Apple's Mighty Mouse: The Move to Multi-Button
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 4, 2005 8:10 PM EST- Posted in
- Mac
Final Words
Apple created a truly interesting product with the Mighty Mouse; essentially, they've created a one button mouse that is a bit more flexible than their prior one-button offerings, but definitely not a mouse that is catered to the needs of those who depend on multi-button mice.The scroll ball is nice, although I'd like to see some control over the number of lines per scroll click. The side buttons are horrible and it would be nice to make them a little easier/more convenient to use, but then again, that may conflict with Apple's desire to make the Mighty Mouse still look and work like a single-button mouse.
Gamers need not apply for this mouse, as the Mighty Mouse's touch sensors end up being more of a liability than a convenience in games. You're probably better off control-clicking with a one-button mouse than using the Mighty Mouse for gaming on the Mac. Some desktop users may feel the same way about simply using the mouse for regular applications, although personally getting used to doing the left/right finger dance wasn't as big of a deal for me in normal application usage. The drawbacks of the single button/multiple sensor construction of the Mighty Mouse are unfortunate, as I do believe that Apple could put together a very well designed mouse for the multi-button user.
For the single button mouse user, the Mighty Mouse brings scrolling functionality to Apple's mice, which is much needed. And for all intents and purposes, the default configuration of the Mighty Mouse acts and behaves just like a single button mouse with a scroll wheel. In the sense of Apple's ability to bring scrolling functionality to their single-button mouse users, the Mighty Mouse works. But if you are a user who needs to have and frequently uses that second mouse button, the Mighty Mouse isn't exactly perfect.
It's an interesting approach by Apple, but personally, it caters to a user who is very different than myself, and potentially, many of you. What I would like to see is what the designers at Apple could pull off if they were tasked to come up with a true competitor to the best of the best from Logitech and Microsoft. It'd be for a different type of user than the Mighty Mouse, but I think that it'd be the only time during which I'd really prefer using an Apple mouse.
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Hacp - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I don't think I will have any problem with this. I usually lift my index finger and put it on the scroll wheel when I rightclick anyways. It is very easy to adapt to a mouse. Once, my right click button wasn't working, and my leftclick button always doubleclicked, so I set my scroll wheel as the left click and hte left click as the right click. Took me 3 days, but I conquered it like a pro. After a bit of practice, it can feel very natural....After saying all of that, I'm not buying that mouse. I'd rather plunge on a mx with that pricetag....
Hacp - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Also another thing to point out, this article was alot more interesting than the 7800GTX series. I was dissapointed when I saw that the article for today was the VGA card, but the mighty mouse article caught me totally by surprise!PrinceGaz - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
There's even less chance of me buying one of those mice, than there is of me buying a Mac (which is roughly zero); but I must agree it was more interesting than reading another 7800GTX review.Lots of individual reviews of $500 cards only a tiny fraction of your visitors will be buying in the next few months is crazy, just do a roundup in a month or two where you can highlight the differences between all the samples you received. It reminds me of the ultra-high end memory reviews that were posted every week or two. For what it's worth I ended up buying high-performance memory but not any of the sticks you reviewed because you only looked at 512MB modules, and a pair of 1GB sticks is a far better investment these days.
MIDIman - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Why innovate something that IMHO is already efficient enough?I'm all about new ideas - the back and forward buttons on new mice (read: Logitech) have truly changed my effectiveness in an OS. Many will say the same about trackballs.
But really - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
kmmatney - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Sounds like you use your middle finger for right clicking, which is weird to me. I use index for the left button, middle finger for scrolling, and my ring finger for right clicking, while my thumb and pinky glide the mouse around with delicate precision.Griswold - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
Left handed people might use the middle finger on the left button and index on the right..Furen - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I use my middle finger to right click as well... Must be because I used a two-button mouse (back before the times of the wheel ^^) for the longest time, and having the middle finger on the right button made sense.ProviaFan - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Everyone does it differently... I use my thumb for the back and forward buttons, index for left button, middle for scroll wheel/middle button, and fourth for right button. On occasion, though, my middle finger can work its way over to the right button, but that doesn't usually last long. :)jm20 - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Great review, I enjoy your impartialness to manufacturers Anand. I'll stick to my Intellimouse 1.1gamara - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I don't care what Apple can do with a mouse. As long as they make it look cute, its going to be horrible to use. Anyone remember the wonderful mouse that came with the original i-macs? It was shapped like a hockey puck and about the same size. I wound up grabbing it sideways most often(since it felt the same in your hand). The 'no button' mice are almost as bad as I drag through most windows with those. Personnaly, they would need to add back/forward buttons too, since I have gotten used to those almost as much as my scroll wheel.