Sunday, November 15, 2009

Apple Magic Mouse


I have finished my first week with the new Apple Magic Mouse.  I have to say after being a Mighty Mouse user for the last several years and being happy with the Mighty Mouse the Magic mouse is a step forward.  While it is slimmer than the Mighty Mouse it is heavier and great for people with small hands.  If you have a larger hand like I do it requires slightly different handling.

The mouse is attractive and smooth and looks like a piece of art sitting on your desk.  Using the whole surface to scroll up, down, left and right is convenient.  The swipe to move between pages isn't as easy to use as you have to hold the mouse between your fingers and use your middle to fingers to swipe.  It is nice to be able to do it but I find most of the time I just scroll to the next page.

The scroll speed is dependent on how fast you swipe and will keep going once you have taken your hand off the mouse until you put your finger down on the mouse to stop immediately or allow the scrolling to decelerate slowly on it's own, a handy feature if you are looking for things fast.

The right click worked as soon as I turned the mouse on.  The gestures required a software update which OS X will download and install as soon as you run Software Update after connecting the mouse.  The one odd thing I noticed is I had right click until I installed the Software Update then I had to go in the mouse settings and turn right click back on.  If you are on 10.6.2 the drivers are already included and you can just turn the mouse on pair it and go.  The mouse uses Bluetooth to connect to the computer so any Mac made in the last five years probably has Bluetooth built in and Macs older than that can have Bluetooth added via a USB Bluetooth adapter.  I have tested several models and have not had one fail to work yet.  So far Windows users do not have software to run the Magic Mouse on Windows with touch support.

The tracking on the desk is typical for Apple it moves kind of slow and you have to travel further across the desk to get around the screen.  Unless of course you install Mouse Zoom http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12205   on your machine and then you can speed your mouse up as much as you want.

As a whole I think Apple did a better job with this mouse but they still have a way to go.  Magic Mouse lacks the pinch and stretch gestures that were introduced on the iPhone and later made their way into the entire Apple line of trackpads.  Hopefully we will see some software updates coming from Apple to make the Magic Mouse more useful and make me less tempted to move from my Magic Mouse back to the trackpad at the bottom of my keyboard.  The mouse is worth the $69.00 US for purchase if you are looking for a new mouse but I wouldn't rush out to replace the Mighty Mouse if you already have it and the new Magic Mouse comes with the new model iMacs giving users the opportunity to make a powerful computer also make a powerful statement as art.

1 comment:

  1. Eagerly awaiting mine, largely because it comes attached to an i7 based 27" iMac w 8gb Ram and 2tb dasd. :-)

    twestd

    ReplyDelete

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