Product Reviews

Using a mouse to control your Pocket PC when there's a perfectly good touch screen only a stylus tap or fingertip away sounds like madness. Oddly enough, the beautifully constructed, diminutive Stowaway Travel Mouse is surprisingly useful with a Pocket PC. Initial setup of the Bluetooth connection took only a few minutes, and the two mouse buttons and central scroll wheel/button are just as configurable as on your PC mouse.

In use, a conventional mouse arrow appears on your Pocket PC screen, exactly as you'd expect. Aside from being able to prop up your handheld and navigate without having to pick it up, scrolling through documents with the mouse's scroll wheel is a pleasure, even if you're holding the Pocket PC in the other hand. Using the mouse is also far less tiring than repeatedly using a jog dial or navigator buttons on the PDA itself.

The mouse runs for a few weeks of average use on a pair of AAA batteries, and works with Bluetooth-enabled PC and Mac laptops as well as selected PDAs. The bad news is that software drivers are not yet available for all Pocket PCs, so you'll need to check the Think Outside website for compatibility with your PDA.