Comments on: FAIL of the week: Apple Mighty Mouse

By: Brian Pugsley

Brian Pugsley — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:12:30 +0000

it’s impossible to use the mighty mouse left-handed. i had to switch my mouse to the left hand because of an rsi - but the contortions required to generate a right-click with my left hand threaten a whole new rsi. the might mouse has been banished.

By: Tim Huegdon

Tim Huegdon — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:28:08 +0000

Yup. I hate my Mighty Mouse too, both because of the scroll “nipple” and because of the terrible right-button detection.

It’s nice to see various recommendations for viable alternatives at last!

By: Ed Eliot

Ed Eliot — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:33:01 +0000

The biggest problem I have with the mighty mouse is that the right click detection doesn’t work if you’re left handed - it simply doesn’t detect that one’s right clicked and registers a left click instead. Switching to using my right hand solves the problem (but that obviously isn’t a solution). Unusually 3 members of my family are left handed so I know it isn’t just the way I use the mouse that’s causing the problem.

I wonder when these large companies are going to realise that the whole world isn’t right handed. Microsoft is equally guilty of creating mice that are modeled in such a way which makes them uncomfortable for a left handed person to use.

Anyway with regards to the MM to me the whole idea of having a mouse which looks like it doesn’t have any buttons but actually has two smacks of Apple trying to be too clever for their own good.

I use a Kensington bluetooth mouse now with two real buttons - much better.

By: Andy Hume

Andy Hume — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:06:57 +0000

there are dozens of the bloody things lying all over our office like the sad crappy rodents they are.

By: Carlo Zottmann

Carlo Zottmann — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:12:02 +0000

I recommend the MX series by Logitech, in combination with the wonderful 3rd party SteerMouse drivers.

Many buttons, great scroll wheel, cable (big plus in my book), super-reliable.

Cheers from the Munich office of that company you used to work for in the past.
C.

By: PF

PF — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:35:44 +0000

I’m a month into a new iMac with the much maligned mouse. It’s the best mouse I’ve ever laid my paw on, so your article is a good and timely reminder to keep it clean so it won’t become one of the most frustrating.

Thanks.

By: George

George — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:52:12 +0000

This is such a common problem you think Apple would have addressed it by now.

At least you didn’t decide to take the mouse apart using a penknife and end up slicing your finger as a result!

Apple do so much so well why can’t they get a mouse right?

By: Al

Al — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:00:53 +0000

I’ve been using the wired Mighty Mouse on my desktop Mac and the wireless Mighty Mouse with my laptop Mac for about 2 years. Having used trackballs since the early Mac laptops, I knew what to do. I started cleaning the scroll balls once a week from the date of purchase. I used a damp, slightly soapy cloth and spent a minute or two each week cleaning each one throughly.

I have never had a problem with either scroll ball malfunctioning.

I want all of you to know how hard it was to describe washing my sticky balls without sounding completely ridiculous, but I think I managed it.

By: Scott Schuckert

Scott Schuckert — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:19:16 +0000

I don’t mind the Mighty Mouse. I like the tactile feedback and accuracy of the scroll ball; I’d tried the Kensington mouse with the tiny scroll pad and it was awful - NEVER responded correctly to my touch.

Granted, I DO have to clean the MM every couple of months, but this only takes a minute and has always worked. I’d prefer there was a better way to clean it, but I don’t see how they could make the tiny ball removable. Works for me.

By: istara

istara — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:48:17 +0000

Amen - I loathe that mouse - it never worked reliably and started to give me weird hand cramps. I so, so wanted it to be really great because Apple products are usually a hit for me, but it was dire. Nearly as dire as the hockey puck mouse (in fact in terms of hand comfort, more so).

The majority of users seem to love it so I don’t know why it was a fail for me but sadly it was. An expensive fail

Currently I use a regular sized regular style typical-office-mouse with my typical-office-pc, and I use a tiny travelling mouse (still optical with a nice little scrollwheel) at home for my laptop. I only bought this mouse for temporary travel reasons but I got so used to it I love it.

I also suspect that varying the size of my mouse - between work and home - may guard against RSI/mouse cramp to some extent.