Contributed by Jeff Orsburn October 3, 2005 9:29 PM

The Leadup

It was the worst of times, now it is the best of times! I have been a die-hard Macintosh user since 1990 (which puts me at a freshman in high school) and started on a Mac Classic under system 6. I had used some Apple ][e and other computers prior, but i just did not like them much. I was hooked on Macs as soon I started using that compact little beast and have loved Macs since. I have liked almost all of the designs that have come out of the Cupertino animal called Apple, but since they released that smelly mouse referred to as the "puck", Apple's mice have been a sore subject with me.

I understand that having a single button mouse for the beginner user is a great idea, because in the last 5 years of doing tech support I have talked to some real winners and can understand how not even giving the option to have a second mouse button to click can force their experience to be nicer. However, for the more experienced user that wants a second or maybe third button, or a scroll wheel, this can get to be a bit expensive, having to replace the mouse on all of your machines, if you have several computers like I do.

I was on the hunt for another mouse, but could not find one that was not covered in a layer of paint that will just wear off in the first two weeks I own it. Then apple announced the Mighty Mouse! I instantly knew that would be the next apple product in my lineup. The first chance I got I went to the brand new Apple Store in the Eastview Mall, Victor, NY, and they reluctantly told me that they were already sold out of them. I was bummed since there was not enough time to make it out to the closest CompUSA to get one that day.

So, I went after work the following day, just to find the same results there. This left nothing to do but wait. I went back in the Apple Store the next week and they had one, I happily walked out with it and proudly carried that Apple bag through the mall.

Using the mouse

When I got home I opened the box and looked at the pure white beauty. If one didn't know better it could be easily confused with another varient of Apple's "no button" mouse, which was head and shoulders above the previously mentioned delight, the puck.

One of those no button mice came with my dual G4, but decided to not use it since I just had to have a second button and a scroll wheel. I decided to plug in the Mighty Mouse without installing the software disk that it came with just to see what would happen. As I guessed, it instantly worked and let me navigate around just like any mouse should. The left and right mouse buttons both did what they should do, a simple click and contextual menu, respectively. I did notice however that the scrollball worked obnoxiously fast, so much so that I found it really hard to tell how far I had scrolled.

Due to the screen resolution I use I very seldom have horizontal scroll bars, unless I am in Photoshop or Final Cut, so I did not really notice if the side to side scroll even worked or not, so I later hooked it up to my iBook without installing the software and the horizontal scrolling did work just fine.

I did test out the side squeeze buttons and they did the same thing as a left click, which I thought was a good default for not having the software installed. The scroll button also worked the same as a left-click.

All right, now I wanted to see what goodies the software let me do so I installed it, again wanting to test, so I installed with the mouse hooked up. The install went smoothly and then made me restart. After the restart I went in to the system preference pane and it allowed me to swap the primary button and each button do do what ever I wanted them to do. I desided to make the squeeze button my application switcher button and my scroll button for the dashboard. This is where I saw a very welcome sight, the adjustment for the scroll speed.

I have been using it for a while now and I really don't have any complaints about it other then I have noticed that if you want to right click you have to make sure that your index finger is not touching the mouse at all or it will left click. It only took me a short time to get in the habit of just lifting my index finger a little bit when i want to right click, I don't even think about it anymore.

I have also heard some people claim that it does not contour to their hand like it should, or like alot of other pointing devices do, and I can see where they are coming from, but I don't find this to be a problem for me and I sit in front of my computers for hours at a time. I think that there is one very definite upside to the design of this mouse that most people overlook. It's the same exact user experience for a right hander or a left hander, and finding a stylish full featured left handed mouse has to be a very difficult job, even if you are a Windows user.

Oh wait, this is one! This smooth device will also work on Windows as well as Mac.

Overall I think that the Jobs crew has finally come up with a suitable replacement for the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II, and maybe people will realize that you can actually right click on a Macintosh and have been able to since the Mac OS 8 days!


© 2005, Jeff Orsburn