Bluetooth Distance on Mini Mac

Question

Bluetooth Distance on Mini Mac

Hi,

I am about to get a minimac and hook it up to my Toshiba 37WTL68 LCD TV in the livingroom. I plan to network it using airport with my Macbook Pro and use it to view itunes, iphoto, surf the net etc. in my livingroom. I have the following quesions:-

1. Is there an opperating range for bluetooth with the minimac? If I am 10ft away from the minimac (which i am likely to be sitting on my sofa) will a wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse still be picked up?

2. If they will be too far away is there another option? Can you get keyboards and mice that work via airport instead? Otherwise could I get a bluetooth dongle with a realy long cable and use that instead?

3. Is there any other device (other than a mouse) which I could use as a substititute? I like using the trakcer pad on my macbook pro and if sitting on the couch it would be easier if I could use some sort of wireless trackerpad or trackerball rather than a mouse. Does anyone use these?

Thanks for your help.....

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.7), 2GHz Intel Core Duo, 1GB RAM

Posted on Mar 31, 2007 8:19 AM

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Answer 1

CaptTB

Level 1

100 points

Mar 31, 2007 8:48 AM in response to tazhearts@mac.com

My Mini (intel) sits about 9 ft. away from my couch, I have never had any trouble with signal loss/skip at all. Depending on which side of the couch I am on, I am more than 10 feet away as well.

The only "issue" I can say I have had is that on the rare occasion I will actually shut down my system, I will sometimes (only sometimes) have to turn the keyboard off and on again for the Mini to recognize it. It typically takes about 15 seconds, and for me only on complete shutdown and restart, and only occasionally.

I would call that an issue except I have experienced the same on every machine I work/play on (several at home and several at work) and most are within inches of the keyboard and it does not happen more than just every once in a blue moon.

You should be OK with the setup you describe.

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Answer 2

AndyO

Level 6

17,064 points

Apr 2, 2007 5:31 AM in response to tazhearts@mac.com

Bluetooth should have a range somewhat better than 10 feet - typically up to around 30 in a 'normal' domestic environment.

There aren't any keyboards that work via Airport, since that's for networking systems, but there are conventional conventional cordless keyboards and mice, which are usually a little cheaper than bluetooth and should have a range of 8-20 feet. Many of these come with receivers with 2 or 3 feet of cable, perhaps allowing the receiver to be placed close enough for effective use even if the mini itself is out of normal range.

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