Easy way to check keyboard and mouse battery levels?

Is there any kind of apple or widget you can easily check the battery levels on the wireless mouse and keyboard without having to click on them in prefs? Seems kind of a pain to have to go to prefs to see that. Seems someone could come up with something that could tell both at same time more easily and even give you a warning when depleted. BTW I've had my iMac for 6 days now and my keyboard is still at 100%. My mousse is 88% so I'm not quite sure whats all the whining about battery problems? Also my iMac arrived with zero problems and I haven't found one yet to complain about. For all who are afraid to jump into the water I think Apple figured out what might have been wrong and fixed any problems the new iMacs might have had.

iMac i7, none

Posted on Jan 4, 2010 6:32 PM

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Posted on Jan 4, 2010 6:39 PM

Steven, you can check on the right side of the menu bar of the desktop where your Bluetooth devices are listed under the menu bar icon; look down the list to see the keyboard and mouse. If you mouse over or click them, you'll see the battery charge for each device.
19 replies

Jan 5, 2010 5:04 AM in response to stevenhnyc

No need for any extra software as the OS pops a warning when you are getting low - firstly it gives a warning around 20% (in my case) and then flags up a warning telling you to change them pretty soon (about 10%). I know all this 'cos I've just had this flash up on screen. Fifth set of batteries just gone in to the Magic Mouse but the keyboard still says 100% after 2 months. Also, if you have Bluetooth showing in the menu a flashing graphic appears when the batteries start to get low. So, in short I think you'll get all the warnings you need 🙂

Jan 5, 2010 6:18 AM in response to stevenhnyc

Steven, My iStat Pro widget does show keyboard and mouse battery levels for my iMac (I don't have a laptop). Go to their info page: http://www.islayer.com/help/istatpro-manual/

Here, you'll see the following:
"...The battery section also shows the power left in your Apple bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse.

Please note: If you don’t have a battery or bluetooth keyboard or mouse, then the battery section won’t be displayed."

Jan 5, 2010 7:48 AM in response to stevenhnyc

First off, let me say I don't have the latest version of iStat Pro. I have version 4.7. Assuming the latest is the same or similar in this regard, make sure you have set it up for batteries to be displayed. By hitting the little "i" in the upper left, iStat flips over, and you can then configure it. Click on the "Sections" tab and make sure "Battery" is set to "ON".

Hope this helps.

Jan 5, 2010 10:10 AM in response to stevenhnyc

I have the wireless mouse. I check the battery level periodically at Systems Preferences. If I remember correctly, when my batteries reached the "replace" level, an image of the mouse appeared in the lower center of my screen.

I sent a letter to Apple suggesting that the battery level ought to be available at the top of the screen where the day and date are shown. I had a battery monitor indicator on my old PowerBook G4. It's too bad it isn't available on the iMac.

Jan 5, 2010 12:34 PM in response to stevenhnyc

"Obviously iStat doesn't show the keyboard or mouse" Hmmmmm.

I'm not sure why it doesn't seem to be working on your system, but I wouldn't give up on iStat Pro too easily since when it's set up and working right one mouse click gets you what you want to see.

To make sure it's not a feature that got lost in the latest version, I just downloaded the latest version (4.9). It is displaying the battery levels of my wireless magic mouse and keyboard just like v4.7 did.

Jan 5, 2010 1:52 PM in response to iMatt_Muc

Hi iM_M,

Well it does appear something strange is going on. I don't have a MacBook, just the iMac shown in my profile, and iStat is showing both the mouse and kb battery levels. As one of my earlier posts indicated, the iStat web site suggests it's supposed to have this option, so I'm wondering if there's a bug in this release causing it to behave differently for different Macs.

Sounds like contacting the iStat developer is in order. I'll make an attempt to do that.

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Easy way to check keyboard and mouse battery levels?

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