“Apple has a multi-button mouse to be proud of. The $49 Mighty Mouse has all the functionality of the typical Windows mouse, and then some. Yet the new mouse has the almost magical elegance of so many Apple products. ‘Mighty Mouse,’ said Apple product manager Scott Brodrick, ‘is a no-compromise design.’ For example, it’s a multi-button mouse with no buttons. You click the Mighty Mouse by pushing down its entire outer shell, just as you do with the standard Apple mouse. But the new mouse can detect which finger you’re using. The index finger ignites the standard mouse functions, while the middle finger activates a right-click menu. Goodness knows how the mouse can tell the difference, but it does, every time,” Hiawatha Bray writes for The Boston Globe.
“The Mighty Mouse uses a tiny pimple-like trackball instead of a scroll wheel. It lets you slide documents from side to side, as well as up and down. It lacks the mechanical click of a Windows mouse wheel. Instead, you’ll hear a soft ticking sound. It comes from a tiny speaker inside the mouse, placed there to generate audio feedback. The same speaker clicks when you squeeze the pads on either side of the mouse,” Bray writes.
“Early reaction to the Mighty Mouse suggests Apple should have acted long ago. The first couple of shipments to Boston-area stores sold out almost immediately, and Brodrick said Apple will have to boost production to meet demand. Knowing the company’s P.T. Barnum-like marketing practices, the present shortage may be a little contrived,” Bray writes. “But then, Apple’s designers live in a world of their own. Maybe they really didn’t know how many customers wanted an extra button or two. Maybe this burst of Mighty Mouse sales will get them to put a similar two-button design into Apple’s laptop machines, as well. In any case, Apple deserves applause for finally facing up to the need for a better mouse, and for meeting that need with a device so creative and clever that even a Windows bigot can take a liking to it.”
Full article here.
Advertisment: Order your Apple “Mighty Mouse” now from the Apple Store online!
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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
will order when wireless… still a cool mouse though.
have a wireless keyboard so I have to wait anyway.
Interesting all the ways people describe the … um … scroll ball. The latest: “pimple-like”.
Early reaction to the Mighty Mouse suggests Apple should have acted long ago
Take THAT, Zealots
“Interesting all the ways people describe the … um … scroll ball. The latest: “pimple-like”.”
I like the to use the term “Nipple-like” ’cause I do the same thing with my wife’s nipples! hehehe
“It lacks the mechanical click of a Windows mouse wheel.”
You mean a USB mouse wheel, which many of us Mac users have been using for years.
Early reaction to the Mighty Mouse suggests Apple should have acted long ago
Take THAT, Zealots
—-
Uh.. multi-button mice have been out for ages… you think people were waiting for Apple to release a two-button mouse, over the multitude of MS and Logitech ones available?
Yeah right.
The comment is friggin asinine… “Apple should have developed this mouse faster”
Obviously they developed the technology as fast as they could.
Re: atomic flower
Get a grip, dude. Only those people that *need* a two-button, scroll-wheel mouse to get the job done are truly handicapped. Those of us that seamlessly switch between single-button and “enhanced” mouses are truly the capable ones. It has nothing to do with being a zealot, just being adaptable.
Simplicity will always keep Apple at the forefront of user experience.
You scroll documents with your wife’s nipples? errr…
MW: small (LOL – too good to make up!)
“Knowing the company’s P.T. Barnum-like marketing practices, the present shortage may be a little contrived,”
It better not be contrived. I want one NOW.
“a device so creative and clever that even a Windows bigot can take a liking to it.”
Yeah! That’ll happen.
“a device so creative and clever that even a Windows bigot can take a liking to it.”
Bigot’s don’t change until they die. It’s up to the next generation to change.
Why Apple doesn’t ship this mouse with new Macs right freaking now is beyond me. The one-button mouse must die a quick painful death. It’s all about not ticking off the one-button zealots and making more cash. 50 Years after the one-button mouse idea was first conceived, Apple has to sell it separately as an option rather than integrate it now. It’s frustrating. C’mon Stevo; get the pickle out!!!!
iMaki,
So, your solution is to remove choice? Hmm. Maybe you should be working for me.
iMaki –
The reason they don’t ship with current macs is twofold:
first, they needed to gauge reaction to the new mouse. If no one liked it, it would be a bad idea to ship with all systems.
Second, they have a bunch of stock of existing mice.
I promise that they next generation of systems will ship with this mouse.
iMaki:
If you want a Mighty Mouse (or another multi-button mouse) so badly, go buy one and shut up about it already. Just like Windoze boxes which came stardard with their low-end mice, the one-button mouse should be standard with Apple desktops. As for me, I’ll keep using my one-button mouse and continue to use keyboard shortcuts, thereby having a better chance of avoiding nasty things like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
MW = “thinking” as in “I’m thinking that iMaki is the type of person who is unhappy until they find something to be unhappy about.”
>Interesting all the ways people describe the … um … scroll ball. The latest: “pimple-like”.>
Yes, it shows how big her pimples are.
Please think before you post. Nipples are not in the middle, and they come in pairs. The scroll ball is really a clitoris.
“You scroll documents with your wife’s nipples? errr…”
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Yes, but i’ll bet it’s always the same document, over and over.
Apple should have painted a pink circle around the nipple and called it the Mighty TitMouse. I would have been first in line to buy it then. At the very least, it ought to come with a decal. Tisk, tisk, tisk, where was their marketing research on this one?
iMaki: If you continue to rant like a pinhead, folks will get the opinion you are one. Give it a rest and understand that not everybody needs or wants a multi-button mouse, and for some people (especially the very young or old), it’s absolutely a bad choice.
Rather than shipping the Mighty Mouse as standard, Apple should make it a $20 upgrade, and let the marketplace decide the fate of the standard mouse.
Rainy Day,
Your insults are consistent with someone who can’t handle more than one mouse button at a time. You would probably pass out at the prospect of right-clicking or scrolling. Not everyone’s brain has the ability to multi-taks or perform simultaneous tasks. You also probably juggle with one ball at a time. I’m sorry about the accident. We need to remember you are “special.” Keep that one-button moust a-clickin. We’ll try not to stare.