Mac Peripherals

[CoffeeDaze]

One of the things I am less than thrilled with on my Mac is the lack of truly Mac-centric peripherals out there. I was searching for a keyboard/mouse combo last week for my MacBook and was very disappointed in the available choices. I think the Apple keyboard and mouse are over-priced and under-powered. I looked at offerings from Logitech, Microsoft, Kensington and more. I finally got (through a trade) a wired Apple keyboard (I use 10-key a lot) and a Microsoft Wireless Laser 5000 mouse. The keyboard is ok, though the keys are a little bouncy. The mouse is fantastic! Some of the things I really needed in a mouse was quiet operation and accuracy. The MS mouse is near silent (especially the scroll wheel) and is far more accurate than Apple's mighty mouse. The only downside is that the receiver for it is pretty big, though I was able to plug it into the keyboard and hide it behind it on our keyboard tray so it can't be seen. If you're a designer, artist, gamer, or just need a quiet, exact mouse I highly recommend the Microsoft Wireless Laser 5000. You can find out more here.

I thought this thread might be a nice place to share your favorite Mac compatible peripherals.

[CoffeeDaze]

Another nice item I found was a Hitachi 320GB 7200rpm drive for my MacBook. It's only slightly louder and quite a bit faster than the one that came with it. I was able to pick it up with an external enclosure from OWC for under $120 shipped. I used the enclosure for the old drive and have it set up with Time Machine.

[Hedi]

On my side, it's an Imation Appollo sized 320 gb too, very good device, I don't know the details, but I'm very satisfied with its performances.
Partitioned it into three "drives": Time Machine, a copy of OS X Leopard and a PC partition with applications and a DVD image of Vista.
Perfectly silent under OS X, a bit noisy under Vista :)

[CoffeeDaze]

Did you know you can easily hide Boot Camp partitions by renaming them (in Windows) with a period before the name (for example, .Vista or .Windows)? This will keep OS X from mounting the disk on the desktop, while still being available through Finder. Since the NTFS partition is mostly useless to OS X anyway, I find it useful to have it hidden.

[Hedi]

Yes I know :)

[Hedi]

Finally decided to hide it with that trick, but now I'm wondering if it is possible to make OS X only mount the Time Machine partition and leave the 2 other partitions mountable "on demand" only...

[CoffeeDaze]

I don't know of any "on demand" option for the Boot Camp partition. I wish you could have it mounted and usable, but I don't foresee NTFS support in OS X any time soon.

[Hedi]

You can make Mac OS X "support" NTFS, and it did work for me.

[CoffeeDaze]

Thanks, worked great for me with Leopard and Windows 7 RC.

[Hedi]

Very interesting... Bought this year the new Apple wireless keyboard and a mighty mouse, very happy with these devises, I even use the mouse with my Dell Latitude at work; never had the idea to purchase a MS devise for a Mac, but I'm sure their products are better, I don't know why... I feel its more "business" while Apple's are more "design"...

[CoffeeDaze]

I like the basic design and quietness of the Apple keyboard, just find the keys a little too springy (though I've quickly gotten used to it). I like the wired keyboard only because it includes the full keyboard layout and 10-key.

I found the wireless mighty mouse to lag a bit and that greatly affects precision. I've never been a fan of Apple mice though for that reason. I require a lot of precision, many likely wouldn't need. The MS mouse has 1000dpi laser precision so it's a little more useful for artists.

[Hedi]

You're right, I've noticed a great difference between the Apple mice and the Logitec mouse I just bought, it gives a feeling of "control" Apple's mice doesn't.