and use SD flash memory cards to allow flexible storage of music files, the headphone jack is inexplicably a 2.5 mm microplug rather than the standard 3.5 mm minijack used on virtually all player headphones. Palm will sell you an adapter for 10 bucks to let you use regular headphones.

Nuts to them.

If there was some technical reason requiring the odd-sized jack, on an item with a list price of $500 ($400 with a cell phone contract), they could bloody well have included the adapter as a standard feature. Head off to Radio Shack or any other electronics parts store where the adapter will cost you only three or four bucks.

On the other hand, given the lofty price, you can pretty much justify a high-end leather case. I have two suggestion: Argentina's Vaja and California-based Sena.

Vaja has the ultimate item: its i-Volution T7, priced at $94 (and higher if you add options). This series of cases (which also includes ones for the iPod) is a protective plastic shell wrapped in fine leather -- so you get both the protection of a hard case and the elegance of a leather one.



Vaja also makes a more lower priced case all-leather Treo in its Classic line (starting at $64). Sena makes a $40 clone of this called the LeatherSkin. It lacks some of the Vaja's touches (for example a simple open hole over the speaker instead of Vaja's mesh covering), but the price is attractive and the quality is good.

There are downsides to these designs, though. Unlike the i-Volution, they offer minimal protection from the dropsies and require a strip of leather below the screen to hold their shape, which interferes with the Treo's navigation wheel. Further, one annoying design feature of the Treo 700 is that the reset button is inside the battery compartment, which means to do a reset you have to take the Treo out of a case, open up the battery cover, then reverse the process -- and these tight skins can make that a chore.

You may do better, then, to leave your Treo "naked" and keep it in a horizontal or vertical pouch in standard cellphone style. Here Sena has the edge with pouches of both designs ($40 for the horizontal; $50 for vertical). And if you are totally indecisive, there's a $60 combo package of a horizontal pouch and a matching LeatherSkin.





Last item on the accessory list is for Mac users. Palm's software for syncing data between your computer and handheld (this applies to all Palms, not just the Treo) is fairly decent for Windows, especially if you use Microsoft Outlook to keep your contacts, calendars, and tasks. However, the Mac version is pretty lame.

A better choice is Mark/Space's Missing Sync software ($40 download; $50 on CD). It provides integration with iTunes and iPhoto to let you put music and pictures on your handheld -- plus it lets you get around Palm's limitations on multiple addresses and multiple emails for your contacts.