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back to article Man dissects Apple's Magic Mouse

If you’ve been wondering what’s so magical about Apple’s new Magic Mouse, you aren’t alone. US repair-and-parts shop iFixit has been asking itself the same question, so it took the mouse apart to find out. Magic_Mouse_003 Apple's Magic Mouse, as dissected by iFixit The Magic Mouse comprises of an aluminium base, topped off …

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  1. Simon C

    Shock horror - magic, isnt magic

    seriously, what did you expect to find underneath the casing.

    a feverish army of translucent (but lightweight) elves doing your fingers bidding with a multitude of levers and buttons?

    or perhaps raw concentrated magic....the likes of which Apple could have used to power the bloody device, rather than rely on oldy worldy tech such as the double A.

    Im not a Mac user - I dont drive a prius or constantly smell my own guffs, but I have to hand it to their sense of innovation.

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  2. GettinSadda
    FAIL

    Prices?

    elReg: "Magic Mouse – which can be ordered online now for £55 ($90/€60) - is powered by two ordinary AA batteries."

    iFixit: "Step 4: Alakazam! Wow, at $69, the Magic Mouse isn't cheap. You would think for $69 the Magic Mouse would actually be capable of performing magical acts."

    Um, what is up with these prices?

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  3. MrPatrick

    Now all we need...

    Now all we need is someone to hack together a driver for the PC and I'll be happy.

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  4. Jerome 0

    No magic?

    "IFixit’s teardown discovered that there isn’t actually any magic to the Magic Mouse."

    Were they expecting to find a miniature wand powering the device? A ring of power or two perhaps? I'm deeply disappointed in Apple for such a misleading naming convention. Next you'll be telling me that the iPod doesn't contain any peas.

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  5. david 63

    Damn...

    ...no magic in magic markers, no magic in these: http://www.magicproducts.co.uk/ and no magic in magic mouse,

    you'll be telling my very expensive magic wand doesn't have any magic in it next.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    This would be know good for me...

    ..i often just tap on the mouse, wiggle my fingers and generally move my hand around. This would be a nightmare on a "gesture" device.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Acceleration curve?

    What would be really magic is if Apple improved the horrible Mac OS X mouse acceleration curve.

    You know - the way that as you move the mouse around at slowish speeds the pointer crawls around the screen terribly slowly, until you move the mouse just fast enough to pass some "magic" threshold whereby the pointer suddenly wakes up and darts across the screen.

    There is a ratio between mouse-movement and pointer-movement. In Mac OS X it this ratio appears to change in at least one very obvious step. The problem appears to be at the threshold which marks the change between "the user is moving the mouse slowly and wants pixel-precision" and "the user is moving the mouse at a moderate speed and wants to move around the screen". On hitting this threshold, the ratio between mouse-movement and pointer-movement appears to change abruptly making it annoying and unpredictable. The ratio should vary continuously so that the change in ratio is not sudden (this means the ratio will need to take non-integer values).

    I don't think it's a problem of my mouse or anything that can be fixed with the standard mouse speed settings, although it can be fixed with third party utilities. At least the large trackpad on the MacBook is really superb (certainly compared to the one on my Windows laptop) so I abandoned trying to use a mouse on my MacBook and just use that.

    Anyone know if this is improved in Snow Leopard or with the Magic Mouse?

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    Magic Mouse?

    Forgive me, but isn't the name slightly idiotic?

    Magic Jobs

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  9. Martin 6 Silver badge

    The real magic

    Getting somebody to pay 55 quid for a mouse!

    For that I could have a redundant city banker move the cursor for me!

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  10. David Kelly 2

    Not Magic?

    The author doesn't believe putting all that together and actually making it work is magic?

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  11. Mikey
    Badgers

    Doesnt look overly amazing...

    ...but I'm sure a fair few of the apple bourgois will comment otherwise.

    Its certainly interesting that the top is touch sensitive, but why does it have to cover the entire mouse? Surely the area that the buttons would normally occupy would be enough, as caressing the entire thing might only be something weird people will do.

