Logitech VX Nano Mouse Review

Logitech VX Nano Mouse Review Tiffany Young: Hi there and welcome to Neo-Fight. TV - The Technology Show for the “Not-so-Geeky”. My name is Tiffany Young. Ben Freedman: And I’m Ben Freedman and a very exciting, exciting show today. We’re going to be talking about a new mouse. Tiffany Young: Every show is exciting then. Ben Freedman: That’s true. Well, it’s just exciting to be with you here. Tiffany Young: I knew that all. Thank you. Ben Freedman: I have to say I look forward to it every week. Tiffany Young: Yeah, every week I get the whole kudos for the week and the whole it feels good and yup that’s a — Ben Freedman: Yeah and where you do such a great job. Tiffany Young: He’s a go for it kind of guy. Ben Freedman: I have her back. Tiffany Young: Yeah, thank you. Ben Freedman: So, today we’re actually looking at you know when you have more than one mouse it’s mice even though it’s computer it’s not mouse. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: its mice. Tiffany Young: Yes. Ben Freedman: When you travel you want a cordless mouse when you travel. Tiffany Young: Kind of confuse me. Ben Freedman: You can buy cordless — Tiffany Young: How would I know? Ben Freedman: You can buy cordless mice for traveling and they have a dangle, right? You have dangles to plug it. You plug the dangle into your computer and then you can mouse, right? Tiffany Young: As long as it is not too long it sticks out too far. Ben Freedman: Well, this is the problem. What happens is the dangle is too long. I don’t know if this ever happened to you. Tiffany Young: We’ll like right, we’re out of the thing. Ben Freedman: Long dangles. Tiffany Young: Yeah, not really good. Ben Freedman: I you’ve ever had— Tiffany Young: It’s not a good fit finishing design. Ben Freedman: If you’ve ever suffered the heartbreak of long dangles. We have a mouse for you. This is by Logitech. This is the Logitech VX Nano. Tiffany Young: I think I have that mouse. Ben Freedman: Well; this is the brand new one. I don’t think you have this one. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: I think you may have the old one of this but first of all it comes in a nice little travel pouch. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: Okay, here it is, pop it out. Tiffany Young: Here we go. Ben Freedman: And there it is. This is the Logitech VX Nano, two button mouse. It’s got two more buttons here I don’t know if you can see it. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: Put it in somewhere you can zoom in on it, so two buttons here. Notice the two buttons here but in here and the scroll wheel. Now, here is what’s really cool about it again, its wireless. The dangle is kept inside as most of these do. I’m going to take out this dangle here and I want you to see just how big this dangle is, okay? Tiffany Young: Wow! That is very, very cool. Ben Freedman: Okay, check out the size of that dangle. See if you can hold that up somewhere like put it in the palm of your hand or something where people can see the size of that dangle. Tiffany Young: You see that? Ben Freedman: Now, I want to show you when you put it in your computer, how much of this dangle takes out? Tiffany Young: We’ll see if —I don’t know if you can get the dangle back out. Ben Freedman: Well, it doesn’t go all the way into the computer but check it out here. I’m going to put it in here. Tiffany Young: That is very cool. Ben Freedman: Okay, look at that. Tiffany Young: Look at that. Ben Freedman: So, there’s no way that’s going to be break off. You can probably just leave that in there the whole time. Tiffany Young: Yeah, I can see why you take it out really. Ben Freedman: Yeah, you don’t even need to take it out. Let me see if I can get a better shot of that. It’s a tiny, tiny little dangle. Tiffany Young: Very nice design. Ben Freedman: Right, and so you can leave that dangle in there and now you can mouse around with this and— Tiffany Young: No plan intended. Ben Freedman: That’s right. Tiffany Young: See —no I wonder why not the manufacturers—is that less expensive to manufacturer with longer dangle or what? Ben Freedman: Well, I think— Tiffany Young: I mean, what— Ben Freedman: A lot of it has to do with the antennae technology. Tiffany Young: What will be the point? Ben Freedman: I don’t know. A lot of it obviously the technology comes such that— Tiffany Young: It’s a nice mouse too. Ben Freedman: It is. It’s a nice it’s not too small but not too big. Tiffany Young: No, it’s perfect. Ben Freedman: Yeah, and — Tiffany Young: They are comfortable. Ben Freedman: Yeah. Tiffany Young: This is a great mouse. Ben Freedman: I think it’s a great mouse. Let me show you another feature of the mouse. Is that worth enough okay? Tiffany Young: How much is this mouse? Ben Freedman: How much is this mouse? Well, the Logitech is 65 bucks. Tiffany Young: That’s great price too. Look it’s got the zoom on here. Ben Freedman: Alright, now check this out. You’ll notice that the scroll wheel if you go ahead and scroll with that you’ll notice that it has a little indentation. Tiffany Young: It has like a little clicky feel. Ben Freedman: The little clicky feel which most not mice. It has a little clicky feel so I don’t know if you can hear it. Tiffany Young: Yeah. Ben Freedman: Oh, you can hear a little bit. Every time I do this you can click it. Now, if you’re going to really long documents or web pages you can push this mouse all the way down. