Auto Pilot
Awhile ago, I said the Mighty Mouse officially blows, and its caused some email. Damn, am I ever sick of this product, and I'm a step away from creating a rule funneling all mail mentioning it to a separate folder so I can only view them in a batch when I'm mentally prepared...
I'm sticking to it, while allowing different strokes for different folks, as most everyone I've encountered that has actually used one for a month isn't enjoying it as much as they did when they first got it, and are disappointed. Even when they've gotten around the whole lifting the finger to click deal, the side buttons just blow, and there is apparently something really kinda whacked out about the drivers for the thing.
Windows and such have had built-in drivers that are more universal and capable for multi-button mice, and while the system will recognize the mouse and let you do some things with the buttons, Apple had to ship their own special ones with it to let it do its funky dance, and apparently they're kinda wonky over time. Obviously they'll eventually be rolled into the system, and will hopefully be brought up to snuff, but at this point I wouldn't count on that for a product that should just work already when you control the whole widget in a way no one else does.
So yeah, while I wish it didn't and love that Apple is shipping a multi-button mouse, the Mighty Mouse blows. The poor design and execution of a product that was going to receive so much attention -- because they were popping their button cherry in a major way -- is worrisome.
We know they're capable of more, and in the context of say, the amount of attention shown towards the iPod to combine functionality with aesthetics, this product borders on embarrassing. If you assume they have the capability to create something both beautiful and "aesthetically Apple", it would be also be fair to assume there is something causing it not to happen, and a lack of obsessive attention for a premium product is as good a working theory as any.
Swaths of people are going to buy something Apple puts out just because it has the logo, but it can do better and should do better, even if it can get away with it. If I buy a new Mac, I don't want to end up throwing its first default multi-button mouse in the drawer to join Apple's other input offerings since Ive and Jobs have started birthing them.
Posted by drunkenbatmanSeptember 23, 2005, at 03:18 AM
Comments (22)
Posted by: Devon Shaw at September 23, 2005 03:55 AM
I'm unimpressed, and the scroll ball is actually slightly unnerving. I'm sticking to my Logitech MX1000 for now.
Posted by: Colin Barrett at September 23, 2005 04:30 AM
My grandmother got one with her new iMac G5, and the first thing I did was turn off the right click for her. It makes the mouse a lot better, IMO. Another disappointing thing about it is that you can't scroll vertically and horizontally at the same time. Isn't that the whole point of having a sphere as your scrolling device? Overall the thing seems really rushed and hacked together. From the name ("mighty mouse" definitely sounds like a code name) to the "lift to right click" thing just reeks of rushed to market. Which begs the question "Why?". Why would you rush something like this? I have no idea. DB, maybe you can answer?
Posted by: l0ne at September 23, 2005 05:44 AM
The Mighty Mouse drivers are integrated into 10.4.3, I hear.
Posted by: Jacqui at September 23, 2005 07:15 AM
Just so you're aware, it turns out that my "total freak out" situation in Firefox was actually Firefox-related, not driver-related at all like we had originally theorized.
Posted by: drunkenbatman at September 23, 2005 07:22 AM
Just so you're aware, it turns out that my "total freak out" situation in Firefox was actually Firefox-related, not driver-related at all like we had originally theorized.
Good to know, although our conversation was more of a capping of 10 others. :) Wouldn't write it based on one report of weirdness, or rather I'd note that. Aargh and I completely flaked on you so far about the other stuff... and why are we doing that weird thing where you carry on conversations via comments when emails and IM were invented...
Posted by: Jacqui at September 23, 2005 07:46 AM
and why are we doing that weird thing where you carry on conversations via comments when emails and IM were invented...Fuck, you tell me. :P
(I can say "fuck" on here, can't I?)
Posted by: drunkenbatman at September 23, 2005 07:53 AM
Fuck, you tell me. :P (I can say "fuck" on here, can't I?)
You have the dirtiest mouth on any girl I've ever met -- what would possibly lead you to think that was fucking appropriate?
