‘Book Mystique Review - Targus for Mac Bluetooth Presenter Pointing Device For Presentations
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
by Charles W. Moore
One of the product offerings debuting in Targus’s new “for Mac” line of computer peripherals and accessories is the Bluetooth Presenter, which Targus says is the only a wireless presentation remote control device on the market dedicated to Mac users.
If you use your ‘Book for making presentations, you’ll probably find the handheld Bluetooth Presenter a more graceful than doing voice-overs while reaching to use the notebook’s built in keyboard, trackpad and button or an external mouse.
The Targus for Mac Bluetooth Presenter is a hand-held unit measuring 5.1” x 1.65”x 0.98” that does double-duty: to remotely control your Keynote or PowerPoint presentations when in presenter mode, or switched over to cursor mode as a pointer or cursor controller to use for remotely controlling iPhoto slide shows, Numbers spreadsheets, or other applications that might be used for presentations, with a convenient slider switch on top of the unit to toggle between the two modes.
The Bluetooth Presenter uses the same wheel-less trackball-less Touch Scroll tracking technology that is the marquee feature of the new Targus for Mac Wireless USB and Bluetooth Laser mice, with a solid-state optical sensor that operates the screen cursor using swiped and gestures over the optical sensor surface. The optical scroll sensor is flanked by two programmable buttons that can control functions such as previous slide/next slide, or just basic left/right clicking when in cursor mode.
There is also a handy red laser pointer, activated by pressing down on the Touch Scroll sensor, and controls for Black Screen on/off, slide show start and end, and a volume control on the right side of the unit’s housing and an On/Off power switch located on the left.
In order to configure the Bluetooth presenter’s programmable buttons you will need to download appropriate driver software from the Targus software downloads site (there’s a kink form the product page — see URL below). Installing the software is straightforward, and the standard Apple installation of screens will walk you through it if necessary, after which the computer will need a restart to finish the installation. A new preference selection will appear under “Other” in the System Preferences window. Opening the preference panel and clicking Setup Device gives you access to selection buttons and menus to specifically tailored the Bluetooth Presenter’s functions to Keynote, PowerPoint, or other software features, such as launching the application, running AppleScripts, performing preset keystrokes, or other functions.
The Targus for Mac Bluetooth Presenter is powered by to standard AA cells that reside a slide-open compartment at the rear of the unit.
Power Up or Power Down are actuated by pressing for three seconds on the On/Off button. The red LED in the Touch Scroll sensor will glow once or twice respectively in acknowledgement. Personally, I would prefer a simple mechanical On/Off slider switch, but I guess this type of actuation goes with the general theme of this product, and it seems to work OK. The Touch Scroll LED also serves as a low battery power indicator — when battery power is low, the LED will light and glow for eight seconds, and when 30 minutes of battery power remains the light will blink continuously.
The Presenter also powers down automatically into sleep mode after 60 minutes of inactivity. As is typical of Bluetooth peripherals, you must initially fiddle with identification and pairing configuration (thankfully relatively painless thanks to OS X) and there is a several second leg in reconnecting after startup or coming out of sleep mode.
In practice, the Targus for Mac Bluetooth Presenter’s Touch Scroll sensor works quite similarly to the ones I tested in the two “for Mac” mouse products, which is to say quite well. The effortlessness and responsiveness to touch input is quite seductive, especially when performing tasks like scrolling through lengthy documents. However, a a big difference is that the handheld Presenter’s Touch Scroll sensor is most conveniently addressed using thumb gestures rather than with your index finger. I don’t find this completely foreign, as I’ve used a Logitech Cordless TrackMan Wheel trackball device with which the trackball is manipulated by the thumb, a configuration some fans swear by once they get used to it. However, to get intuitively proficient using the Bluetooth the presenter as on - screen pointing and clicking device will indeed take some getting used to. The Red laser pointer, on the other hand, is immediately intuitive.
the Targus for Mac Bluetooth Presenter sells for $79.99.
Product page:
http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=AMP11US
Targus for Mac:
http://www.targus.com/us/accessories_formac.asp
Note: Letters to PowerBook Mystique Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context.
Opinions expressed in postings to PowerBook Mystique MailBag are owned by the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or PowerBook Central management.
If you would prefer that your message not appear in PowerBook Mystique Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published.
CM