The Magic Mouse

October 20th, 2009

Apple’s new Magic Mouse has no buttons.

That’s just shocking. (Right.)

Terrible name aside, the Magic Mouse looks quite nice. It uses multi-touch for everything other than moving the cursor, so it’s kind of like a trackpad grafted onto a mouse. Tap to click, flick your finger to scroll (in any direction, and it has momentum-scrolling like the iPhone), and swipe left or right to navigate (move backward and forward in Safari and iPhoto, for example).

Hopefully it works well in practice, because like everyone else, I abhor the Mighty Mouse’s scroll ball. I wonder about its profile, though; will its small profile cause people with larger hands to ache after using it for a while?

It seems like Apple is intent on people adopting the Magic Mouse and wireless keyboard. There is no wired version, and while you can opt for the wired Mighty Mouse (now branded the “Apple Mouse”) when buying an iMac, it doesn’t reduce the cost of your order.

It works the same way for the wireless keyboard, too, which now comes standard with the iMac. While you can opt for the wired keyboard, it doesn’t reduce the cost.