Logitech MX900 on Mac

I just bought myself one of the Logitech MX900 bluetooth mice that are being sold for around $150AUD. Officially Logitech is not supporting OSX although as Apple supports the bluetooth profile for using mice it is a piece of cake to use with OSX and the built-in bluetooth capability. When testing I also tried the mouse with the bluetooth dongle that I have from D-Link and found the mouse extremely jerky and unusable. However using the built-in bluetooth in my Powerbook G4 it worked perfectly without a problem. One reason it might not work with my bluetooth dongle is that it is quite old as I bought it when apple was first supporting bluetooth so the newer bluetooth dongles may work just fine. Also you can use the provided cradle that contains a bluetooth receiver that also works with the mac. The provided cradle will charge the mouse when not in use so that your mouse will be fully charged whenever you need it.

To set up the mouse is a very simple process when using the Apple Bluetooth capability:

1. Load System Preferences and click on the bluetooth link to display the bluetooth preference pane.
2. Click on the “Setup New Device” button which will displays this screen:
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4. Select the mouse radio button and then click next to display this screen:
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6. This screen will start searching for bluetooth devices. At this point in time you need to push the “connect” button on the bottom of the mouse. After clicking the connect button on the mouse the computer fill find the mouse and get its name. Click the “Continue” button.
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8. The computer will then pair itself with the mouse.
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10. Finally it will display the end screen:
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    Your MX900 Bluetooth mouse is now setup and installed.

If you want to install the mouse using the cradle instead of the Apple internal bluetooth capability all you need to do is plug the USB cable of the cradle into the mac and click the connect button on the cradle followed by the connect button on the mouse. Pressing the two connect buttons will pair the two devices together and will appear to OSX as a standard USB mouse.

Once your mouse is installed you can then set each of the buttons to different expose actions. If you are not sure which button is which I have created an image that identifies the button numbers (see image at the start of this article). As Logitech does not support OSX it means that there is no software provided by logitech to map all the buttons on the mouse to different functionality. Although it is possible to use Game Pad Companion to provide this mapping capability.

I really like the whole Logitech MX series of mice (both cordless and wired) and this mouse continues my high regard for these mice. They are the most comfortable and smooth mice available on the market. They are more expensive than other mice but you will not get a more precise and well designed mouse than the Logitech MX series mice.