On Tuesday, “Apple introduced an ingenious mouse that can be all things for all people — and, perhaps, another foothold in its stealth attack on the PC market,” Nathan Alderman reports for The Motley Fool. “Puckishly named Mighty Mouse, the new gadget shares the sleek, seamless surface of Apple’s standard mouse, whose entire top half serves as its ‘button.’ But Mighty Mouse can detect whether users are clicking on the right or left half of the mouse — or squeezing its sides — and respond accordingly. Cleverly, because Mighty Mouse is programmable, it can still serve as a good ol’ one-button device for the very young, the very old, or those especially frightened of change.”

“In my opinion, the most intriguing aspect of Mighty Mouse lies almost hidden in the fine print on Apple’s website: The device isn’t limited to Macs alone. It’s been built to work seamlessly with Microsoft’s Windows as well. For years now, Apple’s sleek monitors and trendy iPod have worked with Windows, and the Mac mini it introduced in January is designed to plug into PC-standard screens and keyboards. Analysts have even begun to note a ‘halo effect’ from the iPod’s popularity, as a small but growing number of PC users switch to the Mac mini and other Apple computers,” Alderman writes. “Mighty Mouse may be the next step in Apple’s quiet crusade to lure Windows users into the grasp of CEO Steve Jobs’ famous Reality Distortion Field, one stylish little component at a time. Microsoft is often dubbed ‘The Borg,’ a technological monolith that co-opts everything it touches — but this time, it seems, Apple’s the one doing the assimilating.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Mighty Mouse may be the next step in Apple’s quiet crusade to lure Windows users unless they read Walt Mossberg’s review in The Wall Street Journal first. In his review (see related article below) we believe Uncle Walt blew it and pretty much completely missed the elegance of Apple’s Mighty Mouse’s ability to be a simple one-button mouse or a multi-button device with 360-degree scrolling.

Related MacDailyNews articles:
Mossberg pans Apple Mighty Mouse, says Microsoft’s latest mouse is better – August 04, 2005
Review: Apple’s Mighty Mouse – Third-party USB mouse makers should be very afraid – August 03, 2005
Apple introduces multi-button ‘Mighty Mouse’ with ‘Scroll Ball’ for Mac and Windows – August 02, 2005
Apple’s new ‘Mighty Mouse’ provides audio feedback for clicking and scrolling – August 02, 2005
Apple’s mythical two-button mouse – March 19, 2005
RUMOR: Apple may soon debut two-button mouse – March 15, 2005
Apple’s Pro Mouse is truly a joy to use… for about five minutes – May 29, 2004
The time has come for Apple to ship a two-button scroll mouse standard – June 09, 2003
Should Apple reconsider the one-button mouse? – October 23, 2002