No Invoking Expose and Spaces with Magic Mouse?!?!

[ncsmith4]

So, I LOVE the design and multitouch-ness of the Magic Mouse, but I use Mighty Mouse ALL THE TIME to invoke Spaces and Expose. (Click the ball in for Spaces, and squeeze the sides for Expose).

Can Magic Mouse invoke Spaces and Expose???

[rgarjr]

I'm sure it will be customizable with software.

[celticpride678]

Yes. By using multi-touch gestures. You will have to check System Preferences for more information.

[ncsmith4]

Doesnt look like it actually. Check out the preference panel screenshot at the bottom of this page: http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

[stridemat]

Im sure that 3rd party developers would be able to write programs which will allow the magic mouse to open expose!

[speakerwizard]

this was also my 1st thought as a heavy expose user, looks like ill be sticking with my logitech, besides the ergonomics of the magic mouse have me a bit worried too, im yet to use an apple mouse i like

[jmann]

Lame!!!! I still want one.

[ventro]

Yeah i'm going to wait until people write some software to activate expose and middle click somehow with it. If nobody does, it looks like i'm sticking to my mighty mouse.

[Icaras]

Firmware anyone?

[ventro]

Firmware anyone?
It's not a matter of "oops, we totally forgot about those gestures, let's patch them in!" It's more like they actively decided to take them out. So I don't think we'll see the feature from anyone besides hackers.

[Peace]

Doesnt look like it actually. Check out the preference panel screenshot at the bottom of this page: http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/


That's just a picture of the mouse preferences in 10.6.1. I'd wait for 10.6.2;)

[Icaras]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Firmware anyone?
It's not a matter of "oops, we totally forgot about those gestures, let's patch them in!" It's more like they actively decided to take them out. So I don't think we'll see the feature from anyone besides hackers.

But this is not the first time Apple has actively removed a feature or limited functionality, only to later add it back in with a simple firmware update.

Do you recall the maddness with the new MBPs when Apple purposely capped the SATA to 1.5GB SATA and then later brought it back to 3GB when a flurry of angry customers stormed forums all over the Internet?

And I know this is dodging what you just said, but the last line of classic non-unibody MBPs were later upgraded, via firmware to allow for multi-touch gestures. So my point is, what's to stop Apple from doing the same thing in the future? Additionally, I think it also ends up looking good for Apple, and it usually does, provided they don't offer a stupid $10 or something fee, because it can be seen as injecting new life and new functionality to an existing product. If its something limited to the internal technology of the mouse, then of course there would be no way to do it, but I highly doubt Apple is limited with what this mouse can potentially do in terms of multi-touch technology.

[Craigger]

do non of you guys use hot corners?

[Bonsai1214]

yeah, corners are the way to go. also, i'm wondering if there'll be a middle click... like, open a link in a new tab. it'll be interesting to see how that pans out.

[SnowLeopard2008]

I'm still buying one of those... the multi touch is calling me over!

[johndatserakis]

I was really anticipating this mouse because I figured it would improve on the activation of spaces and expose, both of which I use regularly during video and audio editing.

As you may have guessed, I am bummed. Not only did they fail to improve the method, they removed the ability!

Hopefully a three finger swipe up or down will come in an update. I might even write the script myself at this point! (And no, hot corners doesn't cut it for me. I use it now, but if I could use spaces as easily on a desktop the same way it's invoked on the new laptops, that would be ill.)

[jessica.]

I have to ask, how in the world do people know these things already? I've yet to see a confirmed report of how any of the new products work that were announced today.

So much assumption and matter of fact statements.

[FSMBP]

I have to ask, how in the world do people know these things already? I've yet to see a confirmed report of how any of the new products work that were announced today.

So much assumption and matter of fact statements.

If you watch the Magic Mouse info video on Apple's site and read through reviews on Engadget or Gizmodo, the Magic Mouse shows and limits to only 2 finger gestures (Right Click, Swipe, Scroll).

Also, as someone mentioned, it's not like Apple didn't invent the 3 and 4 finger gestures last week; they've been out for a year. If they wanted to include it, wouldn't you think they would on launch of their new- multi-touch-ground-breaking mouse??!

It's hard to do 3-4 finger gestures on that small mouse, and even do regular gestures 2 finger style.

Hot corners is the only solution (I use it on my old MBP) BUT it is an annoyance sometimes. I'd much rather be able to do a simple gesture.

[gr8tfly]

do non of you guys use hot corners?

+1

I won't miss expose or spaces from my MightyMouse.

Hot corners are the way to go anyway, IMO, so you can contiguously drag an object from one window to another through spaces/expose.

