Apple Magic Mouse Plus

For a while now I've owned a magic mouse.  And while as a concept the mouse seemed like a good idea, the implementation wasn't so great... until I found the free MagicPrefs utility application.

First, a quick review of the mouse:

Typically I use the mouse on my iMac and to date I use the iMac maybe 1 hour a day at most, so I can't be a great judge for the quality of battery life.  At this point  I have owned the mouse for maybe half a year and I am down to 57% power. If I were using the mouse 8 hours a day, I think I might have changed the batteries a couple times by now.  This might be reason enough to not purchase the mouse but read on for the advantages.

Historically, Apple mice are horrible.  I know more serious mac users with Microsoft mice than those with a mac Mouse at this point.  And it is for a reason: picking up the mouse mid scroll is a horrible experience.  Until the Magic Mouse there was virtually no way to maintain a mouse click while lifting the mouse from the table. With the Magic Mouse, that issue has been solved.  This doesn't feel like innovation however, because PC mie have done this since the beginning of time itself.  As well, the lack of buttons and the tiny often stuck scroller ball on top of a mac mouse were maddening. With a right and left click as well as a touch scroll on the Magic Mouse, our problems were nearly solved. But then I realized that there was no middle click option. The $70 device failed again to deliver... until I found the app I mentioned above.

If you own a Magic Mouse then you need to go download MagicPrefs immediately. Check this out. Below are the setting you get once you install your Magic Mouse:

So, basically speed adjustments for tracking, scrolling, and double-clicking.  Then a single two-finger swip event you can enable or disable, as well as the ability to enable screen zooming, scrolling and a right mouse click.  Again, the touch part is cool, but the mouse seems to leave out the middle mouse button. Now, once you install MagicPrefs the Magic Mouse comes alive.  Check these options out:

I feel like I went from owning a touch mouse to being a character in the movie Minority Report with all of these wacky new interface capabilities. How do you jump from 4 enableable capabilities with 3 configurable settings to over 30 adjustable, enableable configuration options? This reminds me of when the iPhone was cracked legally and suddenly people with 3rd generation phones could multitask and chat over 3G and record video (stuff only enabled by Apple in an upgrade to their next gen iPhone).

At this point I am not turning all of that on!  Honestly, I just wanted my Middle Mouse Button (for use with Blender), so I have that working for me again.  I just don't understand why Apple didn't implement this from the start.  My best guess might be that they couldn't get all of these features to work consistantly so they opted with simple over complex.  But the world (and my needs) don't (never have) fit into a box with a two-button mouse (ie. tools like Blender work best with a 3-button mouse).

With the addition of the free application MagicPrefs I would definitely recommend getting a Magic Mouse. It solves some problems (overly sensitive touch scrolling area) and helps the mouse be all that it was mean to be.