Apple's New Mouse is Magic, Has Multitouch
Mouse doesn't have to be mighty with it's magic.
Multitouch seems to be the new hotness in the computing industry. Be it multitouch screens or trackpads, it's all about multi-fingering your computers. Apple's had multitouch on its notebooks and iPhones for years now, and now the company is bringing multitouch to the mouse.
Apple today introduced the new wireless Magic Mouse, which does away with mechanical buttons, scroll wheels or scroll balls. Instead, the entire top of the Magic Mouse is a multitouch surface.
Magic Mouse features a seamless touch-sensitive enclosure that allows it to be a single or multi-button mouse with advanced gesture support. The single click is done with the index finger, and the right click is done with the middle finger (at the top corner of the mouse, depending on handedness). The mouse also supports gestures for scrolling, panning, and swipes for page navigation.
Lastly, the new mouse has very thick glide feet--much thicker and longer lasting than many, if not all other mice on the market.
Like most Apple input peripherals, it's Bluetooth only, but it does have a battery life of around four months and range of 10 meters. Magic Mouse comes standard with the new iMac and is available at the end of October for a suggested retail price of $69 (US).
For those wondering, yes, the mouse is indeed a 2 button mouse with a real right click. It just has the appearance of a button-less mouse.


I'm guessing it won't have dedicated sensors for right and left clicks like the Mighty Mouse had so it won't be much good for gaming but I'll keep my trusty Microsoft mouse around for stuff like that. For general OS use, if it can work as well as their touchpads do then it could be a seriously great device.
I'm pretty sure it runs off AA batteries. That's what the Mighty Mouse used and looking at the underneath pic of the device it looks like it takes the same. The batteries lasted in the Mighty Mouse for a pretty long time though. Several months at least.
Mac OS Users: Tom's is currently conducting a poll with regards to a Mac OS forum.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/32340-12-forum
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/32339-12-apple-macintosh-unix-forum
Having to take a finger off the 'button' to tap it instead of click it down will mean a certain amount of loss of control, probably not a huge amount for simple clicking actions, but some of those other actions, like sweeping your fingers across the mouse (I assume to scroll) are goign to require you to practically keep the mouse still in order to carry them out.
Don't get me wrong, it's a nice looking mouse (which is something I cant say about the mighty mouse), even if it still appears a bit too small for my tastes (no I dont have mutton size hands or fingers, just normal ones) and thank gods they've done away with that horrible little pin sized ball in the middle, and I do love multi touch (Apple od it ok, but just not as amazingly as some people tend to suggest), and the concept is interesting, I think it may actually make the mouse less intuitive and flexible, rather than more so, and I doubt it actually has any more functionality than a decent logitech, Razer, MS.. etc etc, with a multidirectional scroll button (in fact taking the number of buttons in to consideration it probably has less).
Well, my Sony laptop has the ability to scroll (vert & hor) with only one finger on the trackpad, leaving my middle finger free to gesture at multi touch mac users
Or that I could play even a minor FPS/RTS with.
I'm pretty sure the Magic Mouse uses a similar thing as the Mighty Mouse where there is a physical click. The mighty mouse was basically a one button mouse that had touch sensors on the front end to detect if you were clicking on the left/right or middle of the mouse. The drawback was that you had to lift your left finger off (if left handed) to do a right click and it was physically impossible to do a joint left and right click (so it wasn't much good for gaming). I'm guessing the Magic Mouse will use similar tech and will have a similar drawback for gaming.
I know laptops have had such scrolling for a while but I was really blown away by the multitouch trackpads. Its easily something you can live without, like a microwave, but you do tend to appreciate it if you've got it. I often find myself missing the ability to twirl my fingers to rotate an image or pinch to zoom in and out when I'm using my desktop. If this works as well as the multitouch trackpads do then it'll be a seriously impressive consumer mouse. For gaming you're best off with something else though.
Wonder how it would be for gaming? For basic games yeah. But for PC users who play with 4-8 buttons, we need the tactile feel of the buttons to know what we are pressing. Also the "give" of the button would be less stressful on the fingers than the solid surface of the Magic Mouse.
For every day uses, that mouse should be a killer product.
It does have some "give" since I'm pretty sure it can click like a regular (all be it one buttoned) mouse. It'll work out whether its a left or right click depending on where your fingers are on the multitouch surface. So it'll be usable for some games but for ones that require the ability to click both left and right mouse buttons at the same time (i.e. in an FPS where holding right click to zoom in, left click to fire) will be awkward to say the least.
I haven't been convinced by Apple's mice in the past and have always thought this is one area where Microsoft clearly wins but for day-to-day use and work use, this one could win out.
This isn't meant for gaming, but rather media.
I can see how it might be good for Photoshop or Illustrator.
Do like most of us do. I keep several pairs of rechargeable AA and AAA batteries around my house. When one set needs replacing I change it out and re-charge the spent ones. Whats so complicated about that.
Among other things...