Many reviews of Apple’s new Mighty Mouse have already appeared on the web, and most of them were quite negative. Walter Mossberg even concluded: “Microsoft has beaten Apple on hardware design, at least in this one case.” Are these findings correct? To find out, we put the Mighty Mouse to the test.
Packaging
The mouse comes in a fairly standard Apple box, but on closer inspection an oddity jumps into view: the text on the side of the box, containing the usual “Designed by Apple in Cailfornia”, is a sticker, and not actually printed on the box itself. This might seem insignificant, but according to AppleInsider, this is due to the fact that the Mighty Mouse was originally planned to be released alongside Tiger in April.
Anyway, the box contains everything you’d expect: a user guide (in ten languages), a disc with drivers, a warranty notice, and of course the mouse itself.
Upon first inspection (see a video here), the mouse looks solid, and well-built. The cord is very short, only 74 centimeters, and that is a major setback. If you’re using a PowerMac with a non-Mac keyboard or a PC, you’re going to need an extension cord. The fact that the mouse isn’t cordless has raised some eyebrows, but for me, this is a major plus. I’m not a fan of cordless mice; they’re usually heavier, require batteries and/or recharging, and in the end you still have a cord that leads to the receiver.
Design Flaw I: The Scrollball
The scrollball looks very fragile and small, and initially I was afraid that it was far too small to be of any use. After usage, I can tell you that that is not the case. It gives very gentle tactile feedback, just enough to feel that something is actually happening. It is really also a relief to be able to scroll in any direction; this will be especially important to graphics artists. Of course there are other mice that can do this too, by either tilting the scrollhweel (Microsoft mice have this) or by having a horizontal wheel, but those solutions are not as elegant as Apple’s scrollball.
The scrollball has one major downside though: it is placed just a few millimeters too far south. This means that you either have to scroll using your index finger, or you have to curl up your middle finger to reach it. This is a serious problem, and not something I came to expect from Apple. It’s quite obvious, so I would have expected Apple to identify the problem.
Design Flaw II: The Squeeze Button
Another function touted by Apple is the ‘squeeze’ button. On their website, it may look like it’s got two sidebuttons, but don’t be fooled: it’s actually only one button. And, on top of that, one button that is close to unusable. You have to squeeze really tight to get it to do anything. And, if you don’t watch out, you might end up pressing one of the normal buttons. Another major design flaw, and quite frankly, another very obvious one. A sidenote is appropriate though: it might be that due to usage, the squeeze buttons will ‘wear’ a bit, and this might lead to less squeezing needed.
Design Flaw III: Touch Sensor Technology
The touch sensor system is a nice feature, and it helps to keep that single-button look that I personally really love, but it also has a major problem: you cannot right-click without lifting your index finger from the left-side of the mouse. This is quite odd, but to be honest, I already lifted my index finger sometimes, when right-clicking! I never knew that, but I did it unconsciously. It doesn’t resolve the issue with the Mighty Mouse, but it does alleviate it a bit. I do classify this as the third design flaw, though.
OS X and Mouse Acceleration
OS X has a real problem with mouse movements. This problem is well known, and yet Apple has not addressed this issue. I’ll try to explain what the problem exactly is: when you want to go from i.e. one menu item to the other, the acceleration is way too slow, and you end up clicking the item where you left. Okay, so you try to move a little longer, but then the acceleration kicks in and you end up clicking another wrong item!
For ‘overall’ mouse movements, from say the top to the bottom of the screen, this is no problem. However, for smaller and more accurate movements, this is a real showstopper. Yes, I never used a mouse on OS X, other than my iBook’s trackpad (which somehow doesn’t have this problem), because of this.
However, there is a way to solve it, by using a 3rd party application called USB Overdrive. Tweaking with its settings can really alleviate the problem, although it never really ceases to exist. I had a faint hope that the Mighty Mouse might solve the problem. Well, it didn’t. You will still need USB Overdrive, or a similar application, to make a mouse in OS X usable.
Conclusion
Is the mighty mouse worth the €59,- I payed for it? It’s difficult to say. The three major design flaws (scrollball placed too far south, squeeze buttons too difficult to use, touch-sensor technology not advanced enough) make this a difficult buy to justify. If you already have a decent mouse, I really cannot come up with a reason to buy this mouse, other than “It’s Apple”.
However, if you are replacing an old one, and you have OS X, then do consider this mouse. The scrollball is truly a relief, even if it’s placed too low. Lifting your index finger to right-click seems very annoying, but since OS X is perfectly usable without right-clicking (at least for me), this might not be a real problem either. Can it replace the ‘ordinary’ Apple Pro Mouse? Certainly, with the supplied utilities, you can always configure the Mighty Mouse to behave exactly like the Pro Mouse.
The gist: For true Apple fans only. The other reviews were right: this mouse could have been a lot better.
-Thom Holwerda
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.
asdf
Yup, same problem here with our mice (Apple, Logitech, MS, with their drivers or not) and OSX. Acceleration is too slow on OSX no matter if you tweak its pref panel or not (remember, ‘mouse speed’ is not the same as ‘mouse acceleration’).
My husband has to use ‘USB Overdrive’ too otherwise he doesn’t even wanna touch his Mac OS X machine where he does all his photography. Going from one side of the monitor to the other using normal mouse movement is way too slow (you have to lift your mouse up after reaching the edge of your mousepad, replace it in the beginning of the mousepad and re-scroll through the mousepad to get from one side of the monitor to the other). Remember, the same problem exists with all our 5-6 different mice in the house, with or without their third party OSX drivers.
We have no such problems with the rest of our OSes in the house. This is definetely one problem that Apple should fix. Russell Beattie of Yahoo, Inc. (and frequent reviewer of tech stuff) also commented on this same problem a few days ago.
It’s not a “problem.” That’s the way it’s supposed to be. You flick the mouse quickly to move it long distances. Otherwise it’s way too hard to hit precise targets (a la Windows).
I am sorry, but I find the Windows and X11 and BeOS mouse movement and acceleration MUCH more sane than OSX’s. For me and my husband, and many of our friends, and obviously Thom himself this *IS* a problem.
