About.com Rating

This is a preview of the Apple Magic Mouse. A full, hands-on review is now available (see link below).

Pros

• Multi-Touch mouse.
• Supports most gestures.
• Can be used as a basic two-button mouse.
• Bluetooth wireless.

Cons

• Questionable ergonomics.
• Uses standard AA batteries instead of rechargeable.
• No support for custom gestures.
• Currently unsupported for use with PCs.

Description

• 4.5-inch x 2.25-inch Multi-Touch touchpad

• Laser tracking mouse
• Bluetooth wireless
• Uses 2 AA batteries
• Power on/off switch

Apple’s Magic Mouse is the first Multi-Touch mouse for the Mac. Picture the MacBook Pro’s glass trackpad on wheels, able to roll around your desk.

The Magic Mouse isn’t really on wheels, of course. A fairly standard laser system tracks the Magic Mouse’s movements on your desktop. Although the surface appears to be buttonless, there are two built-in button functions at the top of the Magic Mouse that correspond to standard left (primary) and right (secondary) mouse clicks. From here, things get a bit more interesting.

The top surface of the Magic Mouse is covered by a Multi-Touch capacitance touchpad, measuring roughly 4.5 inches by 2.25 inches. The entire top surface supports touch-based gestures. It’s the gestures that put the ‘magic’ in the Magic Mouse. Dragging a finger vertically initiates the scrolling function, while a side-to-side swipe produces a horizontal scroll. Want to have some fun? Drag your finger in a circle, and watch the foremost window pan about to follow your gesture.

The Magic Mouse supports multiple finger gestures as well. You can use a two-finger swipe to move back and forth in a browser, move between photos in iPhoto, or navigate a video, scrubbing back and forth. Third-party applications can take advantage of gestures as well, although some gestures don’t currently function in all applications. This will probably change over time, as more developers make their applications gesture-aware.

The Magic Mouse is missing some basic gestures. There’s no pinch to zoom in or out. Instead, Apple wants you to hold down the control key while scrolling, to imitate the pinch function. This makes sense, when you think about it. Using the Magic Mouse’s touchpad to pinch would be a two-handed operation; one to hold the mouse in place, and the other to perform the pinch. Unlike a MacBook’s trackpad, the Magic Mouse isn’t going to stay in one place while you perform gestures.

And that may be the major complaint against the Magic Mouse. Not that the Multi-Touch touchpad doesn’t work, but that the mobile nature of a mouse makes gestures a cumbersome affair. Basic scrolling works fine, but more complicated gestures may require convoluted gripping, or the use of two hands, hardly an ergonomic feature. This may be why the Magic Mouse doesn’t support advanced gestures, or allow you to create or customize gestures.

Other Magic Mouse Features

The Magic Mouse is a Bluetooth wireless mouse, so it requires a Bluetooth-enabled Mac. It uses two AA batteries, which should last up to four months. There’s a power on/off switch under the Magic Mouse; turning the mouse off when it’s not in use should help increase battery life.

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Published: 9/27/2009

Updated: 3/18/2015