I do, however, use the middle button (on the scroll ball) for Dashboard - but, it's no big deal. Having the momentum scrolling (and no physical ball) will be well worth it.

[wschutz]

+1

I won't miss expose or spaces from my MightyMouse.


Lucky you... for me getting Spaces with a click is something very important as I use it a LOT.
I don't use Exposé that much, therefore I stick to keyboard or corners for it, but Spaces is very important to me.


Hot corners are the way to go anyway, IMO, so you can contiguously drag an object from one window to another through spaces/expose.


It would be interesting tracking the overall distance you do every day just to reach a corner (and of course the time it takes to do that).
For some people, the numbers would be amazing...


I do, however, use the middle button (on the scroll ball) for Dashboard - but, it's no big deal. Having the momentum scrolling (and no physical ball) will be well worth it.

So in the end, you use the button in the middle... but you're willing to adapt your behaviour to Apple's lack of usability (and if this feature of a middle button is not provided, it's a big big usability mistake and Apple knows it).
If you fall for the multi-touch thingy... glad you like it. I do like it too, but I'm not exchanging a multi-touch for a middle button and its scroll ball which does the same thing.
Even though Mighty Mouse is said to be crappy for its usability and ergonomics, I think that it is quite useful, but this new Magic Mouse... is a step back if they don't provide some features that they should provide with the top-selling marketing idea of multi-touch...

I hope... I do really hope... 10.6.2 includes at least the middle button, and it would also be interesting to include the zoom as I can do that gesture on the surface of my Mighty Mouse without much trouble (and its surface is not as flat as Magic Mouse's).
In a few days we'll see if the 69 dollars (or euros... this is funny... when euro is stronger than dollar... the exchange rate for Apple is 1:1, but when it was the opposite... it was different...) are worth it or not

[jessica.]

If you watch the Magic Mouse info video on Apple's site and read through reviews on Engadget or Gizmodo, the Magic Mouse shows and limits to only 2 finger gestures (Right Click, Swipe, Scroll).

Also, as someone mentioned, it's not like Apple didn't invent the 3 and 4 finger gestures last week; they've been out for a year. If they wanted to include it, wouldn't you think they would on launch of their new- multi-touch-ground-breaking mouse??!

It's hard to do 3-4 finger gestures on that small mouse, and even do regular gestures 2 finger style.

Hot corners is the only solution (I use it on my old MBP) BUT it is an annoyance sometimes. I'd much rather be able to do a simple gesture.
I wonder if my newly purchased steermouse will help this.

[theanimaster]

Everyone who's owned a Mighty Mouse for long enough will know the gripe about cracking the case open and using Elmer's to temporarily glue it shut -- all because it becomes routine to clean the #$%^&* ball.

I use Exposé a lot and I figured wtf -- I would still rather have good scrolling functionality than exposé.... because lately I've been hitting the keys on my keyboard for Exposé anyways, rather than the mouse ball button (don't get me started with the Mighty Mouse's SIDE buttons... )

So Apple decided to remove one LESS function (if you take into account the Mighty Mouse's irritating SIDE buttons which the user would almost always have disabled when the mouse gets older (and the buttons click more inadvertently when you try picking up the darned thing on your mousepad while trying to get more area) Yes ... one button -- the scroll ball button. I think Apple thought exactly this:

"Well, everyone hates cleaning the scroll ball, and everyone hates the side buttons that always click inadvertently... scroll ball button is OK, but let's face it guys -- 2 out of 3 things are duds... if we do this, we get rid of a middle-click but at least we improve the scrolling altogether"

And who knows? they just MIGHT allow you to use that ONE most-often used exposé command afterall -- in the two-finger swipe.

So damn it. I'm getting the bloody thing. Exposé or no... I'm definitely getting it if only to avoid the frustrations of a gummed up scroll ball.

***mumbles off curses about being a sucker for the inital hype that the scroll ball would NEVER get dirty like the old mice balls of late***

[glxyjones]

I was envisioning the magic mouse to be more of a wireless MBP trackpad type device. I was hoping to actually use all the gestures I can use on the trackpad while it's stationary, and also be able to use it like a normal mouse.

I've heard rumors that the upcoming tablet might also be used as an input device for mac computers. If that's the case, maybe Apple took the Expose/Dashboard/Spaces functionality out of the mouse to give people even more of a reason to buy the tablet.

[calderone]

They didn't take anything out to get people to buy something else. It simply would not be practical to do 3 or 4 finger gestures on that small of a surface. Three would maybe be possible, I tried it on my mighty mouse. I am not sure of the dimensions of the new mouse though. Even so I think it would be more of a chore than actually useful.