If that was not a problem, successful and popular utilities like USB OVerdrive would never exist in the first place. Its popularity is a proof in itself that there is something wrong there.
Apple at the very least should add one more slider on their mouse preference panel to let users adjust the acceleration. At least users who are USED to Windows/X11/OS2/BeOS acceleration they will have a CHANCE to make the behavior as they EXPECT it to.
Since USB Overdrive exists to deal with a number of things, it’s a bit much to suggest that it wouldn’t exist if OS X had the acceleration behavior you wanted.
Do a Google search on “osx mouse acceleration”, and you’ll find numerous threads about this issue.
Other than that, USB Overdrive isn’t the only app that addresses this issue, iMouseFix and MouseZoom come to mind. However, Overdrive seems to address the problem the best.
> iMouseFix and MouseZoom
Actually these only fix the speed, not the acceleration. USB Overdrive is the only one that fixes the problem because it includes its OWN mouse driver, while the other utilities simply hack on the existing driver.
It is mostly used for fixing the acceleration. Yes, USBOverdrive can do much more, but many people buy it out of frustration for the default acceleration.
The point remains: OSX acceleration is not as configurable or good by default. Do you really have to reply in a way that keeps the beloved Apple on top? I am trying to help here! Hopefully Apple will listen and fix the issue!
You’ve apparently mistaken me for Kelly McNeil; I am hardly an Apple zealot. My point was clearly that USB Overdrive does not exist solely to correct OS X’s pointer acceleration, and that suggesting it wouldn’t exist if OS X’s pointer acceleration was inaccurate. Attempting to use USB Overdrive’s existence in this way to lend credence to your complaint is simply inappropriate because that’s not its sole purpose. You and many other people may not have purchased it were it not for the pointer acceleration of OS X, but that’s another matter entirely.
“acceleration was inaccurate”
should read:
“acceleration were different was inaccurate”
Funny, I purchased it for USB HID support, not mouse acceleration
“Not as good by default” is a pretty self-centered claim, isn’t it? I’ve always found Windows’ mouse tracking to be horrible, and OS 9 and X’s have always felt very natural and far more comfortable to me. Moving the mouse quickly makes the cursor move farther than moving the mouse slowly. In my opinion, OS X’s mouse tracking is the best. USB Overdrive is useful for programming different buttons on third-party mice, but I don’t like its mouse tracking as much as OS X’s built-in tracking.
Have you filed a bug?: http://bugreport.apple.com
I’d agree there should be an option. However, Apple generally seems to like providing as few options as possible: They’re mislead into thinking users are incompetent and can’t figure out options.
I think that’s really the Apple way: Provide a good default (and acceleration is a good default, it actually is proper*) and let third party apps provide options.
*Back in the day with crappy analogue mice most people have to have their mouse move quite far to make it accurate at all. So we see the arm driven mouse of today. But, there were also puck mice. These engineering wonders were accurate with only small wrist movements. No one **bought them, unless they had a DEC or some other expensive machine; and so we all got used to crappy mice.
Now we have good mice: Still cheap, but optical mice today are more accurate than puck mice 15 years ago.
**Someone will mention the mice that shipped with the old iMacs. Those were shaped like puck mice, and apple wanted you to use it like that because they thought they had a good mechanism. But it was still a ball mouse. Puck mice have two rotating cylinders; ball mice have a ball that spins two rotating cylinders.
mighty mouse is terrible. the shape makes no sense and isn’tm ergonomic at all. the hand needs arch support like almost every mouse provides minus apple’s mice. the mighty mouse’s rear is its highest point and then slopes downward… not comfortable. MS Intellimouse Explorer rocks it. the apple scroll ball feels flimsy and is too small to hit precise spots, unlike a conventional wheel, and you can’t right click without lifting the left finger off the top shell, poor design.
huh? arch support?
I do not know how you use your mice, but I use the apple optical mouse and it is super comfortable. you rest your entire hand on it and put pressure forward to click rather than keep your hand lifted slightly like on other mice.
>Otherwise it’s way too hard to hit precise targets (a la Windows).
uhm, windows supports both, accelerate mode and non accelerated mode. but i don’t like mouse acceleration as well, so i just switched it off.
Eugenia I have a fuzitsu siemens usb mouse. Nothing fancy. I noticed that the default was a little slow so I moved the speed up one notch and it is fine. Now if I move the speed all the way to the fastest I just have to give the mouse a small nudge and it jumps to the other side of the screen.
I am using Tiger. Do you have a problem with Tiger?
The problem is NOT speed, it is acceleration. These are DIFFERENT things. We don’t have problem with speed (which is configurable), we have problem with *acceleration*!
Yes, the problem persists in Tiger.
Just replying to myself. I see you are talking about acceleration. Sorry. Yes Windows is more configurable. I think probably they are trying to keep things simple. Like Gnome, but you seem favour Gnome simplicity over KDE configurability normally. With mice you seem to like configurability over simplicity.
Gnome *does* allow you to configure acceleration. They call it “threshold”.
Certain things must be configurable. When you work in a GUI, the mouse is the most important tool. Removing the cofigurability of the mouse to make things simpler just isn’t an option.
YES IT IS AN option !
because most people don’t care about
they totally don’t care !
I work with people without knowledge of computer : they don’t care about settings, they just want to work
to WORK
and the mac os default setting (or even windows or goddamn Gnome ) WORKS
for some people a speedy accelerated mouse will work
for others NOT
I work EVERYDAY (real work) on macintosh (and also linux box) and NEVER I thought I will change settings for my mouse. I can CLICK ,it’s aLL I want
(I will say, it’s slow as it needs to be for me ,I can click)
and please, accept default choice for commons people
Gnome (or osx) doesn’t need thousand or settings (or even one more, even one more is too much).
Hackers can change it, people will be lost in settings .
SIMPLICITY
you seem favour Gnome simplicity over KDE configurability normally. With mice you seem to like configurability over simplicity
Simplicity is only optimal when good defaults are chosen by the developer.
