Windows Phone Thoughts: Hey Martha! Get the Cat, There's a Mouse on my Pocket PC! (Stowaway BT Travel Mouse Reviewed)

Daily Use
During normal use, the optical sensor on the bottom of the mouse will blink rapidly as it senses motion (or not) of the mouse. After about a minute or so of non-movement, the mouse will go into power saver mode, shutting off the sensor. To re-awaken the mouse, you simply push on one of the buttons.

The dimples on the top of the battery compartment serve a dual purpose. They make it easier to slide the battery compartment open and they provide a good tactile feel for the top of the hand as it rests on the mouse. The surface is smooth, but not slippery – it also feels like a type of rubber – and the buttons have a good, solid tactile travel, similar to that of a regular mouse. Overall, the mouse has a good feel to it and it is very comfortable for all-day use. It is considerably smaller than a conventional mouse, so those with bigger hands might find it a bit difficult to wrap their fingers around, rather than rest their palm on it.


Figure 14: Side-by-side comparison of the Travel Mouse with a regular optical mouse.

Its light weight and smaller size make it a perfect pocket-able accessory for inclusion with your keyboard. It fits easily into a pants or coat pocket without making you feel like you’ll list to one side :-)

I tried the Stowaway Travel Mouse on almost every application and game on my Pocket PC and couldn’t find any that didn’t respond to the mouse in the same way that it would taps from the stylus. All showed the mouse cursor, tracked properly and completed the actions on mouse clicks – just the same as if I had tapped the screen. Of course, of most use to me would be the use of a mouse in Office applications such as word processing and spreadsheets, so below are some screenshots of the mouse working in TextMaker, Pocket Excel, Pocket IE, and Pocket Bubbles.


Figure 15: Using a mouse in TextMaker.


Figure 16: Mousing around in Pocket Excel.


Figure 17: Mouse use in Pocket IE.


Figure 18: You can even use the mouse in Games like Pocket Bubbles.

I also extensively tested simultaneous use of the mouse and keyboard to determine if the Bluetooth would have problems with communication collisions. I held down a key on the keyboard to get it repeat, then move the mouse around at the same time. I didn’t see any tracking problems on the mouse or skipping of the keyboard.