A Brief Touch of Magic

Last night I stopped in the Apple Store at Reston Town Center to see if I could play with a Magic Mouse. This mouse doesn’t have any buttons or wheels or nipples but sports a smooth, multitouch surface. It sounds great on paper, but how would it feel in the hand?

Pretty good, actually! Left and right clicking worked as I intuitively expected and scrolling (both vertical and horizontal) were equally simple and intuitive. The only downside was that, at least currently, there is no way to do a “middle click.” That’s a fairly big drawback for web surfing where I frequently use middle clicks to open a link in a new browser tab. That one lack could be a show stopper. I hope not though because I’m still looking for a mouse I can really like instead of just tolerating.

Fortunately, it was a decision I didn’t have to make last night as they don’t have any mice in stock yet (though they are shipping in new macs).