Apple Mighty Mouse ('Bout Time!)

[Kanyamagufa]

This looks seriously cool. Hats off to Apple for finally making the switch to a multi-button mouse. And doing it with style.

 

[Guden Oden]

Still one button less than ye bog standard PC mouse, and that "innovative scroll ball", isn't that just like those mouse-knobs on ibm thinkpads, except it scrolls instead of moving the mouse pointer? It'll suck in gaming I wager.

I bet apple still manages to spin this into this being a "first" to their fans...

 

[MuFu]

What, no Cruise Control?! What's that long thin thing coming out of the front?

 

[ANova]

I don't know if those touch sensitive buttons are a good idea, that means you have to have your fingers elevated at all times.

 

[fallguy]

Hats off to them? Why? They are several years behind.

 

[Maintank]

Welcome to 1987.

I wonder if the Apple users will lose their minds with so many button options?

 

[Colourless]

I have to say that lack of visible left and right button is actual a user interface design flaw. It's not immediately obvious just looking at the mouse that the left and right are actually pushable. There should be some button like markings there. Similarly it doesn't look like you can 'feel' that there are buttons either. My girlfriend did an entire course on user interfaces and i've picked up a few things. A good user interface make it obvious how you interace with the device. That mouse looks like a one button mouse with side buttons not a 2 button + scroll knob + side buttons.

 

[Farid]

I like the fact that you need OSX Tiger if you want to customize the mouse...

 

[Maintank]

I have to say that lack of visible left and right button is actual a user interface design flaw. It's not immediately obvious just looking at the mouse that the left and right are actually pushable. There should be some button like markings there. Similarly it doesn't look like you can 'feel' that there are buttons either. My girlfriend did an entire course on user interfaces and i've picked up a few things. A good user interface make it obvious how you interace with the device. That mouse looks like a one button mouse with side buttons not a 2 button + scroll knob + side buttons.

heh, I took a class on interface design and many Apple products were used as examples of what not to do.

 

[poopypoo]

i'm about as apathetic towards overpriced apple gear as they come, but this looks mildly interesting. well, just the scroll ball. makes sense to me! no reason it has to suck for gaming (tho it certainly might, esp for the 1st version). my only gripe with this is a) well it's apple so it must cost what $50? and b) it's apple -- i love how apple can spin "one-button mouse looks better"... like what kind of genius does it take to make an attractive 2-button mouse 9_9;apple is always excuses, excuses, excuses. nice white tho but... guys think it will get dirty much?

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

I had taken a few classes on interface design and the teachers of each class all came to the conclusion that I should not be designing interfaces for anything, even for toilet bowls.

Has anyone used Apple's new mouse?

heh, I took a class on interface design and many Apple products were used as examples of what not to do.

 

[[maven]]

I had taken a few classes on interface design and the teachers of each class all came to the conclusion that I should not be designing interfaces for anything, even for toilet bowls.

Has anyone used Apple's new mouse?

Yep. Reviewed here (by me), quoted for convenience:

There is a lot of confusion about Apple’s new Mighty Mouse (which IMO is a crap name). As I’ve got mine today, I thought I’d dispel some of it:

- It still has a physical micro-switch that is activated when applying force to the top of the mouse.
- The capacitive sensors only detect which finger is applied, the actual click is initiated by the micro-switch. When both sensors register contact, a primary click is initiated (i.e. for a secondary click, you have to lift your primary finger off the surface).
- The scroll ball works surprisingly well in spite of its small size; diagonal movement is a bit harder but I think that’s not due to the input mechanism but the way human fingers work. It needs a tiny amount of pressure on the ball to register the scrolling movement; it is possible to physically turn the ball without applying any downward force which results in no reaction. The scroll ball click (which I mapped to “Button 3? to keep Safari’s “Open in New Tabâ€￾) also uses the micro-switch for initiating the action but (somehow) is not confused by fingers lying on either contact surface.
- The squeeze buttons (which function as a single button) are meant to be operated by thumb and pinky and take quite a bit of force to activate (to guard against accidental activation I suppose).
- The “speakerâ€￾ (a piezo clicker) is used for feedback when rolling the scroll ball and when activating the squeeze button. This is surprisingly effective.
- The USB cable is still ridiculously short. This is fine if you have a hub in your keyboard or display, but anything else is a stretch.
- Update: It seems to use the Agilent ADNS-2051, which is capable of 400 and 800 dpi. A good reference for which mouse uses which chip is here, but it does not include the new Apple mouse yet.

I am still a button short as my previous mouse was a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer for Bluetooth 2 which had two thumb buttons which I used for Exposé Show Desktop and All Windows. The old mouse had the problem of disconnecting after a certain idle period (to save power) which lead to problems with the “Sleepâ€￾ mode of the Mac Mini — it immediately reawakens when it realises that the BT mouse has severed the connection. Then you have to send it to Sleep again. Also, the middle mouse button on the new version of the Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse is difficult to press: The scroll-wheel is continous (i.e. no distinct “notchesâ€￾) which means you’re more likely to initiate a scroll than pushing the button (which requires a lot more force than before).
Ah yes, I was talking about the new mouse: It looks nice, it’ll have to cleaned more often than the grey / blue / black Microsoft mouse, the lift-left-finger-to-right-click is easier to get used to than I thought, the scroll ball is nifty, and the resolution is higher than the abysmal 400 dpi of the IntelliMouse for Bluetooth, although I don’t know what nominal resolution of the “Mighty Mouseâ€￾ is.
Looks like a keeper…