Apple's Mighty Mouse: Not a 1 ButtonPony
Posted by Matthew Brodsky
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The new mouse from Apple, features an intuitive "scroll ball" that allows the user 360 degree scrolling capability, and control of the cursor. Though created primarily for the Tiger operating system, Apple's Mighty Mouse is also compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows XP PCs.
Apple hasfinally done it. They have cured their Achilles' heel: theirmouse. In the past, Apple fanatics could brag about how muchbetter OS X is than Windows, how much better their PowerBook isfor artistic and intuitive productivity and, how much easy it isto use and repair. PC users would have to grudgingly acknowledgeall of this in their heads, but out loud, to shut up those Appleusers, all they would have to mention is one word: mouse.Apple mice (or meece?) used to be one trick (button) ponies.They were like trying to navigate OS X with a seashell. Nowhowever, Apple has delivered the Mighty Mouse. It is a $50 toolthat, according to Apple, will make up for any mouse missteps ofthe past.
Applestill held on to its top-shell design (read: seashell), but itadded something its mouse had not possessed in the past, andthat's feel. Apple added it to Mighty Mouse in a few ways. First,a so-called "scroll ball" lets you not just zip up and down, butleft, right, zig, and zag-in other words, 360 degrees. Obviously,Apple feels that a straight line is not always the quickest wayto get yourself around a large digital photo, PDF document, orspreadsheet.
Next, Apple added intuitive-pressure-sensing points on the shellof the Mighty Mouse. There are four of them actually. The two toppoints work as your standard right and left clickers on a mouse,without actually being buttons. The two side click-points arepreprogrammed to activate Expose (Mighty Mouse was specificallydesigned for MacOS X Tiger v10.4.2 or later). However, these side pressurepoints can be programmed to open or activate any otherapplication, such as Dashboard or iPhoto.
And as if to rub PC users' faces into the wonder of it all a bitfurther, Apple made Mighty Mouse not just for ibooks andPowerbooks.They made it compatible with either USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 ports soit will work with Windows XP and Windows 2000.
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Comments
By: Peter Nov 13, 2008 8:25 AM
So only the wired version is compatible with Windows XP? well that is disapointing. oh well, I still think the wired mighty mouse kicks the crap out of a conventional mouse. Where can i get a new one for under AU$75?