New Gear: Apple Magic Mouse

When Apple announced their newest mouse a couple of weeks ago, I thought it sounded intriguing. They’d developed a Bluetooth mouse with a clean design, matching nicely with the recent offerings from the Kids from Cupertino. Normally, a ho-hum thing. I mean, Apple’s had a Bluetooth mouse available for a while, and there are tons of other folks out there with them.

This one’s got one extra step of cool on them though.

First, there’s no real buttons. There’s a click when you press the surface, but there’s no delineation between a left-click and right-click. You just click on the appropriate side, and the right thing happens. Cool.

The bigger coolness though is also delivered by the top surface. The top surface is also a trackpad, and man is it cool. The slick surface just begs to have your finger (or fingers — yes, it supports gestures) sliding across it, making for a really neat augmentation for any Mac.

For me, I’m finding that it’s a great addition to my regular use of my MacBook Pro. I like the glass trackpad on the MBP, but there are times when I’ll set the unit on the coffee table next to the La-Z-Boy. Doing that and twisting around enough to use the trackpad was a bit of a pain. With the new Magic Mouse, I can slide my mouse anywhere, making casual surfing pretty dang easy from the comfort of my easy chair. It just doesn’t get better than that!