Linked by David Adams on Fri 5th Aug 2005 17:32 UTC, submitted by Sailfish
Apple For those of you who just can't get enough Mighty Mouse news, here are a couple of tidbits: An intrepid tinkerer bought a MM, only to take it apart for all the internet to see. Also, WSJ tech oracle Walt Mossberg takes a look at the MM and compares it to Microsoft's latest Mouse offering. His verdict? "Stop the presses: Microsoft has beaten Apple on hardware design, at least in this one case."
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Mossberg's article
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 17:51 UTC
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Mossberg's comments regarding using the right-click are apparently a case of habit. I have been using my MM since I got it and have no problems right-clicking, neither do any of my friends... but we are all multi-button mouse users. I would guess that the people who are having this problem are those who use the one-button mouse.

I am going to let my grandmother use my MM for a while just to test this little hypothesis... MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Reply Score: 1

Form over function
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 17:59 UTC
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Mossberg is right, the Apple mouse is another example of form over function. I have yet to see a convincing explanation how using touch sensitive sensors to emulate a right click is better than having two real buttons. What exactly is the advantage of "Single-button looks" in a mouse?

Face it, Apple has just painted themselves into a corner with their mouse. If after all these years they released a mouse with two normal buttons like everybody else, they would just be ridiculed. That's why they needed to come up with something different, even if it doesn't work any better.

Reply Score: 4

RE: Form over function
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 23:00 UTC in reply to "Form over function"
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Have you tried it? I don't think you have.

Reply Score: 0

BIG question:
by Devon on Fri 5th Aug 2005 17:59 UTC
Devon
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2005-06-30

I rest my index and middle fingers on my two mouse buttons. Does the Mighty Mouse require you to only be touching one button or the other when you click, or can you rest fingers on both buttons and have it still somehow figure out which you mean?

In other words, do you have to hold up your fingers all the time? That would drive me crazy. ;)

Reply Score: 1

RE: BIG question:
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 18:17 UTC in reply to "BIG question:"
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Yes, you need to raise your index finger to click on right mouse button and it's bloody stupid. Also mouse is way too small and has cord which i hate after using cordless mouse. Also ergonomy is big question if you need to start raising index finger while clicking right button. My advice for people using Mac stick on single button mouse or buy real mouse like Logitech MX1000.

Reply Score: 1

RE: BIG question:
by Anonymous on Sat 6th Aug 2005 03:05 UTC in reply to "BIG question:"
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Article on Slashdot says you can leave your finger on left side and still right click (there is a "pressure threshold" though).

Reply Score: 0

Looking at my PowerBook ...
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 18:13 UTC
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What is it with people and their multi-button superiority complex?

I have a multi-button trackball hooked up to my Linux box and a single button trackpad on my PowerBook. I don't notice a difference!

If you stuck a one-button mouse on my Linux box, of course it would drive me nuts. It would drive me nuts because Unix is designed such that you need a multi-button rodent. If you stuck a multi-button rodent on my PowerBook, I would not use the other buttons out of habit. You see, there are ways to get around this "deficency". Most intelligent people will learn how to work around those "deficencies" in short order. Once those work-arounds are habitual it will have no impact on their productivity.

Reply Score: 0

RE: Looking at my PowerBook ...
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 18:28 UTC in reply to "Looking at my PowerBook ..."
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What is it with people and their multi-button superiority complex?

I have a multi-button mouse, and I'd never go back to single button, even if the OS were designed as such that you didn't need more than one button.
Even you don't need a multi-button mouse, the ability to assign keystrokes and commands to buttons on your mouse makes you much more productive, because it can be fast simply to click a button on your mouse than it would be to do a keystroke command.
With my Intellimouse Optical (the best mouse in the world, IMHO), I can customize buttons to do different things depending on what applications I am using. I couldn't imagine working without it.

Reply Score: 0

still no bluetooth
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 18:23 UTC
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I'm shocked that Apple didn't release a wired and bluetooth mouse! Wireless input devices are pretty much standard these days.

This is pretty much the only reason why I'm holding off on Apple's MM.

They dropped the ball on that one.

Reply Score: 0

RE: still no bluetooth
by Anonymous on Sat 6th Aug 2005 08:24 UTC in reply to "still no bluetooth"
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Personally, I like corded mice and keyboards much better than cordless ones.

Reply Score: 0

Zoom zoom.
by japail on Fri 5th Aug 2005 18:24 UTC
japail
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2005-06-30

> The Microsoft mouse has an innovation: It allows you to
> instantly magnify any portion of your screen without
> zooming into the whole display.
...
> But the key feature of the Wireless Optical Mouse 5000
> is the magnifier button.

Haha. It's neat seeing someone amazed at having something bound to mouse buttons.

Reply Score: 2

No, he isn't right
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 18:25 UTC
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His claim is that Microsoft's mouse beats Apple's due to hardware design. He states his major point the magnifier feature. That isn't a hardware feature, it is a software feature.

