I tried... ["hockey puck" mouse]

[Jessica Lares]

My wireless Mighty Mouse's scroller stopped working correctly yesterday, then it literally starting falling apart. Made me sad since I had it for years.

I have a ADBII in my drawer. OS X relies too heavily on right-click these days though, so I just ended up hooking up my Wacom. I have a wired Mighty Mouse in case I get desperate though, heh.

 

[hamis92]

My wireless Mighty Mouse's scroller stopped working correctly yesterday, then it literally starting falling apart. Made me sad since I had it for years.

I've had the scroll ball stop working once in mine and I couldn't get it working no matter how much I tried to rub it externally. I opened it up with a razor blade (it was pretty scary!), cleaned it from the inside and glued it back together. That was several years ago and it has worked fine ever since.

 

[photoj2754]

I have one for my G3 graphite iMac and it is difficult sometimes to scroll with it. My question is can it be cleaned somehow if that would help and does it matter if the gray or white part of the ball is facing down? Just wanted to know if I'm missing some simple thing. Thanks.

 

[Intell]

They can be cleaned. Take the ball out and remove the gunk from the three rollers with your fingernail or screwdriver. The orientation of the ball does not matter. It is colored only for looks.

 

[photoj2754]

They can be cleaned. Take the ball out and remove the gunk from the three rollers with your fingernail or screwdriver. The orientation of the ball does not matter. It is colored only for looks.

Thanks, just did what you suggested, cleaned rollers and ball with my fingernail and a tiny bit of isopropyl alcohol on a Q-tip and it's like new. Very smooth moving.

 

[SkyBell]

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the hockey puck mouse. On one hand, it was a kooky, playful design that was so characteristic of Apple in those days; it still looks great to this day, IMO. However, it's uncomfortable to use with your hand in the position for a normal mouse, and even more so the way I always hear people say you're supposed to hold it. Not to mention the fact that it's unusable without the matching keyboard with USB ports in it, due to what has to be the shortest cord I've ever seen on a mouse.

Apple mice do generally tend to be...well, bad. But, I give them credit for the "pro" mouse. My eMac came with one when I bought it four or five years ago, and I find it incredibly comfortable and easy to use; perhaps one of if not my favorite mouse of all time.

 

[bunnspecial]

Apple mice do generally tend to be...well, bad. But, I give them credit for the "pro" mouse. My eMac came with one when I bought it four or five years ago, and I find it incredibly comfortable and easy to use; perhaps one of if not my favorite mouse of all time.

I love the "pro" mouse , and in fact that's the mouse I've been grabbing lately to work in OS 9.

The Mighty Mouse has pretty much the same form factor but is, of course, a lot more functional.

I've used the AEKII/ADBII mouse with my G5 for a few days now, and have really been enjoying it although the lack of a right click is definitely an inconvenience. You can't beat the AEKII for typing, though!

 

[weckart]

The Pro mouse always annoyed me because of the thumb grips on either side. They look like function buttons but do nothing. There is also not enough give for a thumb to settle in so I found myself gripping it harder than I otherwise would.

 

[HereBeMonsters]

I'm good with the Mighty Mouse. It's wired, but I'm cool with that. I don't particularly care to push around BT mice because they are heavier than normal.

But the Mighty Mouse fits right in with my workflow.

I've got a wireless Mighty Mouse, never used it. Came free with a G4 keyboard I bought.

 

[comda]

thats what its called!! THE ICATCH! i have a tangerine imac g3 with the hockey puck mouse and yes it is difficult to use. I wanted to order one of those icatch things but found none on ebay. Is that what their called the sleeves on the mouse?

 

[Cox Orange]

I believe that the thought process behind the cable is that you would plug it into the hub on the matching keyboard.

Like many others, I had "orientation" issues with the round mouse. I was quick to use a third-party mouse instead.

Not wanting to be mean, but I can't understand, how someone could think, that the pressable button should be at the back, when you hold it, where you can't really press it?

the hockey puck mouse was the first I had from apple and I always found it normal and had no issues. Then from 2005 I used my ibook as a main computer. Then after some years I got back to my iMac G3 with the puck mouse for something and suddenly experienced the cramps everyone was always talking about. Maybe I got older or one has to be used to it.

On top I have very long hands and fingers, just like an area 51 alien caricature. So, though, I don't understand the problems with the orientation, I today feel it is not perfect as well. I also had the icatch adapter (from EBay) later, but never used it.

The Pro mouse always annoyed me because of the thumb grips on either side. They look like function buttons but do nothing. There is also not enough give for a thumb to settle in so I found myself gripping it harder than I otherwise would.

I use the pro mouse on my Powermac G4 from time to time and though I think it would be good and cramp-free, if I reminded to hold it much more further to the front with my fingers lapping over, my hand always again tends to "wander" back and after 1-2 hours I get a slight aching.
Your comment about the thumb grips (which I didn't knew, they were intended for this) inspired me and I tried putting my thumb there and notice that this alignes the hand comfortably, so maybe they did that to make one put the hand at the right position.

