DrEvil

Well, out of the choice of three (Everglide m/pad, S&S pad, and eXactmat) - not work well with the wireless mouse I got today for the Mac mini - HELP!

Any one recommend one? Thanks.

Simon C

I use a plain old matt blue mat. Nothing fancy and about 3 quid from tesco's. I've got a posh mac OS X 1 with a lovely white cross on it. Works brilliantly untill the optical beam hits the cross then the pointer goes nuts.

corradoboy

They struggle a little with very light/white mats, but anything even slightly dark will be fine. I don't even have a mat as it works fine just on the desktop.

DrEvil

Thanks, so just get a bog standard optical mat then... cool.
Shame it don't work well with the others... and how weird going from mice with multiple buttons to just the single click !

DrEvil

BTW, does Tiger really run ok on 512Mb?

RichB

depends what you are doing, my mum doesnt have a problem!

DrEvil

Media centre:
- play movies from HD (MPG3/4 or other format)
- iTunes
- Photo Viewer
- WWW surfin'

Might run some of the other iPod tools, would like to be able to do more than one thing at once. Just disturbed by the top output - only 60Mb (ish) free and I wasn't doing anything - just logged in!!!!!!

corradoboy

I run Panther (10.3.9) on a 400mhz 9.8gb 320mb G3 Powerbook, and I can have PS batch processing images in the background, Mail/Yahoo scanning for emails, iCal, Address Book, Skype and Safari all running with no problems. Macs multi-task very well

I will be trading my old G3PB in for an iMac, if/when they ever release a 23" dual core with Merom chips, but only after the concerns over Intel, Rosetta and UB are settled.

DrEvil

Which are?

RichB

I do have Tiger running on my 333 G3 PB with 384mb (I think), it will just about run on its original 4gb disk but leaves you with about 1gb which is next to useless. With the 30gb it works, I can use dreamweaver/photoshop but wouldn't use it for heavy stuff, just if I want to try things out whilst downstairs although I am using the lappy far less. I really want a G4or MBP but sadly the sensible thing would be to get a PC, just can't bring myself to do it

DrEvil

Think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and go for the 1Gb upgrade... Can't see anything running as well as it should with only 512Mb

Markus

Alex,
I would guess, as he's a Photoshop user, that he's referring to the issue whereby Photoshop is not a Universal Binary at the moment. It will run in Rosetta, but nowhere near as quickly as it should do, in otherwords, no use for those needing to work primarily in photoshop.

I can't really see a 23" iMac to be honest. It's aimed at consumers and not Pro's and so I think 20" is really all you need. If you do need more screen real-estate then you can dual head the system, or wait until the pro machines come out and get a 30" screen, with the option to dual/tripple head it.

DrEvil

Thanks Markus - I'd googled the keywords and read up on UB and Rosetta.

Do you think 1Gb is optimal on the Mac's mate?

Markus

1GB should be fine. My G4 Tower (466MHz) was running Tiger with 1GB and was quite happy. It wasn't the fastest thing on the planet, but then it is around six years old.

I'm sure I've read stuff saying that even though 256 is the min requirment for the OS, you really should have 512 as a minium and ideally 1GB.

DrEvil

Hmm.. been playing tonight - ok it (i)'Works' with 512Mb, but still going for the 1Gb upgrade me thinks

DrEvil

Back to the mouse pad question - I bought an el'cheapo shiny PCworld mouse mat and it sucks with the wireless apple mouse.. and I don't have a varnished desk... so please, someone tell which pad works well, I need make and model etc.. thanks

corradoboy

The matte surfaced ones are OK, and any with a fabric surface. As long as the surface isn't too uniformly reflective so the optical sensor can detect movement. White and very light are bad, as is black and overly dark, or high gloss. Think texture

DrEvil

sorry, the PCworld one was sort of 'satin' in effect.. and awful for the mouse.

I need make/model - don't want to end up with as many duff mouse mats as I have iPod cases

Simon C

Dr Evil, pm me your addy and I'll nick 1 from work or send you a sample of the 1's at work.

Basically your looking for 1's that have the foam backing but look like a fabric glued on top.

corradoboy

If you local PC World has a couple of Macs (they usually have one or two ) why not take a few mats up to them and try them out with their mice-eez. They may not be the cordless ones, but they work on the same optical technology.

DrEvil

Simon thanks for the offer - I've got one of those at work, so when I get back next week I'll pick it up.

Got more serious issues now thou since trying s/w auto-update on Tiger.

mattbeef

why not just use a newspaper.

I dont use mouse mats any more as long as the surface is matt its always fine for me

Markus

Alex,
Maybe I'll actually answer your initial question this time round

I have always hated the plastic mouse mats, just don't like the feel of them, plus, as you have found, they aren't always the best with optical mice. My current pad, which has been serving me well for over four years, is a dark blue, fabric topped mouse pad. Nice 4 mm black backing on it as well, very sturdy. As to where I got it, no idea, but I've found this one on the PCWorld site, so anywhere should have them.

I'm using mine with an Apple Mighty Mouse, so although not wireless it's an Apple optical mouse, and it works great. I've also used the same mat with both a logitec ball mouse and a logitec optical mouse, with no problems at all.

Hope that helps.


*** Update on 10.4.6 Upradge ***
G4 Tower and G4 Server have both upgraded sucessfully using the combo updaters. iBook is going for it's second reboot after install (This is normal with the new update on PPC computers. It'll get to the Grey Apple screen, sit there for a while and then reboot). G3 iMac is installing right now.

DrEvil

Thanks Markus - thats the one I bought and it doesnt work very well... get varying responses from the mouse on that pad.

RichB

I got a Tesco special, just a red cloth top with black rubber backing, kinda like a thin wetsuit...
Anything with a pattern will cause the mouse to jump.
If its a wireless mouse, check the batteries are ok.

DrEvil

Thanks will try that once the bloody will boot up again!

Manual doesnt mention that wireless keyboards are about as much use as a chocolate tea pot - when trying to stuff at boot time key press wise....