Wireless USB keyboard & mouse for Mac Mini

[spinner]

hi,

I bought a mac mini and it has only two USB 2.0 slots. It is the simplest one with neither wireless nor bluetooth support onboard.
So I want to buy a USB wireless keyboard and mouse so than I can have one USB slot free.
I don't want to get a USB hub.

I have two questions:

1)
When you want to boot from DVD-ROM in the mac mini you have to hold the "C" key during the normal boot.
I bought a cheap USB keyboard and with mac mini it does not work but it works with all my other x86 linux boxes.
So, the keyboard and mouse that I should buy must be MAC compatible ?
Is this a firmware problem since there is no BIOS in PPC ?
Up to now the only MAC compatible keyboard that I have found is MS Digital Media Pro but it is not wireless.
But almost all MS keyboard and mouse set are listed as MAC compatible.
I want my keyboard to work also with OS X.


2)I can find only Microsoft and Logitech wireless sets in my country and I don't want to get a set(keyb+mouse) from apple.
Should I buy RF or Bluetooth ?

[Zakarth]

hi,

I bought a mac mini and it has only two USB 2.0 slots. It is the simplest one with neither wireless nor bluetooth support onboard.
So I want to buy a USB wireless keyboard and mouse so than I can have one USB slot free.
I don't want to get a USB hub.


There are a bunch of questions hidden in this, let me see if I can tackle them without getting my foot too far into my mouth



1)
When you want to boot from DVD-ROM in the mac mini you have to hold the "C" key during the normal boot.

This is a completely accurate statement and I agree with you 100%, although there have been some reported problems specifically related to the DVD-ROM that I've heard about from other users on the forum but I can't personally corroborate their issues, just what I've been gleaning...


So, the keyboard and mouse that I should buy must be MAC compatible ?

For the most part, and to the best of my knowledge, this is untrue. Most USB keyboards and mice, regardless of what type they are, fall under a subset category of USB devices known as "Human Interface Devices" or HIDs. They all share the same category of device ID's and any OS that recognize the category of HID will try to load the appropriate generic USB driver to work with any keyboard and mouse, irregardless of what company makes them. If there is a specific driver for a keyboard or mouse (maybe to take advantage of special buttons) then the OS (any OS mind you) will try to load the specific drivers if it has them, otherwise they should always default to the generic HID drivers. Linux has full support for generic HIDs to the best of my knowledge. So does OS X for that matter.

Bluetooth changes things significantly though, more on that below.

Is this a firmware problem since there is no BIOS in PPC ?

I don't think that has any relevency towards the issue.

But almost all MS keyboard and mouse set are listed as MAC compatible.
I want my keyboard to work also with OS X.

Shouldn't be an issue. I think that your usual MS/Logitech/Standard keyboard/mouse stuff should work just fine on Mac OS X or Linux or Windows...

2)I can find only Microsoft and Logitech wireless sets in my country and I don't want to get a set(keyb+mouse) from apple.
Should I buy RF or Bluetooth ?

Adding bluetooth into the equation changes things significantly. Bluetooth operates on the principal of needing a bluetooth receiver-- which the receiver needs drivers specifically for the OS you are loading it on. Any keyboard and mouse that requires bluetooth will REQUIRE that it say Mac compatible on it, for instance, if you want it to run on OS X. To the best of my knowledge, bluetooth support was only recent on Mac OS X (10.3 panther I think) and even then it was limited (I couldn't get the Microsoft bluetooth receiver to work in OS X).

If you get a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, even if it does say Mac compatible, it may not be compatible with Linux. For this matter alone I would settle on the lowest common denominator for maximum compatibility with all of your devices and get a RF based wireless/keyboard and combo.

A few further thoughts: The MS-based bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo had a spectacular range, much better than the RF based devices, but setting them up can prove to be interesting depending on the OS. Bluetooth has a whole series of setting up "trusted devices" and what not that can be damn obfuscating depending on which drivers you get (in windows XP) but sometimes very painless. For instance, the MS drivers for the MS bluetooth receiver were easy to set up, but getting the keyboard and mouse to work on a dell-based bluetooth receiver was somewhat of a pain. Your mileage may vary on different OS' but for the time being I would stay away from bluetooth if you want max compatibility.

Hope this helps.