Innovative trackball scroller! *cough, cough* I hope they can't get a patent on that. It is a plainly obvious idea, and they stole the "mini pointing device as a scroller" idea from IBM.

It looks nice. Wow. Fullstop. ^_~

So they go from the most simple useless mouse to a potentially over complicated and intrusive one. Nice move.

So how are they getting away with stealing the Mighty Mouse name?

they bought the mighty mouse name.

This is not a news item it's advertising for Apple!

The sensor touching is just another iGay idea from Apple... Thankfully I have my Zen, which is surperior to the iPog, and a life.

And yet your are here posting away just like the rest of us.

Hmm makes you wondering what kind of life you really have?

I just bought a Ms optical 5 button USB2 Mouse for 5 quid, cant see how they can justify the cost of the apple mouse except for they realise Apple users by nature pay more.

WTF!?!?!? 4 mouse buttons and a roller ball? But, Mac only needs ONE button... I am so confused now, what do I use these other buttons for?!?!?!?! *grin*

Firstly: Why did it take Apple so long to figure out that you need more than 1 button on a mice?
Secondly: They have ruined this mouse by making it touch sensitive. All mice we use these days are click mice, which means that your fingers rest on the buttons when not clicking the mouse. Here if you rest your fingers it will click, therefore your fingers must be hovering in the air when not clicking.

It's a mouse for crying out loud, just make it normal and get over it!!!

The mouse isn't touch sensitive. You can rest your fingers on the mouse just as you always have. The outer shell depresses and clicks just like their single button mice. The sensors in this new mouse just detect if you depressed the right or left sides.

Wait... Apple releases a mouse, one that has multiple buttons. And everybody is raving about it? Did I miss something? I mean... I've used multibutton mice for... hm... I think the first I had came with my Amiga back in 1984 or so. So what's the big news here?

Here's the thing folks... Apple had the Mouse before MS, MS "Borrowed" the idea from Apple back in 84/85. Apple just scratched their heads as MS walked out the door with the idea.

Actually...they both "borrowed" it from Xerox. Know your history before you start bashing.

I thought it was that Apple "borrowed" it from Xerox and MS "borrowed" it from Apple.
The difference being that Xerox weren't bothered with the technology and so basically gave it to Apple, whereas MS more-or-less stole it from Apple.

Well there now... I stand corrected... but as a matter of fact I do remember now that you guys jogged my memory... also I wasn't bashing, I wasn't angry when I wrote that... I just new that MS wasn't the creator. For goodness sakes it was over 20 years ago. So for the guy who said I was bashing, I wasn't in fact... just got my history a little mixed up. I get a real kick out of guys like yourself so ready to "Pounce" on someone, bet you have a hard time driving a car with out getting mad at someone dude... take a relax pill.

Oh and for a quick foot note on that... I also noticed that I didn't say they created it, I only said Apple had it first... and in Fact They Did Have It First, so I really wasn't wrong in the first place.

To be quite honest on this, I thought I was wrong once... but in fact I was only mistaken!

Yeap!!! finally.....but so what?....is not much functional... :-S

About damn time.

why is this recieving so much attention?

Because in the world of Macintosh...the slightest thing excites these guys. The funny thing is that this piece of crap with a cord costs 50 bucks...hahahahgaha. Is it optical or does it have an ancient mouse ball?

I don't think I've seen any "Scroll ball"s before. Not that bad of an idea. I wouldn't mind having one of them on my mouse.

I don't know which is more sad... The fact that Apple is just now releasing a multi-'button' mouse or the fact that such a product is garning the amount of attention that it is. Honestly, if anyone really wanted a multi-button mouse for their Mac they likely have bought one already. Though, as I have not tested the product, it may be the best thing since sliced bread. Regardless, I am going stick to my tactile feedback and give this a "Pass."

I think the touch sensors will prove to be a bad idea -- there's something nice about a standard tacticle mechanical mouse click.

I could be wrong on this, but I have a feeling that it will click just like a regular mouse will, but the sensors just recognize if the finger pushing the button down is on the left side or the right side of the mouse. It doesn't seem like you simply tap on the mouse's case.

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*BETANEWS ADMIN* FACTUAL ERROR / MISLEADING!
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The side buttons of Apple's "Mickey" Mouse are *NOT* programmable or compatiable with Windows 2000 / XP

http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/specs.html

From the link your referenced: "...Mighty Mouse is also compatible with PCs. Mighty Mouse uses the standard, multibutton mouse driver included in the Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems..."

Which seems to me that the side buttons would be just as programmable as say a Logitech mouse with 3rd and 4th buttons.

When they say "programmability requires Mac OS X v10.4.2 Tiger or later" I think they are specifically referring to the ability to "activate Exposé, display Dashboard, open Spotlight, switch applications or open applications." from within Mac OS.

Plus it only gives that requirement in the Mac OS part:

System Requirements: Mac OS X (programmability requires Mac OS X v10.4.2 Tiger or later), or Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

So for programmability in the Mac OS enviroment, you need v10.4.2 or above. In the Windows environment you only need 2000 or XP.

OK, now I'm really confused... it's a MOUSE... MacOS (since seems like forever) is supposed to be PLUG AND PLAY... how is it that a mouse isn't supported on older versions if it's hardware detection is so superior to Windows?

Don't answer this, btw... it's rhetorical question.

I think its a great concept. The design looks really sleek and in my opinion, does look easy to use. Who knows, maybe they will start making wireless version of it. Maybe I'll go for it and buy one.

