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Developer: Logitech
System Requirements: Mac OS X, Windows XP/Vista/7
Review Computers: Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook, Intel Core2 Duo Dell D630, Windows XP SP3
Price: Free
Availability: Out now
iPhone App: Touch Mouse
Mac/PC Program: Touch Mouse Server

If ever the words “Killer App” were appropriate, it would be to describe the Logitech Touch Mouse. Ever been frustrated that the mouse is just out of reach when you are kicked back watching YouTube? Or do you have your laptop hooked up to the TV, and you are just too far from the keyboard? Logitech’s Touch Mouse app solves both problems handily. By turning your iPhone, iPod Touch, or, in just a few short months, iPad into a WiFi mouse or keyboard, couch potatoes and Hulu watchers the world over can now change up their media without getting up.

The Touch Mouse app is free via the iTunes store, and so is the required companion Touch Mouse Server software from Logitech’s website (see links above for both programs).  The Server is really just a small application (315 KB) that listens on your laptop/desktop via WiFi for the Touch Mouse App and establishes a connection with each device. To establish this link, only three simple steps are required.

1. Double click the server application on your desktop
2. Make sure your iPhone OS device is connected to the same network, then launch the Touch Mouse app.
3. Find the desired device in the Touch Mouse app menu, and voila.

You get a full screen, virtual, multi-touch trackpad that functions handily in either portrait or landscape orientation.

In addition to the trackpad, the Touch Mouse includes up to three buttons at the top of the trackpad, replicating a left, right, and center click.  Sound effects can be enabled/disabled to provide feedback for button clicks.  Supported multitouch gestures are roughly equivalent to the first multitouch trackpads Apple introduced on their laptops, with two finger right clicks and two finger 360º scrolling.  When you are ready to type, the virtual keyboard functions in both landscape and portrait modes, and includes special keys for Command, Option, and Control.  In portrait mode, the keyboard includes the three trackpad buttons, though these are missing from the landscape layout (due to space constraints, but it is still possible to mouse with the keyboard active).

The Touch Mouse experience is not quite like mousing with Apple’s latest glass multitouch trackpads, but it is more than adequate for a majority of uses.  The experience is much like controlling a computer via a VNC—slightly slow, but not jumpy.  If anybody remembers the original Macintosh mouse, it feels very similar…there is a slight lag, but tracking in general is smooth enough to allow easy selection making.

The multitouch features really shine when it comes to highlighting text, where tapping and holding the left mouse button and dragging the pointer with another finger is required.  Single clicks are easily achieved without using the mouse button (the virtual trackpad may be tapped just like a regular one), though double clicking was somewhat challenging.  The sensitivity is so high that it is easy to accidentally move the mouse when attempting a double tap; using the left click button proved an easier way to double click.  Right clicking can be achieved either via the right click button or via a two-finger tap (for those preferring the tap method, be aware that you will need to spread your fingers slightly).  Tapping with two fingers held close together generally caused a scroll rather than right click to be recognized.  Kudos to Logitech for including a preview box when using the keyboard so you can see what you are typing on the iPhone’s screen, even if your computer is too far away to read the text.

What is there not to like about the Touch Mouse?  Not much, really.  For occasional typing to search for YouTube videos or log into facebook, the keyboard is more than sufficient.  Extensive typing would be difficult, not just due to the small size of the iPhone’s keyboard, but also due to the lack of spell checking/autocorrection in keyboard mode.  Logitech has chosen not to implement the iPhone’s standard keyboard autocorrect, so you have to watch the preview window carefully.  As a feature request, a Bluetooth connection option would be very nice.  When on the road, it is not always possible to connect to WiFi, so watching a movie in a hotel room will still involve getting up and walking over the the computer.  Apple should take notice, because an iPad version of this supporting full Magic Mouse-style multitouch would be amazing (and a great tie-in to the AppleTV).