Posted by: Evan Schoenberg at September 23, 2005 08:53 AM
And db, you just went from conversing via comments to being lecherous via comments. Nicely done.
Posted by: Groover at September 23, 2005 10:14 AM
Ah, don't worry, we're with you. I also think the Mighty Mouse blows. The Mighty Mouse is ridiculous. A two button mouse that doesn't even visually indicate that a second button exists? How the heck is that intuitively Mac-like? A carpal-tunnel-inducing squeeze of the sides? Get that mouse away from me.
Posted by: Michael Heilemann at September 23, 2005 10:48 AM
Works well for me...
http://binarybonsai.com/archives/2005/09/01/1652/
To be honest I'm a bit amused so many people get so huffed up over it :)
Posted by: chadseld at September 23, 2005 10:52 AM
I have used it for a month...
Right Click = BAD
Scroll Wheel = GOOD
Center Button = GOOD
Side Buttons = MEH
Right-clicking does indeed suck. You have to lift your left finger. Sometimes, if the left area of the mouse gets too dirty, lifting your finger is not enough.
The side buttons are too hard to push to be very useful. Though if you tie them to expose, you will get 'some' use out of them. Also, the side buttons are disabled when the main button is down, this allows you to pick up the mouse and reposition it during a long drag. Though this is great for dragging, it keeps you from using them to activate expose while dragging, something you may want to do.
The center button is the first usable scroll-wheel button ever. You can press it without accidentally scrolling. You can't accidentally press it while scrolling. Perfect.
The scroll wheel is awesome. Horizontal scrolling is very useful. Diagonal scrolling does not work. I think they wanted to separate the horizontal and vertical axis's so that the operations are mutually exclusive.. this turns out to be a good idea. Use iScroll for a week and you will understand why.
The best part about the scroll wheel is that it is very high resolution. This allows them to implement a much finer acceleration curve for scrolling. The result is that I can easily scroll very very slowly (1 pixel at a time) AND I can easily scroll very very quickly (flip through pages). Switching back to a regular scroll wheel bums me out.
Posted by: Schof at September 23, 2005 11:31 AM
I second chadseld's comments. The scroll ball on the Mighty Mouse is easily, without a doubt, the best I've ever used. Kicks a standard scroll-wheel's ass and steals its lunch money. ALMOST makes the Mighty Mouse worth using. Except that everything else on the Mighty Mouse SUCKS. About 5 to 10% of the time, a right-click registers as a left-click. I hit the side buttons accidentally way too often, and find that I have to reposition my hand in order to hit them on purpose -- the whole thing (except the scroll ball) is awkward. Very non-Apple. I used it for two weeks; it's now in a bin in my parts closet.
Posted by: thewebgal at September 23, 2005 12:10 PM
Sounds like what we really want is a Logitech mouse with that new scroll ball function. I know I popped a logitech mouse on my G4 almost the first day I bought it ... one button mouse indeed! I don't use the tertiary or higher buttons it offers, just the left click/right click/scroll wheel functions.
Posted by: Riot Nrrrd™ at September 23, 2005 12:13 PM
I've never seen/used a Mighty Mouse personally so I can't really comment on it, but I can't see how it could have as much functionality as my 5-button Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer does.
I map the right mouse button and middle scroll wheel/button to copy and paste, respectively, and the two side/thumb buttons to backwards and forwards in a Web browser. It's got a nice ergonomic design, and I just can't imagine being without 5 buttons - it saves so much mouse/wrist motion and keyboard switching back and forth.
In general, I'm not much of a fan of Microsoft's products but the Intellimouse Explorer rocks.
Posted by: iomatic at September 23, 2005 02:36 PM
Third, chadseld.
My scrollball stopped working, but smacking it against the table in frustration made it work again. Others report that cleaning it works too. :) I prefer the smacking method.
