Ouch Posted August 6, 2006 Share Posted August 6, 2006 Now that Apple has finally seen fit to offer a Bluetooth Mighty Mouse to complement the Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard I thought I’d pick up a pair and give them a road test for InsanelyMac. I purchased both the Mighty Mouse and Keyboard through the Apple Online Store for a grand total of £88 including shipping which, as far as I can tell from a bit of ‘froogling’, is a lot of money for not a lot of equipment… The Specs There is not a great deal to be said on this – it is a mouse and keyboard after all – however it’s worth mentioning that the mouse itself uses a laser tracking system rather than an LED system which the wired mighty mouse uses. It also has the same multi-directional scroll ball, touch sensitive left/right click, and the squeeze buttons on the side. The keyboard is a standard Apple layout which as well as the standard keys present on a MacBook Pro keyboard also has 4 additional function keys and a delete key which is a bonus for anyone who has recently switched from a PC. There are also dedicated page up and page down keys and two diagonal arrow keys (whose function I have yet to determine). Setup Setup of both the Wireless Keyboard and Wireless Mighty Mouse to work with my MacBook Pro was straightforward and only the most timid user should need to refer to the supplied instruction manual. The procedure involved installing the supplied batteries and switching on the devices, then enabling Bluetooth and running the device installation wizard from the Bluetooth preference pane. The wizard detected both the keyboard and mouse first time and installed them both without any problems. Installing the Wireless Mighty Mouse software modifies the mouse preference pane to allow you to configure the Mighty Mouse functions such as enabling right clicking, and modifying the effect of clicking the scroll ball and squeeze buttons. Interestingly after installation of the software I found that my mouse would no longer right click as it had done after initial detection – deleting the device from the Bluetooth preference pane and detecting it again solved the problem. The instruction manual does say that you should install the software prior to setting up the mouse so this was probably my own fault. The Wireless Keyboard was also supplied with a software setup CD but on closer inspection of the user manual I discovered it is not required if you have already installed a Wireless Mighty Mouse. Build Quality The keyboard itself is heavy and this combined with it’s rubber feet makes it stick firmly to the desktop even when applying lateral pressure. The keys although having a slightly smaller surface area than those on the MacBook Pro, feel solid and give a good click with every press. The space bar is well balanced and a tap from any location along it’s surface always works. Overall the Keyboard feels like a sturdy piece of hardware. The Mighty Mouse unfortunately doesn’t give the same impression – although this is largely due to the ‘rocker’ design and not a reflection of build quality (as far as I can tell.) The Mighty Mouse is not touch sensitive in the sense that iPod buttons are – rather the whole top of the case is depressed when clicked and sensors underneath detect which side of the mouse was pressed. The scroll ball emits a clicking sound when moved in any direction and can be depressed either to act as a third input button or to perform other functions such as calling up the dashboard. The speed of scrolling can be configured from the mouse preference pane. The Mighty Mouse also features what Apple calls “force sensing side buttons”. In actual fact these are just buttons which when pressed simultaneously will perform a function specified in the mouse preference pane. As far as I can tell the reference to force sensing can only be due to the inordinate amount of pressure that seems to be required to activate them. :pirate2: The laser tracking seems to be good – although the only noticeable improvement over the LED tracking offered by my old wired mouse seems to be that the pointer doesn’t jump to the corner of the screen as the old one occasionally did. (Usually in the middle of a precise graphics operation.) I am currently using the mouse on a laminate desktop but it seems to track relatively well on my trouser leg also. Conclusion Overall I would say that both the wireless keyboard and wireless mighty mouse are good products and if you have one on order then you probably aren’t going to be disappointed. If you are trying to figure out just where the £88 goes – I can’t really help - and you may wish to consider a cheaper alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 Thanks for the review, Ouch! Have you had any issues with trying to right click and left clicking instead? I'd heard some people say they had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouch Posted August 8, 2006 Author Share Posted August 8, 2006 I haven't encountered any problems like that so far - but i've only been using it for a few days now - if i do i'll let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zedzed Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 I just bought the Wireless Mighty Mouse. I wonder if there is any way to do the following... "Close a Tab in Web Browser" I like to open a dozen tabs in Firefox when browsing. Is there any way to program a button to close the open window that I am looking at. Speed up the process rather than clicking on the close button. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
head Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 I just bought the Wireless Mighty Mouse. I wonder if there is any way to do the following... "Close a Tab in Web Browser" I like to open a dozen tabs in Firefox when browsing. Is there any way to program a button to close the open window that I am looking at. Speed up the process rather than clicking on the close button. you could set up a button for "close tabs" when you bind "option + w" to a button... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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