After seeing what looked to be one of the coolest mice ever, I called up Apple and found out that the Mall of America Apple store in Minnesota had the new Mighty Mouse in stock. After arriving at the store, I looked for a demo of it, but alas none was to be found! They did have about 20 on the retail shelf, so I asked an employee who went in back and brought out a whole bunch of goody demo units. What follows are my impressions of the Mighty Mouse after spending a good 10 minutes with the product. As you'll see later, after using it, my excitement abated, and I chose not to purchase the mouse.
The mouse itself is opaque white, and slightly less domed than the normal apple pro-mouse. It has a shallower click than the pro mouse (yes, it does indeed have a real, normal apple, whole mouse depressing click), and overall felt a little less sturdy/heavy/"pro".
When first holding the mouse, you'll find that no matter what you do, every click you do ends up being a left click - that's because to right click, you have to remove your other fingers from the mouse (just lift them up a centimeter or so) for the click to register. After reading the Apple documentation, I had expected Apple to sense a difference in pressure between the right and left sides, and was disappointed with the inconvenience of having to lift the fingers. Rollwheel-Nub-clicking is easier because it does not appear to be controlled by capacitance, but instead by the nub itself depressing about 1 mm or so (just enough for one to mechanically register that it is pressed down) as you depress the entire mouse. I found that as long as your middle finger was covering the nub, and doing the click, it would work every time (even with the rest of my hand on the mouse). All clicks require an actual depress of the entire mouse surface.
The nub is very small, about the size, and texture of a stale pencil eraser head. I found it too small to use, but again, that is more from of my previous expectations of a mouse. It was very smooth in its scrolling though, and one could easily move it fast or slow in any direction.
Perhaps the coolest new action is the squeezing. It requires some effort, but it feels very very natural to do. I found it more intuitive than trying to press a side button on a normal mouse.
Lastly, the speaker. Apple put in a clicker very like the ipod clicker. It is used to add a very soft logitech-like scroll wheel sound for the nub, and a special kerplunk like click for the squeeze. It was incredibly inaudible in the apple store, and the sounds were very mechanical natural mouse-like sounds.
Apple has pioneered some innovative ideas in this mouse, but for my use I was unable to see how it was "better" than my current normal multi button mouse. The lifting the other fingers off the mouse for right clicking was a pain, and was the primary reason I did not end up purchasing it. However, I still give apple mad props for designing a mouse that looks and acts act as a one button, with the flexibility of four.
-Michael Ducker
miradu@miradu.com
The mouse itself is opaque white, and slightly less domed than the normal apple pro-mouse. It has a shallower click than the pro mouse (yes, it does indeed have a real, normal apple, whole mouse depressing click), and overall felt a little less sturdy/heavy/"pro".
When first holding the mouse, you'll find that no matter what you do, every click you do ends up being a left click - that's because to right click, you have to remove your other fingers from the mouse (just lift them up a centimeter or so) for the click to register. After reading the Apple documentation, I had expected Apple to sense a difference in pressure between the right and left sides, and was disappointed with the inconvenience of having to lift the fingers. Rollwheel-Nub-clicking is easier because it does not appear to be controlled by capacitance, but instead by the nub itself depressing about 1 mm or so (just enough for one to mechanically register that it is pressed down) as you depress the entire mouse. I found that as long as your middle finger was covering the nub, and doing the click, it would work every time (even with the rest of my hand on the mouse). All clicks require an actual depress of the entire mouse surface.
The nub is very small, about the size, and texture of a stale pencil eraser head. I found it too small to use, but again, that is more from of my previous expectations of a mouse. It was very smooth in its scrolling though, and one could easily move it fast or slow in any direction.
Perhaps the coolest new action is the squeezing. It requires some effort, but it feels very very natural to do. I found it more intuitive than trying to press a side button on a normal mouse.
Lastly, the speaker. Apple put in a clicker very like the ipod clicker. It is used to add a very soft logitech-like scroll wheel sound for the nub, and a special kerplunk like click for the squeeze. It was incredibly inaudible in the apple store, and the sounds were very mechanical natural mouse-like sounds.
Apple has pioneered some innovative ideas in this mouse, but for my use I was unable to see how it was "better" than my current normal multi button mouse. The lifting the other fingers off the mouse for right clicking was a pain, and was the primary reason I did not end up purchasing it. However, I still give apple mad props for designing a mouse that looks and acts act as a one button, with the flexibility of four.
-Michael Ducker
miradu@miradu.com
