Magic Mouse unboxing video: Man vs. Tape
Let me disclose straight away that I've opened packaging on just about every major Apple product released over the past five years and never exerted such effort in opening a little plastic container -- which by the way resembles something you would find sitting on a shelf at Pottery Barn. But seriously, Apple, what is with the tape?
As I stated in the video, certain multi-touch gestures require a great deal of repetitive use in order to acclimate to the Magic Mouse. I am pleased to say, however, now that I'm on on Day 2, the problems I initially experienced with touch-scrolling have largely been alleviated simply by adjusting scroll speed settings in System Preferences>Mouse, which is set at 25% by default. Cranking this up to 50% and beyond made page scrolling must smoother and easier, though upward scrolling is still proving to be a hemorrhoid-inducing experience.
One thing I would like to clarify: in the video I mentioned having rebooted my Mac in order to pair with the Magic Mouse via Bluetooth. This is NOT required. Simply launching the Bluetooth Setup Assistant will begin partnering the mouse with your Mac. I chose the former option because a) I prefer a fresh start when introducing new hardware, and b) I roll that way.
I'm still experiencing lots of unpleasantness with two-finger page swiping though. Apple really needs to allow the user to adjust swipe speed settings by including a slider for that gesture in the Mouse preferences. Perhaps that will come in a future update.
Stay tuned for more hands-on with the Magic Mouse in the coming days.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
gerrynjr said 8:11PM on 11-01-2009
Just got mine saturday, and in all honesty, it is far too small and short. I'm returning mine and I'll pick up a decent logitech model instead.
This may not be the case for everyone though, just people with rather large hands.
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gerrynjr said 8:15PM on 11-01-2009
^^ Dont get me wrong the finger gestures are pretty awesome though...
Information Central said 4:35AM on 11-02-2009
You're way too generous. This mouse upholds the Apple tradition by sucking, and sucking in ways that should have been obvious before it ever left the prototyping stage.
First of all, multitouch swipes are a UI REGRESSION, Apple. Like the many invisible hotkeys required to do simple things on a Mac (like make the Delete key work in the Finder), multitouch gestures are not intuitive or illustrated on the device in any way.
Once you do know about them, they're still cumbersome and ill-conceived. Take the sideways multifinger swipe: The mouse MOVES, Apple. So you have to try to hold the mouse in place AND wipe multiple fingers sideways across its surface, all with one hand. It's just mind-bogglingly stupid.
Multitouch is, and has always been, a bunch of empty hype. Stop trying to ram this crap down our throats by desperately contriving "uses" for it, Apple. A regular Logitech two-button mouse with a wheel kicks ass over this ridiculous boondoggle. AGAIN.
pardthemonster said 8:12PM on 11-01-2009
You opened it on the wrong side. There is a clear label that has a peel picture on the other side.
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WiLLGT09 said 8:16PM on 11-01-2009
yeah, fail right here. you can see the little peel here symbol here on one of my photos - http://cld.ly/2b9sl
this was one of the easiest apple packages to open.
Kent Pribbernow said 8:21PM on 11-01-2009
Actually if you look at the video you'll see that I did pry that piece of tape at least once using my thumbnail and it wouldn't lift. Tough little monkey. But honestly I was anxious to get the package open quickly.
julian said 10:04PM on 11-01-2009
HAHA, this was really funny dude.
Not only can i see the peel off tape on your video but every second that you cannot get the tape off the funnier you sound.
you also complained a lot...
the mouse flipts through too many pages ?
well if you are swiping it like 3 times/second then its just doing what you are telling it to do, if I may say with great accuracy.
JKT said 11:10PM on 11-01-2009
I'm with Kent on this one--that "peel off" label is quite small, hard to see, and easy to miss. It would have killed Apple to make it red instead of dark grey?!?
Information Central said 4:36AM on 11-02-2009
Are you so pathetic as to actually be debating the goddamned PACKAGING?
BuddyBoy said 5:03AM on 11-02-2009
Odd things is Apple have used this style seal on the iPods for some time, this isn't new!
jamesnasser said 8:58AM on 11-02-2009
Wow, that was unbearable to watch. Next time, breath, relax and realize there is a better way to open it.
