AppFlow

It’s no secret, mainly because I spent the entire day showing it off, but I am now the very proud owner of an Apple Magic Mouse.

The Mouse

The first thing that one notices about the magic mouse is it’s beauty.  The single, smooth, white surface just makes you want to stroke it!  As with the new Apple Trackpads, the whole surface is a button, and the mouse knows exactly where your fingers are.

Stroking the mouse is a good thing to do!  With simply the default drivers and the OS X mouse update, the gestures of scrolling and swiping are available.  You can also enable right click – a function that I would really miss as someone who has previously used a two button mouse.

The Ergonomics

Before using the Magic Mouse with my Mac, I was using a Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000.  This mouse was beautifully designed to slot straight into your hand.  As long as your hand was on the mouse, you could physically pick it up in the air – it fits your hand that well!

I confess, I was a little bit worried when I finally bit the bullet and ordered my Magic Mouse, that I was going to be stuck with some flat, uncomfortable, poorly designed multitouch trackpad that I was expected to use as a mouse.  True the mouse is flat, but uncomfortable it is not!

This mouse too, fits into your hand, although not quite as well as the Microsoft mouse.  The multitouch surface has very low friction, so don’t worry about straining those index finger muscles whilst scrolling through a large document.

The Gestures

One of the most significant and groundbreaking features of this new mouse is the multitouch surface.  The mouse has a chip in it, and knows how many fingers you have on the surface of the mouse and what you are doing with them.  All of this means that you can use gestures to speed up your workflow, without needing a new mac with a multitouch trackpad.

Scroll – Probably one of my favourite gestures on this mouse is the scroll.  There is no scroll wheel to get stuck, clogged or broken in any way.  Simply place your finger of choice on the surface and move it any direction.  Couldn’t be easier.

Swipes – Though slightly harder on a mouse than a trackpad, two fingers can be used to navigate back (or forward) in safari, finder, ical etc.  The only downside is that, with the default drivers, this is all the swipes can do.

Channeling the Magic

All very nice – but does it work in practice?  The short answer is ‘no’.  There is no exposé function by default, no show desktop – not even a middle click for the dashboard!  Enter MagicPrefs.

MagicPrefs

This free system preferences pane is the answer to all of the problems above.

This simple, yet incredibly customisable application allows you to program an insane amount of gestures to do any number of things – from launch an application, to carry out a key combination.

As well as letting you customise the basic commands – MagicPrefs adds a whole new functionality to your Magic Mouse.  It allows programing of a ‘Three finger click’, ‘Pinch’ to zoom, and even tapping that little apple logo at the bottom!

With MagicPrefs – your Magic Mouse can realise it’s true potential.  True, it takes a bit of time to get used to the gestures on a mouse, but it’s well worth it!

MultiClutch

Sometimes you want to run different gestures in different applications.  For example, a left swipe takes you back in safari, but pulls up your contact list in Adium.  Enter MultiClutch.

MultiClutch allows you to program different commands for different applications.  You can add an unlimited number of apps to the list on the left – and an unlimited number of commands to the list on the right.

This program was originally designed for a multitouch trackpad, and does not yet support the full functionality that Magic Mouse offers.  However, it’s still very useful to be able to program four directions of swiping in each application.  Great for speeding up your workflow.

To the Future

So is the Magic Mouse worth it?  I’m going to have to say yes!  On it’s own it would be a much harder decision, and I would have probably arrived at a ‘no’, but with this software to expand it – the Magic Mouse’s potential shines through.

The Magic Mouse is £56 from the Apple Store (£51.70 with education discount).

All software that I have reviewed above is completely free and I would strongly recommend giving it a try!