Magic Mouse

I'm back home after traveling all week. When I got home, the mail was way beyond out of control. But I was most excited about the arrival of the Magic Mice I had ordered.

Installation was a nightmare on two machines of the three machines because I had installed USB Overdrive. The second AppleCare representative identified the issue. We removed the software and everything installed without issue. So, word to the wise: if you have USB Overdrive installed on your system, you can not install the Magic Mouse software. And, you must use the uninstall software for USB Overdrive to remove USB Overdrive. Simply right-clicking and removing it from the system preferences window does not uninstall it from the system.

I generally don't like using a mouse. I really don't. I much prefer a trackball. I hate running the mouse off of the trackpad yet still needing to move it further and therefore having to pick it up and start back in the center to keep going. With a trackball, you just spin it to get where you want to go.

With two of Apple's largest monitors as my desktop, getting from the far side of one monitor to the opposite far side of the other could involve picking the mouse up and relocating it a time or two. But the Magic Mouse actually works very well for me and doesn't require this.

If I move the mouse with just a little bit of speed from one side to the other, within 3 or 4 inches on the mousepad I can traverse the entire distance of both monitors. This feels rather natural to me as it fits the natural space my wrist will move in one space.

Of course, I really like scrolling up and down, swiping, moving around in an image or web page, and zooming using the mouse. I'm hopeful 10.6.2 will add more gestures like those found on the trackpad of my MacBook Pro.

Rating: Tim Likes!