Justin said 8:14PM on 11-01-2009
Hmm, I just got mine today and had it open in less than 60 seconds with no trouble. there's a point on the tape that's not sticky on the back, that just pulls up and there it is. The tape on the bottom is the same way. You can even see the circled arrow printed on the tape at about 1:20 in the video while he struggles to pull the tape off from the other end. Same thing at 2:56, you can see the arrow that he obviously doesn't. :)
The most difficult part was that the tape left some gum on the bottom of the battery door, but that came off without too much trouble.
As for the mouse itself, I love it after just a couple hours. Very nice job by Apple after the horrible Mighty Mouse. Scrolling for me is very easy (both up and down) and the swiping is pretty easy for me since I'm used to a multitouch trackpad. Definitely give it a try at your local Apple store. Or just order it like me. :)
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Dan Mosqueda said 8:17PM on 11-01-2009
I had no problem getting mine open, but that damn gunk on the bottom is really bothering me.
S. Kurtz said 8:15PM on 11-01-2009
I bet if you got a roll of tape in the mail after that unboxing you would scream in terror...
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Ive said 8:16PM on 11-01-2009
Hahahahaha....learn how to open a package. That's why you should take your time. The package was clearly labeled where to open.
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JKT said 11:12PM on 11-01-2009
Labeled, yes. Clearly, no.
Kevitivity said 8:18PM on 11-01-2009
Thank you for walking is through the un-boxing process.
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Alexander Stone said 8:26PM on 11-01-2009
I love mine. Big thanks to Apple for expediting all the orders. Mine showed up a week earlier than I was expecting it.
Left and right click works exactly how it does on any other mouse, being able to scroll wherever your finger is is absolutely awesome.
Just like you can't really use a normal touchpad after you've used a Macbook Pro touchpad with the gestures, you won't be able to go back to a regular mouse after using the Magic Mouse for the weekend.
The form factor is perfect for my hands. The way you grip it is a little different then normal mice, but the fact that your fingers can be ANYWHERE on the thing really gets you used to it after a few minutes. After about an hour, you don't even pay attention to the mouse anymore and you're suddenly just doing things, naturally.
Not sure what this guy's problem is with the packaging. Everything was pretty well-labeled when I opened mine and I managed to get mine going in a matter of seconds after marveling at the iPod nano-esque packaging.
It's a great mouse and this week I'll be putting it to "Real world" test at work to see how it handles in real life.
Really happy that I won't be buying compressed air just to clean out the scroll ball.
My ONLY gripe is the rails on the bottom DO make it kind of noise for normal wood surfaces. I think it'll be fine on my desk at work, though.
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Dan Mosqueda said 8:28PM on 11-01-2009
I love my Magic Mouse. I've been using a MacBook Air for about 18 months and haven't used a mouse at all other than at work (which is quite a bit, but it's on a WinPC in the military - no blue tooth allowed). I recently purchased the new MacMini (2.53/4GB/320GB) and needed a mouse.
To me it is very intuitive. It works much like my MBA's touchpad. I wish this mouse could point around the screen like the touch pad, meaning you wouldn't have to move the mouse necessarily, but you could move it. However, you could make minor moves by moving your fingertip around. I know this could be accomplished with software.
The industrial design is stunning. It is hefty and substantive. It's like the BMW of mice. Seriously. After using it, it made me wonder why BMW doesn't use Apple to do it's idrive system.
I really do enjoy this mouse. It portends the future of mice.
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stefan K said 8:37PM on 11-01-2009
same here - opened without a problem. although – the tape is a bit too sticky to not leave any marks, if you want to keep the box.
love the mouse so far. sits OK in my hand, could be a bit bigger. ergonomics don't mean a lot to Apple, I guess. It tracks really well.
But – same as Alexander said - it is REALLY LOUD! the mighty mouse was whisper quiet, and the magic mouse rattles over mousematte and table top with some serious noise from the little rails.
Also - I kinda miss my middle button to open the dashboard. A little tactile side button would have been great to programme additional functions.
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