“Mighty Mouse is Apple’s first with more than one ‘click’ button; with the Mighty Mouse you can left click and right click, a feature already available on other computer mice. Mighty Mouse also has a tiny gray ‘Scroll Ball,’ about the size of a baby pea, set in the middle for scrolling up and down, from side to side, and even diagonally,” Mike Langberg writes for The San Jose Mercury News.
“I’m not qualified to say if the new design is ergonomically correct or not, but the standard rule for picking a mouse still applies. Buyers should put comfort and the correct size far ahead of features or appearance,” Langberg writes. “In this unusual instance, Apple is trailing the industry with Mighty Mouse. Competitors, especially Logitech and Microsoft, have long sold similarly priced mice with left and right buttons and scroll wheels, which work with both Windows and the Mac.”
“But competitors never quite manage to match Apple’s elegant sense of style, and Mac enthusiasts will be pleased to see the same glossy white finish and rounded shape of earlier Mac mice. To me, Mighty Mouse looks somewhat like the world’s most carefully crafted bar of soap,” Langberg writes.
“Mighty Mouse works best on Macs running the most current update of the OS X Tiger operating system, version 10.4.2. If you’re running this version, you can install the Mighty Mouse Software program, which comes on a CD included in the box… Mighty Mouse does somewhat less if you don’t install the software or have an older version of OS X. You can’t open as many applications, and you can’t change what each button does if you’re running version 10.3.8 or earlier,” Langberg writes. “Mighty Mouse even does Windows, specifically Windows 2000 and Windows XP, although only with vertical scrolling — not side-to-side or diagonal. Because of these limitations, Apple isn’t marketing Mighty Mouse to Windows users. After several test sessions with Mighty Mouse, I’d rate it a good choice for Mac users who want the convenience of scrolling and right-clicking while retaining Apple’s stark white look.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
AnandTech: Apple’s Mighty Mouse ‘isn’t exactly perfect’ – August 05, 2005
NY Times’ Pogue: ‘I certainly prefer the Mighty Mouse’ to Apple’s standard one-button mouse – August 04, 2005
Apple’s Mighty Mouse dissected (with image) – August 04, 2005
The Motley Fool: ‘Mighty Mouse may be the next step in Apple’s quiet crusade to lure Windows users’ – August 04, 2005
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
Is it just me or has this mouse thing gotten more coverage than it needs to.
Yep!… its JUST a apple mouse why is everyone yapping on about it for… its nice and all but come on…
“You can’t open as many applications”
Wha??? So some applications can only be opened if you have the “Mighty Mouse Software program” installed? Idiot.
because their is no apple news and won´t be for a year….
or until ipod video comes out in september and motorola ipod phone….think paris
The coverage is so huge because it took Apple so long to realize the obvious
“You can’t open as many applications”: another possible interpretation?
maybe he means “application windows”?
A lot of people are not aware that computer functionality like Exposé and Dashboard exist, and audibly gasp when shown the features, only later realizing that
This has become one strange news story. Seems everyone was expecting this to be the holy grail of mice; perfect in every respect, for every single computer user in the world.
While the MS mouse certainly has its fans, no one really cares whether it is perfect or not, nor what flaws it has. Everyone cares about what Apple does.
Considering how much various sectors criticize Apple (think of the early iPod) this might really be a sign that this mouse will be a hit.
Apple has a really, really high bar for nearly everything it does; its got to be tough 1-uping yourself every couple of months just to shut the morons of the tech world up.
On-target observation, RePlay. I certainly agree with that.
“You can’t open as many applications” means that the extra buttons cannot be programmed to open applications in Windows like it can in OSX. That has to be what he means, since a mouse has nothing to do with how many apps an operating system can have opened at any time.
For me, I’m going to pass on this mouse. While it may be convenient at times to scroll sideways & diagonal, I would be forfeiting my ability to program my buttons to do something other than open an app or activating Expose. (Like, my scroll button does Back when Im in Safari, CloseWindow when Im in anything else, etc etc) One other thing…. I never got the hang of picking up the Apple Pro mouse while the button is clicked and moving my mouse across the pad to get more scrolling distance. I’m assuming this mouse works basically the same way.
I said, “… to get more scrolling distance.” but what I meant was ‘to get more dragging distance’.
But you knew that.
I got one and its pretty cool.
I’ve been using Logitech mice with a scroll wheel for quite some time so the left click/right click comes naturally to me now.
I DO find the resoultion on the scroll wheel on the MacMouse MUCH better.
When i was using both Mac’s and PC’s, I always found the control on the Mac mice to be finer than on the PC’s. Likewise, I find the wheel control on Apple’s Mighty Mouse much finer than the Logitech mouse by a long shot.
And of course the left – right scroll, while perhaps not new, is new to me and a very nice feature to have.
If the Apple TitMouse came as a pair for 50 bucks, that’d be a good deal.
If the Apple TitMouse came as a pair for 50 bucks, that’d be a good deal.
If the Apple TitMouse came as a pair for 50 bucks, that’d be a good deal.
it’s very like Apple to cripple their products.
They COULD provide all the features of the new mouse with Panther or Jaguar… but they refuse to backwards compatible.
They COULD allow windows users the same capabilities as mac users, but NO, they cripple it.
Pisses me off.
I actually used the mouse, and I don’t see what the fuss was about, I think I’m actually going to buy another MS mouse it is more comfortable for me to use. I love the feel of the current 1 button mouse but it is giving me a damn callous @ the joint between my forearm & hands meet. I might actually even get a gel pad before I buy another mouse though, lol. But please put an end to the MIGHTY mouse already cuz it really isn’t that mighty!