Wireless Mighty Mouse from Apple

Apple’s Wireless Mighty Mouse Somewhat Redeems

Apple announced the release of the inevitable wireless version of its Mighty Mouse, a full-featured mouse for the Mac line of computers. Having previously purchased and reviewed the wired version for this website, and not been particularly thrilled with its predecessor, I wanted to see if perhaps having a wireless version would make any difference to me. It did, overall. Being that a lot of my work is done stretched out on a couch or in bed with my MacBook Pro, having a wireless mouse makes for quick and comfortable working without having a cable to get snarled up in whilst lying back cooking my lap with the hot-to-handle MacBook Pro. Having any wireless mouse in that scenario works best, so instant points were scored just for it being wireless. With that said, the single-button wireless mouse still required the dreaded control+click to use, so one-handed use wasn't possible and kept me from using it with my MacBook Pro while lounging about and pretending to be working.

As with all Apple products, the Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse arrived in attractively designed packaging and as it is with the wired version, this wireless cousin shipped with box contents that included:
* Warranty Info
* Instruction Booklet
* CD-ROM containing the installation files to support the mouse.

And as with the wired version, standard drivers within OS X do not support the mouse’s full functionality. Read the manual. Yes, this means you! It is only five pages long but it tells some pretty important things like:

* System Requirements: The Wireless version requires Mac OS X 10.4.6 or higher to work. Lower versions are not supported. If you want to run the Mighty Mouse with a lower version of OS X or with Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you can only use the original wired version.

A nice new change from the wired to wireless version is the laser tracking system in the wireless, which is more accurate than the optical version in the wired version. Having been old school enough to remember dirty, rubber mouse balls (that doesn't sound right!) it is hard to imagine complaining about the tracking of the optical vs. laser, but it is noticeably better to have a laser version.

Like its wired cousin, the wireless Mighty Mouse has the tiny scroll ball, still smaller than the eraser on a #2 pencil and the buttons on the sides are touch sensitive. The Wireless Mighty Mouse paired up via BlueTooth with my MacBook Pro effortlessly without installing the drivers or software that came on the CD-ROM. After pairing it up, it was instantly working as a mouse, with the right-click feature working as a two-button mouse should work. The scroll ball did its job, giving an up and down and side by side control.

It wasn't until I decided that maybe I should go ahead and install the software from the disk that I had to open up the System Preferences and re-set the right button to function as a right button. After installing the software, the mouse reverted to acting like a single button Apple mouse, requiring me to re-set it to how I liked to use it. The software installed much faster on my MacBook Pro than the wire version had on the PowerBook G4 1.25 I tested the previous mouse with for the earlier review.

The Wireless Mighty Mouse works like a combination two-button mouse with a rolling bump on the top, forward, center position. The side touch-sensitive buttons can be set to perform whatever tasks you would like a mouse to do. In my case, I am using the default settings whereby when both the buttons are squeezed on the side, Expose opens up on my screen. The ball works pretty much as a scroll wheel works, only you can scroll side to side if your window is smaller than what is being displayed, allowing both horizontal and vertical scrolling. Don't confuse it with a track ball, though. It doesn't do that.

Customizing Mighty Mouse
As with any mouse settings, to tweak them you open OS X’s system preferences, clicking on the Keyboard and Mouse settings icon, then switching the tab to the mouse preferences pane can customize the Mighty Mouse. Just like the wired version, the scroll ball can be set to:

* Dashboard
* Expose – All Windows
* Expose – App-Windows
* Expose – Desktop
* Application Switcher
* Spotlight
* Other (which you can set to open any application)
* Button three (as though it were a three-button mouse)
* Off, as in, disable the thing

The Wireless Mighty Mouse uses either one or two AA batteries. That's kind of cool, you can use one for shorter life or two for longer. My biggest complaint with my other wireless BlueTooth Apple mouse was that it ate batteries like my Expedition eats gas. I haven't had this one long enough to comment on its overall battery life, having just received it today.

The side buttons are still able to each be set to all of the above, in addition to being either the primary or secondary button for the mouse. You can also still set the double-click, tracking and speed of the scrolling from this menu pane. With its standard settings out of the box, touching the two side buttons at the same time generates the equivalent of hitting the Expose command to spread open the application windows so all are visible, as in All Windows. Clicking the mouse while holding the scroll ball opens the Dashboard, since that is what it is set to by default, and would of course open whatever you set it to from there with the same method.

And as with the wired version, to open the menu with a right click to invoke a command, make sure the menu is set to Secondary Button on the side you want to do this with. If both are set to Primary Button, you get no menu opening up and the mouse functions as a single button mouse would. You are allowed to set both to Primary. You cannot set both to Secondary, as changing the other one to Secondary automatically changes the other to Primary, but not in the reverse. Regardless of the side you choose, be it left or right, a simple angled click forward toward either corner chosen, as Secondary will bring up the menu you seek. If you are a lefty and want the right mouse button to be the primary button, you can do this, and set the left button to open up menus for you.

Gosh gee, that's a lot of money!
OK, while I didn't slam the Might Mouse in my original review, I didn't sing its praises, either. It works as advertised, but it isn't exactly the most ergonomic mouse out there and it sure isn't very inexpensive, be it the wired or wireless version. In fact, the wireless version set me back $74.00 delivered, including CA sales tax. That's a lot of money for a wireless mouse. The wired version will set one back $50-US!

The Mighty Mouse remains an awkward design over more ergonomic, laser tracking wireless mice compatible with Macs, and there are several on the market than cost half as much, some that are even rechargable. However, the third-party mice are not the snazzy matching design of the Apple Mighty Mouse, don't come in Artic White, etc. To some people it is important to have the official toys.

Still, I gave the wired version three stars for what it does right, and because of all of those features remaining, and the fact that this one adds laser accuracy and is wireless, I'll go four stars on this one, but its definitely not a five star find.

For more information on the Mighty Mouse, visit Apple’s Website.

Added:  Thursday, July 27, 2006
Reviewer:  AppleProAudio
Score:
Related web link:  Visit Apple on the Internet
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Language: eng