Lookz at what we gots our fingers on!

TouchThinking’s take on Apple’s new Magic Mouse and boy, have we got a few things to say about it.

It’s safe to say that Apple is loving their neo-minimalism right now. From the sleek Dieter Rams inspired iMac, all the way to the sleek Hara-esque iPod Shuffle, every bell and whistle on any object has been melted off to leave only the core functionality visible, removing all visual clutter and distraction. In fact, at first, the idea of having a multitouch almost non-tactile mouse may seem ludicrous, seeing as most of us use our mice without looking at them but we’d probably not be able to use an iPhone without looking at it. OK, unfair comparison, as a mouse has far fewer interactions than the esteemed smartphone. Nevertheless, mice have evolved a little, you might say, since they had little rubber balls in them (remember them?) so the selection of interactions to be performed blindly need to be well thought out.

Unpack it and set it up!

Let’s start from the top. The mouse ships in a very tight plastic container thats only marginally bigger than the mouse itself. Unboxing shots ahoy puh-leeease!

Looks lovely doesn't it? AND IT'S ALL OURS!

One thing that Apple does brilliantly is marketing. Remember how you knew how the iPhone worked before you got it? That’s because for one afternoon, Steve Jobs became a talking instruction manual and showed everything you needed to know for the phone a few months before it was released. Apple’s marketing is the instruction manual. And by having either intuitive interactions or a few key ones at least, they can shove them on as “features” on their site, adverts and the packaging… which brings me to….

Oh hai.....

All the instructions are at the underside of the packaging, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know.It’s safe to say that multitouch gestures seem to be on the card here. Let’s open it and get our hands dirty.

Take off the top....

Off the old plinth.....

... and compare it side by side with the old mouse, on the moon.

Comparing it to the old bluetooth mouse, it’s obvious that there’s been a lot of streamlining. The removal of most seams and joins is the obvious thing, but the nice metal chassis on the underside reveals a few hidden secrets. From a technical viewpoint, this is all bluetooth, which I’m not sure I’m happy about. Sure, there’s less cables, but there’s also that “OMGZ I’m up working super late and the battery has run out and I have no shop thats 24 hours near me” moments too.

Looking at the device, it’s apparent that there’s only one big button across the top, which is a little disorienting at first. Those who had Apple’s previous mouse, may miss the roller ball and the squeeze buttons at the side and that’s all you can do, because they’re GONE. For good. If you used the middle mouse press, like I did, for accessing Dashboard or opening new tabs in a browser, then sorry, that’s no longer possible. Likewise, if you used the side buttons to use Expose, then sorry, that’s gone as well. It’s super annoying. While I can understand the lack of side buttons, the middle button is such a standard, I can’t see why it couldn’t have been replicated so easily given the accuracy of the touchpad. What feels worse, is that some basic usability testing probably would have exposed this instantly.

Let’s have a look underneath for fun.

On the underside are two key features of the mouse. The first is the fact that we’re now using laser tracking over the traditional optical tracking. The other item is the power button and herein lies my first basic usability error – there is no label that this is the power switch. A simple 0/1 would suffice here. I noticed how to switch it on straight away, because I’ve been using Apple stuff before, but basic usability indicates that a child, or a man with the mind of a child, should be able to work out the entire device intuitively. In the previous mouse, the on/off switch acted as a guard to the optical sensor, which not only doubled it’s usefulness but made sense as well. In this, while the switch still shows green to indicate its on, it lacks the guard for the bulb that made it a hit in the first place. I might be nitpicking here, but it really seems a step back from what it was.

From a usability point of view, setting up is easy or slightly more difficult depending on your setup. If you have no bluetooth mouse connected, then the mouse will work when you switch it on. Your multi touch features won’t work instantly though and if you’re on the internet, your Software Update should spot you have the new mouse and mention you need to download the new software.

If you have a bluetooth mouse already, then you need to set up your new mouse through the Bluetooth Device Setup on System Settings in OSX and then you can safely disconnect your old one. Talking of OSX, I did notice that this wasn’t for Windows, so sorry for 90% of users out there in the dark. I think you can use it as a standard two button bluetooth mouse in BootCamp. With a bit of luck, Apple will release Windows drivers to allow the multitouch gestures. It’s a weird thing really, because hardware is one of those few things you can’t download off the internet, so you’d think that Apple would be kind enough just to release it for both platforms.

So what happens when you use it?

In use, the mouse is pleasant to use for tracking and moving around the page. The weird feeling initially comes from the recognition that the whole surface is a massive touchpad. However, it’s not simply a moveable touchpad; that would be ridiculously confusing. Instead, it has touchpad elements on a traditional mouse.

Look at it. LOOK AT IT!

Tracking is brilliant. Trying it on the carpet, jeans and a shiny surface proved to have no problems at all. Bizarrely, the only surface it didn’t work on was the iMac monitor on which I am typing this. But that’s fine really, because at that point, I was just trying to find a surface it didn’t work on and anyone who tries to use a mouse like that should not be allowed anywhere near a computer. Or society.

Onto multitouch. It’s a mixed bag really. On one hand, I want to praise Apple for incorporating these gestures that we may be familiar with from iPhones or the new Macbooks, but I also want to hit them for removing things I used to use. We’ve already talked about the lack of mousewheel/ball and that’s not something that’s too major. The overall feeling I get from using a single finger to scroll anywhere on the page is great and it reminds me of a trackpad. Of course, two finger scrolling (why doesn’t EVERY computer with a trackpad have this?) works as well. Trying to use the whole surface as a trackpad doesn’t work though (i.e. keeping the mouse static, but using a single digit to move the pointer around the screen). This may not seem like an obvious interaction, but could be an interesting implementation in the future.

Two finger swiping works well for going back and forth in Safari, but not much else really. It’s easy enough to do but ultimately I never felt that it saved much time. It’s somewhat annoying that all the customisation features that the Mighty Mouse used to have are missing. The ability to map all buttons to whatever you wanted is lost. I’d like swipe to act like Expose and clear windows out to my desktop, or swiping to the left to show all my windows, but I can’t.

The other annoyance that plagues mac users is that the right button isn’t activated by default. You have to go into System Preferences to switch it on. It just makes jealous PC users stuck in 1987 say “Mac mice don’t have two buttons.”

The mouse is satisfying to click and really tricks you into thinking that just the part you’ve pressed has clicked. This is a great implementation and I really think it works in practice. I even knew where the middle mouse scrolling wheel part would be without having to look at the mouse at any point. Bizarrely, multi touch gestures like pinch and zoom and single finger swiping are absent.

All my arguments at this stage could be remedied with software updates, but they are, as a released product, valid for now. Until Apple sort it out, power users who were used to interactions with their Magic Mice should wait for a bit.

One area that I can praise is the new Control Panel setup.

Now, that's a lovely picture.....

Moving over every single description of actions available brings up a beautiful little instruction video (silent) that shows exactly what each term means. It’s a really nice way of presenting things and clears up questions for the users.

Overall

It’s hard not to love the Magic Mouse, really. It’s simplicity of use and superb tracking/scrolling make it a winner. However, it’s lack of middle mouse button action, it’s fairly high price tag and apparent lack of Windows support will just fuel arguments against it and I really wish these had been rectified.

Scrolling feels great on the device and adds an interactive element to a mouse making it feel like you really are in control of the screen. It’s sleek, light and easy to move around and for this Apple should be praised. Just hurry up with that software update, OK?