DrunkenBlog

Of the Mighty Mouse (Redux)

The other day I went a little nuts on Apple's new Mighty Mouse, because I figured one good splooge deserved another (No more emails about splooge -- count yourself lucky this wasn't titled "Oh, how the mighty have.." and be done), which included a lot of stuff, but my questions about the actual mouse itself boiled down to:

• How well the buttons work (Remember -- if these worked well, I was willing to give them major points)

• How well the trackball nub works. More specifically, whether you are constantly flicking your finger up and down or wagging it side to side.

  

• What the hell the tag to right on Apple's site meant -- My working theory was that the mouse might cost $.99+ per minute to use.

That very strange marketing blurb turned out to just be the normal mechanical click of the mouse

It's still a normal Apple on-button mouse you have to click down on, so there is that standard click, but there's some thingamajig to make small noises when you scroll or squeeze. Still, that leaves the buttons and the trackball...

This probably isn't going to be a quote Apple will included on its project pages, but when his reviews have been positive they generally are. Mossberg is kind of a big deal -- not so much with geeks, but with general folks, and he's pretty damning in his latest Wall Street Journal column:

So, stop the presses: Microsoft has beaten Apple on hardware design, at least in this one case.

What you have to watch about Mossberg is that he's about as unbiased as they come. If he like something he says so, if he doesn't he doesn't, and you don't have to worry that he's being paid to promote the iPod or Walkman on TV or something, which means people give what he says a lot of sway. For reference, he dug the iPod, and has trashed Sony's offerings.

On the buttons, he says:

In separate tests with separate Mighty Mouse units on separate computers, my assistant Katie Boehret and I found that right-clicking with the Mighty Mouse was unpredictable. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. We needed to press the right side repeatedly to get a single right click, slowing us down and annoying us, well, mightily.

On the trackball, he says:

The scrolling function on the Apple mouse is also somewhat compromised in the name of design. Instead of the tried and tested scroll wheel, Apple embedded a tiny "scroll ball" in the top of the Mighty Mouse. It allows you to scroll vertically, horizontally and even diagonally. It looks cool, but I found it inferior to a scroll wheel and could never get it to work diagonally.

He gives it some points for the squeezy-buttons, but also trashes it for being priced as a premium but not having premium features like its competition, such as being wireless. The 'diagonally' part is probably a bit of Apple's "360" marketing biting them here, as when you say that stuff in marketing, people are going to be able to expect to do it.

Still, we already know all the stuff about it being overpriced for a wired mouse, but what I was really interested in was his comments about the buttons, because they'll come up again.

Oh, Miss Cheng, Miss Cheng. Ars's Infinite Loop has been on a bit of a roll lately when it comes to the Mac. On the day it came out, they hoofed down to the Apple Store and picked one up, then threw their first look up -- complete with obligatory unboxing porn.

Because it's Ars, Miss Cheng's significant other pinged me letting me know they'd decided to take the Mighty Mouse apart completely to see how it ticked, to the shock and horror of many I'm sure, but to my abject delight. You should really check it out, because it probably shows exactly what is going wrong with those buttons and it's always fun to see hardware dismantled when it's not yours.

For some reason, Apple seems to have decided to just have the front of the mouse act as one big sensor. I.E., there is a sensor letting it know if you are touching the left side of the mouse when you click, which will register as a normal click, it looks as though actually touching the 'right button' side of the mouse doesn't really matter at all. Unfortunately, even if you are just resting your finger on the 'left button' when you click, that means you'll get a regular click.

Buttons don't seem to be a strong suit here, but since they had one, and they have access to the red phone and we were getting along swimmingly, I got to ask Miss Cheng about the trackball:

Compared to a scroll wheel, I have to use my finger significantly less. You can adjust the speed of the scrolling in the Preferences anyway, so it's really up to you regarding how far you can go with a roll. The default settings have it going relatively fast though - it's hard to describe. Maybe just a bit more than the default settings would be on a regular scroll mouse with a single full-finger scroll... but yeah, the finger movement is greatly reduced.

Now, compared to a tilt wheel, it's a little different because you don't actually scroll sideways on tilt wheels but tip it like you would for a thinkpad nub or something. Personally, I hate those, but I know a lot of people like them. ;) So you do have to use "more" finger movement scrolling sideways than you would for a tilt wheel because you're not actually using much movement at all for a tilt wheel. But again, the scrolling is fairly fast and you can adjust the settings, so the finger movement is pretty minimal.

That's part of the reason I love it so much... I can do so much with it and yet barely move my finger at all. Plus, it feels good and is fun to play with. Hrm, maybe that's why people are calling it the clit mouse... wait this is getting inappropriate...

Easy boys, as I so love this chick too, but we've already exchanged words on whether or not it's appropriate to propose to someone you've just met who is bound to another. Still, Miss Cheng says the trackball works for her quite well, so it looks as though my fears here were unfounded.

I noticed Rory talking about the Mighty Mouse as well yesterday, and considering he was across the damn Atlantic the last time I checked, the fact that he was already playing with one of these is a little sad.

On the buttons, he says:

Unfortunately in this relaxed position you can't right click on the Mighty Mouse without first lifting your index finger.

The problem with keeping your left finger in the air is that it requires you to constantly keep one of the tendons in your arm under stress, this eventually will lead to RSI or some other issue with your wrist or arm.

RSI is Repetitive Stress Injury, and um, it's bad. You get this when you make your body do the same thing over and over in a way it wouldn't normally want to do it -- causing strain on joints or ligaments and tendons -- and it is just nasty and accumulates over time, like not changing the oil in your car. In severe cases over time, it can be disabling, and giant talking monkeys weren't meant to use computers.

Rory may well have a valid point here, because one thing about the candy pill mouse was that it was fairly ergonomic -- you were supposed to lay your hand out straight with the wrist on the mouse. A click was just a slight pressure, but all your joints were aligned and there was no undue stress.

With this mouse, because of the way the buttons work, clicking means applying pressure with your index finger, but you can't just apply pressure with your other fingers to create a click with the second button -- you have to lift up your index finger high enough so it doesn't confuse the sensor. This may or may not cause some strain after time, but it doesn't seem 'right'.

On a side note, I have to take issue with his keyboard claims, because everyone knows the ADB Apple Extended Keyboard II was the best keyboard for the Mac ever made, and once it died the crown was picked up by the Matias Tactile Pro. It's all about the mechanical key switches, which you can hear from the next room but kick so much ass.

It looks like the buttons are... not ideal. It would appear as though a design decision made something an issue that didn't need to be, and that's disappointing. When it comes to the trackball, Miss Cheng dispelled some of my fears about use, and that's very cool.

Some of you asked me about whether or not the trackball could be cleaned, and it doesn't appear to be the case. It's really hard for me to get over that too, because I've probably spent an entire cumulative week of my life turning mice over to get the mouseball out and clean it. It isn't an altogether unpleasant memory, because there is always a certain harmony in a mindless task, but it isn't one I'm looking to repeat.

It may end up not being that big of an issue -- I've only had to clean the scroll wheels on my mice once or twice, and whether that says more about the difference in mechanism or usage, I don't know. Trackballs have always seemed very sensitive to dirty and grime, but that's when they're scraping across a desk.

Of course, if this is a problem and your scrolling starts to get wonky, you can't clean the trackball, which comes in a little mechanism which -- just to get to -- requires breaking the mouse. Maybe someone like Rory or Miss Cheng can keep us posted on that part, as it's all I'm really curious about now.

 Posted by drunkenbatman
    August 05, 2005, at 06:19 PM