Filed under: Accessories, Cult of Mac
Mighty Mouse: Multibutton-esque Apple Mouse
OH MY GOD!
Apple finally grew a brain and released a multi-button mouse! Sort of...
I'm overjoyed, I want one, and I'm speechless. It's "single-button looks, multibutton charm." I think this may be one of the signs of the Mac apocalypse...
Is there a bluetooth one?! Doesn't look like it. When the heck are they going to come out with a bluetooth multi-button-esque mouse?!?! ;-)
Thanks, Harry!
ps--
UPDATE: In my excitement, I forgot the details: $49, Mac / PC (WIndows XP / 2000) compatible, USB 1.1 or 2.0. It's a mouse with a scroll ball, button, touch-sensitive top-shell, force-sensing side buttons, and optical tracking.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
narco said 8:57AM on 8-02-2005
Well, on the bottom of the page it does say:
"Mighty Mouse Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved."
Also, I bought a BT pro mouse last year and absolutely hated it. I'm not going to complain about it, but I sense that I will hear TONS of complaints throughout the day. TONS...
Fishes,
narco.
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hellRaven said 8:58AM on 8-02-2005
> ps--I wonder if Apple will get sued for infringing on the cartoon character.
I guess they made some kind of deal:
"Mighty Mouse Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved."
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BrianC said 9:01AM on 8-02-2005
note: I had to go to "tech specs" and click on the part # in order to get it in my cart. Browsing store.apple.com didn't seem to have it quite yet?
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Bob said 9:04AM on 8-02-2005
Four button, side scrolling, single nippled mouse ^_^
i love it!
i also want the bluetooth one too :P
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JC said 9:07AM on 8-02-2005
Dude! You can squeeze it to pop your widgets! HA Sorry just couldn't help it.
But the squeezing thing definitely sounds interesting. I wonder how long it will be before some games come out to utilize this action
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Ryan said 9:18AM on 8-02-2005
I've still got a few questions about it:
1. Will it now be included with the new macs that people buy at the store?
2. I assume it's the same resolution as the old apple mouse, which was acceptable but not great.
I paid a little less than that $50 for my Logitech MX 1000 mouse, which is not quite as pretty but much more functional. If I could get that for $25 I would jump on it just to try it out, but for that price I'll pass.
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Wai-Tung Leung said 9:20AM on 8-02-2005
Wow I wonder how this completely slipped pass the rumour net?! But then again it was like the last constant anybody ever expected to change!
Taking a quick look I'ld say Apple has come up with the best ever compromise in the Apple Mouse Wars. It's still one button for us one button fans and yet 4 buttons at the same time. Very clever of Apple to appeal to both sides.
What would you have said if last year I said Apple was going to release a headless iMac, a multibutton mouse, a flash based iPod and switch to intel? Honestly? The whole Apple landscape is becoming unrecongniseable! I would not be surprised if they decide to change their logo next!
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Dan Siercks said 9:20AM on 8-02-2005
I wonder how this mouse would change the way I use Apple's mice. I regularly use where those side buttons are to pick up the mouse.
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fra said 9:26AM on 8-02-2005
OMG
WTF
BBQ
:-|
/me is speechless
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vqv said 9:39AM on 8-02-2005
Wow. Gotta love Apple's attention to details:
Mighty Mouse even sounds as good as it feels. The audio feedback built into Mighty Mouse provides an aural sensation that responds to your movements. A tiny speaker inside Mighty Mouse produces button-clicking and Scroll Ball-rolling sound effects.
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vqv said 9:39AM on 8-02-2005
Wow. Gotta love Apple's attention to details:
Mighty Mouse even sounds as good as it feels. The audio feedback built into Mighty Mouse provides an aural sensation that responds to your movements. A tiny speaker inside Mighty Mouse produces button-clicking and Scroll Ball-rolling sound effects.
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Eric B. said 9:41AM on 8-02-2005
What are all of the slashdot Apple haters going to say now? :)
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kt said 9:41AM on 8-02-2005
Fra, I LOVE your reaction!