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: And now I’ll try it. Tiffany Young: Oh! It’s going to be like a 10 speed. Ben Freedman: Exactly, now it has a free willing mode. Push it again and it goes back into click mode. Tiffany Young: Very nice. Ben Freedman: So, if you like. You can have it as a standard click mouse if you’re trying to go up and down one line at a time. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: Or whatever that she’s going through your document but let’s say you’re scrolling through a really long PDF and it’s you know, 80 pages long, click it again and now it will just scroll kind of free will so even when you let it go it’s going to keep scrolling. Tiffany Young: —The Free Willy. Ben Freedman: —Free Willy. Tiffany Young: Free Willy Ben Freedman: Yeah. Tiffany Young: That’s nice. Ben Freedman: Laser mouse again it’s optical, so it doesn’t use a wheel, there’s no moving parts in there for that. What do you think? Tiffany Young: Logitech just continues to impress me over and over and over again. They consistently— Ben Freedman: Well, with these accessories they really have a deal. Tiffany Young: It’s just even when you see a wide display of mice in a section in the store you’ve got lots of chasm it’s always Logitech that it seems to have the combination of features and pricing that works. Ben Freedman: Now this again this goes left and right as well so you can scroll left and right with your finger and you’ve got your two buttons and you’ve also got these little buttons which you can use the software to change. I must tell you I really like Apples in my emails where there’s a blue ball on the top and you can scroll up and down and left and right. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: And I’d like to see Logitech come out with one that has that little ball on the top, little track ball on to it’s like the— Tiffany Young: Well this is sort of like it’s version of the track ball right? Ben Freedman: Yeah, I mean left and right you can move left and right but you can scroll so much in left and right. Tiffany Young: Well, you do that just scroll left and right. Ben Freedman: Well now you do this just scroll up and down. Tiffany Young: Right Ben Freedman: Right, but if you’ve got a spreadsheet and you want to go over like 50 cells this way to go. Tiffany Young: 50 yeah. Ben Freedman: Or you’re zoomed in on a Photoshop you own the Mighty mouse. Does your Mighty mouse have that little mouse on top? Tiffany Young: It does. Ben Freedman: And you can just track ball this way or track ball that way. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: Which I like. I don’t like the Mighty mouse that has all like one buttons. Tiffany Young: Yeah, that’s— Ben Freedman: You can do a right click but you have to take your finger off one to the other. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: So I really like this one. Tiffany Young: Choosing a combination of that plus this is it. Ben Freedman: Yeah, Logitech put a little track ball that you think you like Apple now. Tiffany Young: I don’t know, see I’m not a big fan of strike balls as you are and I think I mean, they’re okay but their not. Ben Freedman: It feels like the track ball. Tiffany Young: That personal preference. Ben Freedman: But check out the size. Tiffany Young: The size is out and far from and this one for sure then. Ben Freedman: Five out of five here. I give four out of five. I’m waiting for that ball on the top. Tiffany Young: No, it’s perfect the way it is. Ben Freedman: It is a fantastic mouse. Tiffany Young: I like it. Ben Freedman: A mouse will not get a five out of five score though it has the low ball on top. Tiffany Young: Personal preference folks that’s all. Ben Freedman: But I don’t like the ergonomics with the Apple 1 and the two buttons your one button and two buttons. Tiffany Young: No, I have to agree with that though. Ben Freedman: But I do like that little ball I think here on the top. Tiffany Young: I don’t know. I like that feeling of actually going to somewhere. Ben Freedman: There you go, so that is five out of five for Tiffany four out of five for me for the Logitech VX Nano and a company in dangle which fits in the side like— Tiffany Young: It’s perfect. Ben Freedman: Like so it has a little thing that you put the battery in there when you’re traveling you just throw this in here like this. Tiffany Young: I think it’s absolutely perfect. Ben Freedman: Or just leave it in the computer because it’s not going to fall out and it’s not going to break off. Tiffany Young: Exactly, good job Logitech. Ben Freedman: Good job Logitech and we’ll be right back in just a second, stay tune. And welcome back to Neo-Fight.tv and in the second spotlight today we are going to be looking at another dangle. I know you’re such a lover of dangle things. Tiffany Young: It’s a big dangle. That must be something very spectacular to be such a big dangle. Ben Freedman: Yes, we’re looking at this which is a much, much larger dangle than that of the dangle we just looked at. Tiffany Young: Yes. Ben Freedman: This is a product by company called Elgato. It’s Elgato Turbo.264. Now, 264 or H.264 as this longer name is the iPOd format. It’s to format that video displayed in iPod. