Magic Mouse: Impressions

A friend at the office was kind enough to switch mice with me today - he has a new Magic Mouse where I rock the older bluetooth Mighty Mouse, so I could get a feel for it and see what I thought. He shared his thoughts with me, and now I want to put together my own.

From my reading, I knew that I would miss being able to squeeze the sides of the mouse to open exposé, but I know there are apps to add gestures with actions so I am not hugely concerned.

The hardware is very light and glides nicely on my desktop. I am not sure I'd like it on a mouse pad, but I don't have one and it tracked well for me so it was a non-issue. The first challenge I encountered was the question of how to make the device discoverable. I looked inside the battery case to see if there was a button, but there was not one. On a hunch, I switched the mouse on and tried to search for it immediately. This worked. It actually looks like the device stays discoverable at all times - something I'm not that big on. I would have preferred a way to put it into discovery mode, and otherwise have it undiscoverable.

Using the mouse was another story. Its low profile was a different experience for me because it meant holding my hand up instead of resting it on the body of the mouse. I could feel the corners of the mouse in my palm rather than the comfortable rounded feel of the mighty mouse. The scrolling gesture was great, I have to say, and scrolling with momentum is nice. One negative to the scrolling is the overall feel of the surface. It reminded me of my iPhone without a screen protector. My finger would stick a little bit, and the gestures wouldn't be as smooth. I enjoy the screen protector on my phone for this reason, and wonder if putting something like that on the magic mouse might make me happier. Should I buy the mouse, I may pick up another screen protector and try popping it on there just to see.

So to sum it up, I like it a lot. I prefer the form factor of the Mighty Mouse, and if I could have that form factor with the Magic Mouse's functionality I'd be sold and happy.