Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"Holiday spending has seen sales of Apple's Magic Mouse soar. According to a report by NPD and covered today by AppleInsider, last month saw a twofold increase in Apple's share of domestic mice sales. By the end of November, Apple had captured 10 percent of the market."

Image Credit: SlashGear

However, that doesn't mean the author is a fan of the Magic Mouse. How do I know? This partial quote, describing his user experience, pretty much sums up his feelings: "transforming my hand into a deformed claw of knotted knuckles and cramp." Makes you want to go out and buy one doesn't it? I still have the Mighty Mouse, Bluetooth version, and haven't decided if I want to get this one. I still may, based on a few minutes in an Apple Store when I played around with it and it does everything I needed it to do. One thing is for certain, it certainly seems to be popular and you can't dispute that it does have a great form factor.

"If you happen to have a new Magic Mouse running on OS X 10.5, you may be disappointed to find that it lacks a feature you get with Snow Leopard: momentum scrolling."

Momentum scrolling is when you flick your finger like you do on the iPhone, and on the screen the list or page scrolls and eventually comes to a stop. To turn on this nice feature, follow the steps in this article which will require you to use Terminal. As always, be very careful, but this seems like a pretty simple fix to me.

"Apple unveiled its Mighty Mouse replacement, the Magic Mouse, last month alongside new versions of the iMac, Mac mini and entry-level Macbook. The mouse was well-received, perhaps due in part to the disappointment most felt about its predecessor. Better tracking and touch gestures combined to deliver a much better experience overall."

The original Mighty Mouse (the one without the cape) came with Windows drivers, however the Magic Mouse did not. Now you can get them, albeit at your own risk since they are unofficial drivers. Well, to clarify they aren't officially released drivers, although it is official software. The drivers came from a recent Boot Camp update using an unrar tool to free up a 32bit and 64bit version of the driver, however the 64bit version is broken according to the article. Magical.

All you have to do is subscribe to Matt's Macintosh YouTube video channel and you are entered, but only two days remaining so act fast if you want a chance to win a Magic Mouse.

"As rumored, Apple has just introduced a new mouse called the Magic Mouse. This mouse will bring Multi-Touch capabilities to desktop Macs for the first time, something that the iPhone has had since its release in June 2007 and the MacBook Air since it was released in February 2008."

Image Credit: Apple

Ugh, I hate this name too, but I love the mouse itself. This requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 and will go on sale in late October for $69.00 USD. But wait! There is more...

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