Slashdot Mirror
The Mighty Mouse Has Lost Its Tail
An anonymous reader writes "It's all over the place - Apple has just released a Bluetooth version of the Mighty Mouse for $69. It features a new laser based tracking system and gets it power from either one or two (you decide) replaceable AA batteries, but does not work with Windows yet (no words on Linux)."
bad link, use this instead... BTW how is this news!!??
http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/
I've always wondered if the Mighty Mouse doesn't violate a lot of Apple's user design principles.
I think their design principals are well represented in this mouse. By default it is a simple one-button mouse anyone can use with no training and which encourages app designers to behave properly. With a small bit of knowledge (for more advanced users) it can be a five button mouse. Simple by default, more complex and powerful for those who want it. The best part about this design is on a multi user system a grandmother and the kids can have a single button mouse, while the more advanced users can have multi button mice, without swapping out any hardware. Of course I don't have kids and am addicted to trackballs, so I'm not going to use this anyway, but it sounds great for other people.
I'm a big Apple fan and tend to buy most of their stuff. I bought the Mighty Mouse against my better judgement (simply because it was the cool thing to buy and my Mac friends kept saying it was great) and.. I forced myself to use it for a few months. I kinda got used to it, but eventually I caved in and switched back to my Microsoft Mouse.. Why?
* Too small and painful. I have pretty small hands, but the MM is still too short. My hand was falling off the back and causing me to adopt an awkward position.
* You can't press left and right buttons at the same time! Absolutely useless for gaming, although admittedly you don't need to do this anywhere else (that I'm aware of).
* Squeeze click is too sensitive. I'm a light touch but I kept triggering it. I ended up removing the functionality of that 'button' to stop it annoying me.
* Cable is ridiculously short. Fine with a Mac keyboard, but no good without an extension cable in most other configurations.
On the plus side?
* Mouse wheel. The middle wheel is very cool. It's great to be able to scroll in full 2D. And, um.. that's it.
Oh, it's also expensive, but that's not a reason why I'd avoid it. I'll pay for something good, but it's simply not.
Really short cord
Mouse is really designed to be plugged in to the USB hub of the keyboard next to it. You know, the Apple Pro with the 6 foot cable?
the ball sometimes doesn't work (push really really hard and roll to fix it)
Better way to fix it; Alcohol on the roller ball, copious amounts. Roll the ball on a clean cloth. You'll be surprised how much crap it has gathered off your fingers.
Best way. Slice the retaining ring off the bottom shell of your mouse. Pop the darn thing apart. Two press fit ribbons and a small phillips, then you can clean the scrollball better. It just snaps apart, and the magnetic rollers only go in one way.
the side buttons only act as 1 button.
Its only a four button mouse. Right, left, both, side button(s). You might be better off buying a 5 button mouse, the buttons on the Apple mouse are nearly impossible to get an accurate single side click on. It's more like a four finger squeeze. (Ring and thumb, middle and fore aloft)
I use a Mighty Mouse. Bought it launch day. Went in to see what a PPC Mini was running after 'partner' discount, as I wanted to replace an antique RS PPC machine. Love the damn thing to death. Second best mouse I have owned, and the first best is heavily colored by the fact it was my *first* one 25 years ago.
.sig: Now legally binding!
The engineeer within me wishes to digress. There is an electronic component inside the Mighty Mouse that takes +1.5V and a -1.5V-- it is called an Operational Amplifier (Op Amp) and they are extermely efficient for signal processing especially at the 2.4Ghz range bluetooth works on. But the real question is: how you get that + 1.5V and - 1.5V from two batteries?
Take 2 AA batteries put a wire between them. The center will measure 1.5V, the top 3V, and the bottom 0V. In this case, 1.5V is actually your "ground."
There are several advantageous reasons for making a mouse this way, but the foremost is that, having a pseudo "split" supply, you make wireless communication and amplification much easier on the device.