Simplicity is only optimal when good defaults are chosen by the developer.
Right. But where good defaults can’t be chosen because people differ too much, then configuration options become necessary.
That seems to be the Gnome philosophy – rather than offer screens to configure *everything*, provide a UI for only the options they believe people will often want to change, and hide the rest in GConf.
I guess Mac OS mouse acceleration (about which I hear too often) is a matter of habit: I’ve used Macs since April 1984 (and 128 KILObytes of memory) and never had a problem with the mouse acceleration. I now have two screens with a total width of 1280+1600= 2880 pixels (!) and a Wacom graphire tablet which has only 13 cm of sensitive width. Yet in the 21 years of Mac mouse usage, my hand must have grown to start with precisely that initial kick to get the mouse without effort in one single movement from the left side of the left Prophetview monitor to the right side of the Cinema screen sitting on its right. And land on the target with great precision.
I certainly cannot work with the far to sensitive settings on the PC where I always overshoot and especially have great difficulty being precise at “lower” speeds which don’t seem to be low enough.
If one gets used to a PC mouse, then it is indeed strange to handle the non-linear motion of the Mac mouse. But once you get used to Mac mice, the PC ones are terribly imprecise.
In a multi-OS environment, if there are more PC mice the habit will be for the PC mice (I suspect) and the Mac mouse will feel to slow.
So it is a matter of the habit of the initial movement start speed, nothing else.
Robert Cailliau
Of course there are other mice that can do this too, by either tilting the scrollhweel (Microsoft mice have this) or by having a horizontal wheel, but those solutions are not as elegant as Apple’s scrollball.
I’m pretty sure Apple didn’t invent the scrollball. Here are some other examples:
http://www.acrox.com.tw/productinfo.asp?mainid=2&subitem=205
http://www.manhattan-support.com/driver-manhattan-mice.shtml
Looking around at some reviews they don’t sound too bad. My next mouse will probably have a scrollball.
I’m pretty sure Apple didn’t invent the scrollball.
Where did I make that claim?
OK, but you seem to be suggesting that Apple are the first company to bring a scrollball to the desktop. Apologies if I misunderstood.
Pics here if your interested, they are very detailed
http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/PhotoAlbum2.html
Mine had some sort of problem with the horizontal scrolling and I felt “rushed” using the scroll ball feature, so I’m back using the relaxed, one button, drag the scroll bar method like I have been using for over 20 years. My blood pressure has returned to normal as a result.
I forgot to add some tidbis.
The rollers have a abrasive surface to grip the tiny rubber scroll pea and the black parts are magnets which I assume induces a current in the metal tabs.
The side buttons are mechanical which reguire both to have pressure to activate, there is no mechanical “click” sound.
The left and right mouse button use the same mechanical click (with same sound and feel) as previous Pro mouse, expect the sensors decide if it is a right or left click. Ths can be switched.
I was not to happy about the scroll pea, especially the rollers.
For many years we have been needing to clean our roll/ball mice to get the gunk off the surface of the rollers and the hairs that manage to get caught in the rollers.
Because the MM has less surface contact it may fare better, but it will need cleaning and there is no way to clean it without breaking it.
I much rather see a hard, rough textured, firmly seated trackpea sitting on ball bearings in a cavity with optical sensors that can be accessed for cleaning.
Everyday I have to clean my mice off of gunk, Apple mice make it easy because of their smooth shape.
Yes, the scroll ball doesn’t seem overly elegant at all to me; it seems to be more of a regression. No sooner do we leave behind roller balls and adopt optical trackballs and mice than they’re inserted into the top of the mouse to collect dead skin and hair. Personally I think the Mighty Mouse is the least interesting mouse released in years. Apple could start selling trash bags, and I think that the ‘net would be abuzz with their shiny white glory within minutes.
An optical trackball that can be used for scrolling would be great for a mouse. The implementation might be seriously handicapped by software that expects horizontal and vertical scrolling to be handled by a series of button events, though.
As flattering as it is to acquire every mod point from the half dozen accounts that you’ve made here, you should really save them for posts that meet the guidelines for moderation provided at the rules page.
As a side note I always switch cursor acceleration off when I can, I don’t know how anyone can keep their sanity with it. Also the default speed settings in X, Windows and Mac OS X are far too fast. I don’t need to traverse the whole screen with only an inch of movement! No wonder some people have trouble operating a mouse accurately.
Yes; mouse acceleration is far more irritating than helpful.
>I don’t need to traverse the whole screen with only an inch of movement!
Nobody wants that. But the current OSX default is too slow for many people, *especially* people who have switched from Windows or X11. This is why some configurability, or acceleration compatibility with Windows is desirable for many of us.
Yet another silly debate.
We’ll bitch and moan about Apple’s mouse accerlation which is perfectly fine for the majority of its users and when they do cave in and feature a “Windows” like accerlation model, we’ll bitch and moan about how Apple is killing off developers like USB Overdrive. I used Overdrive in the MOS9 days and disliked it, btw (for some reason I remember it being buggy)
I obviously don’t understand what the issue is. I can easily traverse my monitor without having to ever pick up the mouse from the mouse pad (I have my mouse pad vertical so it’s not so wide). I user Windows, I use Gnome, I MOSX. Not a problem.
The only “issue” I wish Apple would address is on dual monitor set-ups. I should be able to go off of either monitor side and end up on the other monitor. If any of you know a utility that adds the functionality, please let me know.
I’m not a big fan of the new Might Mouse myself. I actually prefer the hockey puck mouse to their current mouse form factor. I found I could easily manipulate the hockey puck with just my fingers and didn’t need to move my wrist that much (which is difficult with an oblong mouse).
My current mouse is a Logitech, and I suspect my next mouse to be a Logitech.
As a side note I always switch cursor acceleration off when I can, I don’t know how anyone can keep their sanity with it. Also the default speed settings in X, Windows and Mac OS X are far too fast. I don’t need to traverse the whole screen with only an inch of movement! No wonder some people have trouble operating a mouse accurately.