The mighty mouse is a programmable, scrollable, multi-button mouse and it looks damn hot. Microsoft's is programmable, scrollable, multi-button mouse and it looks pretty much that same as it always did.

Reply Score: 1

RE: No, he isn't right
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 20:10 UTC in reply to "No, he isn't right"
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It is a matter of taste. I actually like the Microsoft Mice better, most of them anyway (on appearance).

Reply Score: 0

My Powerbook
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 18:44 UTC
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The new MM works fine for me.

The most important function was not the right click which Mossberg centers on for his article, but the scroll ball.

Doing a lot of photoshop work with this new mouse is a pleasure, as i now can scroll around the image quickly without having to moving the scroll bars.

The squeeze button also works really well allowing me to Expose quickly between apps, and the third button (i.e. pressing the scroll ball) giving quick access to the dashboard.

Of course all of these button's can be reconfigured for different uses.

As said before by another user, right clicking is not an issue on my mac, it is more so in a windows world, but simply using the one button track-pad on my powerbook, doesn't slow me down, i don't even notice im confined to a single button.

Microsoft mices have been on a decline for ages with, their first generation of intelli mice's were excellent. However small bugs such as generation two battery covers breaking and loose of signal in the wireless mice. For my windows pc, i have switched to logitech (MX1000) as the microsoft mice we just becoming a pain, especially for me during games.

The only thing i can criticize apple for is not releasing a wirless edition of the mouse.

Reply Score: 0

Side button functions
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 19:54 UTC
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Can you program the left side button to be back in Safari and the filesystem explorer? I use that feature on my Windows box way more than I right click.

Reply Score: 0

Wireless
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 19:54 UTC
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I'm not sure why people are so obsessed with wireless mice. My mouse cord never gets in the way, and I enjoy not having to worry about changing/recharging batteries and have the thing just work, always. It's one less headache to deal with.

And for the record, the mice that I use with all my desktop computers are Microsoft Intellimice (ie the standard optical 2-button + scroll wheel type). They work great both on my Windows machine which I rarely use, and my awesome Mac. Still, I'd like to get a hold of a MM just to see what its like, especially since it doesn't come with the hassle of being cordless.

Reply Score: 0

RE: Wireless
by japail on Fri 5th Aug 2005 22:02 UTC in reply to "Wireless"
japail Member since:
2005-06-30

Eh. I find my mouse cord annoying every now and then, but definitely not more than I would having the weight of batteries added to the mouse.

Reply Score: 1

RE: Wireless
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 23:04 UTC in reply to "Wireless"
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I agree. These posters are just blowin' smoke. A wireless mouse has no where near the response of a wired mouse. When they get that figured out, they will be ready for prime-time.

Reply Score: 0

What about...
by mendicant on Fri 5th Aug 2005 21:30 UTC
mendicant
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2005-07-12

if you wanted to click two buttons at the same time? Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is only one button to click and it goes by where your fingers are placed.

I used to play Q3 (which is one of the few big games you can get for a mac) and would have both the left and right buttons clicked or clicking at the same time. Even outside of games there are situations where I use two mouse buttons at the same time. Maybe this is mostly a gaming concern, but still it seems to me that it is a major shortcoming and restricts a lot of flexibility that a multibutton mouse has.

But hey, it sure nice ;)

Reply Score: 1

RE: What about...
by mendicant on Fri 5th Aug 2005 21:31 UTC in reply to "What about..."
mendicant Member since:
2005-07-12

that shoulda said "But hey, it sure looks nice ;) ", my bad.

Reply Score: 1

RE: What about...
by Gryzor on Sat 6th Aug 2005 00:27 UTC in reply to "What about..."
Gryzor Member since:
2005-07-03

If you click two at the same time, it will interpret as Left.

You're hosed there. I guess no Autocad/3Dstudio for the Mighty Mouse ;)

Reply Score: 1

RE[2]: What about...
by Anonymous on Sat 6th Aug 2005 01:43 UTC in reply to "RE: What about..."
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It's programmable. Wouldn't that mean you can make it interpret fingers on both buttons as a special click for applications that do that?

Reply Score: 0

v It is UGLY
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 21:41 UTC
RE: It is UGLY
by Anonymous on Fri 5th Aug 2005 23:25 UTC in reply to "It is UGLY"
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> Once again apple has proved they are 99% design 1% functionality.
Nice troll bud. Save your crap for the alt.windows.i.love.bill.gates newsgroup.

> Friends have told me it is very bad to use, due to it's form.
Yeah, a friend of a cousin's boyfriend's best mate said that MM was bad too. You know, my Aunt's sowing class' leader's daughter said she hates the Microsoft mouse and uses the pedal on her sowing machine to control the cursor.

> Just like the iPod that you can't control without actually looking at it.
Yeah, the iPod design is terrible -- that's why it's the number one music player in the market. Buy a damn iRiver or Creative unit if you don't like the iPod design.