Posted by: NoPCZone at September 23, 2005 02:43 PM
I was interested when I heard that Apple had FINALLY decided to release a multi-button mouse. When I went to the Apple Store and tried one out my interest died. Why try to re-invent what is not broken? The multi-button scroll wheel mouse has been around a long time and is already well evolved. Apple has tried to re-invent the wheel and ended up with an expensive decorative item. Just like DB, I am unimpressed. Even Microsoft makes (markets) a better mouse.
Posted by: Bob C at September 23, 2005 03:07 PM
Based on quite limited evidence I'm going to guess that those who have been using a multi-button mouse for some time are the ones who will also find they have physical problems making the right-click, whereas those who have been using a one-button mouse extensively do not have a physical problem (lifting the first finger slightly while depressing the right finger).
I think it's learned behavior to keep both fingers on the mouse while right-clicking. The way the tendons work on our hands, we naturally move the first finger up slightly when lowering the second finger. Try moving various fingers in isolation while keeping your hand parallel to the ground and raised to eye level.
Though I've used three-button mice (for Unix) since the late seventies and two-button mice, I've always preferred and have the majority of my own experience on one-button mice. (I'm talking the main buttons here, not side or scroll or pinkie buttons.) I have had zero trouble doing a right click. My main problem with left and right clicks is that I click the wrong button occasionally (on purpose physically, clearly a mental error). I also don't play games with my mouse.
I did deactivate the side button in the mouse preferences because I found it too easy to generate a click with them while mousing around. But the left and right clicks, the wonderful scroll ball, and the center click all work fine after extensive use. I'm now debating whether it's better to complicate my clicking to free up my left hand (which is generally not doing anything at the same time as a right click, heh-heh) or not.
Posted by: Bruce Hoult at September 24, 2005 07:53 PM
I got one a month or so ago (well after they came out) and I love it. My Microsoft optical wheel mouse is now oficially in the drawer and staying there.
The only thing I don't like is the side buttons and I've turned those off. (I never used the ones on my MS mouse anyway)
Scrolling is sublime. Left and right clicks are fine. Middle click (which I use a *lot*, for opening web page links in the background) is worse than a dedicated 3-button mouse but about as good as on a wheel mouse (and I'm not about to go back to a non-scrolling mouse).
Posted by: MonkeyT at September 25, 2005 07:53 AM
Speaking as someone who actually does have a slight carpal tunnel issue and is very cautious about aggravating it, I found the Mighty Mouse to be poorly designed for my needs. The scroll ball just feels like it is placed too hight on the mound of the mouse, requiring me to literally lift/bend my fingers my fingers backward too far to use comfortably. If I position the mouse in my hand where I can scroll comfortably, my thumb can't even reach the side buttons, and clicking on either side is a little iffy. It's pretty, but an ergonomic wonder? not really. It really does feel like it was designed for appearance, not use.
Posted by: jdb at September 25, 2005 06:02 PM
I like mine. Been using it for about 5 weeks. Every day for 8 to 10 hours. Left click can be a little wonky but I don't left click much in comparison to right click so no big deal. The scroll ball makes up for it. Side buttons are useless so I turned them off. Problem solved. Center click works well and I use it more than right click too when using Safari. The scroll ball is the thing, awesome.
Posted by: Eric at September 27, 2005 01:53 PM
I got one a week ago and I like it alot. I've been using Apple's one button mouse for some time, and it is a very natural transition for me. I tended to hold the one button mouse on the side parts that have become the side buttons, and the scroll ball seems to be in just the right position. In fact I feel like I haven't modified my hand position on the mouse much at all to use all MM's features. I also concur with the comment above that right-clicking with the left finger raised is also somehow very natural after using a one button mouse for a while.
I've never touched one and thus have no opinion on its quality, but dear god am I ever sick of the thing. How many reviews of a frickin' mouse does the internet actually need? How much e-mail does one poor guy deserve over saying he doesn't like it?
This is the kind of thing that keeps us Apple users lumped in with the crazy guy in the corner.