A Mighty Mistake

I recently had the opportunity to give Apple’s Mighty Mouse a good test-drive. I was really excited when this mouse was announced. What a perfect compromise: a two-button mouse that can masquerade as a single-clicker for the frightened masses! My excitement turned to slight concern as the informal reviews started appearing on the web.

People were discovering a cheezy implementation detail that required the user to completely remove their finger from the left side of the mouse before attempting to click the right side. It was hard to gauge how problematic this issue actually was. The reviewers were either completely appalled by the problem or absurdly nonplussed: “It’s no big deal, you just lift your left finger every time you click.” No big deal!?

Earlier this month I was working in New York for a week on-site with a client. They had bought an awesome new PowerMac G5 for this work, and I was delighted (but a little scared) to see that it came with a Mighty Mouse. To Apple’s credit, the computer ships with the mouse in “one button” mode. This is how they should continue shipping computers. In fact, they should remove the software that allows two-button mode to be enabled. This “feature” of the mouse is a total piece of poop. With the Mighty Mouse, essentially every click becomes a Russian roulette gamble. Did I click on the right side or the left side? Well, I know what side I clicked, but what side has the mouse decided I clicked?

I battled with the mouse for a few hours, trying to master the art of right clicking. Not only did the mouse fail to register my right clicks half of the time, the monstrosity managed to on occasion turn my left clicks into right clicks! I could swear it even swallowed clicks sometimes!

Just how bad is the Mighty Mouse? I have been using a two-button mouse on the Mac for about 5 years. I am completely accustomed to right-clicking everything in sight. I depend on the right mouse button, and I disabled it for my week with the Mighty Mouse. I became a control-clicker for the week!

It depresses me that this is the new “Standard Mouse” for Macs. It could have been so good. In my opinion it would be false advertising to call this a two-button mouse. I guess that’s why they just say it has “multibutton charm.”

For those of you who are concerned that the right clicking with the Mighty Mouse might be a problem, but are considering a purchase anyway: save yourself! I’m back at home with my utterly unstylish Wacom mouse, and loving every damned predictable right click I make.