I may have to pick one up in SF!
OMG, I'm going on a vacation, and the high-point is playing with a new Apple Mouse?
..Sounds about right.
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Pedro said 9:52AM on 8-02-2005
wireless next please apple!
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Mike said 10:02AM on 8-02-2005
Apple release iPod and iTunes for Windows.
Apple move Macs to Intel processors.
Apple release multiple buttoned mouse.
Hell has frozen over. And Apple has grown up.
About damn time too. :)
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Sean Flanagan said 10:09AM on 8-02-2005
OK I'll play guinea pig... I ordered one as soon as I saw it posted up on Apple's site. As a graphic designer, the scroll ball is the only reason I'm getting it. I've grown accustomed to my Kensington 3-button mouse, but its dirty and worn and the scroll pad isn't working as well. Now that there's a mouse that can scroll in all directions, I'm sold. Now I can't wait to be able to do a poster at 200% without switching to the hand tool!
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Shlomo said 10:13AM on 8-02-2005
Since when does apple consider looks before common sense, functionality, and ergonomics? The ipod started the trend of minimalism and touch sensitive interfaces, 2 'features' I think are counterintuitive.
Let me explain:
1. The mac is known for ease of use, but a person who does not know about the mighty mouse will not know by seeing it, that it has 2 top buttons.
2. When using a traditional mouse, ones fingers rest on the buttons. With regular mice, this is fine, since there are actual buttons to be pressed. With touch sensitive buttons, they will be likely to be accidentally pressed.
3. clicking and dragging is difficult on current apple mice due to the button being the top of the whole mouse. this trend seems likely to continue.
4. the trend of apple creating its own design methodology based on aesthetics and tradition (both mac based and NeXt based) is not good for the user. All because the mac always used 1 button before does not mean it needs to hold on to that tradition via 'single button charm'. Apple is trying to hide the fact that it is becoming more like a pc. First there was no context menus, then ctrl click appeared in os 9 and os x, then apple tab task switching like on windows that allowed mouse input, then multi button compatibility in os x out of the box, now a pseudo 2 button mouse that looks like a 1 button mouse. Just admit it apple! Give users 2 buttons that are unambiguous.
5. This may very well be a great peripheral. I will try it out and if I like it, will by it. I'm just sick of the reasoning behind the design, and see apple's ergonomic choices putting users 2nd, which should never be the case.
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Alexis said 10:14AM on 8-02-2005
I looked at the site but saw no indication as to whether we would be able to set different actions for the buttons depending on which application you were using. Considering its a USB mouse I wonder if USB Overdrive will still work with it. I like to map the different buttons on my mouse to things like F9 in Flash MX 04 to open the script editor and things like that.
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Peter Bault said 10:22AM on 8-02-2005
anyword yet if these are available in the apple stores today? i was headed there today anyway and I may pick one up if they are in stock i hope
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Joshua Ochs said 10:47AM on 8-02-2005
I'm sick and tired of bloody idiots bitching about one button mice. That is a concious UI decision, and the correct one for the default mouse.
If developers can assume that everyone has a two-button mouse, they'll start hiding interface functionality ONLY in contextual menus. I don't know how often I run into this on Windows, where a command or function you need is completely hidden and cannot be readily discovered, until you figure out which part of the window to right-click. Quick, on the Windows tray, do you left click or right click an icon to bring up its options? Bzzzt - both! It varies from program to program.
Furthermore, we ALL know people on PC's who double-click everything (even links and buttons, etc), and who confuse left and right click constantly. The readers here may forget it, but there are a lot of people out there who would be confused as hell by any multibutton mouse. Just this past weekend my Dad was confused when he accidentally stumbled into "autoscroll" on my Windows Thinkpad when he clicked the "third" button.
Kudos to Apple for shipping what looks like a nice multibutton mouse, but God forbid they ever ship that thing by default.
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