No one, though, will find the side edges of the Magic entirely comfortable. The upper surface meets the edge at a sharp right angle that descends for three or four millimetres or so before reaching a small gap and then the graceful downward curve of the mouse's lower half. This flat side falls exactly where we place our thumb and doesn't feel right at all.
Designed to be fingered not palmed
The base of the mouse is nice and smooth though, and ran well on the wooden surface we tried the Magic on - and on flesh and a leather jacket, too. Apple has thoughtfully included a power switch to preserve battery life - more on this later - when the mouse is stowed. A latch at the base of the mouse flips up the base to allow you to access the battery bay. The Magic is powered by a pair of AAs, and while the ones Apple supplies are nothing special, you can slot in your own rechargeable pair in due course.
The batteries and the aluminium base lend the Magic mass, and the device is nicely weighted, with the right balance between inertia and smooth movement.
The multi-touch surface works well too, with almost every part of the upper face of the mouse sensitive to touches. Finger-swipe scrolling, horizontally as well as vertically, may feel odd when you're not used to it. Still, we think it's a better, more accurate way of controlling scrolling windows than a scrollwheel - ratcheted or free-running - and certainly more so than side-tilting scroll wheels.
Apple touts a zoom feature - scroll while holding down a modifier key - but it simply zooms the entire screen, not the contents of the foremost window. There's no twist-to-rotate gesture either.
Swiping two fingers sideways flips back and forth between, say, browser pages. It sounds a good idea, but we found it a tricky manœuvre to perform. Grip the mouse and it's hard to move index and middle fingers together very far. Let go of the mouse, though, and it's too easy to simply push it sideways rather than swipe across it. We suspect this is a feature, like the Mighty Mouse's side-buttons, that folk will not use.
Apply your settings
The narrowness of the Magic means that three- and certainly four-finger swipes are out of the question, even though these are both useful additions to Apple's latest laptop trackpads.
COMMENTS
Oh come on, it's been 35 years
We are still getting all moist between the legs over a slightly different shape mouse?
We've been using the wretched things for around 35 years - the same time difference as between the Wright brothers and the Spitfire. The damn things should be obsolete by now, like keyboards.
Where are the brain implants that let me type at 560wpm?, the data gloves or triangulation cameras that interpret my finger movements, or the flicks of my eyes?
Where is the matt black hemisphere that we can think at?
It's a joystick on wheels, (perhaps wthout the wheels) not a major technological breakthrough.
last year VW, having fitted 'start' buttons to some cars instead of an extra position on the key, started to talk about 'transferring the technology' to their other marques. My Morris Minor had a 'start' button, and that was built in 1955. Same with computer rodents. For glod's sake, lads, invent something new instead of obsesively tiddling about with what we have and then squealing like some airhead on 'America's next top muddle' about how it looks.
I've got mine...
All this talk of ergonomics and 'fitting in your hand' is utter claptrap. It is not meant to fit in your hand. It is not hand-shaped. It is meant to fit on your mouse mat, which it does perfectly. You slide it around your mouse mat with a thumb and finger, there is no need to grip it or surround it with a hand. Your forefinger and middle finger can lie on top in a natural position or you can let go completely. Stroking front to back scrolls down a web page and stroking back to front scrolls up. If you are on a wide page, you can scroll from side to side. A two finger swipe left is the same as the back button in your browser and swiping right gives the effect of the next page button. There is no visible light from the bottom apart from a tiny 'ON' led. It is much better for pixel accurate editing in Photoshop than any other mouse I've used. It seems to work on any surface including my shiny white desktop and trouser leg but a spongy mouse mat makes a more comfortable rest for the ball of the hand.
@AndrueC
@AndrueC
"Best mouse ever [...] Logitech MX700."
I have one of these (and have used it for about 6 years now without any problem). I can see your point (it is a good mouse). But I can guarantee that my other mouse (a Logitech MXRevolution) is superior in just about every way. Apart from the AA batteries, it has all the features you describe above and some cool extra buttons and and a much better scroll wheel. It's also much more comfortable to hold.
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@Gulfie
Interesting point on the RSI thing. I've never found scrolling ona normal mouse to be at all uncomfortable, but I guess for some people it might be...
It's a winner for me
The ergonomics of the new mouse are going to be different depending on the size of your hand. I finally got to play with a Magic Mouse yesterday. I have quite a large hand (well, OK actually I have two large hands - octave plus two notes on a piano) and small mice give me RSI because I have to scrunch my hand up to work the buttons. The Microsoft 'basic optical mouse' shape is a perfect fit for me whereas Dell mice and most of the cheep and cheerful ones are too small.
I have a Mighty Mouse and again its just the right size. When I saw the Magic Mouse I was concerned that it would be a problem but it isn't. Other than they're not shipping until Sunday at the earliest.
Anyway it made me appreciate one reason it is so much flatter. If you have a 'normal' mouse shape then you will have to arch your hand unnaturally to perform the scrolling gesture, and this will cause RSI. Try it on your current mouse and you'll see what I mean. Then try it with your hand flat on the desk.
I know the ergonomics won't suit everybody but I do believe that Apple has got it right for the majority of people; and incidentally I had no problem with the finger swipe gesture. The trick is not to try too hard, and to play with the sensitivity settings so that you are making a gesture that you find comfortable and that the driver software can interpret as a swipe...
Best mouse ever
Logitech MX700.
* Wireless.
* Optical
* Takes two AA batteries..
* ..which can be rechargeable..
* ..and comes with its own docking cradle with built in charger..
* ..but if you forget then not to worry - a single charge will last several days.
* It's a nice large chunky size.
I've owned three since they came out several years ago. I had one fail last year and the charging cradles sometimes don't make contact and need a wipe but that's all.
