So the other evening, bored on the overnight shift, Apple decided to release their Mighty Mouse. It was about 01:30am at the time and my credit card just kept getting hotter and hotter until it was used. Two days later it rolled up at my door.

An interesting thing about purchasing an item only minutes after its release is that about 5-6 hours later, the revies start getting published. Albeit they’re mostly pretty amateur at that stage but they started to get me a little worried. For anyone who hasn’t taken a good look at these little devices, they don’t actually contain 2 buttons, they just simulate it by having touch sensitive inputs where normally there would be buttons. The upshot of this is that it still feels very much like the original Apple 1 button mouse. The downshot (?) however is the way Apple uses these sensors.

When i originally looked through the Apple site for the mouse, I assumed that these were some variation on pressure sensors that allowed it to know where the ‘click’ had come from, despite the fact that there was only 1 microswitch. Frustratingly, I was wrong. They simply detect where your fingers are located and from that assume which button was clicked. Good theory and it kinda works. The problem is that if you have your left finger resting on the ‘normal’ left finger spot when you right click, it registers as a left click. Bad logic, whether it works or not, its still poor.
When I found this out I was a little worried that the (expensive) little mouse I just bought would just be more of a frustration. I could see myself switching back to the old MS jobby and trying to flog the Mighty off to another Mac nut.

Thankfully now that its arrived I find the problem isn’t as bad as first thought, it is still noticible however. You kind of have to train yourself to subconsciously lift the left click finger ever so slightly before right clicking, other wise you don’t get the required response, even the slightest touch will trigger left. My other major gripe is that I really thought Apple would have made this, their ‘premium’ mouse, with a laser instead of just optical. This, of course, I did know before ordering though.

So my final opinion? 7/10. My standards for Apple products is high and I would have expected the long awaited ‘2 button’ Apple mouse to be a little more advanced and groundbreaking, but it is reasonable. I should also mention the scroll ball which works fantastically well! Even nicer than the old two-wheel mouse I used to use.

If anyone wants to have a more detailed look at this thing, check out this