DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7

Zardon · Oct 31, 2009, 02:28 PM

Most of you guys know I am a big follower of the products that Apple produce and within my ever growing collection of systems I own many Apple products. Sure they are expensive, but they have served me well and I find OSx is an extremely reliable operating system for doing most of my design work. That said, I jump between computers often during my day and feel equally at home on any Windows OS. Yes, I know it is unheard of in this industry- a 'PC centric reviewer and writer' who sings the praises of Apple when he feels they deserve it.

Today we are going to have a look at the new Apple Magic Mouse. I felt a 'full' DriverHeaven article wasn't really needed because as we will see the mouse is limited within a Windows environment. As much as I believe in OSX and use it daily, I know the majority of our audience doesn't.

Whether you love or loathe Apple, the technology inside the Magic Mouse is extremely interesting because it is the World's First Multi-Touch mouse.

The mouse is basically a single piece of clear white plastic on top and it can support left and right clicks, even though there are no buttons. This particular principle isn't 'new' as the Mighty Mouse was the same before it - what is different however is the fact that this has touch sensitive scrolling ability and two fingered gesture support (lets keep it clean!).

As a product, The Magic Mouse is extremely attractive and many yuppie businessmen will love to have this adorning their desk, right next to their new shiny Core i5 or i7 27 inch iMac.

The mouse is aerodynamically styled and while appealing in design may not give people the same feeling of connection with the mouse as it wont fit in your hand in the same manner than say a Logitech or Steelseries mouse would. On the plus side, it is Bluetooth so you aren't forced to endure dropout from a relative distance like many wireless mice. Apple say it supports up to 33 feet signal strength and I found around 28 feet was my limit at home, although I have about 15 networked and wireless computers in my rather large intranet (mixed macs and pcs with several NAS systems) so it is possible the distance would be longer in a "normal" home.

As we only received this mouse yesterday from Apple we have not yet tested the battery life, but Apple told me that 4 months with two AA batteries is possible - right now I will have to take their word for it.

Under the mouse the surface changes into a thin layer of Aluminium with two plastic bards which minimise contact with whatever surface you are using. There is a power on switch and a button to open a cover to replace the batteries.

The top surface of the mouse has no buttons and once you connect it to a Macintosh, the operating system informs you of a new software update, and after a restart/install you are presented with the new interface which offers new functionality for the Magic Mouse.

Internally the mouse is a laser based system which is relatively capable, but not in the league of the newest tracking mechanisms from the likes of Steelseries or Logitech. It will track on tables, mouse mats, even jeans and chairs, but it won't handle glass or glossy surfaces. I found it quite noisy on glass based tracking mats and it wouldn't always be a stellar experience - a more traditional high quality cloth based surface was quietest and worked the best.

Compared with the class leading Steelseries Ikari Laser Mouse the Magic Mouse looks like a celery eating supermodel. I found it difficult to get used to as I have big hands and have been using the Ikari for months and the shape of that mouse fits my hand like a glove. After 6 hours with the Magic Mouse I was still finding it a little insubstantial, but generally it was very usuable.

As you can see above, next to the iphone 3G the mouse is only slightly deeper in the middle with the curved belly pointing upwards. It is such a slim design and for many PC based mice users it will prove to be a challenge to adapt. If you have feminine dainty hands then this will be right up your alley.

The most appealing part of the mouse is the touch scrolling. It is extremely fluid, natural and works with as many fingers as you can throw at it ... on over 75% of the top surface - falling just short of the Apple logo on the lower quarter. If you flick up and down, then you move up web pages extremely quickly - as long as you have momentum enabled in the control panel. If you turn it off you return to traditional 1:1 scrolling - good if you wish to carefully move through specific documents. Using the momentum settings on Driverheaven's home forum page was wonderfully intuitive and made finding all our forum areas extremely dynamic and straightforward.

You can click with one finger and scroll with another if you wish, which lets you highlight blocks of text. Resting your fingers on the mouse surface doesn't activate a click either, you need to apply some pressure before this activates (it does click so there is feedback), so you don't need to hold your fingers mid air to avoid accidentally clicking the touch sensitive sensors.

