![]() ![]() Whilst this is better than the mouse it replaces (scrolling diagonally just doesn’t work properly on the Mighty Mouse) it’s still not true 360 degree scrolling as the advertising would lead some to believe. The mouse handles “near 360” degree scrolling though in my tests I found the mouse interpreted finger movements about 15-20 degrees either side of straight as being straight in the prominent direction. The user has the ability to turn on and off “momentum” scrolling (like the iPhone where the faster you flick, the more the screen “rolls onward” after you stop moving your finger) which can take a little getting used to for those unfamiliar with it (momentum scrolling is a Snow Leopard only feature). To scroll on the Magic Mouse simply use a single finger tip to touch the mouse and move it in the direction you wish to scroll. Scrolling: Practically every mouse on the market supports scrolling and the Magic Mouse performs this task exceptionally well. The laser tracking is definitely an improvement. The only noticeable loss of tracking occurred when the mouse went over an undulating surface (my leg, a dinted table top) and certainly much better and more consistent tracking than the Mighty Mouse on the same surfaces. Tracking: The accuracy of the Magic Mouse was tested on several different surfaces including: a white melamine desk, a wooden desk, a piece of white paper, brown cardboard, a traditional multi-colour image mousepad, blue cloth (my shorts) and a ruled page from a notepad. The performance of a mouse can be broken down into several parts and each will be considered in turn: Movement of the mouse pointer Usability of scroll functions Ease of connection and Value for money. The top surface is a clear plastic with a white underlay and the grey Apple Logo in the bottom centre makes the whole device undoubtedly more professional looking than its predecessor. Although the subframe inside is still plastic it is now Black which is more in tune with Apples current MacBook Pro and iMac offerings. The body of the mouse is no longer the all plastic construction of old but now sports a brushed Aluminium base and battery cover. Like the wireless Mighty Mouse before it, communications between the mouse and the PC are done over Bluetooth. The final bonus is that the Magic Mouse now uses Laser tracking for improved accuracy on even the most stubborn surface and is apparently more frugal on battery life. ![]() It is slightly narrower and longer than its old counterpart and oh yes, it’s only available at the moment in a wireless version. The Magic Mouse then eliminates the scroll ball, also loses the side buttons as well as some weight with the old wireless Mighty Mouse (the wired version is still available and is now renamed the Apple Mouse) weighing in at 134g and the new Magic Mouse at 106g including batteries. A considerable area is sensitive as well, covering from the front edge of the mouse to an imaginary line left-to-right across the mouse roughly through the middle of the Apple logo. The application is seemingly unusual at first with the top surface of the mouse convex in shape (unlike the other multi-touch devices by Apple which are all flat) but still supporting multi-touch. The Magic Mouse borrows multi-touch technology which is now common place in other Apple products: MacBook and MacBook Pro TouchPads, iPod Touch and the iPhone. (Top Left: The Hockey Puck Mouse Top Right: The Apple Pro Mouse Bottom Left: The Mighty Mouse Bottom Right: The Magic Mouse)Īnd the stage is set for the new Magic Mouse - so named due to a copyright infringement brought against Apple for the old name Mighty Mouse. ![]() This time however there was no way to remove the ball to clean it (long a feature in ball mice) which lead many a Mac enthusiast to give up on the mouse entirely. Whilst the additional buttons were generally well received the scroll ball reintroduced the cleaning problems of ball based mice of the past and within months of use usually the scroll ball became clogged. In 2005 they tried the Mighty Mouse which added sensitivity for right-clicking and side-buttons as well as a scroll ball. It still was only one button (although the whole mouse was the button) when competing mice at the time were introducing scroll wheels and side buttons, although it had LED Optical tracking and departed from the problematic and cleaning intensive ball mice of the past. Apple came back with the Apple Pro Mouse which was a less stylish and more elongated version of the Hockey Puck in 2000. It all seemed to go off the rails for them with the “Hockey Puck” in 1998 whose round shape and size made it difficult to use (however stylish it was intended to be). Apple hasn’t had the best track record in recent years for making one of the most basic of Personal Computer input devices - the humble mouse. ![]()
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