I disagree. The mouse (on any OS) is always too slow for me by default. I always have to turn the speed AND the acceleration up (especially on my touchpad). If you multitask it makes life a hell of a lot easier if you can move the mouse quickly, that is if you have any kind of hand eye coordination. If you don’t then I guess you would probably want a slow pointer.
I absolutely love mine. I have used MS mice for years now because I always hated mac mice. This is just great. The scroll feature is excellent and the fact you can right click or single click just by the location of your hand on the shell its amazing.
The “squeeze’ buttons on the other hand are a little in the way. You find yourself activating Dashboard (or whatever you have it set to) just by moving the mouse around. I have that option turned off.
I can’t help noticing that what almost every review on this mouse seems to forget:
People are different
Yes, that’s right, people are different. You can’t say a mouse is rubbish just because it doesn’t suit YOUR hand. Yes, the side buttons may be in the wrong place for you, but they’ll be in the right place for others. Same goes for the trackball.
I guess the only real solution here, would be to offer the mouse in a variety of different sizes, but that could just lead to confusion.
For me the real big problem with the mouse is that you cannot press 2 buttons at once. I regularly drag items, activate expose to chose their destination, de-activate it, and then drop them. I was intending to get a mighty mouse and set the side buttons to be expose, but then this wouldn’t work. No sale for me until Apple provide a fix!
On the acceleration side of things; Personally, I find it just fine in OS X as it is, however it is something that Apple really should address. They could either add an extra control the to the mouse pane, or maybe there could be an ‘Advanced…’ button that brings up finer controls for the mouse such as this.
Yes, I found that the criticism due to location set off my subjectivity alarm. Reviews are frequently subjective, especially when they don’t offer objective data, so I wasn’t immediately certain why this was. I suppose it was the “obviousness” aspect of the criticisms lodged. If I were to comment casually to someone else about what I thought of a mouse I would of course give them subjective determinations of its weight, button placements, and shape-related comfort. I probably wouldn’t suggest that my criticisms were obvious, though. I doubt very much that while I find the design of the MX500 pleasing, that I dislike the change in placement and feel of the thumb buttons on the MX1000 is at all obvious to Logitech.
does it scan my palm and finger prints and check my DNA?
This is a mouse, it looks nice and i can’t say i have tried it but, whats the big deal, it’s just another mouse, there will be others.
At least this latest review is better than the Mossberg one, that basically concluded the new mouse is bad because it doesn’t look like the MS one.
On the other hand, calling it a flaw that the scroll ball is in the wrong place for the reviewer’s hand/taste is just about as silly (I mostly scroll with my index finger, by the way; it’s not comfortable for me with my middle finger. So there!)
I bought a MM last week, which will finally be delivered tonight. Then I will happily ignore ALL the reviews, and hopefully retire my WheelMouse optical (currently the best mouse I’ve been able to find, and oddly enough, the cheapest.)
You think the acceleration (and speed in my opinion) are bad with one monitor??? Wait until you use two or more monitors!!!
With two monitors (and one menu), you have to get quickly many times from working on one monitor to the top of the other monitor for the menu. It is a nightmare with Apple’s mouse driver.
USB Overdrive makes mouse usage on OS X (any version) barely tolerable. USB Overdrive is not a perfect solution as many apps are tested only with Apple’s crappy one button mouse and crap driver. And don’t work “as nicely” with USB Overdrive.
Apple has not made an ergonomically solid product in many years, perhaps a decade. Whenever the last Mac II Pro keyboard was manufactured.
Today, Apple sells only on style and hype. This latest mouse with the fake buttons is the epitome of so-called “design”. What they mean is “designed like crap”.
Apple user input peripherals are some of the worst in the industry — from mushy keyboards with disabled keys to mice for tiny hands to mice with fake buttons — Apple takes the cake for the worst ergonomic design from any major company.
For all the money Apple spent on their dysfunctional faux-button mouse, they could have just had Logitech make a white mouse and gotten a very excellent mouse I’m sure for a lot less money.
While 2006 will be the year of Mac/Intel, it will also be the year of the “Wakeup call” for Apple. People who are used to PCs will not take the crap that Apple pushes onto their customers. And this will be a giant surprise for the cultists at Apple.
I’m 5’11 and lanky. My fingers on the same (not short). I normally use several Logitech MX700 cordless mice on Windows and Macs. I just got my two Mighty Mice yesterday.
I’ve been using my Logitech MX-700 for what might be over a year now. And I had zero problems (other than it having a cord) using the Mighty Mice on either OS X or XP. Zero problems with left/right clicking, zero problems with the scroll ball, and well, since I have Mac OS 10.3.9 I can’t use the side buttons. I don’t know why but I don’t have a problem with the speed of moving the cursor around. And that’s on Mac OS 10.3.9 on my 800mhz G4 iMac and my 800mhz G4 15″ bookbook. At work I have 19″ monitors (Mac and XP) and don’t have problems there either.
he only point I will agree with, is that if I could use them you do have to squeeze pretty hard and at least for now end up pushing the mouse down when I do that. My guess is, like the author said, is that it will soften up over time and I think it would become second nature pretty fast too.
So … no problems with the Mighty Mice for me.
that’s funny. I’m a fairly recent switcher (two years), having only used windows before. now a days, every time I go back to using a windows machine, I can barely stand the mouse acceleration on windows. I normally use the same mouse on both windows and os x but it’s so much smoother with os x.
besides, it’s pretty funny that the review complains about mouse acceleration on os x when reviewing a mouse that works with windows no problem.
After months of daydreaming and visiting the apple site almost every day, I finally ordered my Mac Mini yesterday..the last time I used an Apple computer was the Apple ][ and I confess all this talk about the crappy mouse acceleration is scaring me! especially because I usually set my mouse cursor speed on a very high setting, since I like to move my hand as little as possible.
Well, I hope it’s not as bad as it appears here..is it at least possible to improve the speed of the cursor, regardless of acceleration?
