Well, the mouse is in, and so is the verdict.

Overall, I found the mouse to be incredible. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, and I’m pretty sure other manufacturers are looking at the Mighty Mouse and wondering how they can implement the various technologies into their own product.

As you’d expect with Apple products, the mouse was packaged nicely, only containing the mouse, driver disc, warranty guide, and manual. The mouse itself is very light, and ergonomically elegant. This mouse is much lighter than the Bluetooth mouse I’ve been using for the last several months.

• Mouse Cord
  This is the only real problem for me. Since I have a desk with a pullout tray for my mouse and keyboard, the 30-inch cord would not allow connecting my mouse to the back of my Mac mini. Luckily, I have the 20″ Apple Cinema Display, which has a built in USB and FireWire hub on the reverse, so I used that. Even then, I must have the wire extending out from the back, over my desk, and down a few inches to my mouse pad. It’s not the best way to work, but it’s far from the worst. I would really have liked to see a Bluetooth (wireless) version, and hopefully that day will come. If you have your mouse and keyboard on the same plain as your monitor, I don’t see any problem with the size of the cord, just that it was a problem for me.
• Left and Right Buttons
  Apple really made some strides here. The top shell is completely smooth. There is no indication of any buttons. However, the mouse “knows” when and where you are clicking. By default, the mouse is set to one-button operation, but you can go into the control panel and switch that. You can program either button as right or left, or even program the button to open other applications, or perform other system functions. With this new touch-sensitive technology however, you can’t press both buttons simultaneously, and you can’t right-click if your finger is touching the left side of the mouse. To right-click, you must lift your index finger slightly. This isn’t a problem for me as 99% of the time I will be left-clicking. When I do right click, I do lift my finger, and I’m sure in the coming days I’ll be doing that without even thinking about it.
• Scroll Ball
  Another great Apple innovation. Forget about just vertical and horizontal scrolling, how would you like to move in 360 degrees? Now you can. For really wide web pages or large image files, scrolling in any direction with the twitch of your finger is a nice addition. There are speed settings within the mouse control panel, and you can speed up scrolling or turn it off all together. I tested the scroll function in Photoshop Elements, scrolling through a large image. Scrolling works perfect, although even with the scroll speed up to 100%, scrolling across a large image still seemed too slow. I would think that in future, software makers would add scroll functionality to let you even further customize the scrolling option within each app. It would have been nice to increase the speed from within Photoshop Elements. Another option, may be for Apple to increase the speed with a driver update, or at least let us choose a faster speed.
• Side Buttons
  The side buttons are another story. I found that using enough force to click them meant me having to lift the mouse off the pad slightly and squeeze with my thumb and ring finger. This didn’t feel natural as it took a little too much pressure for me. I know they can’t have it very sensitive, as you’d be clicking them every time you moved, but it seems a bit awkward to me. Also, the side buttons are a bit up too high towards the front. If they brought them down just slightly, I think these could prove very useful. Currently, I would only use these buttons for an action I don’t use very often.
• Conclusion
  Overall I think this mouse is great. Even at the high price of $49.00, I think it’s still worth it for the technology you are getting. Although I would like to see Bluetooth, I’m sure that will be coming in the future. For those one-button users who feel no need to switch, I would definitely try it. After using two-button mice with my PC, it didn’t take too long for me to get used to one button. Now, I’m going back to two, and I really like it.

Visit the Apple Store and go buy a Mighty Mouse today!

This article was written by Bryan Los on Wednesday, August 10th, 2005 at 4:51 PM and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.