The gestures however are a bit of a mixed bag, they are limited in what you can actually achieve with them because you can't use more than three fingers at a time because you need the others to hold the mouse in place. There is no option for touch sensitive clicking, like a trackpad.

The quality of the surface is high, although I am positive that over time it will be marked and scuffed with use - which I guess would be expected as Apple products such as the iphone tend to be finished in such a way that they look great in the boxes, but once opened they get dirty very very quickly.

Getting it connected on Windows 7 proved to be a mixed bag with one laptop refusing to connect with it, and the other getting a straight connection almost immediately - unfortunately all of the multi touch functionality has no support as Apple have only released software and drivers for OSX. You can use it as a standard left and right click mouse, but nothing more. Still the fact it works I guess is more than some of us would have expected.

Here is how you connect it in Windows 7 via bootcamp:

In the Windows 7 task bar tray (bottom right), you’ll find the Bluetooth icon. Select Add Device.
From the Add Device dialog box, right click on your device’s icon and select Properties. If your device isn’t listed, try turning it off and on.
From the Properties dialog, in the Services tab, you should see a checkbox item for “Drivers for keyboard, mice, etc (HID)” under Bluetooth Services. If it doesn’t show up, you probably already have a similar device connected. Check the checkbox and click Apply.

I did not try it with Windows Vista but I am sure it will work exactly the same.

The Magic Mouse is the best mouse Apple have made but for PC gamers, this is still a long way off becoming even a viable option - the tracking is good, but its not in the league of the leading mice from Steelseries, Razer and Logitech and the fact it is Bluetooth and not wired will alienate a large PC based market. Perhaps Apple don't care and I would assume the fact that the Magic Mouse is selling so well would prove the customer base don't either but it is disappointing that for £55 it isn't just that little bit better in the Windows environment - we would have liked to see dedicated Windows based drivers and software from Apple, but the best you can get right now is basic movement and two button support on Windows 7. Its interesting to play with, and its beautiful, but for a practical Windows user there are better options. Hopefully Apple will release a software package for Windows in the near future.

If you have a Macintosh however this is a great addition to your arsenal. I am great believer in Bluetooth technology for laptops, because you don't end up losing a USB port with an annoying dongle/receiver and this will easily fit into a laptop bag without adding more bulk and weight to your baggage.

Its a great product from Apple and it deserves a round of applause for being the first multitouch mouse on the market but personally I can't wait to see what Logitech and Steelseries will do with this technology in 2010 - there is so much potential for user interface enhancements in a Windows based gaming environment.

If you want to see the insides of the Magic Mouse - please head over to one of my favourite sites. I wasn't willing to take ours apart because I am not sure Apple UK would have been very happy with me doing that!

Rating the mouse is difficult - I would give the design of the mouse almost a maximum score with some points deducted for people will bigger hands (I think they should release a fatter version of this mouse for big men like myself). Performance would be around 8 out of 10 and Value the same. At £55 it is rather expensive, however to be fair Apple are using leading technology inside it so it is reasonably justified.

Zardon · Oct 31, 2009, 03:07 PM

I would love to hear other views on this product if anyone has bought it. thanks guys.

comp_ali · Oct 31, 2009, 03:17 PM

For me , I'd like to hold a big mouse with my hand , I feel it is easier to control . Have you tried it in games ?

Zardon · Oct 31, 2009, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by comp_ali

For me , I'd like to hold a big mouse with my hand , I feel it is easier to control . Have you tried it in games ?

Yes, I used it in Call Of Duty 4 - the OSX version, it tracked fine - although I found it easier to change weapons with momentum scrolling off as sometimes if you flicked it hard, you would move up more than one weapon at a time - traditional 'click' based scroll wheel is a little easier with this. I think it would be safe to say this isn't really aimed as a 'hard core' gaming mouse.

BlueMak · Oct 31, 2009, 03:51 PM

Question, does this mean that under Windows, you have a mouse without a scroll wheel or replacement for it? If yes, this is the biggest problem for using it under Windows for me and I couldn't rec it to anyone with Windows.

If no, or if "you" have an Apple computer, it looks very good, miles better than the mighty mouse and I could learn to like it.

The technology is cool and I too am curious if the major Windows mice manufacturers will bring something over "here". One easy way, it could work as a "hat switch" on top of the mouse.

