Apple's Mighty Mouse: The Move to Multi-Button
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 4, 2005 8:10 PM EST- Posted in
- Mac
High Resolution LCD and Gaming Performance
One of the reasons why I originally switched to the Logitech MX1000 was because of my use of higher and higher resolution displays. I found that the larger the LCD I moved to, the more of a pain using low DPI optical mice became. When I first decided to leave my old Microsoft mouse behind, I bought two mice and did a little mini roundup for myself to determine which one I'd use for my main machine. The running was between the Logitech MX1000 and the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0. In a nutshell, my conclusions were that although I liked the ergonomics of the IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0 better than the MX1000, the scroll wheel (I accidentally middle-clicked a lot with the IntelliMouse's wheel) and, most importantly, the tracking accuracy of the MX1000 was far better for my needs, especially on using very high resolution displays. So, the MX1000 became my work mouse and the IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0 became my testbed mouse.
One of the areas where Logitech's mice are supposed to excel is in gaming. So, I fired up a few games and tried out Apple's latest just to see how mighty it was. However, it was in its gaming performance that I was actually the most disappointed. The tracking speed and accuracy were good enough for me; granted, my first-person shooter skills have atrophied over the past few years, so I'm not as dependent on the perfect mouse as I would have been before, but I would say for the majority of casual/recreational gamers, the tracking and accuracy won't be a problem. The major problem instead was an issue that I mentioned earlier in this review: the problem of right clicking when your left click finger (in my case, the index finger) is resting on the left side of the mouse.
When using the mouse for anything but gaming, I'm not usually alternating left and right clicks all that much, especially given how much of a keyboard-shortcut nut I am. But even when I am clicking a lot, the pace of my clicking isn't so great that I have problems remembering to lift my index finger before I go to right click. It's a pain, sure, but it's something that I can deal with. In games though, it's a very different story.
I fired up a game of Command & Conquerer: Generals, a real-time strategy game where left clicking will select your characters and right clicking deselects them. The reason why I picked this game in particular is because it involves a lot of alternating between left and right clicking, which was where the single-button design of the Mighty Mouse truly failed. Quickly switching between left and right clicks using the mouse had my hand doing a finger dance that it wasn't used to doing at such a fast pace; it went something like: index finger up, right click, index finger down, left click, combined with a lot of dragging and selecting. Although the Mac is far from a gaming platform, those of you who do happen to game on your Mac (or want to use the Mighty Mouse on your PC) should know of the mouse's shortcomings.
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Hacp - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I don't think I will have any problem with this. I usually lift my index finger and put it on the scroll wheel when I rightclick anyways. It is very easy to adapt to a mouse. Once, my right click button wasn't working, and my leftclick button always doubleclicked, so I set my scroll wheel as the left click and hte left click as the right click. Took me 3 days, but I conquered it like a pro. After a bit of practice, it can feel very natural....After saying all of that, I'm not buying that mouse. I'd rather plunge on a mx with that pricetag....
Hacp - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Also another thing to point out, this article was alot more interesting than the 7800GTX series. I was dissapointed when I saw that the article for today was the VGA card, but the mighty mouse article caught me totally by surprise!PrinceGaz - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
There's even less chance of me buying one of those mice, than there is of me buying a Mac (which is roughly zero); but I must agree it was more interesting than reading another 7800GTX review.Lots of individual reviews of $500 cards only a tiny fraction of your visitors will be buying in the next few months is crazy, just do a roundup in a month or two where you can highlight the differences between all the samples you received. It reminds me of the ultra-high end memory reviews that were posted every week or two. For what it's worth I ended up buying high-performance memory but not any of the sticks you reviewed because you only looked at 512MB modules, and a pair of 1GB sticks is a far better investment these days.
MIDIman - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Why innovate something that IMHO is already efficient enough?I'm all about new ideas - the back and forward buttons on new mice (read: Logitech) have truly changed my effectiveness in an OS. Many will say the same about trackballs.
But really - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
kmmatney - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Sounds like you use your middle finger for right clicking, which is weird to me. I use index for the left button, middle finger for scrolling, and my ring finger for right clicking, while my thumb and pinky glide the mouse around with delicate precision.Griswold - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
Left handed people might use the middle finger on the left button and index on the right..Furen - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I use my middle finger to right click as well... Must be because I used a two-button mouse (back before the times of the wheel ^^) for the longest time, and having the middle finger on the right button made sense.ProviaFan - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Everyone does it differently... I use my thumb for the back and forward buttons, index for left button, middle for scroll wheel/middle button, and fourth for right button. On occasion, though, my middle finger can work its way over to the right button, but that doesn't usually last long. :)jm20 - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
Great review, I enjoy your impartialness to manufacturers Anand. I'll stick to my Intellimouse 1.1gamara - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link
I don't care what Apple can do with a mouse. As long as they make it look cute, its going to be horrible to use. Anyone remember the wonderful mouse that came with the original i-macs? It was shapped like a hockey puck and about the same size. I wound up grabbing it sideways most often(since it felt the same in your hand). The 'no button' mice are almost as bad as I drag through most windows with those. Personnaly, they would need to add back/forward buttons too, since I have gotten used to those almost as much as my scroll wheel.