Apple Bluetooth keyboard delays?

April 25, 2007 2:42 PM

Thinking of getting an Apple wireless keyboard (Bluetooth thingy) for use with a MacBook. My overriding concern: Is there an obvious delay between pressing a key and it registering? Thanks!
posted by docgonzo to Computers & Internet (19 answers total)

Response by poster: Any recommendations/complaints about these keyboards?
posted by docgonzo at 2:43 PM on April 25, 2007

I have no delay-related complaints from the keyboard or the mouse. Absolutely none.
posted by phaedon at 2:48 PM on April 25, 2007

Back before I destroyed it by spilling a nearly full pint of beer into it, I used mine for programming and some games. No noticeable delay. I think I would have noticed with those tasks.
posted by RobotAdam at 2:53 PM on April 25, 2007

If you don't have the wireless Mighty Mouse, get that too. Thing is FANTASTIC.
posted by radioamy at 2:56 PM on April 25, 2007

Another voice in the chorus for both the wireless keyboard and the wireless Mighty Mouse. No delays, few decoupling issues (all of which were quickly and painlessly resolved).
posted by tentacle at 3:25 PM on April 25, 2007

No delays here either. Paired with either MacBook or MBP.
posted by NucleophilicAttack at 3:29 PM on April 25, 2007

If BlueTooth is getting used for a lot of other stuff, like just after an iSync to my phone, the mouse will get jittery and slow, but apart from that the both of them are brilliant.
posted by bonaldi at 3:44 PM on April 25, 2007

have any of you wireless Mighty Mouse proponents had trouble with the dreaded dirty nipple? That ultimately rendered my (wired) Mighty Mouse useless—wouldn't scroll down.
posted by adamrice at 3:53 PM on April 25, 2007

the dirty nipple drives me fucking nuts. as a predominant laptop user, i appreciate the ability to scroll through windows without having to use the mouse (like using two fingers on the macbook) but 5 times out of 10, i press the button and my widget screen pops up. i guess i could change the preference somewhere, but im lazy. i'd rather suffer.
posted by phaedon at 4:12 PM on April 25, 2007

I've used the Apple wireless keyboard and while I don't much like the keyboard itself I had exactly no problems with response time. If you like the keyboard, you'll be happy; I don't think you'll have latency problems at all.

The Mighty Mouse, however, is a piece of crap.
posted by majick at 4:23 PM on April 25, 2007

I've just gotten used to dissasembling the Mighty Mouse every 2-3 months, taking apart the nipple/ball mechanism, cleaning it, and carefully putting everything back together (re-attaching the bottom retaining ring with a couple drops of SuperGlue).
posted by mrbill at 4:26 PM on April 25, 2007

I just got a mighty mouse a couple of days ago and it works beautifully. I cannot imagine that the keyboard would have a noticeable time lag.
posted by ob at 5:10 PM on April 25, 2007

I've got a Bluetooth mouse (Logitech V270) and there is absolutely no delay while using it with one exception: after a period of inactivity it takes a little time (< 1s) when moving the mouse again for the cursor to start moving on the screen. This is almost certainly related to saving power. I don't know if the mouse goes to sleep or if it's related to power saving measure that are part of the Bluetooth protocol, or both, but it is there, though it's not an annoyance. Not having researched Bluetooth keyboards I don't know if they do anything similar, but basically during use you should be fine.
posted by 6550 at 7:38 PM on April 25, 2007

No keyboard latency here. And I have owned a wired and wireless Mighty Mouse...only very recently did I experience the dreaded scroll nipple (huh huh huh) problem.

I got a Windex wipe, rubbed it vigorously over the scroll ball, and it was restored to new.

No worries.
posted by Bud Dickman at 8:01 PM on April 25, 2007

My mighty mouse cleaning method: flip it over and rub the ball really hard against a piece of paper or inside pages of a book. Works a treat.
posted by bonaldi at 8:09 PM on April 25, 2007

I second all of the people who said:
1) the keyboard works perfectly
2) the nipple thingy is infuriating

and would add that I recommend using 2700 mAh Lithium ion rechargeable batteries. My friends who use alkaline complain about battery consumption, the high-cap rechargeables last a good long time, and you don't care when they run down, because you bought twice as many as you needed, right?
posted by popechunk at 8:20 PM on April 25, 2007

I have a wired Mighty Mouse on my iMac and the nipple drives me nuts. I recently pulled out the Bluetooth Logitech mouse I used with my PowerBook, and I'm loving it.

The only delay is the one 6550 mentioned: when the mouse is in power save mode, there's a noticeable but short delay getting it going again. I find that if you click rather than moving the mouse, the delay is shorter. Once it's going again, though, there's no delay at all.
posted by robcorr at 8:42 PM on April 25, 2007

My brother has one and has complained it's really slow, particularly when other devices (PDA, phone) are around and also using Bluetooth. In fact, he's getting rid of his, if you want to buy it! (ha)
posted by sneakin at 4:06 AM on April 26, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks v. much for all the responses -- ordering the keyboard now!
posted by docgonzo at 6:55 PM on April 28, 2007