MagicPrefs is a must download for Magic Mouse owners
We know the Magic Mouse is selling well. I was one of the many who was pretty excited when I heard about it and grabbed one the first week it was out. When I actually went to use it, however, it was a major downer. On my Mac Pro the tracking was erratic, slow, and pretty unusable. I wasn't the only person reporting this. I put the mouse on my shelf of forgotten tech until a friend told me about MagicPrefs.MagicPrefs is a free utility that runs from your menu bar and fixes the problems some Mac Pros had with the Magic Mouse.
This app goes way beyond fixing the tracking speed. This little utility allows you to assign actions to two, three and 4 finger clicks. Also to one, two, three and four finger taps. You can define two and three finger swipes for left, right, up and down. You can even define drag and pinch movements on the surface of the mouse. Pre-defined actions include control of Spaces, Dashboard, Expose, Quicklook and many others. You can create, load and save presets as well. Some of the gestures are a bit difficult and take some practice, and the app warns you which ones might be tricky. There is even a real time display on the app that lets you test different combinations of motions to see how they will work. For people who have a Magic Mouse that works great, you will love the power of this app. If yours was a dog with your Apple hardware, this app may fix all that.
The developer says the app will eventually wind up as a preference pane, and that it will always remain free.
The app requires OS X 10.5 or above. The price is very, very right, and the app fixes a lot of the weaknesses in the Magic Mouse. I say, go for it, and let us know in comments how it works for you.
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We know the Magic Mouse is selling well. I was one of the many who was pretty excited when I heard about it and grabbed one the first week...
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MAC PRO problems with Bluetooth mouse - please search around the web - you will find articles that discuss the possibility that the antenna wire in your MAC PRO is not connected properly to your Bluetooth daughter card. I had this exact problem and have fixed this (5 min work inside) and the Magic Mouse is working great - no more pauses, slow response, no response, etc. I highly recommend looking this up!
January 02 2010 at 9:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI have tried both MagicPref and BTT.
The winner is by far, BTT. The only thing that i would like to have from MagicPref is the live preview of the gestures.
While it might not have the most intituive interface ( i was a bit lost in the beggining - but eventually figured my way out) it is great when set up properly.
I had magicpref since day 1 of buying my magic mouse but i barely used it as i couldn't swipe to expose/show desktop, middle-click, change spaces without triggering something else.
I have to try Jitouch since it looks quite interesting especially the tabs behavior which i can't seem to replicate in BTT.
Nevertheless MagicPref is the worst of the bunch at present although i will admit it has potential.
seriously. i thought u were thoughtful and insightful once, but now i really dont understand why u bother coming to this sight.
is there a mac product that you DO like? or do you simply like bashing for no good reason?
i dont think mac's are made of gold or that steve jobs is God, but i have no bad opinions of any apple product. i use all my products with no problems. (2 macbooks pros, imac 27", iphone, appletv) and i completely enjoy all of them.
macbook air may be the only product i feel is unnecessary.
Just tried jitouch, and although I really like the way they've implemented the tab switching, that's really all I like. It costs money, and it's not necessarily customizable in terms of the gestures available for the magic mouse. You tried bettertouchtool, and you like jitouch better? Methinks you may work for the publisher.
January 01 2010 at 4:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI haven't tried BTT because it seems to be only Snow leopard and I haven't updated to it. I have tried MouseWizard, Multiclutch and Magicprefs and BTT just looked primitive and unstable from all the feedback. I am just trying out Jitouch and it is very stable and responsive and never falters. It's not perfect but I like it more than the others and since I spend a lot of time in safari the tab switching trick is amazing. And the trial does not seem to expire either, it just turns off ever so often and you just have to turn it back on but when i try BTT and i am not impressed with it i would not mind paying some developer that i do not work for a few bucks.
January 01 2010 at 6:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyGotcha. Well, when you get Snow Leopard, I think you'll find BTT is fan-freakin'-tastic. I used Multiclutch until the Snow Leopard debacle, and I am happy with BTT so far. I really wish BTT had the gesture that Jitouch has for switching tabs, but I can live.
January 01 2010 at 7:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI've tested all the gesture applications and by far the best is Jitouch. It's stable, it works and the gestures are endless and it allows you to customize gestures for each application. It has settings for trackpads and for the magic mouse. Truly amazing app. Check it out at http://www.jitouch.com/
January 01 2010 at 3:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI've tested all the gesture applications and by far the best is Jitouch. It's stable, it works and the gestures are endless and it allows you to customize gestures for each application. It has settings for trackpads and for the magic mouse. Truly amazing app. Check it out at http://www.jitouch.com/
January 01 2010 at 5:38 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYesterday came the v2 from JiTouch - I think it i the best tool yet. Completes both the trackpad and the magic mouse. The gestures are here best implemented after mho.
Happy new Year! Michael
Not sure what the problem is but I had a lot of trouble with this App not picking up gestures, conflicts with existing mouse prefs, etc.
I've been using BetterTouchTool for a while now after relying on the old SIMBL + Multiclutch Hack and think it's the best option out there. It's really sold at this point (if not very polished in terms of UI).
Mine works just fine for what I wish to do. I may try one of these for 2 additional features I could use occasionally.
But, folks - you're too funny with beliefs in "oversight". Apple coders will sit back and see what 3rd party designers come up with and what becomes popular - and then build it properly into the system.
No surprises.
Just wanted to give my recommendation for BetterTouchTool, as well. I've configured it to do expose for a two finger tap, as well as some other things for browsing.
December 31 2009 at 10:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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