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.”
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!
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.
Have you tried it? I don’t think you have.
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.
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.
Article on Slashdot says you can leave your finger on left side and still right click (there is a “pressure threshold” though).
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.
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.
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.
Personally, I like corded mice and keyboards much better than cordless ones.
> 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.
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.
It is a matter of taste. I actually like the Microsoft Mice better, most of them anyway (on appearance).
“Microsoft has beaten Apple on hardware design, at least in this one case”
:] Yo, cool, my head just went off in a puff of smoke from 10 minutes of exstatic laughter :] I just think this piece of line should go on the virtual tombstone of MS :] Come on guys :] I just can’t stop smiling at this :] Like 2 year olds, really.
When it comes to hardware, I don’t care what some braindeads say, it’s not Microsoft’s name that comes to mind. That sas it all.
And anyway, bring someone to me who can wholeheartedly preach me into believing any of those [Apple, MS] has ever produced better mice than Logitech.
Case closed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
that shoulda said “But hey, it sure looks nice
“, my bad.
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
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?
I think that mighty mouse is one of the ugliest pieces of hardware ever build. It looks more like a newly opened piece of soap than a mouse.
Friends have told me it is very bad to use, due to it’s form.
Once again apple has proved they are 99% design 1% functionality.
Just like the iPod that you can’t control without actually looking at it.
> 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.
I find the fake mouse buttons to be “sooooo Apple you just want to cry your eyes out”.
It is the ultimate win of style vs. substance.
Most reports say that for RSI the new mouse is a nightmare.
And the mouse does not support double click.
It’s very hard to say how Apple’s mouse adds any value other than style/looks. And even here the style value proposition is “looks good with other Apple products”.
On its own away from other Apple products, the Apple mouse looks sad.
And so Apple has made a fashion accessory vs. an innovative ergonomic mouse. And that is also sad.
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.
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.
I think Apple should release a bluetooth version, anyway I dont think I could ever go back to a cord mouse!
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.
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
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.
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.