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Gyration Air Mouse Elite

Airborne remote rodent

Gyration Air Mouse Elite

To enhance navigation the configuration software offers several pre-defined environments, including Media Player, Internet and Presentation, but more can be created and the action of each button defined by the user. Furthermore, you can utilise gestures. By depressing the centre button I actioned tasks by swinging the mouse upwards in various angles and directions.

In iTunes, a ‘Left swipe’ made my most recently played album start over. An ‘Up swipe’ brought up Elite’s own volume bar, allowing me to adjust my PC’s audio, as though pulling on a drawstring. As useful as the feature was, things didn’t always go smoothly because my swipes were often wrongly interpreted, with Firefox skipping back a page instead of opening my bookmarks folder.

Gyration Air Mouse Elite

Pointing not waving

An extra £30 will get you the Air Mouse companion wireless, low-profile 105 chiclet-style keyboard that relies on the same USB RF unit. Indeed, the mouse and USB dongle communicated flawlessly and went beyond Gyration’s stated 100ft (30m) contact distance, even with large objects between the pair. The Elite’s internal battery ran for days before running low on power, but the supplied USB-powered charging cradle is poorly designed, because even the slightest knock makes the mouse fall off.

Verdict

Despite only basic Mac/Linux support, the charger shortcomings and minor niggles with the gesture recognition capability, I enjoyed using Air Mouse Elite. It has broad appeal for a range of environments as it works well as a traditional desktop mouse, whilst delivering a unique user experience with its additional functionality both as remote controller and an in-air PC navigator. ®

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Gyration Air Mouse Elite

Gyration Air Mouse Elite

Navigates PC menus whether being pushed around a desk or waved around like remote controls.
Price: £90 mouse-only, package with keyboard, £130 RRP

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