Thank you for the hands on. (sorry for the pan)

Zardon · Oct 31, 2009, 04:32 PM

no the swiping motions do not work as its part of the multi gesture system coded into OSX.

SeraphicSorcerer · Oct 31, 2009, 04:58 PM

I always loved the gesture coding system, makes me wanna do all sorts of obscene things in OS X

The mouse looks fantastic, if you've got women hands... but look at Steve jobs, hes gotten pretty thin lately...

niceguyrichy · Oct 31, 2009, 05:12 PM

looks really sweet

wish i had the cash to buy a Mac.
wish i had the cash to splurge 55 quid on what is really a gimmick.
wish i didn't have great big ham fists..

**dj_stick** · Nov 1, 2009, 09:45 AM

I'll probably buy one of these as soon as my friend pays me back the $100 she owes me (the Magic Mouse retails for AU$99 here - at current exchange rates, about £54.15/US$89.15)

Zardon · Nov 1, 2009, 01:24 PM

Let me know what you think - as a laptop *portable* style mouse its great, but im afraid for long term use my hands are too big I will go back to my Ikari Laser mouse for my daily work. For me to use this as a 7 hour a day work based mouse it would need to be 'fatter' - it is just too thin for my hand shape and I get hand ache if I use it for long periods of time.

Interestingly I prefer the Sony bluetooth mouse which is a rather similar shape to the Apple Magic Mouse but is substantially fatter and is more comfortable. I do have big hands however.

This is the one I mean (BM555)

Zardon · Nov 6, 2009, 01:18 AM

A week later and I can report that the Magic Mouse is more comfortable than I initially thought after a few days of testing ... last time I reported. While quite a slender mouse the multi touch system works great, especially when browsing forums with a lot of 'depth' and even scrolling sideways is massively intuitive as you can just slide your finger along the mouse rather than having to press a scroll wheel in a direction.

My hand has adapted to using it and you just need to relax your hand a little more rather than trying to 'hold' it like you do with a normal traditional shaped mouse.

it is great on OSX, but on Windows right now it is limited - until Apple sort out some software for it.

Still if you have a Mac, head into your local Apple store and give it a try, the assistants seem more than willing to give people a 'hands on go' with it.

Zardon · Nov 6, 2009, 01:28 AM

Also Battery life after one week is showing 97%. That is around maybe 2-3 hours a day with it (since last friday).

3% drained in about 21-22 hours use - quite impressive.

