We Review the Magic Mouse
Initial Impressions: Wow. Definitely the sleekest looking mass-produced mouse I’ve ever seen. The clean lines and design of this mouse make it look so incredibly clean and design focused – I was worried that there wouldn’t be much focus on function.
Ergonomics: The mouse sits on the desk with a very low profile. While the low height is very pleasing to the eye, I initially declared it to sit too low for my hand.The comfort just isn’t there like it was even with my Mighty Mouse – when laying my hand on the mouse I can’t help but feel like I’m trapping a wounded bird underneath it. The length from front to back of the mouse also seems to be too small for me. The mouse would feel much better if it were a half inch longer but then of course it wouldn’t look quite as cool.
Design: As with most Apple products, a simple glance at the mouse reveals how strongly design was emphasized when creating this product. I think this little device is one of the most beautifully designed products Apple has ever created. Its beauty lies in the simplicity and the cleanliness of the design; there are no wasted lines or accentuated buttons. They were able to remove the scroll-wheel entirely and what remains is a clean and smooth surface.
Functionality: Once up and running, the mouse functions as promised. The one touch scrolling is wonderfully intuitive – much like the iPhone. Primary and secondary clicking also behaves as expected. A secondary click seems to require that you remove your index finger before it will detect your click as a secondary one (I lived with this same experience using the Mighty Mouse so this was nothing new).There is new functionality built into this mouse that allows you to two-finger swipe (left-to-right or right-to-left) and advance next or previous through pictures in Preview or iPhoto or the history in your web browser. I haven’t yet got used to the sideways swiping yet. If the mouse was bigger and fit better in my hand it would probably be a little easier to get used to but maybe in a month from now I’ll have no complaints.
Interface Compatibility: Installing this mouse was no walk in the park. Full Disclosure: my installation of the latest Mac OS (Snow-Leopard) was very very fresh – but it did have the latest software updates. I put batteries in the mouse, turned it on and told my Mac to find a new bluetooth device. Initially my computer didn’t find the mouse at all. I had a couple of people at my desk at the time and none of us knew why it wasn’t working.
We turned it off and on again, we waited 5 minutes for the OS to search for the mouse, all of which left us scratching our heads. I think at one point we must have turned on the mouse’s “Discoverability Mode” by accident which seemed to fix problem with the mouse not being found. That really is just a guess though because being typical guys we never even opened the instruction booklet so I guess I can’t fault Apple on this one.
My computer quickly found the mouse but none of the Magic Mouse functionality was enabled. I thought perhaps it was disabled by default but the mouse settings revealed otherwise:
It turns out that the OS needed a Magic Mouse update installed that it didn’t know about until I connected the mouse in the first place.After all was said and done it took almost 20 minutes to get this device up and running.
Over-All Grade: I give this mouse an A-. It’s the nicest mouse I’ve ever used but I can’t go any higher than that because of the ergonomic short-falls. A mouse is a tool that you use every day but it’s also something that can put you out of work with an injury if it isn’t designed and used correctly. Apple has always put design ahead of ergonomics and while I appreciate that decision, the result is still a considerable problem.
Posted on November 17th, 2009 under Our Opinions by Jason with 4 comments.
4 Comments
thank you for your review it’s helping make my decision to keep my mighty mouse or get the new one.
My initial reaction to the new Magic Mouse was one of pure gadget lust. The overall concept and purity of form are near the pinnacle of industrial design. After spending two full days with mouse in hand, I have become aware of the shortfalls of form over function. The loss of two programmable buttons (side pinch buttons and scroll ball) have disrupted my work flow and my use of Spaces and Widgets. The slim profile and the crisp upper edge had forced me to change the fundamental way I hold the mouse (between thumb and ring finger to a thumb/middle finger grasp). After the first day, the cuticle area of my ring finger was tender and raw from the crisp edge. The other consequence of the thumb/middle finger grip is that the two-finger swipe motion requires a repositioning of my hand each time I want to use it. It also puts my clicking finger at the far edge of the top surface. I find that my clicking finger is making more frequent and unnatural lateral movements that are causing considerable discomfort. So I would agree that the Magic Mouse get high marks for design, but the function will have to get downgraded because I get really concerned when I leave work and my hand aches because of my mouse. My old Mighty Mouse may not get retired to a box in the cupboard just yet. Thanks
At first I was also a little disappointed with the magic mouse’s lack of gestures, but then I found an app to fix that. The app is called MouseWizard, http://www.samuco.net/web/node/23. Only $2.50 and adds several of the gestures mentioned above. It is still a little buggy, but hopefully if there is enough interest they will continue developing it and fixing the bugs.
@Phillip Thanks for the scoop. I passed on the info to all the adventurous Magic Mouse users, but as for me, I am sticking with my old stand by, the Mighty Mouse.