 

[TheMacMan56]

My high school had a "Mac Lab" which consisted of 30-some odd iMac G3s in a room, complete with the requisite matching keyboards and "hockey puck" mice.

The mouse was a lot of the reason for my dislike of Macs for many years(fortunately I've seen the light).

This past week, I was given a box of Mac odds-and-ends. Among other "prizes"
was a Bondi Blue "hockey puck" mouse.

Just for old time's sake and to give the design another try, I hooked it up to my Quicksilver and used it for an hour.

After my hand started cramping, I gave up. I can honestly say that I gave the old mouse a fair chance, but I don't see it getting used for anything other than display purposes.

I'm looking forward to the arrival of my Griffin iMate, so that I can start using the ADBII mouse(and AEKII) with some newer computers. I still think that is probably one of the most comfortable mice Apple has ever made.

I really haven't liked the hockey puck mice, which is way my IMac has a Microsoft mouse!

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Were you holding the puck mouse in the palm of your hand? I know a lot of hatred of the puck stems from nobody knowing how to hold it.

Yes! The point I myself make as well! People keep trying to hold it like a normal mouse. You have to arch your hand and grip the edges with your fingers. In fact, it's just like the Magic Mouse in a sense; you can't put your palm flat on it.

 

[photoj2754]

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the hockey puck mouse. On one hand, it was a kooky, playful design that was so characteristic of Apple in those days; it still looks great to this day, IMO. However, it's uncomfortable to use with your hand in the position for a normal mouse, and even more so the way I always hear people say you're supposed to hold it. Not to mention the fact that it's unusable without the matching keyboard with USB ports in it, due to what has to be the shortest cord I've ever seen on a mouse.

Apple mice do generally tend to be...well, bad. But, I give them credit for the "pro" mouse. My eMac came with one when I bought it four or five years ago, and I find it incredibly comfortable and easy to use; perhaps one of if not my favorite mouse of all time.

[/QUOTE
Well you talked so highly about the pro mouse that I bought one off ebay for $4 to go with my graphite imac hockey puck.

 

[SkyBell]

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the hockey puck mouse. On one hand, it was a kooky, playful design that was so characteristic of Apple in those days; it still looks great to this day, IMO. However, it's uncomfortable to use with your hand in the position for a normal mouse, and even more so the way I always hear people say you're supposed to hold it. Not to mention the fact that it's unusable without the matching keyboard with USB ports in it, due to what has to be the shortest cord I've ever seen on a mouse.

Apple mice do generally tend to be...well, bad. But, I give them credit for the "pro" mouse. My eMac came with one when I bought it four or five years ago, and I find it incredibly comfortable and easy to use; perhaps one of if not my favorite mouse of all time.

Well you talked so highly about the pro mouse that I bought one off ebay for $4 to go with my graphite imac hockey puck.

And how are you liking it?

 

[photoj2754]

And how are you liking it?

You have great taste and insight. It is a joy to use.

 

[iBook_Clamshell]

To use an analogy and play off the OP's username…

The hockey puck mouse was a "bunn" in the oven that Apple took out before it was fully cooked into a real mouse.

Ha!

Yeah, I know. It's bad, you can throw those hockey puck mice at me if you like!

Poor mouse!!!
No, it wasn't taken out of the oven too soon, it was born prematurely!!! (It's a rodent, not bread!)

I'm good with the Mighty Mouse. It's wired, but I'm cool with that. I don't particularly care to push around BT mice because they are heavier than normal.

But the Mighty Mouse fits right in with my workflow.

I like the Mighty Mouse because is has multiple buttons. But why does it attract dirt? Does it have static electricity on it?

 

[fcarreraf]

I always liked the pro moues in black.

 

[tevion5]

I think all Apple mice are terrible full stop. Anything from the early ADB ones up to the new Magic Mouse - all absolutely horrid. I don't, however think the puck mouse is any worse than any of the others. Like the Magic Mouse, it requires the user to hold in a specific, unorthodox way.

For audio production the Magic Mouse is simply the best.

I an seamlessly scroll in any direction I like across a long edit window on my primary monitor. Up and down for different tracks and sideways for timeline progression.

After a few minutes of producing with a Magic Mouse, anything else seems really clunky.

That said, I once tried to play Half Life 2 with it. It was so sensitive to scrolling that anytime my fingers moved even slightly on the mouse's surface, my weapon would randomly become something else from my arsenal. The weapon selection just went through each option at top speed much like a slot machine.
That made is largely unplayable.

But if you aren't gaming and instead do social networking, video watching, word processing, audio production, video editing, and image editing, then it's a five star mouse hands down.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

You have great taste and insight. It is a joy to use.

The best Apple mouse that still has that Pro mouse shape is the Mighty Mouse. (it's not longer named that due to legal issues with some other [probably stupid] product with that name). It's shaped like the Pro mice but has a great 360 scroll wheel (which MUST be periodically cleaned with rubbing alcohol or else) and multifunction things like right click & squeezing the grips on either side to perform Expose functions, or whatever they are.