Bugger off with your trolling please.

Reply Score: 0

v apple mouse does not support double click
by pravda on Sat 6th Aug 2005 00:58 UTC
wireless, weights
by Anonymous on Sat 6th Aug 2005 04:40 UTC
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I hate wireless mice. My parents have one. So many times it stops responding until I kick the antenna. Is it too far away? Or are the batteries just going out? Or maybe the processor is just busy? With a wired mouse I never have to worry about that crap.

Someone mentioned battery weight as an annoyance. I find it amusing that wired optical mice often have a weight inside. I guess they are there to offset the loss of the ball.. A friend of mine took his weight out and wears it around his neck.

Reply Score: 0

RE: BIG question:
by gangsta on Sat 6th Aug 2005 05:46 UTC
gangsta
Member since:
2005-07-10

I tried it at the Apple Store and the right click worked reliably when my index finger was not touching the left button. However, when my index finger was resting on the left button, the right click did not work well.

Reply Score: 1

Hmmm
by michaelveale on Sat 6th Aug 2005 09:32 UTC
michaelveale
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2005-07-29

I think Apple should release a bluetooth version, anyway I dont think I could ever go back to a cord mouse!

Reply Score: 1

Cordless AKA Wireless
by Anonymous on Sat 6th Aug 2005 13:01 UTC
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Ever since I found a wireless mouse that suited me, I use it on all my machines (Wintel and G5): the Microsoft Optical Wirless Mouse 2.0

Response is excellent and the batteries last for months. Too bad they phased it out and replaced it with a cost-reduced, glitzy POS. Should have of bought a few and stashed them away.

Reply Score: 0

This article is stupid
by Anonymous on Sat 6th Aug 2005 13:30 UTC
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He compares a software feature as a minus for the apple mouse while he takes another one as given...

the microsoft mouse is better because it has the magnifier which the mac mouse does not have while the button on the mac triggers the software called expose...
(sort of in this meaning)

he mixes up the software magnifier as a hardware feature and omits the expose as pure software feature while basically both are similar in extended functionality in software both bound to a button on the mouse via a special driver.

People tend to blur the line between software and hardware more and more nowadays

Reply Score: 0

Anonymous
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First of all, I immediately trekked down to an Apple store on Tuesday to check this out and am very impressed. Especially as the ball has tactile feedback, but without feeling like it has stops like many scroll wheels have.

My big concern is with the ball sucking in grease from you finger over time.

Interestingly you don't really need a scroll wheel/ball/pad on the top of any mouse to implement windows scrolling feature.

When I bought my first Logitech optical mouse many years ago (they don't sell that shape any more <sniff>), I found there was a "Scroll" option in the Windows driver, mappable to any mouse button which when held down and moving the mouse, your mouse pointer would stay in place on the screen, and the window contents under the mouse would move instead.

I found a driver add on under BeOS which added that functionality to any mouse you had on hand, and as the Gobe Productive office Suit under BeOS was so fast, I could scroll to any point EXACTLY in a 50 page word document and stop precisely where I wanted to.

The wheel on the mouse was quite superfluous and BTW that 50 page scroll example (on a MS White paper) could be performed without picking my mouse off the table while I did the scroll.

Oh yes. The scrolling was two dimensional.

When I was later installing the Logitech driver on a friend for his XP system and later on his Mac I found that the scroll functionality was now the same as provided in Microsoft's mouse driver where clicking the scroll mapped button changes you into scroll mode and a pair of arrows pointing up and down with a circle between them appears in the middle of your screen, and remains there until you click the scroll button again on your mouse. Note that I actually need to pick the mouse off the desktop to scroll through even a ten page document.

2D scrolling could be implemented in ANY 2 Button mouse by merely pressing and holding the 2 buttons simultaneously and moving the mouse.

It's sad that this excellent functionality seems to be lost.

Progress I guess.

Are any mouse manufactures implementing this 2D scrolling ability in their drivers at this time?

Keningston seems to have some mouse models with 2D scrolling (no Mac drivers available) but I don't know how they implement it. Any one know?

BTW. Though the MM design is delicious, you are not able to chord the left and right buttons, and if I'm not mistaken, I need that functionality to play Myst URU (I’m a little behind) without touching the keyboard so the gamers comments are probably right.

Reply Score: 0

Kinda cool
by David Kuhn on Sat 6th Aug 2005 19:41 UTC
David Kuhn
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2005-07-03

Scroll ball = awesome.
Side buttons = not sure, could be awesome. (I have big hands, not sure how big the MM is.)

Since I haven't tried on yet, however, the way I hold the mouse it fits almost perfectly with all the features. Thumb where the left side button is, index on the left "button", middle on the right "button" and ring on the right side button. The scroll ball is awesome as well, considering the 5 megapixels photos I edit in 100% in photoshop in 100% view ;) . Seems like a great innovation.

Reply Score: 1