Apple recently announced a bumper batch of brand new
products, including the eagerly anticipated Magic Mouse. Keen to try it out for
ourselves, we spent a day getting acquainted with the little device.
What makes the Magic Mouse innovative is that it’s the first
in the world to use Multi-Touch technology. The entire top shell is a
Multi-Touch surface, meaning you can scroll in any direction with one finger on
the mouse, and swipe through webpages and photos with two. What’s more, the speed
at which you scroll with your finger controls how fast you scroll on the
screen. Within minutes, we found ourselves using it instinctively; Apple have
applied some of the same principles as the trackpad of a MacBook, so anyone
who’s familiar with that shouldn’t have any problems getting used to it.
The Magic Mouse is completely wireless, using Bluetooth to
connect to your Mac. It’s got a pretty impressive range too, letting you
control your cursor from up to 33 feet. We’re not quite sure why you’d sit that
far away from your computer but it’s always nice to have the option… Remember
to update your software – otherwise you could miss out on some of its touch functionality.
When you’ve connected your Magic Mouse, you have the option
of going into the System Preferences tab and changing the settings. There’s
everything from the speed of the scroll, to switching the functionality from
right- to left-handed. This is also the place to find out the battery level.
It’s easy to forget that the Magic Mouse is, in fact, a
mouse. Its smooth, sleek design completely hides the fact that, unlike its
Mighty predecessor, the Magic Mouse is one great big button. If you want to
click, you can do so anywhere on the mouse’s shell. It’s all down to an
internal chip, which tells the computer what you’re doing. Every aspect of the
Magic Mouse screams “hi-tech”, so we were wondering how many batteries we were
going to eat up during our trial run. Luckily, that’s been thought of; there’s
an ‘On/Off’ switch on the underside to conserve the two AA batteries when
you’re not using the mouse and, even if you forget to turn it off, the Magic
Mouse automatically detects periods of inactivity and turns itself off. That’s
pretty impressive (and good news for any eco-conscious users) though we did
notice that it can take a few seconds to detect the Bluetooth signal again when
you get back to using it.
After a good few hours of working (and playing) with the Magic
Mouse, we have to give it a thumbs up. It’s a lovely piece of kit to use; there’s
a comfortable weightiness to it that reminds you why it’s at the top end of the
scale when it comes to the price of mice. On a purely superficial level, it
looks fantastic, especially when it’s in front of a Mac and next to one of
their wireless keyboards – it completes the set. But it’s not a case of ‘style
over substance’.
The only real negative point we found with Apple’s new mouse
is that it may be a little too sensitive during scrolling and swiping. After a
few days of regular use, we probably would have learned how to get the speed
just right, but in our short trial period we got a little irritated when we
accidentally slid too far in a document or webpage – try using it on iTunes
coverflow and you’ll see what we mean!
Despite that, if you’re after a wireless mouse that gives
real freedom of movement (and just so happens to look very nice with your Mac),
the Magic Mouse is an absolute winner. We certainly enjoyed using it and giving
it back to its rightful owner was a bit of a wrench (but seeing as it was one
of our directors, we didn’t put up too much of a fight…)
To find out about more about the Magic Mouse, call us on 03332
409333 or email our experts at learning@jigsaw24.com