I’m pretty sure that my Macs are completely Microsoft free. No Windows, of course. The last vestige of Redmondian Corruption was Microsoft Office for Mac, ditched last year. Prior to that I managed to kick the Microsoft Mouse habit and learn to live and love Apple’s Mighty Mouse. I wasn’t counting but it seemed like it took Apple 20 years to admit that a two-button mouse was a good thing. Mighty Mouse I liked. But I found something even better. Something so good it’s easy to say there’s magic inside.
What I liked about Microsoft’s mouse was the feel, though, in retrospect, I see a problem with first and lasting impressions. They’re different. Microsoft’s IntelliMouse was as good as I’ve ever used. True, it was big and bulky, but made up for that in sure pointing.
Enter Mighty Mouse Without Magic
Ditching the Microsoft mouse wasn’t easy, but Mighty Mouse won. It was light, svelte, actually, and pointing was accurate. It took three or four days of forced use to learn to love Mighty Mouse. After a week, I tried the IntelliMouse again. It was a brick, felt like a brick, drove like a brick, and gave me the impression of the difference between driving a nimble Toyota Camry vs. a Buick Roadmaster station wagon.
Goodbye, IntelliMouse, we hardly knew ye.
The Mouse With Magic
What does Apple do after finally admitting that a two-button mouse can live and prosper in the Mac world? Apple releases a mouse with no visible buttons at all.
Apple’s Magic Mouse resembles a traditional Mac or PC mouse in size, and somewhat in shape, but the similarities end quickly. The Magic Mouse has no buttons. Mighty Mouse has buttons everywhere. Magic Mouse hides the buttons.
Let me be clear. Magic Mouse takes some getting used to. It’s much easier if you’ve used a recent MacBook or MacBook Pro, because some of the same trackpad technology is used in the Magic Mouse, hence, no visible buttons.
If there are no visible buttons, then how can you click and scroll? The whole top surface of Magic Mouse is like a MacBook Pro trackpad. Use your finger to scroll up and down, or left and right, simply by touching the surface with your finger and dragging in the direction you want to go.
Simple, no? And very intuitive, but only after you get used to using the mouse, and admittedly, that took me more time than it did going from IntelliMouse to Mighty Mouse? Why?
Think Different Mousing On A Mac
Magic Mouse feels different. It feels slimmer than Mighty Mouse, though it’s not. It’s not as high, and feels similar in length. There’s no mouse cord, because Magic Mouse uses Bluetooth to connect to your Mac.
Since it uses Bluetooth it needs batteries, and since batteries are inside, Magic Mouse is heavier. Much heavier. There are three basic parts. The Multi-Touch surface, the aluminum bottom, and an aluminum door (for the batteries) on the bottom. The bottom also houses the optics and two length-wise pads.
In terms of pointing, Magic Mouse points. Moving requires a little more effort because the mouse is heavier, but pointing is effortless. Clicking? That’s different. The top surface is seamless. No buttons. Actually, there are buttons, but they’re under the surface, so when you click the area on the surface that would be a left-click, you feel and hear an audible click. Ditto for the right-click on the right side of the surface.
What is totally innovative and non-traditional is scrolling; up and down, left and right. All that’s required is a fingertip, pretty much like using the trackpad on a Mac notebook.
Software controls are a bit different, too. There’s Tracking, Scrolling, and Double-Click sliders. The Multi-Touch surface is controlled using the One Finger settings. Set the right-click, scroll (with momentum), and screen zoom. There are controls for Two Fingers navigation, too. Magic Mouse knows how many fingers you use, and what to do.
Pretty Mouse? Or, Functional Mouse?
Those questions are easily answered by anyone who’s owned a Mac in recent years. Apple products are elegant and pretty, and Magic Mouse is no different. If you’ve used a so-called ergonomic mouse on your Mac, you’ll be struck by the very slim feel, and low, almost aerodynamic shape.
Moving the mouse provides a little more resistance, probably due to the added weight; but it’s smooth and comfortable. What about scrolling and clicking? Clicking becomes easier because you don’t actually have to click a specific button, but click a general area, right or left.
Scrolling? Try it. It’s damned sweet. With the momentum setting on, Magic Mouse behaves a bit like scrolling on the iPhone—flick the finger and scrolling speeds up, then slows down accordingly. Unlike the trackpad, Magic Mouse doesn’t have touch-sensitive clicking. Maybe we’ll see that in the future. The Apple logo sits at the bottom, the only visual or physical indicator of which direction Magic Mouse is heading (until you click).
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Apple took decades to get to a two-button mouse, and Mighty Mouse, while not universally scorned, was credible enough use over other products. Magic Mouse is good. Very good. But, because it’s so innovative and so different, requires more time to adjust to and become comfortable than did Mighty Mouse (which was, after all, just a mouse). The bad? It’s a little heavy, but that feeling disappears in a few days. Going back to Mighty Mouse makes your hand feel as if you’re controlling a plastic mouse made by Fisher Price.
The ugly? Bluetooth. Batteries. A battery level indicator in System Preferences tells you how much power is left in your Magic Mouse. After three weeks I’m down to 63-percent, and I leave mine on all the time. A little switch on the bottom of Mighty Mouse can turn off the battery.
Is Magic Mouse sufficient magic to make you happy? I think so. You need a little time to adjust to the size, weight, design, and Multi-Touch. The true test is to use it a week or two, then revert to whatever you used before.