For many years, Mac users have had the unfortunate privilege of enduring one of the crappiest mouse on the market. The Mighty Mouse had a scroll ball which enabled the user to scroll 360°, but the scrolling seldom worked. Oil, dirt, grease, and grime would become lodged in the mechanism and prevent the scroll ball (often referred to as a nipple) from working at all.

Last month, Apple finally remedied this problem with the Magic Mouse. The new mouse eliminates the ball entirely and gives the top surface of the mouse multi-touch technology. The touch surface allows for 1-finger scrolling 360° and allows for 2-finger gestures. But how well does this work?


The multi-touch technology works great. I have actually been able to scroll, which I couldn't say 90% of the time while using the previous model of Apple's mouse. As for two-finger gestures, there is currently only one supported: browsing back or forward in programs such as Safari or iPhoto. The feature works, but I'm not used to it, nor do I think of it as being handy—it's simply there.

Currently, there is only one version of the Magic Mouse: Wireless. It uses bluetooth technology, which worried me initially. My previous experiences with bluetooth devices from Apple haven't been good. I would often find the devices to be unresponsive for several minutes as the computer would have to reacquire the link to the device. I have yet to have similar issues with the Magic Mouse.

Presently, my only complaint with the Magic Mouse is related to its ergonomics. Its profile is very low for a desktop mouse. Additionally, it has cut corners on its sides rather than rounded. Both of those issues make the mouse extremely uncomfortable to use at first. I have become accustomed to it, but I must force myself to grip it differently than I would with other models of mouse. Frankly, I hate the design. It is almost as uncomfortable to use as Apple's hockey puck mouse of the late 90's.

When Apple ditched the hockey puck design and went with a much better ergonomically correct mouse, I loved it. It was simply the most comfortable mouse I had used, but it lacked scrolling capabilities. The Mighty Mouse eventually came along, keeping the comfortable design, but adding a scroll nipple, er, ball. As mentioned, scrolling didn't always work though. Now, with the new Magic Mouse, they finally got the scrolling down right, but they completely screwed the pooch with the design.

Why can't Apple ever make a perfect mouse, or even one that is near perfect? They could have simply kept the design of the Mighty Mouse and slapped multi-touch technology in it. But no, Apple seems determined to always have at least one thing wrong with their mouse.