Well, I got my Magic Mouse a few days ago, and I've been using it for my everyday tasks for a few days (and I'm still using it), and here are my impressions.

Packaging:



This packaging is clear, showing the actual Magic Mouse, just like the packaging that Apple has been using recently for the iPod shuffle, iPod nano, iPod touch and accessories.

Downloading the update:

As we posted earlier, you'll want to to download the Wireless Mouse Update to enable the new features of the Magic Mouse, which is available for Snow Leopard and Leopard.

Set Up:


Once you've installed the Wireless Mouse Update, you'll want to go to the Mouse Preference Pane in System Preferences and click the new "Set Up Bluetooth Mouse..." button. You no longer have to use the Bluetooth Setup Assistant to pair, which makes it a little simpler. It will then search for your Magic Mouse, and make sure it's turned on, which is done by a switch on the bottom of the Magic Mouse. Once it's paired, you'll be all ready to use your Magic Mouse.

Read on below to see the how it was using the Magic Mouse....

TechCrunch has posted pictures of what they're calling an "unlaunched Apple tablet." In 1990, as the story goes, Apple was supposedly working on a pen-based touchscreen tablet called the Pen Mac that was actually extremely small for the time -- just about an inch thick, with a screen the same size as a Mac Portable. They were bringing a few different companies in on the deal, and apparently it worked well -- ran a full Mac OS, used a pen to control or let you plug in a mouse and keyboard, and there was even a smaller version called the PenLite (bulky by today's standards, but remember that this is 20 years ago now).

So why weren't we all using tablet computers 20 years ago? TechCrunch blames John Sculley, who apparently thought the tablet idea was out, and the PDA idea was in, and we ended up with the Newton instead. I won't second guess him -- while it's easy to think that anything could have beaten the Newton, would the current Apple touchscreen tablet craze even be here if it weren't for the iPhone? And isn't Apple's smartphone just a hop, skip and a jump from their original PDA?

Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about using a joystick as a mouse, remotely accessing a Mac from a PC, creating zip files without the Mac-specific metadata, replicating certain Windows features, and more.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine and which version of Mac OS X you're running (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.

We've been hearing a lot about a new mouse from Apple lately, and earlier today images and additional documentation about a new Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse (using Bluetooth) showed up in the FCC database. The new keyboard has a model number of A1314, while the mouse has a model number of A1296. The dimensions of the new wireless keyboard are smaller than the current Apple Wireless Keyboard, particularly in the distance between the top and bottom of the keyboard. There are still few details on the new mouse at this point.

The FCC images were quickly pulled from the FCC database, then re-added later in the day with details cropped out, but they can still be found in all of their original glory over on our sister site Engadget.

[via Engadget]

"Twenty five years after introducing the world to mouse-based computing, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is now hoping to deliver significant advances to the input device by applying the company's extensive research and development in multitouch technologies," AppleInsider reports.

In other words, "new mouse."

I own the often maligned Mighty Mouse, both wired and wireless. We have an on-again, off-again relationship. On one side, I like the feel of the thing. The extra weight added by the Bluetooth model's batteries is especially nice, as is the smooth surface. It travels well in my bag, absorbing bumps and jolts without complaint.

The little trackball nubbin is another issue. It requires more cleaning than I'd like to perform, and makes me wish for an old ADB mouse. Popping the ball out and cleaning the rollers was a quick and simple job. I've used the Mighty Mouse paper trick -- rub the ball on a sheet of paper or a few seconds -- with mixed results.

AppleInsider reports that the current model is back ordered across retailers, and that its replacement won't be white plastic, will ditch the trackball and feature "...expanded touch sensitive housing and 'multipoint touch detection mechanism' technologies."

The new mouse could ship with the rumored iMac update.

[Via Gizmodo]

Alan over with iPhoneXpert.com sent us in a tip on getting your Logitech mouse to work again after installing Snow Leopard. I didn't get a chance to try this out until my copy of Snow Leopard arrived last night. My keyboard/mouse combo of choice is the Logitech Wave Cordless Desktop (a fantastic combo that is well-suited for Mac users), and the OS upgrade did break the specialized configuration set up for them.

Logitech has not updated its drivers -- usually bundled with its Logitech Control Center application -- for Snow Leopard yet, and an upgrade to the software will take some time, Alan reports. In the meantime, you can work around this issue by doing the following:

1. Re-download Logitech Control Center 3.0 if you do not still have the installation package on your machine.
2. Unzip the download, then right-click on the installer package. Select "Show All Contents."
3. Navigate through the package to the Contents folder, then the Resources folder. There, you'll find the Logitech Control Center.mkpg. Double-click on it and install it.

Once your system has rebooted, you'll find that you regain full access to customizing your Logitech mouse (and it works for keyboards as well.) It even carried over all of my customized keyboard button settings from Leopard, so you shouldn't have to go through much hassle to reconfigure your equipment. The only thing I had to readjust was the scroll speed on my mouse.

If you have Exposé as one of your mouse/keyboard button settings, copy (do not move) the Expose.app file from /Applications/Utilities to the /Applications folder. Then Exposé will work properly again.

Thanks for the tip, Alan!

We're back with another edition of Ask TUAW. This time around we've answering questions about iTunes libraries, Mac data recovery, Snow Leopard on older Macs and more.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.

Daneel asks:

I'm running OS X 10.5.7 and Windows Vista (via Bootcamp) on my iMac 24". I was wondering if there was any way in which I could make the iTunes apps in both Windows and Mac use the same iTunes library. File access is not a problem as I've got the ntfs-3g driver on the mac side and mac drive on the PC side.

I have my iTunes library on an external hard drive. To make iTunes use this particular folder, I create an alias of the folder on the external drive and replace my iTunes folder located in Users> "User Name" > Music with the alias. iTunes has no problem with this setup.

