What's new with the Apple Magic Mouse

Justin Yu | Oct 21, 2009

Along with a redesign of the iMac, MacBook, and Mac Mini, Apple also unveiled its new Magic Mouse, a departure from the underwhelming Mighty Mouse Wireless that flew beneath the consumer radar back in 2006. The new Magic Mouse is also the next device (after the iPod touch, and MacBook Pro) in line to receive a dose of multitouch capability.

We've only had a day to play around with the multitouch features, but so far we're still on the fence about switching from our Logitech Performance Mouse MX. There's certainly no denying the aesthetic appeal: The bottom half is sleek aluminum and the top shell is made of a milky white shade of polycarbonate with a subtle gloss. The entire surface is a single button (no Mighty nipple, of course), but you can also change the settings to recognize a right-click or a lefty orientation, as well.

The multitouch user area is spread across the entire surface of the mouse, so you can swipe your finger anywhere and expect uniform results. Aside from the two main buttons, you can also scroll 360 degrees around a Web page, photo viewer, or document using a single finger, or quickly navigate forward and backward in a Web browser by simply swiping two fingers horizontally across the top of the mouse. The last feature is basic, but useful: Holding down the Control key on the keyboard while scrolling up and down with a finger lets you zoom in and out of virtually anything onscreen.

Like the Mighty Mouse, the magical sibling connects to your computer through a simple Bluetooth pairing, and it works with any Mac running OS X version 10.5.8 or later, as long as it has the latest Wireless Mouse Software update 1.0. Windows users will bemoan its inability to work with non-Mac PCs.

Via CNET Crave

Filed under: Notebooks, PC & Peripherals
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sirsteven

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sirsteven says...
I'm usually a fan of - ahem! - nipples, but the single nipple on those old Mighty Mouse thingys were a design disaster, and constantly clogged up. Mine long since stopped scrolling up or down, and now only scrolls left-right.

I'm not paying over for a new mouse though. I'll stick with the laptop trackpad.

Oct 21, 2009 20:11