First off, I hated this mouse when testing in the Apple store. My wife just got hers in the mail though…
While you can map only one function to the side button(s) – you CAN get the function to work by pushing only one side or the other. I agree that the scroll wheel could be placed more forward – I really like the way it scrolls though. To my surprise, it works well with Maya PLE – an app heavily dependent on the middle mouse button. I find it more natural to depress the MM’s middle button than that of one based on a scrollwheell / button combo.
– I’ll hold off for the BlueTooth version though (just got the Logitech MX900)
Pravda – I’ll agree that Apple’s mice and keyboards are crap. But then so are most of the keyboards and mice that come with computers now days. The ones from Gateway and Dell must have cost them about $5 to make. At least the lowest priced mice Gateway could get from Logitech, while feeling cheap, don’t break like the MS mice.
Just like on cars where most of the time the tires are the cheapest tires they company can get (my last vehicle cost $40,000) and are replaced way before they wear out. Mice and keyboards are the first thing I replace when I buy a computer. That is when I don’t just build my computer which I used to do until I gave up Windows at home (I’m a tech and support Windows at work) and have gone with just Macs for now. (I hope to dual boot Haiku when I get an IntelMac.)
All my home and work computers have Logitech (fm freq) wireless keyboards and mice. The Mighty Mice are the first corded mice I’ve bought in over 10 years. I won’t be buying the cordless versions when they come out because I don’t have blue tooth on any of my computers. When I do then I’ll buy them.
Apple ships a pretty nice default keyboard. You should see Dell’s default: Ouch!
At least Apple’s isn’t designed to hurt your fingers with those highly ridged 55mm keys! Instead you get rounded 55mm keys!
Whatever. My wife just got a BlueTooth Apple Keyboard…. awesome.
Know what it feels like to roll a booger between your fingers? That’s what the ball feels like. Kinda unnerving at first, but I’m growing to really like it…
reading ppl talkin about mouse acceleration problems makes me wonder.
am i weird for never noticing this ??? i mean i love how the mouse works and never have problems. it seems natural. SO much natural in fact that i didnt notice that there was an acceleration until i read these problems.
but again, i insist that the acceleration feels more natural and logical. its exactly the same as the acceleration on the iPod.when i first used my 1G iPod and noticed the acceleration it seemed logical that it should work like that, didnt really give it any thought. but then i read mentioning this ‘cool’ feature on the iPod and the acceleration on the scroll wheel.
so in the end i guess its personal and really a matter of mentality. it seems tom and eugenia here are mostly negative when it comes to Apple. its fine with me, but it only explains why the see ‘problems’ where i see products that work just the way they should, without needing any constant tweaking
or maybe the 20 million iPod users are all crazy for not having such problems, right?
Tom mentioned somethin about most reviews being negative.
funny. ive read most of them, and they were either normal or positive.
but then again i might be wrong.
but does it really matter???
the mighty mouse is the top selling item on the apple store. top selling item thats right. and were talking about a company that sells millions of ipods each quarter !!! damn, that mighty mouse sure must be crap !!!
maybe tom was on of those guys that trounced the original iPod.
yeah yeah, they were all laughing at it. but im guessing that phrase we have really like mentioning in greece really fits here: ‘He who laughs last, laughs better’. and im sure Steve is the ones whos doing the laughing right now
>>>the mighty mouse is the top selling item on the apple store. top selling item thats right. and were talking about a company that sells millions of ipods each quarter !!! damn, that mighty mouse sure must be crap !!!
Sorry, but that doesn’t mean much. People would buy no matter how good or bad it is, that’s the “Apple aura”.
To test the real acceptance of the MM, you gotta check how will be the sales in the next 3 months, once people start recommending/not recommending it to the non-fanatic buyers. And later check how many people will replace an old MM with a new one or go back to Logitech/MS
…does the cat comes with the might mouse???? it’s sooo cute!!:)
The Mighty Mouse looks pretty sweet to me!
“you cannot right-click without lifting your index finger from the left-side of the mouse.”
This is also an issue I had with mine, yet at the same time I realized this is an Apple mouse. My feeling for this is it’s a “band-aide” for older Apple users.
This was experimented by myself when I switched the primary and secondary buttons around to see if the “right click” action would happen when I used both fingers. Instead, it still did a regular click. Perhaps eventually when people become familiar with it, they will have a pressure sensitive version of this mouse. Thats what would make me happy.
when you’re typing and you’re suddenly typing OVER a previous sentence. Macs have doing this in my experience since 10.3
Yeah, I had noticed the same thing (I’ve only being using a Mac for a couple of months, so only have experience of Tiger). At first I had assumed that I had accidentally brushed the trackpad but now I’m not so sure. Do you only see the problem on a laptop?
Are you using a laptop?
http://evoluent.com/
Most comfortable and easy to use. Works quite well on OS X, Linux, and Windows.
Thanks, although I don’t consider buying this mouse I am very pleased with this review, since it really shows up some annoying points (lifting the index finger would be really annoying for me when rightclicking)
PROS:
Like the way Apple merged two buttons into one. It really is the best of both worlds.
CONS:
Mouse is too light. Maybe I am too used to wireless mice with their batteries, but I wish it had more bulk
I only bought the Might Mouse because I happened to need a wired mouse this week–for a server. But for our desktops, I will wait until Apple cuts the tail and sells a wireless version.
Overall, I think Apple has done a spectacular job. Sure, not perfect, but a creative iteration on the mouse…as simple and as complex as you want it to be…
are u sayin the mouse is small ???
ppl are complainin that its too big.
my point is that its all about personal taste !!!
as for the sales. yeah, will have to see how the mighty mouse does in the future. but im guessin it will do really good. ppl dont just buy things because theyre from apple.
others where making fun of the iPod shuffle having no screen. and now look what a success its been……
No, I said too light. The size is fine.
I noticed the difference between Windblows mousing and OS X mousing back in 2001 when I switched to Macs, but it was a minor adjustment. Within a week or so, I didn’t notice.