You should be able to do the same thing in both the Mac and Windows versions of iTunes. Just set an alias of the iTunes folder you want to use in Windows pointing to your Mac iTunes library and you should be good to go.

We're back with another shot of Ask TUAW! This time we've got a couple of common switcher issues, as well as questions about upgrading a hard drive, using WiFi stumbler software, setting up a dual-band WiFi network, and more.

As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

It was 40 years ago this week that Douglas Engelbart gave the first public demonstration of what would become the modern computer mouse, affectionately called "The mother of all demos." With that in mind, we've decided to take a look at the evolution of the Apple Mouse.

The current version is the Mighty Mouse, of course. With its scroll wheel and touch sensitive clicking surfaces, it's loved by some and despised by others. I'll admit that a wired Mighty Mouse is my main mouse, which will undoubtedly make some of you gasp. Still, we can't fully appreciate the Mighty Mouse without acknowledging its predecessors.

When you think of old Apple mice, you probably think of the ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) variety. But even those were preceded by the DB-9 connector mice that shipped with the Apple Lisa. In fact, those were the first commercially available mice. They were clunky, square-ish affairs that featured a single button -- a design decision that Apple has refused to abandon all these years (yes, the Mighty Mouse isn't a single-button mouse, but certainly looks it from an overhead perspective).

The boxy shape was kept largely intact until 1993, when Apple released the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II. I can remember using one of these with a Performa and being amazed by it. "it's not square! It fits in my hand! This is incredible!"

Also "incredible" was the amount of time I spent removing the ball and scraping the gunk off of the rollers.

The design stayed pretty much the same until the "hockey puck" was released with the iMac in 1998. Apple's first USB mouse, the hockey puck divided the Mac community. Some declared it the best thing since copy and paste. Others, like me, considered it an abomination.

Just two years later, Apple got the message, retired the hockey puck and introduced the Pro Mouse. The lozenge-shaped device was the immediate predecessor to the Mighty Mouse we all know and love (or despise) today.

There are Apple mouse fanboys, and those who'd never touch one. In fact, even your favorite TUAW bloggers are divided. Below is a gallery of our favorite and current mice, plus a few vintage examples. Finally, we threw in a few alternate input devices as well.

TUAW reader Kim, who runs the Danish blog Kinablog,dk, sent us this piece he wrote about what he calls the world's biggest Apple USB mouse (a.k.a. the iMac mouse, a.k.a. the hockey puck). It's actually a building in China that houses the National Centre for the Performing Arts, with room for 6,500 people in three halls inside 2,000 square meters, designed by Paul Adreu. And he's right-- it bears a striking (though not quite exact) resemblance to the round little early iMac peripheral. Considering that construction started on the building in 2001, and the mouse was released before that, it's a little less of a stretch (though still a stretch) to think that one inspired the other.

But Kim is thinking even bigger-- not only does he dare us to imagine the sound of a click on a mouse that big, but he asks what an iMac that size would look like. Stop bending my mind like that, man! Apple is going thinner, not bigger.

We've mentioned the problems folks have had with the Leopard upgrade with unsanity's APE installed. As Gruber points out, however, the same problem can affect people who have installed the Logitech Control Center software that comes with Logitech mice and keyboards, because LCC apparently uses APE behind the scenes. While some finger wagging is due to Logitech for this, the question now comes up as to what to use instead of LCC to gain access to all the buttons. It turns out that there are at least three options: USB Overdrive ($20), SteerMouse ($20), and ControllerMate ($15), all of which are now Leopard compatible. Of the three, I've only used ControllerMate myself and would recommend it. However, any of the three should give you back control of your Logitech mouse -- it's just a shame you have to spend extra money to get this kind of functionality.

[via Daring Fireball]

Gus Mueller of Flying Meat software, maker of popular apps like VoodooPad and FlySketch, has decided to reduce FlyGesture's price to free. For those who haven't seen it: FlyGesture enables your Mac with the power to open files, run Automator apps/AppleScripts, type text and more - all with the gesture of your mouse over FlyGesture's guide layer that you can toggle like Exposé and Dashboard.

For anyone who made a FlyGesture purchase within the last 60 days, Mueller has issued a refund.

Sure you can use your scroll wheel mouse (or track pad) to scroll up and down your OS X windows but why limit yourself? Here's a quick list of TUAW's favorite scroll wheel tricks:

1. Zoom your screen. Hold down the Control key while scrolling up on your mouse (or performing a dual-finger up drag on your trackpad). Your entire screen zooms in. Control-scroll (or drag) down to zoom out.

2. Scroll through your Apps Press and hold the Command key then press and release Tab to display your active Applications. Scroll through your applications left (scrolling up) and right (scrolling down). When an Application is selected, you can move your hand from the scroll button on your mouse to the keyboard to press "H" to hide the application or "Q" to quit it. Release the Command key to switch to the selected application.

3. Scroll horizontally. In applications with both vertical and horizontal sliders such as, say, Preview, press Shift while scrolling to scroll horizontally instead of vertically.

4. Open pages in new tabs in Safari. Instead of right-clicking a link and selecting "Open in New Tab", just scroll-button-click a link instead. If you have enabled tabbed viewing in Safari (Preferences -> Tabs -> Enable Tabbed Browsing), your link opens in a new tab.

Thanks, Fritz Laurel.

John Ward's 'The Evolution of the Apple Mouse,' has been around for awhile, but today was the first day that I had come across it. John gives us all a guided tour into the history of Apple's mouse with pictures of almost every variant of mouse that Apple has produced.

What's your favorite mouse that Apple has produced? I must admit that I have a soft spot for the Apple Desktop Mouse II.