This Mighty Mouse Won’t Save the Day

So after using the new Apple Mighty Mouse for a period of time and getting a feel for it (pun intended…), I really want to like it–it’s a beautiful design, it has a right-click function and even some kind of scroll wheel/ball/thingy, *BASH!* and did I mention it’s Apple? The CPI resolution (captures per inch, a measure of accuracy of the tiny camera in the sensor) is set at a default 400 CPI, as reported by the chip manufacturer Agilent, but can be programmed for 800 CPI as well, which is what it looks like Apple did, as it is quick and responsive, even while pushing it in a game environment such as Half-Life 2. And did I mention that it can be used on the PC, too? *WHAM!* Do we have ourselves a gaming mouse by Apple? Almost.
It’s light, it’s precise, and then it forces one to try and figure out the sorta-rocking clicky thing and the chintzy scroll BB thingy. *CRUNCH!* It’s neat technology, with the electrical touch sensor under each “button,” but the more I used it, the more I longed for my Logitech wheel mouse. The Apple mouse is one unbroken curve, top to bottom, and with my large hands I found myself inadvertently clicking while resting my hand *WHANG!* on what I thought was a non-click part of the back shell. My Logitech has a clearly-delineated section for handling the mouse (read: non-clicky and solid) and 2 buttons with a scroll wheel in the middle. Accidentally clicking while sneaking up on a Combine soldier or going for a head shot on a friend in Counter-Strike can be a bad thing. *BLAMMO!* The squeezy-clicky things on the side weirded me out as well. In Apple’s Pro mouse, the same area was for maintaining a grip on the uni-body clicker in order to move the mouse, but now it is a trigger for Expose (or if you have Tiger, it’s re-mappable), but is awkward to access, requiring a visual finger placement so as not to inadvertently left-click in the process.
I applaud Apple’s drive to innovate, *SMASH!* but there are some things that just don’t need improvement. My grandmother couldn’t figure it out, and for me, that’s a death sentence for hardware. Good try, but back to the cartoons, Mighty Mouse… *BAM!* [Britt Godwin]