Very true. I've been making fun of it, but don't get me wrong. Anything Apple makes is going to be stylish. They're no strangers when it comes to making something "cool". It's just too bad they couldn't make something like this 10 years ago.

Honestly.. I have a one button mouse for my PowerBook. I have honestly used the contextual (or in Windows-speak "right click") menus maybe twice a week. The Mac OS is made for one button use.

Windows speak? I believe I can say for once that I speak for everybody when I say "right-click" have nothing to do with this contextual stuff. How many people do you use that word with? I can see myself using that in 9am to help the secretary: "Would you please bring up the contextual menu for that object your mouse was just over?"

Mac OS doesn't make use of context menus like Windows or *nix GUI's because Apple is afraid to try any of these new ideas that make peoples computing experience faster and/or easier.

Umm ... they ARE there and free for your enjoyment, but the point is that you can access this functionality from elsewhere, too.

Oh, and even with a one-button mouse, you can Ctrl+Click to activate the context menu, or you can click and hold.

I think this mouse is going to confuse the heck out of grandma.

"Grandma, you have to click the left button to start the program."

"What left button? There are no left buttons! There's only one button!"

"You have to click on the mouse with your left finger."

"I am clicking on the mouse with my left finger!"

"No, you have to click on the left side of the mouse with your index finger."

"What if I click on the mouse with my middle finger?"

lol ehn sad but true

lol. That's so true. I can see that exact scenario happening over and over again.

"grandma, hold the control key and click"

this is not a mouse made for grandmothers. this a a poweruser mouse.

OR ... how about you configure Grandma's profile to treat the Mighty Mouse as a one-button mouse? (Yes, that's right, you can do that.)

I wonder if the ball on this thing will have the same problem as old mice with the ball on the bottom you had to clean it once in a while and shake the dam thing to get it to work properly. They should have gone with a scroll wheel that tilts side to side.

The touch sensors in the picture above look to be in a bad spot and would take a fair bit of getting used to since they are located where most people grip their mouse to move it around so it would be your thumb and pinky fingers that you'd be clicking with.

I don't think the right and left touch sensors are visable, as they are under the "seamless enclosure." I think what you're seeing is the side buttons.

that could be in that case i hope the sensors aren't located to close to the scroll ball or your going to be acidentaly be clicking on things while your trying to scoll left or right.

This is just a hunch, but my guess is Apple took issues like that into consideration already.

There is no ball, it's optical.

he/she's talking about the scroll ball

slather it with mayo and give it a try

This year is finally the year for Apple on the desktop.

HAHAHAHA

10.3 and firefox 1.0 were the turning point. it can only get better from here on out

Well, it's about time Apple joins the crowd. It looks pretty cool, though, with its touch-sensor buttons and all. However, my Logitech Mouseman Travel has still gotten me more design compliments than any Apple mouse will :P

Oh, and what's so special about another corded mouse? Make it wireless!

No, please don't I'm sick of companies only releasing their premium mice in wireless models (i'm looking at you logitech) wireless mice are heavy and clunky, and if you have a clear desk, you don't need them.

Does anyone else think it looks like soap on a rope? Blergh.

Wow! Now you can actually right click!

Woo. Welcome to 1995.

I second that.

rofl. So true. I mean, since when is a four-button mouse "innovative"? Only when Apple invents it I guess.

Sweeeet, makes me want a Mac even more.

Me too.
Now I can finally sell my NeXT.
Ha ha!

With the deal with Intel happening and now this... sooner or later Mac will "invent" a new name for itself: The PC.

No, it'll be called "iPC"

your not to bright, it's important because its the first time apple has released a multi-button mouse. the scroll ball is also something thats basically new. why are you making fun of apple? are you bitter that you have to wait until the second half of 2006 to get your hands on Vista? which, and this is coming from someone who used to use windows and finally switched to mac, is basically ideas from 10.3 and 10.4 rehashed? so if you want a decent computing experience today, switch to mac!

OK, it's called a sarcastic joke, relax.

I could point out that there is a lot of truth to that statement... Yeehaw, Apple-- the great technology innovators who Microsoft allegedly always copies-- finally joined the rest of the computing world with a multi-buttoned mouse?!?!

I mean, I can point out that maybe the reason it seems like they're copied so much is that they are good at using the most intuitive design that-- dare I say it-- is obvious to other developers.

I could point out that Apple switching to Intel platform (and allowing Windows to run on it) but saying MacOS will ONLY work on Mac-Intel platforms only shows that MacOS is only plug-n-play because you can only plug-n-play with the hardware Apple wants you to plug-n-play with (rather than every component known to man).

I could point out that while most people are trying to find ways of empowering non-traditional input methods such as stylus-pens and voice recognition, Apple is innovating a mouse design that has been around for about 5 years now (the 4-button with a scroller wheel/button).

I could point out that maybe, and this is just a hypothetical believe me, we're (PC users) aren't bitter at Apple at all... we're just poking fun at the first time in ages that Apple isn't exactly the fastest innovator on the planet.

But I'm not going to point out these things, because YOU, Mr. Apple-supporting-genius, are the brightest crayon in the box and are already aware of these things.

Just curious! Who was first with plug-n-play? I see both Apple and MS use this word, but who was first?

Plug and play was first a reality on the Mac. PC users had something called "plug and pray".

As for the mouse, I'll wait for the bluetooth version for my home computer. At work, I am very happy with my Logitech MX-Laser.