Oct 31, 2009, 02:28 PM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 177	DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7 Most of you guys know I am a big follower of the products that Apple produce and within my ever growing collection of systems I own many Apple products. Sure they are expensive, but they have served me well and I find OSx is an extremely reliable operating system for doing most of my design work. That said, I jump between computers often during my day and feel equally at home on any Windows OS. Yes, I know it is unheard of in this industry- a 'PC centric reviewer and writer' who sings the praises of Apple when he feels they deserve it. Today we are going to have a look at the new Apple Magic Mouse. I felt a 'full' DriverHeaven article wasn't really needed because as we will see the mouse is limited within a Windows environment. As much as I believe in OSX and use it daily, I know the majority of our audience doesn't. Whether you love or loathe Apple, the technology inside the Magic Mouse is extremely interesting because it is the World's First Multi-Touch mouse. The mouse is basically a single piece of clear white plastic on top and it can support left and right clicks, even though there are no buttons. This particular principle isn't 'new' as the Mighty Mouse was the same before it - what is different however is the fact that this has touch sensitive scrolling ability and two fingered gesture support (lets keep it clean!). As a product, The Magic Mouse is extremely attractive and many yuppie businessmen will love to have this adorning their desk, right next to their new shiny Core i5 or i7 27 inch iMac. The mouse is aerodynamically styled and while appealing in design may not give people the same feeling of connection with the mouse as it wont fit in your hand in the same manner than say a Logitech or Steelseries mouse would. On the plus side, it is Bluetooth so you aren't forced to endure dropout from a relative distance like many wireless mice. Apple say it supports up to 33 feet signal strength and I found around 28 feet was my limit at home, although I have about 15 networked and wireless computers in my rather large intranet (mixed macs and pcs with several NAS systems) so it is possible the distance would be longer in a "normal" home. As we only received this mouse yesterday from Apple we have not yet tested the battery life, but Apple told me that 4 months with two AA batteries is possible - right now I will have to take their word for it. Under the mouse the surface changes into a thin layer of Aluminium with two plastic bards which minimise contact with whatever surface you are using. There is a power on switch and a button to open a cover to replace the batteries. The top surface of the mouse has no buttons and once you connect it to a Macintosh, the operating system informs you of a new software update, and after a restart/install you are presented with the new interface which offers new functionality for the Magic Mouse. Internally the mouse is a laser based system which is relatively capable, but not in the league of the newest tracking mechanisms from the likes of Steelseries or Logitech. It will track on tables, mouse mats, even jeans and chairs, but it won't handle glass or glossy surfaces. I found it quite noisy on glass based tracking mats and it wouldn't always be a stellar experience - a more traditional high quality cloth based surface was quietest and worked the best. Compared with the class leading Steelseries Ikari Laser Mouse the Magic Mouse looks like a celery eating supermodel. I found it difficult to get used to as I have big hands and have been using the Ikari for months and the shape of that mouse fits my hand like a glove. After 6 hours with the Magic Mouse I was still finding it a little insubstantial, but generally it was very usuable. As you can see above, next to the iphone 3G the mouse is only slightly deeper in the middle with the curved belly pointing upwards. It is such a slim design and for many PC based mice users it will prove to be a challenge to adapt. If you have feminine dainty hands then this will be right up your alley. The most appealing part of the mouse is the touch scrolling. It is extremely fluid, natural and works with as many fingers as you can throw at it ... on over 75% of the top surface - falling just short of the Apple logo on the lower quarter. If you flick up and down, then you move up web pages extremely quickly - as long as you have momentum enabled in the control panel. If you turn it off you return to traditional 1:1 scrolling - good if you wish to carefully move through specific documents. Using the momentum settings on Driverheaven's home forum page was wonderfully intuitive and made finding all our forum areas extremely dynamic and straightforward. You can click with one finger and scroll with another if you wish, which lets you highlight blocks of text. Resting your fingers on the mouse surface doesn't activate a click either, you need to apply some pressure before this activates (it does click so there is feedback), so you don't need to hold your fingers mid air to avoid accidentally clicking the touch sensitive sensors. The gestures however are a bit of a mixed bag, they are limited in what you can actually achieve with them because you can't use more than three fingers at a time because you need the others to hold the mouse in place. There is no option for touch sensitive clicking, like a trackpad. The quality of the surface is high, although I am positive that over time it will be marked and scuffed with use - which I guess would be expected as Apple products such as the iphone tend to be finished in such a way that they look great in the boxes, but once opened they get dirty very very quickly. Getting it connected on Windows 7 proved to be a mixed bag with one laptop refusing to connect with it, and the other getting a straight connection almost immediately - unfortunately all of the multi touch functionality has no support as Apple have only released software and drivers for OSX. You can use it as a standard left and right click mouse, but nothing more. Still the fact it works I guess is more than some of us would have expected. Here is how you connect it in Windows 7 via bootcamp: In the Windows 7 task bar tray (bottom right), you’ll find the Bluetooth icon. Select Add Device. From the Add Device dialog box, right click on your device’s icon and select Properties. If your device isn’t listed, try turning it off and on. From the Properties dialog, in the Services tab, you should see a checkbox item for “Drivers for keyboard, mice, etc (HID)” under Bluetooth Services. If it doesn’t show up, you probably already have a similar device connected. Check the checkbox and click Apply. I did not try it with Windows Vista but I am sure it will work exactly the same. The Magic Mouse is the best mouse Apple have made but for PC gamers, this is still a long way off becoming even a viable option - the tracking is good, but its not in the league of the leading mice from Steelseries, Razer and Logitech and the fact it is Bluetooth and not wired will alienate a large PC based market. Perhaps Apple don't care and I would assume the fact that the Magic Mouse is selling so well would prove the customer base don't either but it is disappointing that for £55 it isn't just that little bit better in the Windows environment - we would have liked to see dedicated Windows based drivers and software from Apple, but the best you can get right now is basic movement and two button support on Windows 7. Its interesting to play with, and its beautiful, but for a practical Windows user there are better options. Hopefully Apple will release a software package for Windows in the near future. If you have a Macintosh however this is a great addition to your arsenal. I am great believer in Bluetooth technology for laptops, because you don't end up losing a USB port with an annoying dongle/receiver and this will easily fit into a laptop bag without adding more bulk and weight to your baggage. Its a great product from Apple and it deserves a round of applause for being the first multitouch mouse on the market but personally I can't wait to see what Logitech and Steelseries will do with this technology in 2010 - there is so much potential for user interface enhancements in a Windows based gaming environment. If you want to see the insides of the Magic Mouse - please head over to one of my favourite sites. I wasn't willing to take ours apart because I am not sure Apple UK would have been very happy with me doing that! Rating the mouse is difficult - I would give the design of the mouse almost a maximum score with some points deducted for people will bigger hands (I think they should release a fatter version of this mouse for big men like myself). Performance would be around 8 out of 10 and Value the same. At £55 it is rather expensive, however to be fair Apple are using leading technology inside it so it is reasonably justified.

