Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null
Mighty Mouse is Apple's entry into the world of multi-button mice, complete with bold claims of having reinvented the wheel. It looks and feels very much like Apple's old one-button rodents, the addition of a scroll ball (like the normal wheel, but in all directions) being the major difference.
Apple tries to call it a revolution, as usual, but I think you can sum it up as a multi-button mouse for people used to single-button mice, in that it's hard to click all the extra buttons by accident. Which is fine and all, but that means you also have to work a little harder when you're a multi-button person who want to use all the buttons too. To do a right-click, you need to lift your fingers so you don't touch the left side of the mouse too much. And the two side buttons work as one, you need to click squeeze (ahem) both at once, and that doesn't feel quite as easy and quick to do as I'd like.
The only click I found as easy to do as I wanted (except the left of course) was the click of the scroll ball. In fact I didn't remember it was possible to click the ball at all, so I did it by accident a couple of times without realizing what I did to bring the Dashboard up all of a sudden.
Of course, all of my experience comes from a few minutes of playing with a Danger Mighty Mouse in an Apple Centre. Subject to change without notice and all, I'm certainly open to playing more with one at any opportunity, but this is where I stand right now. I'm unsure if I'd really prefer one over some other mouse if I wanted a dedicated Mac mouse. I also wonder how easy or hard it is to assign the buttons some other functions than Exposé and Dashboard shortcuts if you want to. I like to have a double-click handy for example. And it looks like Apple is/will be phasing out their one-button mice in a flash. Of course, there's nothing that's worse with the Mighty than the old mice, you can use it just like a one-button mouse if you like so there's nothing at all to lose.
It's just that it's a bit different from other multi-button mice, and it feels like the difference is mostly to the Mighty's disadvantage.
So I suddenly got a 20 inch iMac, and along with it a Mighty Mouse. It took maybe 30 seconds to get used to the extra buttons and wonderful scrolling ability. I still regularly contemplate connecting my wireles keyboard and mouse and be the lack of two ugly cords richer, but ... no, it's darn nice with these buttons.
I read somewhere that Apple may have quietly updated the Mighty Mouse to remedy problems people had with the initial version. I haven't looked into that statement at all, but it does seem to me like I made accidental middle-clicks and such when trying one out in stores, and I don't recall making a single mistake like that after getting this one. But that could mean pretty much anything, of course. What's certain is that I don't miss having only one button, and nothing has been lost (except a bit of weight) when adding features. That said, there's still a certain feeling of "different for the sake of it" when compared to all the other multi-button mice out there (that would be all the otehr mice out there).