Apple Mighty Mouse Wireless - mouse

...year, I purchased my first Apple computer. Deciding to go for the iMac, an all-in-one desktop computer.

From their website, Apple include either the wired or wireless Mighty Mouse with the purchase, the Wireless option being a £13.99 upgrade option, but no option to get the computer without the mouse.

Because I have so many computer mice lying around, I was torn between selling the default (wired) Mighty Mouse when the ...
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Being my first Apple computer, I had to learn to use one click instead of two. At first I failed at this terribly, by holding down control and then clicking on something will do the same thing as right click will on a normal mouse, so if you regularly need to use the "right click" menu, then it can be quite awkward remembering that you need to operate mouse and keyboard at the same time. As a result of this, I found myself having ... more

(This review is written having tested the hardware on Mac OS X Leopard and Windows Vista)

This year, I purchased my first Apple computer. Deciding to go for the iMac, an all-in-one desktop computer.

From their website, Apple include either the wired or wireless Mighty Mouse with the purchase, the Wireless option being a £13.99 upgrade option, but no option to get the computer without the mouse.

Because I have so many computer mice lying around, I was torn between selling the default (wired) Mighty Mouse when the computer arrived, or upgrading to the Wireless option and keeping it, I have far too many cables for electronics to want to add more wires, so I decided I would purchase all of the wireless options with the iMac, but paying extra money for something I didn't particularly need was a nuisance.

In the end, I decided that I was going to go for the wireless mouse (as well as wireless keyboard) and if I decided that I didn't like it, I am sure it would etleast go for a fair price on eBay. Before purchasing, I looked on the internet for any possible problems which people have encountered whilst using the mouse, there were a number of them which I will come to.

After finally getting to use the mouse, I found it was a little unusual to use at first. By default it is a one button mouse with a 360 degree scroll wheel and a button on both sides. What is unusual about it is that it is not left or right handed,it is a symmetrical design and can be used in either hand without any configuration of software (unless used in another operating system other than Mac OS X).

Being my first Apple computer, I had to learn to use one click instead of two. At first I failed at this terribly, by holding down control and then clicking on something will do the same thing as right click will on a normal mouse, so if you regularly need to use the "right click" menu, then it can be quite awkward remembering that you need to operate mouse and keyboard at the same time. As a result of this, I found myself having to learn a lot of hot keys that I would normally not use if I were using a right click mouse, for example, in photo applications, rather than right clicking to access options (as I am used to in the GIMP editing software), I was forcing myself to learn hot keys.

Apple tend to advertise their computers as being simple to use, and it is true, they are very simple to use, but having used Windows for such a long time I found the logical way of doing things to be quite tricky to learn. I was always looking for button which would do something I am used to in Windows only to learn that you just click and drag things instead.

Of course, if you have no intention of changing the way in which you use a computer, but require the use of a Mac for whatever reason, then by going into the mouse preferences you can change the mouse settings so that the right side of the mouse, will operate as a right click.

I tried this setting for a while, but made most use out of it when running Windows Vista, where it is made a right click by default.

It generally works very well, however the left click seems to be more dominant than the right click. It may be just the way I use the mouse makes it harder to right click, but I found that when I tried to right click, it would sometimes just do a left click, I had to make sure that when I used the right click, I had my finger far enough to the right, which is difficult when there are few clues you can touch on the mouse, beyond the scroll wheel. To test out how effective the right clicking was, I decided to play a game of Team Fortress 2 using it. I never accidentally pressed the wrong button whilst in a game, possibly because when playing a game I tend to sit more upright and perhaps had my hand in a slightly different position to when I encountered the problems when clicking.

The side buttons on the mouse appear to be two buttons, but they cannot be programmed individually, they both do the same function. The way you use the mouse means that you actually squeeze the two buttons in to operate the side button function. I preferred to use the buttons to run the Expose effect, but other options allow it to open Dashboard ( the Mac program for displaying Widgets ), an application switcher (similar interface to alt+tab on a Windows computer), spotlight ( a search tool), or Spaces, which allows you to use multiple desktops.

The scroll wheel on the mouse is a ball, unlike most other mice it allows you to scroll in multiple directions. By default however, it is only configured to scroll in four directions: up, down, left and right. This is because when you scroll down a page slowly, you are probably going to be using the mouse at a slight angle, this makes it difficult to scroll vertically without scrolling slightly to the left or right. You can change this to 2 way, or 360 degree scrolling in the mouse preferences as well as adjust the sensitivity and other options on the mouse.

The scroll wheel also functions as a button, by clicking it in you can run a programmed operation, however one of the main complaints about this feature was that there is no obvious way to make it a scroll button. On a computer running Windows or other operating systems, the middle mouse or scroll wheel button functions as a way to scroll through the page without having to move the wheel but instead move the whole mouse, and the content is automatically scrolled through. On Mac OS X the standard option is to make this button run Dashboard, but no option to make it a scroll button. There is an option for button 3, but button 3 does not scroll, it just works as an extra button like what you get on some computer mice. I thought that this is something which could be added in the future because sometimes the scroll button is useful, particularly when looking through a long web page or word document and don't want to have to keep a hold of the mouse as you read it. There is an option to run a script when the button is pressed, and I am sure that there are a number of scripts available to add similar functionality, however it is not included by default, therefore I see that as a potential problem in the computer simplicity in which Macs are sold.

As for general usability of the mouse, it is very smooth and nice to use. I have a Microsoft Sidewinder gaming mouse connected to my iMac and can use both at the same time, I noticed that the Microsoft mouse did not handle well on Mac OS X, likely something to do with my settings being tailored to my preferences using the Mighty Mouse, however the Mighty Mouse also felt very nice when used in Windows Vista, It is very responsive and worked well on the surfaces I have available to test on.

To install the mouse on a Mac there is a very easy process when first configuring the computer. Running Windows Vista via Bootcamp installed any drivers necessary to use the mouse, therefore my experience with Windows installation is not necessarily the same as somebody who installed it onto a standalone Windows computer, however it was a very simple bluetooth device configuration.

It does not use a dock, it instead requires batteries. It is supplied with two AA lithium batteries, which keep the mouse going for a fair amount of time. Mine tend to last for around 2 months, but this varies based upon usage of the mouse.

The mouse feels quite tough, when you squeeze the side buttons it doesn't cause the mouse to bend or creak at all as it looks like it might when you first look at it, but I certainly wouldn't risk dropping it onto a solid floor. Because of its design, physical damage is likely to have an effect on its usability, which is a problem since this is an expensive mouse.

The mouse is priced as a £13.99 upgrade of the wired version when purchasing a Mac, or £49.99 on its own. This is not cheap, and it will be expensive should you need to replace it in the future however, it works brilliantly, the only true design problem I have encountered other than the right click issue has been the dirt. Because of its shiny design, dirt can easily build up if you use it a lot, but simply wiping the mouse with a cloth or following Apple's instructions on cleaning it should solve this issue.

A good buy, and certainly a very good mouse, where many other manufacturers just throw in whatever cheap mice they have around, the Mighty Mouse is genuinely a product which combines looks and quality, it isn't anything to hide from an office desk or desktop at home. 

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