APPLE'S MAGIC MOUSE IS SIMPLE, BEAUTIFUL, FUNCTIONAL

Apple is no stranger to beautiful simplicity. In fact, when it comes to computers, Apple seems to have invented it. Take the latest iMacs for example. The entire computer looks like a contemporary work of art, like something you'd see on display at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York. It's a screen balanced on a satin finish metal stand with organic curves that make it seem like it's almost floating on your desk. Yet there's nothing flimsy about any of it. Pick up any Apple product and you can feel it's heftiness. But the beauty of their products is more than just skin deep. Their designs also enhance their products functionality. And Apple's latest version of their mouse is certainly no exception.

The cordless Apple Magic Mouse ($69) has laser tracking, offers some amazing controls to its user and it does all of it with absolutely no buttons anywhere. When you take a first look at the Magic Mouse, there's really nothing to see except the mouse itself. In fact, if this mouse had come out 10 years ago, most of us would have really thought it was magic after seeing what it does and how it does it.

True to Apple's design legacy, the Magic Mouse is beautifully simple. It's just a gentle white glossy curve that's a pleasure to touch and actually touching is exactly how it works. The entire surface of the Magic Mouse is a seamless, multi-touch surface. Anyone who's used an iPhone is familiar with the multi-touch principle. Basically, you can touch more than one place simultaneously and depending on how you touch and move over the surface will yield you different results.

Since we're talking about a computer mouse, it makes perfect sense to first make its basic functions work like any other button-bristling mouse. So the Magic Mouse is configured as a two-button mouse with a scroll wheel, but with no buttons and no scroll wheel. Jut position your hand over the Magic Mouse with your index and third finger resting on its surface. Tap the surface with your index finger to yield a left-button click, tap with your middle finger produces a right-button click. Of course you can reverse these actions via the System Preferences panel if you're left-handed. Sliding your index finger up and down the center makes the selected window move correspondingly. It's speed-aware so the faster you move your finger, the scrolling speed matches. Flick your finger up and down and the window whizzes by in the matching directions and speed.

But the Magic Mouse takes things further. Move that same finger left and right for horizontal scrolling. Or combine all 360 degrees of your finger's movement to correspondingly pan an image in the open window. Hold down the control key and your finger scroll will enlarge and reduce image sizes. If you use both fingers in a left or right swiping gesture while in a web browser, you will page back and forward one page at a time. In iPhoto the same gestures let you browse through your collection of photos one at a time.

The Magic Mouse preference pane gives you full control over all of its functions, letting you fine tune or completely disable most any of its features. The Magic Mouse works with any Bluetooth enabled Macintosh and it must be running OS X Snow Leopard version 10.6.1 or later.

Typically, simplicity comes with less functionality. But Apple seems to keep breaking that rule and the Magic Mouse is definitely another rule-breaker. If your Mac meets the minimum requirements, you're going to want this mouse.

www.apple.com

Jump to:
[ Index of Craig's Columns | Main Columns Page | Computer America Home Page ]