apple news/media reports
08/09/2005, 9:50am, EDT
Tuesday, August 9th
Mossberg: Microsoft outclasses Apple's Mighty Mouse
Technology guru Walt Mossberg says that Apple's Mighty Mouse takes a backseat to Microsoft's new Wireless Optical Mouse 5000. Despite other glowing reviews, Mossberg says that the Mighty Mouse faces clashing design ideals that make it harder to use than competing products: "But in a stubborn homage to the old dogma, Apple designed the Mighty Mouse so it looks like, and can work like, a one-button mouse.... Microsoft's new model is cordless, like most modern, premium mice. Apple's Mighty Mouse is tethered to the computer with a cord, like most low-end models." The review criticizes Apple's implementation of the dual-click system using a single-button mouse: "I found that the design makes right-clicking slower and clumsier than on a typical Microsoft or Logitech mouse with real buttons.... I found that right-clicking with the Mighty Mouse was unpredictable. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. We needed to press the right side repeatedly to get a single right click, slowing us down and annoying us, well, mightily."
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I have to agree though, there are better mice out there than Apple's latest. "Function follows form" isn't the right way to go for a tool that rests in your hand countless hours each day.
I just don't know what this mouse does better than other mice in its price class - or, in that case, lower price classes too.
I hate to rate a new Apple product so poorly, but I expected more after all these years. Apple's now confirming their track record of bad mouse design into the history books. What I'd like is two options at order time: grandma-style and professional. I don't give a crap about wireless, except when you're right-handed and the extremely short cord doesn't reach around to the USB port on the left side of an iBook.
And then Apple gives us this. Geesh. Guess if you're looking for a multi-button mouse, you're going to have to go out and get a third-party multi-button mouse. Hey, just like you had to up until this point anyway!