Obviously, the slow acceleration bothers some more than others. As has been mentioned, you can get plenty of speed. I would recommend new OS X users give it a few weeks and see if you get used to it before buying USB Overdrive.
ex2bot
you people are freaks… take 2 seconds to get used to equipment you’ve never used before without judging it on past experience and you’ll have a much better experience.
i bounce around between the major OS’s on all sorts of hardware from hundreds of different manufacturers dating from the mid 90’s to the latest and greatest without a problem. it’s very rare that I find a mouse or keyboard that is ‘ergonomically challenging’. i barely even notice it in most cases.
Used it for a few at the SOHO store, they had one at the front corner. Pretty amazing really. The left and right click was easy. I think the problem is that some just need to retrain their hands to click with their fingers individually. While working with the mouse my thumb and pinky naturally fit on the side buttons, leaving my three other fingers spread along the top. Instead of clicking with the three fingers as I would with the single button mouse, when I want to right click, I just lift the poiter finger and click with the other two which are naturally on the right side sensor. Works very nice and naturally.
The scroll ball is quite the surprise speed demon. I can move around a page super fast and accurately, it’s kind of unnerving how quick and natural it is. I didn’t have time to play with the side button. And, clicking with the roller will need a little more training. But, right from the start , it’s a great version 1 release.
Can somebody please answer this for me? It determines whether I buy it or not:
Is the scroll ball a clickable button, like most scroll wheels? If so, will System Preferences->Expose and Dashboard map “middle mouse button” to it?
Yes, but like the left and right requires the the whole top of the mouse to come down to click.
So mechanically there is only one move (like the old mice), but depending where the finger making the downward pressure is. Either Left, Ball or Right.
The side buttons act togther as one requiring a squeeze.
Squeek!
😀
I see alot of people don’t like the acceleration on MacOS, I find it kindof funny since that was one of the things I really liked when I got my Mac. Im heading to the Apple store tomorrow, and I hope they have one there to demo, I might get one.
And BTW, great review:)
yes. In fact, the whole mouse has only one button that klicks – and that ist the upper shell of the mouse. But if figures out where you clicked the mouse – left, right or on the scroll ball.
I got my mighty mouse two days after it was introduced and I am working with it 8h a day since then.
My experience: it is large enough, ist works great. the left/right sensor-klicking was absolutely no problem – just don’t think about it, simply klick and it works. The ball is small but good to handle and works smoothly and accurate. I had not the impression that it is not placed in the correct position. The only thing I need to accustom is the squeeze buttons at the left and right – it takes my a view days to get into it. But I have not squeezed any mouse yet 😉
What I can say about the “missing” acceleration of the mousespeed in OS X – I think it depends fully on personal taste. I read the discussion about that from Eugenia and her husband for a while now and I have to admit before I wasn’t aware what mouse acceleartion is used for – I never missed it, and I am mousing around since the early Amiga days in the mid eighties and in that time I did every type of work – coding, graphics and even a layouting a newspaper for sime years with Pagemaker. Maybe I am not that sensitive about that like JBQ.
I’ve tried and switched off acceleration on winxp. I only notice the difference when I’m moving the mouse very fast.
I didn’t find it to be more precise in any way. I will switch it on because I find myself getting on the edge of my mousepad more frequently but it is not really an issue for me. Anyway the keyboard quality is much more important since you use it way more. Btw I’m not one of the ‘real-men-don’t-use-mice’ guys. Just try to find out what you use for say ten minutes. Usually you don’t move your mouse very fast. It’s more like d’clicking the browser and then at least I mostly use keyboard and scroll button.
So don’t freak out!
I really wonder why nobody said it before: If you don’t like it don’t use it 😉
It really depends on your hand size.
I love big (logitech) mice although I have been using a very small mouse for some years. Now when I use it again (on my brother’s pc) I feel completely crippeled. On the other hand I found the transition from a small to a bigger mouse to be less annoying.
Yes, you word my frustation very accurately Thom (and Eugenia)! Apple NEEDS to provide an option to turn off the weird acceleration curve. Please, Apple!
1. you did not cite the worse sensitivity and the jerky pointer motion among the major disadvantages of cordless mice;
2. you complained of not being able to use the scroll-ball with your middle finger! Who would ever try that? 🙂
I’ve read in a couple of places that it can only detect one ‘button’ hit at a time since there’s only one switch and the sensors tell OS X what side the click was made on.
In most OSes, you can cancel a left mouse button action by clicking the right button (eg. during drag and drop); this inability to detect both buttons at once renders this impossible.
Worse still, this flaw makes it pretty useless for games. In a shoot-em-up, for example, your left mouse button might be used for firing bullets, while the right mouse button launches smart bombs; you’d have to stop firing to be able to launch a smart bomb.
Even worse, imagine a first-person shooter where you’re zoomed in with a sniper rifle by holding the right mouse button and you want to take a shot at some poor fellow’s head…
Worse still, this flaw makes it pretty useless for games. In a shoot-em-up, for example, your left mouse button might be used for firing bullets, while the right mouse button launches smart bombs; you’d have to stop firing to be able to launch a smart bomb.
Heh. In FPSs, I use left mouse for primary fire, and right mouse for walk forward. Using a MM for FPS gaming, I’d have to stop moving to fire.
I remember using NeXT years ago and it also had the same kind of acceleration, which btw. was too ‘accurate’ at low speeds.
My question is, what’s the point of this mouse?
I’ll give you that the scroll ball might be useful as compared to a tilt/scroll wheel.
But other then that, you’re paying 60$ for a basic 3 button mouse, which requires you to alter how you right click (lifting of index finger), or squeeze incredibly hard (with the hope that one day it might be easier to squeeze).
This alone, ignoring the issue that it’s probably to small for most peoples hands to reach the scroll ball, sounds like the recipe for a bad mouse, that might for certain people become an adequate mouse, but nothing more.
But then again, when design is paramount, and vanity all around, spending more for less to enhance your self image sounds like the perfect solution.
A review about a mouse ? Are you crazy ?
Oh, apple “invented!!!” a mouse with more than one button. Holy, praise god…
A crazy world it is. Watch out for my review of a floppy disk!
Or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the defaults.
So whenever you try to tell people that their personal preference for mouse sensitivity/acceleration is actually hurting their productivity, you start a flame war.
