“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.
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