Apple’s Magic Mouse has obviously inspired Japanese accessory maker Sanwa Supply: the Tokyo-based company is offering the MA-Touch1 [JP], a wireless mouse with a multi-touch enabled top shell. The main (technical) difference is that the Sanwa mouse doesn’t support Bluetooth but works via a wireless USB connection instead. → Read More
This morning when I wrote a post about Apple’s new Magic Trackpad, I knew it would be a little controversial. After all, I basically said that it was the beginning of the end of the mouse — a device that everyone reading the post probably still uses for a good chunk of their computing on a daily basis. But I didn’t expect what I said to be that controversial. To the point where we have to declare the comment section to be a war zone.
I mean come on, it’s a mouse. Does anyone really think it’s going to be the main way we interact with computers in the future? It’s a 50-year old technology for Chrissakes.
Let me be clear: I’m not saying trackpads and other multi-touch surfaces are going to replace the mouse overnight. Of course they’re not. I’m also not saying that the Magic Trackpad specifically is going to kill the mouse. Of course it’s not — it’s Mac-only, that’s still a small percentage of overall computer users. What I am saying is that the Magic Trackpad is the device that is signaling the end of the mouse era.
It’s a harbinger, if you will. → Read More
Easily the most interesting thing Apple unveiled today is the new Magic Trackpad. Essentially, it’s a larger version of the trackpads that ship with each MacBook and MacBook Pro. But it’s a stand-alone product, meant to be used with desktop computers. So why did Apple feel the need to make such a product? It’s about trends and the future.
“Looking at the big picture, more users are using our trackpad because there are more notebook users than desktop users,” an Apple representative told me today when discussing the Magic Trackpad. Laptops have been Apple’s best-selling computers for some time now. And as time goes on, despite some of the new desktop products unveiled today, we can likely expect the gap between laptops and desktops to increase. This will mean an increasing number of users who are accustomed to using their computers via these trackpads. So this new product makes sense for users who are interested in buying Apple desktops as well. → Read More
I handle a lot of mice in this job (right now I’m using the Mionix Naos 5000) and I have to say that if a mouse were, like the Magic Mouse, shaped completely wrong for human hands, I would throw it away and never speak of it again. Others, while perhaps more crafty, are far less principled, and will go so far as to fabricate a silicone crutch to rest their hand on. There, I fixed it! → Read More
Back in November, I wrote up a review of the new Magic Mouse, noting that it was “Apple’s best mouse ever, but…” Essentially, the problem is a software one. Apple gave its new mouse multi-touch capabilities, but only takes advantage of a fraction of what it can do. (And yes, it’s fully multi-touch capable.) A new third-party program called MagicPrefs, enables all the multi-touch capabilities you could ever want for the device — and even some you likely don’t.
MagicPrefs, which is made by developer Vlad Alexa, is a free piece of software that runs in the background once you start it up. It gives you a boatload of new multi-touch options for your Magic Mouse, broken into three main categories: Clicks & Taps, Swipes, and Drag, Pinch, etc. Clicks & Taps are the ones that are likely to be most useful to you, as they’re the ones that are the easiest to use, and get use to. MagicPrefs has options that allow you to set actions for two-finger clicks, three-finger clicks, four-finger clicks, and one-finger middle axis clicks. There are also all of those options and then some for “taps” which is essentially touching the top of the Magic Mouse without clicking on it. Clicking on the checkbox to enable any of these also shows you a picture of exactly how the function works on the Magic Mouse. → Read More
Earlier, in my review of Apple’s new Magic Mouse, I expressed my confusion as to why Apple wouldn’t incorporate more multi-touch gestures on the device. Certainly, a part of it is the way you hold the thing, but it seems that something like a double and triple finger click would be easy enough. One commenter wondered if there was some technical reason with the multi-touch implementation as the reason why Apple wasn’t doing that. A neat program disproves that.
FingerMgmt is a simple OS X app that allows you to track points of contact on multi-touch inputs. It was built with Apple MacBook trackpads in mind, but yes, it works with the Magic Mouse too. As you can see in the screen capture below, the Magic Mouse has no problem following up four points of contact relatively easily. It works for five too, but at that point, the surface area on the top of the mouse becomes the issue. → Read More
After much trial and tribulation, I finally obtained Apple’s new Magic Mouse last week. Following its release, the $70 device was so popular that practically every store in the Bay Area was sold out of them for much of last week even though most were getting new shipments every morning. Supplies remain tight online where Apple is showing a 5 to 7 day waiting period and Amazon is showing a 2 to 5 week one. So is it worth it?
The short answer is yes. This is hands-down the best mouse Apple has ever made. It’s not even close. That said, it could be even better, and hopefully down the road, with a software update, it will be. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