The funny thing about people who love super fast mouse sensitivity, or high acceleration, is they actually spend more time mousing than they would if they dropped it down. Flame me all you want, but if you actually watch people use their mouse, instead of listening to what they say they like, you’ll find that those with higher sensitivities spend more time trying to narrow in on the right widget, effectively negating any speed savings they got in being able to zoom across the screen in record time.
It’s Fitts’s law again: by increasing the sensitivity, you effectively reduce the distance to the target, but also decrease the relative size of the target. Super-fast windows/X11 style sensitivity/acceleration gives the perception of speed, but it doesn’t necessarily make you a faster mouser. Try telling that to some geek with an ego problem, and you get the inevitable “that may be true for 90% of the population, but not for me!” Sure buddy, you’re special.
We need to remember: people are phenomenally horrible at measuring their own performance; spectacularly so, actually, to the point where user opinion on this type of thing is an effectively useless metric.
That said, it’s all a continuum, and I personally think Apple’s fastest setting in mouse sensitivity has always been about a tick too conservative. Should they offer a slightly faster mouse setting, however, I wouldn’t use it, and I have dual screens, so pbbth! Their acceleration, however, is spot on: it’s perfect to the level that most people don’t even know that it’s there (except this reviewer, natch, and apparently everyone else in the comment section).
Really this is classic Apple: “we know this is better because we tested it, just shut up and play along and in a couple weeks you’ll forget what you were bitching about.” This is often what non-Mac user’s latch onto when they rip on mac-heads, that whatever Apple does, Mac user’s will immediately love it, no matter what they previously espoused. That’s of course a slightly hyperbolic version of the real situation, but absolutely, mac users are open to new design changes and ways of doing things when it comes from a group of engineers who have such a great track record.
Now, sometimes Apple engineers get it wrong, and the backlash in the mac community is nothing short of apocalyptic, but when it’s all said and done, I’ll take a better initial design over configurability any day. And if you were really worried about your productivity, you might too.
flame on, cruel world
Most of the people complaining about acceleration are current or former windows PC users. I work on both Macs and PCs. If most of your computer use is keyboard based and your primary use of the mouse is to navigate from point A to point B it is understandable that mouse acceleration may be important to you. On the other hand if most of your work is mouse driven such as in Graphic Design, Illustration, or drafting where detailed and precision movements are required an uncontrolable fast moving mouse is a serious work preventing flaw. This is why you have a choice of settings and why especially on a Mac which is heavily graphics friendly the default is toward precision rather than acceleration.
I got a wacom A6 sized pen tablet a few months ago due to RSI problems with using a mouse at work. It took a while to get used to but it now feels so much more natural in everyday use than a mouse.
I know it’s a bit more pricier than your average mouse but the difference is notable and not just for graphical work.
I’m not so much concerned with the acceleration, but rather:
How many buttons does it have, and how configurable are they? Can you customize them per application? For example, when using most applications, I configure the left thumb button to close the application, but in Firefox, I configure it to do CTRL+W (close tab). The right thumb button is mapped to Back. I tend to normally surf with my left hand in my lap, so this is a great shortcut, and I don’t have to install the mouse gesture extension
And I love it. It’s the best mouse I’ve used so far!
I work in graphics industry and smooth accurate mouse is a must! This mouse is perfect.
At first I wasn’t too happy with the MM. But after using one for awhile.. I like it a lot. It only took me a few minutes to get accustomed to it.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves with OS X. It takes a little tweaking for me in Gnome to get acceleration where I want it to be, but I have to give Windows credit: their mouse is very usable to me. TO ME. If you don’t like acceleration, fine, I’m not telling you to like it. All I (and others) am saying is that with Windows, the mouse pointer movement is proportional to the mouse movement, in OS X it is not, and this is a huge annoyance to me. I can see why they don’t have it: when you move the mouse slowly in OS X, the cursor also moves much more slowly than it would in Windows, and I assume it’s to reduce mouse jitter when doing precise tasks in, say, graphics programmes. However, Apple should include the OPTION to use acceleration, as it is pretty obvious that I am not the only person who finds this annoying.
Imagine if that mouse was not made by Apple. Do you think people would buy it? No way! I bet people would ROFL, including Mac users.
Imagine if that mouse was not made by Apple. Do you think people would buy it? No way! I bet people would ROFL, including Mac users.
Wrong again Mister AOL acronym user. I buy what I think is useful. At first I thought the mighty mouse was crappy. Then I sat down with one for awhile and got to liking it. I really enjoy it now.
Ummm you bought it before trying it, and that’s “buying what you think is useful”?
What exactly does this mouse offer that’s better then any other high quality mouse?
Absolutley *NOTHING*, except it’s white and it’s called Mighty Mouse, and Steve Jobs gave it that magic touch.
Ummm you bought it before trying it, and that’s “buying what you think is useful”?
What exactly does this mouse offer that’s better then any other high quality mouse?
Absolutley *NOTHING*, except it’s white and it’s called Mighty Mouse, and Steve Jobs gave it that magic touch.
I used it for a while at the Apple Store and enjoyed the way it works. After beating it up for awhile at the Apple Store I bought one. This is the first Apple mouse I’ve used since the 68k world. The Mighty Mouse is replacing my Kensington PilotMouse Optical which I’ve used for a couple of years now. My wife is going to use the Mini so she will take the Kensington. So no, I don’t buy everything Jobs pitches at me.. The MM has value IMO.
What is that value that was worth $49? I’m honestly interested.
What is the value in a Microsoft Intelimouse? Currently going for $44.95 on MS’s website.
If you like the mouse buy the mouse. If you don’t like the mouse, don’t buy the mouse. Why do you care how other people spend their money?
Logitech all the way!
I remember the first time I saw a mouse… I said “Who flipped over the trackball?”
I cannot say I’ve seen much improvement in this department, and apples entries in the mice arena have all been rinky little jokes, this being no exception. I tried one at a apple store, and couldn’t get it to click EITHER way on things… I asked, the guy working there came over and it worked fine for him, apparantly I was ‘doing it wrong’.