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: And in fact a lot of Macs used it but even on the Windows site if you want to make a video for your iPod on Windows you still have to convert it to H.264. Tiffany Young: Now, just real quick H.264, how is that different with MP4 I mean the MP4 is the container. Ben Freedman: Well, it’s a flavor of MP4 and MP4 is a container. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: You can also do it in an MOV container or MOV. Tiffany Young: So similar species. Ben Freedman: Yes, that’s right. It’s a flavor of MP4 but there’s also other flavors like DivX out there. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: Which is similar but different. Tiffany Young: Different container. Ben Freedman: Well, it’s a different codec but it’s another flavor of MPEG-4 still MPEG-4. I know it’s very confusing. Tiffany Young: However— Ben Freedman: For instance even though they are both MPEG-4 you can’t DivX files on your iPod. Tiffany Young: I agree. Ben Freedman: But you can’t H.264. H.264 is also an open standard as supposed to DivX which is a proprietary. Tiffany Young: I’ve got you, okay see that? Ben Freedman: So here is a dangle. Now what on earth is this? What this is it’s a processor. It’s a chip inside there that is dedicated to converting your video files to iPod format or to Apple TV format or to iPhone format H.264 format and see well it does on my computer already transferred? Yes, it does but if you have an older computer you know computer that’s more than a year or two old, the processor is going to be really —it can take a long time. You know, half hour file might take an hour or two to convert. Where this is a brand new high speed processor so you plug this into your old iMac or whatever. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: And boom it will be much, much faster. Tiffany Young: Like another processor. Ben Freedman: It might do that. Tiffany Young: Yeah, it’s like a — Ben Freedman: It’s like another processor. The other thing is even if you have a fast— Tiffany Young: A dual core. Ben Freedman: Dual core is like a triple core it’s like another core. Tiffany Young: Right, if you have a dual core yes another core. Ben Freedman: Right, this is like another core. Tiffany Young: Tri-core Ben Freedman: Just for editing video or converting video. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: Also even if you have a fast machine and you start converting video. You’ll notice your computer will slow down. Have you ever done that? Tiffany Young: Yes. Ben Freedman: You start converting video and then you go to something else and you’re like, “Why is that it’s sluggish?” It’s much more sluggish. So what this does is uploads that conversion to this guy and that where your computer is freed up again. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: To— Tiffany Young: Continue working. Ben Freedman: Continue working that’s right. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: So I think this is with the Mac by the way. Tiffany Young: Yeah. Ben Freedman: Just for the Mac it’s not a PC devices for Mac users that want to convert these files. Tiffany Young: Mac only, Ben Freedman: So, let me show what happens here. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: We’re going to plug this is to the computer here and it just plugs into any USB port. One thing I want to mention is quite wide, so versus here I can’t plug it in to this cord at the back here because I’ve got the power cable is there and it won’t fit. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: So I will plug it in to this one over here, so there it is. Tiffany Young: There we go. Ben Freedman: Plug it in. It’s like that something you can leave in all the time obviously. Tiffany Young: Well, you probably won’t be converting things all the time anyway. Ben Freedman: That’s right, so now I’m going to go in here and I’m going to restart the recording of some software. Tiffany Young: So, he is basically on a pick up file and then drag and drop it into you know. Ben Freedman: Dray and drop it, that’s right, so it comes in a little application here which will start of and here it is. It’s very, very easy to use the application as you can see that here on the screen. This is the Turbo.264 application. Tiffany Young: It’s very nice. Ben Freedman: Okay, so what I’m going to do of here is that I’ve got an episode of Seinfield, I will just basically grab and drag it over here. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: Okay and there it is on here and you can choose a format if you want a high quality iPod or standard. It also will work for the— Tiffany Young: There’s Sony PSP2. Ben Freedman: Yes, for Sony PSP also uses AChat consistent four. Tiffany Young: That’s pretty cool. Ben Freedman: Or for the Apple TV, okay so we’ll stay with this iPod high. Tiffany Young: So instead of buying a software the third party that you download or pick up now you’ve got a processor and the software ends way to convert it. Ben Freedman: That’s right and I’m going to go and click start here and here is now converting to this new format okay, this is a 23 long movies. It shows you how many frames per second it’s converting up and it shows you how many minutes it’s going to take. Tiffany Young: One to three minutes. Ben Freedman: Well that what it says but you’ll notice it’s coming down very, very quickly here as it’s getting faster and faster and faster. Tiffany Young: Okay, so it’s a sort of rubbing up the engine. Ben Freedman: That’s right. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: And this is into a very highly compressed format okay. Now if you do have a brand new Mac you’re not going to see as much improvement as if you have an older Mac. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: Okay, if you have an older Mac from a year or two or three years ago and you’re finding the sticky hours to convert footage this will work a lot faster than that. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: And it’s very high quality, so it works really well. If on the hand you have a brand new Mac what it will do is going to convert it maybe a little bit faster, but it will also upload it so the processor doesn’t take. It doesn’t upload. It doesn’t take that nearly as much process. You can do other things at the same time. Tiffany Young: So, now where does the file go is it set out there say a little hard drive thing on there? Ben Freedman: No, there’s no memory on it. It’s a good question. There’s no memory on it. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: It literally goes in your hard drive, process this through it and it comes back to your hard drive. Tiffany Young: So, basically it’s a software combined with the processor externally. Ben Freedman: That’s right. Tiffany Young: Okay. Ben Freedman: It’s like having another CPU just for video conversion. Tiffany Young: For conversion. Now what’s the price of that? Ben Freedman: This guy is 90 bucks and I’ve got to tell you though when I try this on this Mac this is the fairly MacBook I only saw a very short speed increase. It’s a very new Sony a couple months old. So I only saw—it was still faster but only by a very small amount but I think if you have an older computer I think that’s where the real value here. Tiffany Young: Or as if we’re going to freeze you up to do all your other stuff. Ben Freedman: That’s right, yeah. Tiffany Young: But see what I think is I downloaded all the different kinds of software and experiment with them to convert iTunes that you know, we’re going to movies to iTunes, to DVI to my PS3. Ben Freedman: Right. Tiffany Young: Now it’s just I mean a pain to find the right one and sometimes it works sometimes it wouldn’t. Ben Freedman: Right. Tiffany Young: 40 – 50 bucks for the combination of the two. Ben Freedman: Yeah. Tiffany Young: I would rather just go with something I know works that plugs right. Ben Freedman: Yeah. Tiffany Young: Even if I haven’t a new Mac which I do. Ben Freedman: And the interface as you can see is very, very simple very easy to use interface. Tiffany Young: Very easy. Ben Freedman: I mean it’s nice. You just drag the file there you hit Go and it goes. Tiffany Young: Now, as far as the output folder that it uses that doesn’t meet where it would go right? Ben Freedman: Yeah, where it goes and you just drag straight into iTunes and it sync it up and a way to go. Tiffany Young: It’s very nice. Ben Freedman: Very, very easy. Tiffany Young: I think that’s a very, very handy device to have. Ben Freedman: Yeah, I think it’s a handy device to have. It’s a little big you know. Tiffany Young: Well, yes. Ben Freedman: So you may want to keep it. Hook up if it’s your laptop all the time. If you have an iMac or something like that the older iMac you can stick it into one of the USB ports on the back or something. Tiffany Young: Right. Ben Freedman: And you know that will work well. Tiffany Young: Now, do you download the software separately or it’s actually a software inside the — Ben Freedman: It comes with the software. No, it comes with the disc. Tiffany Young: Okay, it comes with the disc there you go okay. Ben Freedman: Yeah, it comes with the disc that you put it on. There’s no storage on the unit itself. Tiffany Young: Okay, none at all. I’ve got it. Ben Freedman: Yeah, and so I think I give this a four out of five. I think that it’s good I wish it was faster still so that I would see more benefit on my new computer but it’s really designed I think more so for people who really just free up their processor to do stuff at the same time. Tiffany Young: Right, I think it’s a great product too, $90 I mean I would want to see it more compatible let’s say a combination of the software packages that would be maybe $49.99 maybe another $10 more for — Ben Freedman: 40 bucks 50 bucks— Tiffany Young: The fact that it composes the PSP as well as the iPod or iTunes. Ben Freedman: Right. Tiffany Young: I think 60 bucks well I think it’s a little bit overpriced at $90. Ben Freedman: Right. Tiffany Young: But four out five for me. The only thing I don’t like is price. Ben Freedman: So it’s four out of five for Tiffany. I’m four out of five for me that’s eight of 10 for the Elgato Turbo.264 Macintosh H.264. Tiffany Young: Easy to use. Ben Freedman: It’s very, very easy to use. Tiffany Young: It’s simple. Ben Freedman: And that’s all the time we have for this week but we would love you to go to the website, www.neo-fight.tv and leave some comments, tell us what you thought. Tiffany Young: Yeah. Ben Freedman: Yes, then we will see you next week. Tiffany Young: Absolutely, stay tune. Ben Freedman: And if you have an extra 30 seconds take a look at this.