The Apple Bluetooth Mighty Mouse.
To many of us mac users, we've waited for years and years for Apple to release a mouse that we wouldn't replace after its first week of use. I decided to get the wireless bundle keyboard and Mighty Mouse with my new iMac back in January 2007. Today, I'm happy to announce that five months later I'm still using the same mighty mouse in preference over my other mouses.

The mighty mouse integrates with any of our Apple setups simply for its very simple and unobtrusive design. Being symmetrical, this mouse is perfectly ergonomic for a right or left handed user. Actually, you could say it looks like a glossy bar of soap sitting on your desk. A highly glossy, non-foaming, functional bar of soap with two main buttons, a clickable scroll ball, and squeezable sides. The nice part about the Mighty Mouse's ergonomics are its integrated software already present in Mac OSX. Once you connect your Mighty Mouse, a tab specifically for it appears under the Mouse & Keyboard preferences pane. Here, you can customize each of the five buttons to do whatever you'd like. Left click, right click, middle click, back click, change application, launch application, mute, etc... Thus, if you are a left handed person, you can customize the buttons to fit -- (or if you are a die-hard old school mac user, you can turn the right click into a left click and have a single button mouse all the way through.]

Speaking of the right click function, its interesting to note how the right click operates on this particular mouse. Though there is a distinct left, middle, and right click, there is actually only one real button. The mouse determines which of the three buttons are pressed based on the area pressure was applied to. You could argue that by doing this, Apple is over complicating a simple process of having three separate dedicated buttons versus touch sensitive strips tied to a mechanical button, and really the mighty mouse is more complicated than it had to be. However, on its surface, it really does appear more simple and minimalistic, which is what counts. By contrast, I also own a Logitech laser mouse, complete with an Apple-intended white/aluminum finish. This Logitech mouse appears complex on your desk, like a small mountain range. It doesn't mesh well with the rest of my simplistic apple hardware -- That, and it doesn't have a scroll ball. Only a scroll wheel. Once you have a scroll ball on your mouse, its hard to go back to the wheel.

The scroll ball is a tiny, rubber, gray nub on the northern top face of the Might Mouse. Run your finger over it, and it rolls smoothly along accordingly. Since it's a ball, you're free to roll about in any direction, even diagonally. For large documents and images, this is particularly handy to be able to scroll in any direction just by sliding the ball in that direction. After using the ball for so many months and switch back to using a scroll wheel for even a day, you immediately begin to miss the freedom you once had. For its small size, the ball is also amazingly sensitive, allowing you to carefully scroll/move as slowly or quickly as you'd like. For trackball lovers, I can almost bet there's a special driver out there that allows you to translate scrollball movement into mouse movement. To top it off, the ball has some spring tension behind it. When you press onto it, it sinks into the mouse, prompting it that you're about to perform a middle-click. For Firefox, this is great when wanting to open a link into a new tab automatically.

Apple has also finally decided to do something with those "grip wings" you have seen on the sides of their mouses for years and years. They still exist on the Mighty Mouse, only this time you can squeeze them together for a forth click function. By default, this action of squeezing the sides of the mouse activates the "All Windows" expose command. On a mouse, this is pretty fantastic to have as you can pick up a file, press the side buttons to drag the file to a new window via expose, then release the sides to drop the file off. On a new Mighty Mouse, these side buttons may be a little stiff and hard to press at first. But after the first hundred clicks or so, you will feel them loosen up and feel just about right.

So its ergonomics are fine and dandy. How about its performance?
Tracking: Its laser tracking system is among the best I've used, beating out my Logitech. Movements aren't exaggerated causing you to miss your target, nor are they sluggish enough to frustrate you. The tracking and smooth cursor movements feel right at home. Once again by contrast, switching back to my Logitech laser mouse, I immediately feel like the mouse over compensates my littlest movements, making buttons hard to click the first time. The sensor location is located at the northern bottom face of the mouse, just under the scroll ball. Instead of being in the middle of the mouse, this sensor position may take a few hours to get used to, as curving wrist movements may become amplified.
In Practice: The manner in which the buttons are pressed, as previously mentioned in this review, can some times work against the mouse when actually used in practice. While I personally have had no issues with the touch-sensitive technology, some users with lazy fingers or exact application requirements may find the following a deterrent for the Mighty Mouse. First, if you are a person used to keeping a finger rested on both the right and left click, this will trip up the touch sensors and will effectively disable the right click. In order to perform a right click, the left click MUST have no contact at all. If a finger is touching the left button, a right click will register as a left click. Secondly, this very problem also disables the mouses ability to do a left right click at the same time. Some software [and game] uses left right click combinations for performing special camera movements. For average OS use, I find the mighty mouse to be the best choice for Mac users. The two issues above are why the Mighty Mouse cannot be used for games or very serious application. As an artist, I use a Wacom Tablet for my more precise work, thus these problems inherent to the Mighty Mouse don't bother me.
Connectivity: With BlueTooth, the mighty mouse requires no connected dongle or extra piece of hardware to carry along with it. You just connect it and let it talk directly to the system itself. Usable on any bluetooth-enabled system, its easy to just turn the Mighty Mouse off by sliding its lens protector up, and tossing it into your bag. Once you slide the lens cover back down, the mouse begins its syncing process with the last computer it talked to. If you wish to connect it to a new computer, the sync button under the battery door allows it to enter Discoverable mode.
Lifespan: I'm glad to announce that just two days ago, my Mighty Mouse finally ran low on the original batteries it came with back in January. I turned my mouse off every night, to conserve the batteries, which led my mighty mouse to live off a single pair of AA's for just about five months. For a mouse that can survive almost an entire year on just four batteries total, I rate that as great long lasting battery life. For physical lifespan, my Mighty Mouse still looks brand new. All parts still work correctly after near nonstop use, and it looks and feels like it will last for years to come.

For all you OSX surfers out there, you should either buy your new mac with the wireless keyboard mouse bundle to get this might mouse, or you should attempt to make the expense to get one for yourself. If you're not a gamer or a pro application user, I can easily say you wouldn't regret it months down the road.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 45 (Bundled)