I’ve been using the keyboard and mouse that came with my Quad since I hooked it all up last week. Today I switched back to my previous keyboard and mouse.
Using the Mighty Mouse was a really interesting experience for me. I was predisposed to dislike it as I’ve never liked the Apple Pro Mouse form factor (I like something a little taller), I’ve used a wireless mouse for years and I thought (from photos) that the scroll ball was too small. After using the Mighty Mouse for a few days, I was right on the first two counts, but dead wrong on the third1.
The scroll ball is really quite excellent. I’ve quickly become accustomed to scrolling sideways with it and found this functionality to be especially handy while using the column view in Path Finder.
In fact, the scroll ball is so good that I might have considered using the mouse despite the form factor and “tail” if it supported setting up ushing the scroll ball to double click. Yes I know there are utilities that do this – but instead of shelling out $20, I think I’ll just go back to my old mouse and hope I don’t miss side scrolling too much.
I’m looking forward to the next generation of mice that will all have this type of scroll wheel – they can’t be far off.
The keyboard difference was a bit of a surprise as well. I didn’t expect to like the supplied keyboard as well as I like my current one, and I was right. It was the reason that surprised me. After using the supplied keyboard for an hour or two, my hands and fingers were getting fatigued and sore. I realized that it was because I was having to press the keys on this keyboard harder than I was accustomed to.
The mechanical switches in my keyboard give terrific tactile feedback, resulting in a lighter touch when I’m typing and more confidence that I’ve hit the key I was attempting to. While the noise from the mechanical switches is a bit much at times, I don’t think I can switch away from it.
Interestingly, I don’t have this same problem with my PowerBook. Perhaps I will check out some of the keyboards that have laptop style switches if I decide to look for a replacement. Come to think of it, I’ve got a Logitech wireless desktop lying around somewhere from my old BigCo days too – maybe I should dust that off or sell it.
- A fouth thing I didn’t expect to be an issue that was: I could get the mouse tracking speed up fast enough to cover the whole screen without lifting the mouse. [back]