A Dad’s Point of View: Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse

By Daniel Van Beek

Daniel Van Beek is a dad and  small business owner and talented and creative graphic artist.  He created the company TGraphicsWest.com, a flourishing t-shirt graphics company that provides the art design and t-shirts for the Josten’s Renaissance program in public schools across the country.  Daniel gained notoriety when he debuted as his alter-ego, Danger Dan for the show, WipeOut, during the winter special earlier this year.  Dan is a subscriber of WellConnectedMom.com and avid technologist.

I travel to the east coast about once and month and my hardware is always in tow.  Laptop, sales catalogs, Pantone book (art business), t-shirt samples, portable drive and a wireless mouse …. er ….screeeeech.  Back that up.

Enter Microsoft’s Arc Touch*.  A stylish, functional and portable (just like me) wireless mouse.  I know what you are thinking, aren’t all wireless mice portable? They are, but this one you can put in your front pocket and no one would look at you funny.

Portability is only the icing in this case.

The Arc Touch looks space age with it’s slim slick bendable finish, everyone ohs-n-ahs when I pull it out to work.  Often they can’t help themselves but to pick it up and try it for themselves.  The roller ball has been replaced with a smooth metallic plate that performs the same task.

It takes a little getting used to and has settings to make it function exactly to your own needs.  The Blue Track sensor is amazing and works on any surface.  We even tested it on some crazy surfaces here in the office.  Marble, cotton t-shirt, Styrofoam, carpet, and my hairy arm pits were no match for this mouse.  It worked flawlessly in all cases.  Connecting it to the computer was super simple with it’s tiny USB connector.

Features:

• Easy on/off:  curve to turn on and flatten to turn off
• Easy set-up: 2.4 GHz wireless USB nano transceiver allows you to connect wireless right out of the box
• Flexibility:  can operate your computer from up to 30 feet away, great for presentations or surfing the Internet
• Tractability:  the Blue Track sensor allows you to use the mouse on any nearly any surface!
• Storage: place the USB in it’s place on the underside of the mouse for travel

Microsoft’s MSRP for the Arc Touch mouse is $69.95.  Of course, Amazon.com sells the Microsoft Arc Touch mouse for $46.64 plus free shipping!

* Microsoft provided the Microsoft Arc Touch in exchange for an honest review.