There is always a conspiracy theory though.

[ventro]

Possible additional functionality:

Double tap the tips of 3 fingers on the mouse to toggle Expose.
or
Swipe two (or 3?) fingers down the length of the mouse to toggle into Expose.

and to middle click, place 3 fingers on the tip of the mouse and click.

I can do all of the above on my mighty mouse without discomfort and with room to spare. Even though the magic mouse is slightly narrower, it could all still be possible on it.

[TXbug]

The Magic Mouse works with 10.5.8 if you can find the Wireless Mouse Software Update 1.0, which seems to be vaporware, no where to be found.

It also works with 10.6.2. Is that out yet?

[gr8tfly]

Lucky you... for me getting Spaces with a click is something very important as I use it a LOT.
I don't use Exposé that much, therefore I stick to keyboard or corners for it, but Spaces is very important to me.

I guess "lucky"... It's my opinion. I was simply agreeing with the previous poster on the use of hot corners.


It would be interesting tracking the overall distance you do every day just to reach a corner (and of course the time it takes to do that).
For some people, the numbers would be amazing...


It takes almost zero distance, since I just flick the mouse to the corner. There's enough acceleration that I can reach the corner with a flick from center screen (1920 X 1200). Once there, I have the same functionality as I would have by clicking a button.

So in the end, you use the button in the middle... but you're willing to adapt your behaviour to Apple's lack of usability (and if this feature of a middle button is not provided, it's a big big usability mistake and Apple knows it).

I'm not sure it's the "end", but for me it's a separate issue since I don't use it for Spaces/Expose. And, I did say I was willing to compromise and exchange one function for another. In my opinion, the momentum scrolling will be a useful feature.

There's always the option of returning the thing if I don't like it or I find it uncomfortable. I'm not throwing the Mighty Mouse out, in any event, so if I have an application where I really need the middle button, I can simply swap mice.


I hope... I do really hope... 10.6.2 includes at least the middle button, and it would also be interesting to include the zoom as I can do that gesture on the surface of my Mighty Mouse without much trouble (and its surface is not as flat as Magic Mouse's).

It's near impossible to second guess their engineers, but if I were to try, I would say a central target was just to nebulous to be reliable. The right click is, no doubt, the entire upper right quadrant (similar to the Mighty). If that's the reason, we probably won't see a middle button in an update.

Zoom is interesting. For me, the pinch gesture is a bit awkward (I also tried it on my Mighty). What's more interesting is they are marketing it as a new feature, when it's been implemented since at least the release of Leopard for any mouse with vertical scroll capability. You have to hold down the "control" key with any of them - including the new Magic Mouse.


I have a feeling we're going to see the same love/hate reports with this mouse as we've seen with the Mighty (and, previous Apple mice). In the mean time, I'm going to check my email for a shipping notice. :)

[Zokim]

I too thought of the expose issue. It would be great if the mouse was fully customizable, like creating your own gestures to launch apps, per-app customization.

Now that would be awesomeness!!

Hopefully somebody will develop a app for that ;)

Have one on order, should arrive next thursday. Will report back.

[-SD-]

There should be an option on the Preference Panel to allow middle click as a two finger click. Single finger does left and right click, two fingers together act as middle click. Simple. Hopefully someone will add this functionality if Apple don't.

I'm not too interested in the two finger scrolling as it does look a little uncomfortable and I'll never use it anyway. I'm just happy with full 360 scrolling with one finger and no stupid ball that'll get all grubby and break.

:apple:

[ravenvii]

Doesnt look like it actually. Check out the preference panel screenshot at the bottom of this page: http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

Yeah, that preference pane's crap. What it *should* look like:

http://homepage.mac.com/ravenvii/mmpanel.jpg

(Horrible Photoshop/Pixelmator job, but you get the idea. The menu opens to stuff like Spaces, Expose and crap like that. That's what it should've been, and ****, it even looks like it belongs there, not just "Two Fingers" and one tick box under it!)

[netsped]

That's just a picture of the mouse preferences in 10.6.1. I'd wait for 10.6.2;)

This is exactly what I was thinking. Maybe Apple rushed to make the iMacs and the Magic Mouse appear before Windows 7 was released and all the "magic" functions were not finished on time.

I hope that at least we have the option to set 2 finger scroll up to be "see desktop" and 2 finger scroll down to be expose.

[KSpider]

Purchased an imac today, after using the magic mouse for a couple hours, the lack of being able to have my spaces squeeze of the mouse was a major fault. Yes, you can enable spaces INSTEAD of the right click, but you cant have both. After using the mouse, and knowing apple, I would be highly surprised if they did not open up more gestures on this mouse, the real estate is available. The hot corner for spaces / expose is a REALLY long way on this 27" lol.

