Magic Mouse - Apple's best ever?

The Apple mouse has long been the weak link in its hardware set-ups. Seb Janacek asks: Can the new Magic Mouse change all that?

I have a dream… a dream that Apple finally gets around to creating a really great mouse. A mouse to complement its rather splendid computers and even finer software.

Thus you can imagine the considerable frisson of excitement in the Janacek household last week as the Apple Store returned to life after an hour of downtime and revealed a new range of consumer Macs. And a brand new mouse. And not just any mouse, a Magic Mouse. Wireless. Touch-sensitive. The excitement could barely be contained.

Still, I've been let down before. The Apple mouse and I have a bit of a track record.

Why can't Apple make a really great mouse? This makes no sense to me. After all, Apple was one of the first companies to popularise the mouse when one accompanied the first Lisa computer in 1983. The year after, the Macintosh sported one too.

The mouse was a triumph for Apple, a user interface leap that helped it pioneer a new computing paradigm. It's ironic that it's spent so much of the intervening time releasing really lousy mice - especially for a company given over so much to perfecting the user experience.

Over the years, the buttons on PC mouses proliferated while Apple remained doggedly with the single button. Apple always believed that every action should be accessible from a menu item rather than a contextual button click.

So for years, Mac users laboured with single-button mice in a contextual-click world. Second button envy haunted us. PC users taunted us. These were dark days.

Eventually, Apple software supported contextual clicking in late versions of OS 8 and the company eventually released a couple of multi-button mouses.

Then there's the design issue. Normally, when Apple is accused of choosing form over function, the blood pressure starts to rise. I covered this in a column last year. It's a tired cliché peddled by people who don't realise you can have both.

Except they may have a point with the Apple mouse. It's as if the company feels compelled to do something funky with the design and resigns usability and comfort to the dustbin. Moulded plastic has never been so ergonomically abused in the name of aesthetic appeal.

The recent Mighty Mouse remains much aligned but something of a personal favourite - as long as you learn early to control the roller ball with alternate fingers and remain relaxed about the accuracy and latency of clicking.

And now we have another shot at redemption. Will Apple's new Magic Mouse end its losing streak at creating great computer mouses?

Yes and no.

Four days after buying the Magic Mouse I'm not wholly convinced. It's certainly the best mouse Apple has made in a long time (possibly ever) although as already stated the rest of the field isn't exactly much to write home about.

The scrolling works like an absolute dream, particularly with the Momentum setting enabled. The mouse senses the speed of the swipe and zooms down pages accordingly. It's much like scrolling on an iPhone. In addition the two-finger swipes work well on web pages and the Mac's photo software. The buttons are reassuringly clicky, feeling much more like buttons than the Mighty Mouse.

However, the loss of a couple of additional buttons is a pain. The low form factor is not for everyone (although fine personally) and the edges can become a bit uncomfortable if you rest your hand on it too heavily.

Then there's the price: some might suggest that £55 is a ridiculous fee to pay for a mouse.

But for me, this amount is nothing. This is a compulsion, a lifelong quest, another hopeful tilt at the windmills. What price can you put on your dreams?