Are there any good keyboards and mice today?

I am seriously about to go crazy. I’ve been trying to find a good keyboard and mouse for over a month now and nothing seems to work. At first I wanted to go with a wireless solution, foolishly beliving that wireless today has to be responsive by 2006. My other requirements/hopes were:

• Had to work on OS X and Windows (for when I switch between my iBook and desktop). I realized this had to be a requirement after I bought the Logitech G7 Wireless Mouse and found out it doesn’t work in OS X!
• Ability to bind mouse buttons based on the app you’re in (ideal for making the forward/backward buttons bind to useful alternatives in IDEA).
• Mouse had to have forward/backward buttons (other buttons were not interesting, including side scrolling) – turns out a lot today only have one side button. Why?
• Ideally a laser mouse.

So first I went with both Logitech and Microsoft bluetooth offerings. Bad idea. Not only are they buggy as hell, they can’t work unless the drivers are first installed, making them severly crippled. To be fair, the Logitech one seemed to work without the drivers (I believe it supports native bluetooth and then does something entirely in hardware to emulate the mouse), but it cause my system to crash consistently. Plus, the mouse sucks.

So giving up on Bluetooth, I then tried both of their non-Bluetooth offerings. At first, the Microsoft set was looking good. For only $60 at CompUSA, I picked up their Laser 6000 desktop set. I was pleased to see it worked well on both platforms, the mouse didn’t suck, and the wireless seemed to work. Woo hoo! But then when I got home I started noticing that the wireless signal was very unreliable! In fact, maybe 1 out of 100 keys would get missed. At first I thought I was just not familiar with the new keyboard, but eventually I started realizing it was actually not seeing my input. Returned.

Next I try Logitech’s offering. The software doesn’t let you bind mouse clicks on a per-program basis, but I’m starting to realize I’m going to have to compromise. So next up is the Cordless Desktop MX 3000 Laser, which is what I have at home right now. Signal worked great, but something just didn’t feel right. Then I realized the problem: If I typed at a fast rate (I’m a pretty fast typer, maybe 90WPM), the input actual lags. Granted, it was better than Microsoft’s stuff, but still far from ideal. Good thing I saved the receipt.

So now I’ve finally decided to give up on wireless. I tried out the Microsoft Laser 6000 Mouse recently, and that also sucked (the forward/backward buttons are in lame positions to try to make the mouse acceptable for lefies). Logitech mice just totally scare me now, since half don’t work with OS X and the other half have far too many buttons. Microsoft’s IntelliMouse Explorer was great, but they don’t offer anything like it using Laser technology.

So it looks like what I may finally be doing is:

• Give up on wireless – it’s a lost cause.
• Give up on laser for now.
• Get per-program mouse button bindings with a Microsoft mouse.
• Get a keyboard and mouse that I know work with OS X:
• Purchase the Logitech G15 Keyboard… when it is finally in stock. Bonus: it’s backlite, has programmable macros (I’m sure I can find use for that in IDEA), and it is one of the last keyboards that hasn’t moved the #$@&* insert key!
• Purchase a basic Microsoft IntelliMouse. It isn’t perfect (the middle button is hard to click and feels delayed), but whatever at this point.

Anyone know of anything better?