A MECHACNICAL trackball barely two mm across atop something with no obvious buttons… Yeah, brilliant design there. For a company who claims to be obsessed with ease of use, I am constantly amazed at how most everything of theirs I’ve tried runs contrary to that.
Want a REAL pointing device, go get a Logitech Trackman Marble+. (The thumb ball style, not the one with the ball in the middle which sucks because you can’t even REACH the buttons)
I´ve just got my Mighty Mouse today and I love it.
I cant realy understand why some don´t.
I work at a advertise agency and have used PC for over 12 years and went over to Mac about 3 mounths ago… and I will say I will never go PC again.
No virus, no spyware, no problems.
I will admit a hated mac befour but with the “new” OSX the choise for going Mac was not hard.
but bac on the Mighty Mouse.
as an pre user of PC I lacked the ability of right cklicking and now I have it again. On my Mac that is. I can admit that I expected a bit more from the scrolling but compared to uther mouses the Mighty Mouse scrolling are the best by far.
The mouse has boost my workflow working mainly in Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop but Maya and Lightwave aswell.
I will defently buy one for the new Mac I will invest for the music studio me and a friend have.
So I will put it as simple as this.
Are you a Mac user. BUY THE MIGHTY MOUSE TODAY. Its that good.
Are you a PC user. BUY A MAC TODAY. Its that good. (and then buy a mighty mouse)
Last I want to add once again that I have been a PC user for 12 years done lots of developing and going over to Mac I found the Mac to be much bether. and simply “it just work” no f*ing problems that I have had on my old PC computers… never PC again… or never Windows again…
cheers.. andy
You may also want to look into OS X’s amazing spell-checking capabilities…
Un Real, you’ve been using a computer for over 12 years, and you didn’t even realize you could just use your pc mouse on your mac and get all the super wonderful work flow increase, jesus h. christ.
Are you a Mac user. Buy a Intel tomorrow.
Or an AMD if you graciously switch to PC (please, with GNU/Linux, so you cannot more troll about viruses and we all thanks).
I’ve noticed this as well on my Mac Mini. I’m using the bluetooth Mac keyboard, and I assumed it had something to do with that.
On a similar note, I started out using a bluetooth Mac mouse, and every few minutes my cursor would jump to one corner or another of my screen. I also assumed that was a bluetooth issue. I’ve recently switched to a Logitech corded mouse because I dual-boot Ubuntu and it doesn’t like the bluetooth mouse very much. The funny thing is, the corded mouse does the same thing (cursor zooms to the screen’s corner) in OS X, but not in Linux.
I just love all the stomach-turning, squirming rationalisations coming out for this P.O.S. input device from the ever faithful, delusional Apple cultists.
Can’t just admit this is just the latest piece of steaming white crap delivered straight from steve j’s a$$ to your ever open mouths (and at great expense to yourselves) and then you go running from newsgroup to newsgroup spurting out how great and faultless it is despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. All you are really doing is covering everyone in the sh|t you have have licked straight off Steve J’s a$$ and annoying everyone.
Now wonder we all hate you. LOL
Ignore the above… co-worker trying to be funny because I left terminal unlocked. ;c)
The scroll ball is positioned where it is to make it comfortable to scroll with you index finger. I’m not really sure where this idea that you should be using your middle finger to scroll came from, but it’s bunk. You have much more control and strength in your index finger, and there’s no reason you’d ever want to left-click AND scroll, so just use your index finger.
Which brings us to the squeeze buttons. If you’re having trouble with them, it’s probably because you’re trying to fit three fingers on the mouse. That’s wrong, both ergonomically and in the way the mouse was designed. If you keep only your index and middle finger actually ON the mouse (one on either side of the ball) — using your index finger to left-click, ball-ckick, and scroll and you middle finger to right-click — you’ll find your whole hand shifts slightly sideways on the mouse so that your thumb is right over the squeeze sensor. No need to worry about where your other fingers are on the other side of the mouse — each squeeze sensor has its own button that can be triggered independently of the other.
I have really big hands, and the mouse works great for me when I follow the ergonomic guidelines above. I can’t imagine others would not be happy with this mouse if they did the same.
Uh… if there’s that much gunk on your hand’s, maybe you should try washing them before you use your computer. The difference in the amount of gunk a LARGE ball rolling across a LARGE FLAT SURFACE picks up and a SMALL ball that touches only your FINGER TIP is mighty, if you will.
I’m using Mighty Mouse myself.
I agree with the point of the right mouse click. Sometimes I get one when I didn’t want one. That’s not so good.
On the other hand, I’m not used to having that right menu being there yet. It’ll grow on me.
The side buttons work great, but I’m not used to having them there either so I tend to go to the keyboard.
I don’t agree on the scroll button. The scroll button works absolutely great. I’ve not used it for diagonal scrolling, but the reviewer is not saying in which context he used it in. I’ll try it in a photoshop type application and see how it works. I can’t complain at all about the scroll button. You can scroll to pixel level, I love it to pieces.
And also, what the reviewer does not say: when you tap on the scroll button and give a click, you can activate another Expose window or even activate the Dashboard.
I’d love to say that this is the best possible mouse ever, but I can’t in all honesty.
On the other hand, it’s not as if it’s unworkable and the usual functionality works great as always.
I’d have to stop at 75% appreciation, with maybe 5% for the design [but I’m biased, don’t burn me for having a preference].
It’s also Apple’s first try [openly] at a multi-button mouse. I’m sure they’ll find ways to improve the experience.
Not over-the-moon-with-joy, not discontented either.
I just love all the stomach-turning, squirming rationalisations coming out for this P.O.S. input device from the ever faithful, delusional Apple cultists.
Can’t just admit this is just the latest piece of steaming white crap delivered straight from steve j’s a$$ to your ever open mouths (and at great expense to yourselves) and then you go running from newsgroup to newsgroup spurting out how great and faultless it is despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. All you are really doing is covering everyone in the sh|t you have have licked straight off Steve J’s a$$ and annoying everyone.
Now wonder we all hate you. LOL
You seem more the troll.