The scroll ball by itself is reason enough to buy one, if you ask me. I absolutely love being able to scroll in any direction with the scroll ball!

What Might Mouse DOES provide, however, is a better everyday solution for stress-less left-click, à la classic Apple: left-click with a movement of the palm, instead of the index-operated method; with the added bonus of a “real” right-click.

This means there’s less of a repeated stress syndrome risk for more fragile hands. Not just for old geezers: I’m 38 and have been mousing for 23 years, using Apple’s mice (though I hate with a passion the round Puck mouse introduced with the original iMac) have spared me from RSD-inuced left-clicking.

A standard mouse with physical buttons + scroll wheel can be painful for me after a couple of hours. Not saying that it’s hard to use, but physically painful.

My 2 cents.

1 – left virtual button

2 – right virtual button

3 – middle scroll ball button

4 – side squeeze button(s) (these function as one button)

The obvious difference is there’s no physical, visible line between the two sides of the mouse. Instead the whole front of the top of the mouse rocks downward when you press and it clicks. And a sensor underneath the top of the mouse determines whether it’s a right click or a left click based on whether your index finger is resting on the left side of the mouse:

If your finger is resting on the surface of the left side of the mouse when you click, the mouse registers a left click.

If your finger is not touching the left side, the mouse registers a right click.

The biggest drawback to this design is if you happen to let your index finger rest on (or hover too closely to) the left side of the mouse while clicking on the right side, the mouse registers it as a left click. This mouse is therefore obviously not well suited for situations where a missed quick right click is unacceptable (for instance first person gaming).

Another minor annoyance is since the scroll ball is a ball and not a wheel, dust and dirt can clog it from time to time, causing the ball not to scroll well, or sometimes at all, in one direction or another. But usually turning the mouse upside down while rolling the ball vigorously is enough to get the ball working again. It’s a physical ball – so it gets clogged just like the balls in mice before laser tracking came along – the same concepts apply. I can live with this one.

Other than those two gripes, this is a great mouse, IMO. I think if Apple could work the missed right click kink out, making it so that fast right clicks were reliably detected, Mighty Mouse would be nearly perfect!

1) The design forces you to lift the finger you *don’t* want to click off the mouse in order for it to register properly. On a physical two-button, you can rest your finger on the mouse and the potential for repetitive stress problems is reduced.

2) Clicking while your finger is outside the sensitive area of the mouse produces a standard click. I’ve had this happen a lot.

I guess I better check one of them out the next time I’m in an Apple store.

It quacks like a duck, kid, which means IT IS a two-button mouse.

Still, I’ve had to “turn it on” for two recent Mac switchers, so maybe it doesn’t quack loudly enough.

Richard Taylor