[Meta22]

i don't really care about Spaces as I don't use it that much but I MUST have expose! I think they can achieve that feature on the magic mouse by maybe having it detect when u tap with 2 fingers or 1 finger. if u tap with 2 fingers at the same time, expose would be activated. its weird how ive read a few different reviews of the magic mouse, none of them mentioned u cant use expose on the magic mouse! i thought i was the only 1 who noticed it -_-
i guess im gonna have to use the keyboard shortcut for now.

[rkdiddy]

Purchased an imac today, after using the magic mouse for a couple hours, the lack of being able to have my spaces squeeze of the mouse was a major fault. Yes, you can enable spaces INSTEAD of the right click, but you cant have both. After using the mouse, and knowing apple, I would be highly surprised if they did not open up more gestures on this mouse, the real estate is available. The hot corner for spaces / expose is a REALLY long way on this 27" lol.

I agree with you 100%. I'm sure we will see new features added over the next few months.

[senior1961]

So, I LOVE the design and multitouch-ness of the Magic Mouse, but I use Mighty Mouse ALL THE TIME to invoke Spaces and Expose. (Click the ball in for Spaces, and squeeze the sides for Expose).

Can Magic Mouse invoke Spaces and Expose???

Yes - I just left theApple Store - depress the right front of the mouse and spaces works just fine

[ventro]

Yes - I just left theApple Store - depress the right front of the mouse and spaces works just fine
So you can either have Expose/Spaces... or right click. Fantastic! :mad:

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Hot corners is one way to go. There's also a button on the keyboard for Expose (F3) and a couple of empty ones (F5 and F6, I think) that shortcuts can be added to.

[jessica.]

Hot corners is one way to go. There's also a button on the keyboard for Expose (F3) and a couple of empty ones (F5 and F6, I think) that shortcuts can be added to.
While this is true and I use both, I purchased steer mouse for the simple fact that I wanted to use my center wheel button to enable expose.

[mwxiao]

Hot corners is one way to go. There's also a button on the keyboard for Expose (F3) and a couple of empty ones (F5 and F6, I think) that shortcuts can be added to.

Neither hot corner nor any short cuts is as convenient as click of a button or squeeze of two buttons.

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Neither hot corner nor any short cuts is as convenient as click of a button or squeeze of two buttons.

I disagree. As I always have at least one hand on my keyboard, there is really no difference in convenience for me. Then again, I use keyboard shortcuts for everything...

[studiostu]

You can use the magic mouse to operate spaces 2 ways. Go the the spaces preferences and choose 'secondary mouse button' to work spaces with right click. Or, if you want to use right click for the menu options, go to expose preferences and choose a corner to activate spaces...I use the right upper corner and whalla, spaces with the magic mouse.

Have fun!

[mac8867]

OK, I just picked up a Magic Mouse, and I am a heavy spaces user. I originally started out with the corner navigation action to move between spaces... but I like a fast mouse, and I kept accidentally ending up in the spaces "selector" when I was headed for the upper left corner "apple" or the trash can etc... So I gave up on corners and switched to using the hot keys (<ctrl> <arrow>)

Now, I have a MBP, and the built in multi-touch pad brings up the application selector when I three finger swipe across it --- How hard would it be for apple to set up a three finger swipe option for spaces??

[macbookairman]

All of you need to go to http://blog.boastr.net/ and download BetterTouchTool. It will solve all of your issues with invoking expose/spaces (and more) on a magic mouse.

[mac8867]

All of you need to go to http://blog.boastr.net/ and download BetterTouchTool. It will solve all of your issues with invoking expose/spaces (and more) on a magic mouse.

SWEET, works perfectly !!! macbookairman you are my hero of the day !

[CarlJ]

All of you need to go to http://blog.boastr.net/ and download BetterTouchTool...

Actually, there are perhaps half a dozen different utilities that do this, including BetterTouchTool, MagicPrefs, Sesamouse, and MouseWizard. For what it's worth, I much prefer MagicPrefs (http://magicprefs.com/), but it's worth poking around on, say, MacUpdate (http://www.macupdate.com/) or OSX.IUseThis (http://osx.iusethis.com/) if you're interested in seeing the rest.

[bozz2006]

I tried all that with my magic mouse, but wasn't satisfied with any of it. I picked up a Logitech Performance MX mouse on amazon for $80 plus a $15 rebate for $65 total, and am pleased as punch. SO glad I didn't keep the magic mouse.