Review: Apple Wireless Bluetooth Mighty Mouse
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I’m not generally a fan of wireless input devices, mostly because of the need to always have batteries handy. I especially don’t see any need to use a wireless keyboard; unless you work on a desk where you move things around often, your keyboard will probably stay put all the time. However, the wire from a mouse can be annoying: it can easily get caught among the flotsam that’s piled up on your desk. So, when Apple recently released its wireless Bluetooth Mighty Mouse, I thought I’d try it out and see if I was ready to go wireless.I had actually tried a wireless mouse years ago–it was a Logitech mouse that worked with an infrared receiver, and it never really worked perfectly. In addition, the mouse was too high, and the batteries wore out very quickly. But the sleek design of the Mighty Mouse, plus the extra features built in to Tiger, made it tempting.
I have an iMac with built-in Bluetooth, so setup was a cinch: just install the software, pair the device, and it works. I use rechargeable batteries, so I made sure to have a set ready when the Mighty Mouse arrived. (You should too: there’s no excuse for using throw-away-able batteries when rechargeables and chargers are so cheap. And it’s better for the environment!)
The Mighty Mouse has some plusses and minuses, but overall, I’m happy with the way it feels. After all, one of the most important characteristics of an input device is the way it fits in your hand. Even though my hands are pretty large, the Mighty Mouse is comfortable. Its glossy finish is sensual, and I can rest the heel of my hand on my mouse pad (I use a padded mouse pad because it’s more comfortable than resting my hand on my desk) and still move the mouse.
One of the best features is the scroll nipple. (Apple calls it a scroll ball, but it is more nipple-sized…) This is probably the best and smoothest scrolling device I’ve ever used, and I’ve used many, from mice with scroll wheels, to add-ons such as the Griffin PowerMate and others. The ability to scroll vertically, horizontally and even in 360 degrees is great–I occasionally have to work on very large PDFs where I have to scroll in all directions to see their content.
In addition to scrolling, you can set the nipple to zoom in or out when holding down a modifier key (by default this is the control key). Since my eyes are ageing, I find this a plus for reading web sites whose fonts are too small. Again, the zoom is very smooth, and the anti-aliasing is excellent.
However, I can’t for the life of me press the side buttons easily. Partly because of the natural position of my hand, and partly because it takes a lot of pressure to activate those buttons, it just doesn’t work. That’s no great loss, since I really don’t need more than three buttons (you configure the Mighty Mouse for a left click, a right click, and a click when you press on the nipple).
The feel of this mouse was strange, at first. With batteries, it weighs 137 grams, compared to only 80 grams for the mouse I was using previously (a Microsoft USB optical mouse). While 57 grams (or 2 ounces) doesn’t sound like much, the difference in weight is taking me a while to adapt to. But it actually makes the mouse more precise, since there is a bit of resistence when moving it around.
One down side I found is that even at the highest tracking speed, the mouse moves too slowly. I remedied this with the free MouseZoom preference pane, which allows me to greatly increase the tracking speed, making it easy to move from one side of my 20″ screen to the other without crossing my desk.
All in all, I’m happy with this mouse. While I don’t really need wireless–I could probably have gotten by with the USB Mighty Mouse–it seems like a nice way to work, not having to occasionally free the mouse wire from other cables on my desktop, and having one less thing to plug into my USB hub. It’s a bit pricey, but, as always with Apple products, it is well-designed, and integrates perfectly with the operating system.
Posted: 8/19/2006 by kirk | Filed under: Apple & Mac OS X | 6 Comments »
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"However, I can’t for the life of me press the side buttons easily. Partly because
of the natural position of my hand, and partly because it takes a lot of pressure
to activate those buttons, it just doesn’t work."
Here’s what works for me (the key being to treat one of the side buttons as an
anchor point and the other as the actual button): Using only the index finger for
the primary and secondary buttons, place the next two fingers together on one
side button (as your anchor), and let your thumb rest on the other side button.
Then simply squeeze with your thumb. For me, this works marvelously, and it’s
a great way to activate Expose. Try it and let me know what you think!
(Remember, you’re only trying to squeeze one of the buttons, not both.)
You don’t so much press them as squeeze them – they activate with very little
pressure and seem to be somewhat linear in terms of force-effect when mapped
to a scalar property.
Yeah, it’s still not working well for me. They do require pressure. I’m wondering
if there’s something wrong with miine then…
Check the settings in the Keyboard/Mouse panel of System Preferences and be
sure that "Off" was not inadvertently selected for the side button(s). Also, each
of the two side buttons can be pressed/squezed independently of the other. So
for initial testing purposes (i.e., just to see if the side buttons work at all), you
can use one hand on the back end of the mouse to hold it flat and then use a
finger of the other hand to press one of the side buttons. I just tried it, and it
works for me.
They do work – they just require a fair amount of pressure; too much in my
opinion. If you can’t do it automatically, there’s no use, and that’s the case here.
It requires too much intention.
For me, activating the side button with a thumb is quite easy. Perhaps there’s
something wrong with your particular unit…