Oct 31, 2009, 03:07 PM	Thread Starter #2
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 177	re: DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7 I would love to hear other views on this product if anyone has bought it. thanks guys.

Oct 31, 2009, 03:17 PM	#3
comp_ali Sniper Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Egypt Posts: 10,441 Rep Power: 331 System Specs	Re: DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7 For me , I'd like to hold a big mouse with my hand , I feel it is easier to control . Have you tried it in games ? __________________

Oct 31, 2009, 03:51 PM	#5
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,244 Rep Power: 326 System Specs	Re: DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7 Question, does this mean that under Windows, you have a mouse without a scroll wheel or replacement for it? If yes, this is the biggest problem for using it under Windows for me and I couldn't rec it to anyone with Windows. If no, or if "you" have an Apple computer, it looks very good, miles better than the mighty mouse and I could learn to like it. The technology is cool and I too am curious if the major Windows mice manufacturers will bring something over "here". One easy way, it could work as a "hat switch" on top of the mouse. Thank you for the hands on. (sorry for the pan) __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Oct 31, 2009, 04:32 PM	Thread Starter #6
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 177	Re: DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7 no the swiping motions do not work as its part of the multi gesture system coded into OSX.

Oct 31, 2009, 04:58 PM	#7
SeraphicSorcerer HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Florida Posts: 2,295 Rep Power: 154 System Specs	Re: DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7 I always loved the gesture coding system, makes me wanna do all sorts of obscene things in OS X The mouse looks fantastic, if you've got women hands... but look at Steve jobs, hes gotten pretty thin lately... __________________

Nov 1, 2009, 01:24 PM	Thread Starter #10
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 177	Re: DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7 Let me know what you think - as a laptop portable style mouse its great, but im afraid for long term use my hands are too big I will go back to my Ikari Laser mouse for my daily work. For me to use this as a 7 hour a day work based mouse it would need to be 'fatter' - it is just too thin for my hand shape and I get hand ache if I use it for long periods of time. Interestingly I prefer the Sony bluetooth mouse which is a rather similar shape to the Apple Magic Mouse but is substantially fatter and is more comfortable. I do have big hands however. This is the one I mean (BM555)

Nov 6, 2009, 01:18 AM	Thread Starter #11
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 177	Re: DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7 A week later and I can report that the Magic Mouse is more comfortable than I initially thought after a few days of testing ... last time I reported. While quite a slender mouse the multi touch system works great, especially when browsing forums with a lot of 'depth' and even scrolling sideways is massively intuitive as you can just slide your finger along the mouse rather than having to press a scroll wheel in a direction. My hand has adapted to using it and you just need to relax your hand a little more rather than trying to 'hold' it like you do with a normal traditional shaped mouse. it is great on OSX, but on Windows right now it is limited - until Apple sort out some software for it. Still if you have a Mac, head into your local Apple store and give it a try, the assistants seem more than willing to give people a 'hands on go' with it.

Nov 6, 2009, 01:28 AM	Thread Starter #12
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 177	Re: DH Quick Look: The Apple Magic Mouse - on OSX and Windows 7 Also Battery life after one week is showing 97%. That is around maybe 2-3 hours a day with it (since last friday). 3% drained in about 21-22 hours use - quite impressive.