    Other than the somewhat gimicky touchy-feely thing, I would imagine its a fairly standard bluetooth mouse, with average DPI and no wired version available. I wouldnt mind much, but for the same price, I can get a nice Logitech G9 with more actual buttons and adjustable DPI. For less I can get a decent wireless Intellimouse that does just about the same job, minus the gestures. But then, I dont own a mac, so I dont worry about these things :O)

    I'm surprised though, they went with user-replacable batteries...

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  12. Valerion

    Rings a bell

    I've seen something like this before.... now, what was it..... .oh yes, the touchpad on my laptop.

    Quite impressive though how they've managed to turn the mouse - a simple to operate device - into something far more complex.

    That's progress I guess.

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  13. Bit Brain

    Re: Now all we need..

    I'd imagine an official driver would be available soon as part of the Boot Camp drivers.

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  14. Bod

    @Martin 6

    Paint it white with Apple's or an 'i' in the name and plenty would stump up £55, whether it's magic or not.

    Jobs is the real magician. Slight of hand and whoops, there's your money gone.

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  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Martin 6

    What, like both Microsoft AND Logitech do..?

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  16. Kurt 5

    Obligatory reference

    I'm still happy with my muggle-mouse.

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  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ david 63

    'you'll be telling my very expensive magic wand doesn't have any magic in it next.'

    You know it doesn't; the judge was very clear about the powers of your magic wand at the sentencing.

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  18. Grumpytom
    Grenade

    Again

    Again bitch bitch bitch about a price set by Apple. They don't sell cheap, do you understand?

    Please get over the fact this company price at the top, much like many other brands they sell cachet and design. Again I ask will you please get over it, we know, we are aware, we heard you before, I doubt if they'll change.

    I have to say another nice clever application of old established reliable technology by Ives, which one day I might own.

    Any one do it cheaper? They will. They just don't innovate.

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  19. vincent himpe

    Aa batteries

    for that price i want rechargeable batteries and a contactless charger / mousepad ! that would truly have been 'magic'.

    Apple is one of the biggest e-waste producers in the world. now they add batteries to that too... Greenpeace will have a field-day over this one.

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  20. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    RE: Again

    As Gettin Sadda put it

    elReg: "Magic Mouse – which can be ordered online now for £55 ($90/€60) - is powered by two ordinary AA batteries."

    iFixit: "Step 4: Alakazam! Wow, at $69, the Magic Mouse isn't cheap. You would think for $69 the Magic Mouse would actually be capable of performing magical acts."

    UK $90, US $69 erm high cost of converters for the american batteries maybe (aint they the same then ?)

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  21. Matt Bucknall
    Thumb Down

    Multitouch?

    From the rhetoric and video on Apple's website, it seems the only multi-touch gestures the thing understands are left or right two fingered swipes to perform page changes. To promote the product as multi-touch and then talk of having to hold down Control when performing zoom operations seems totally ridiculous to me.

    What useful function does this mouse serve which was not already served by the mighty mouse? Further more, am I the only one who values tactile feedback from devices I am operating?

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  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No one expect the title field police!

    Re: AC, acceleration Curve, try Googling "mac os x mouse acceleration curve" for some solutions (but I agree it shouldn't be necessary).

    Re: Mikey, I hope it will allow any part of the surface of the mouse to be used as the button. Having to hold my largish hand over the mouse in order to reach the buttons is a major cause of hand-cramp for me - being able to touch the middle of the mouse to click would allow me to hold the mouse much more naturally.

    Re: Matt Bucknall, I suspect more gestures will be added in future, just as Apple did for the multi-touch trackpads.

    Re: Vincent Himpe, does it not take ordinary rechargeable batteries? If so, how is it worse than any other device powered by batteries? Exaggerate much?

    Re: GettinSadda, I imagine the iFixIt article is based on the US price, and the Register article quotes the US price as converted from the UK price.

    Re: Simon C, I'm a Mac user and I don't even know what "smell my own guffs" means, but I'm pretty sure I don't do it, whatever it is. You seem to know a bit about it though? Got a mini in the closet or something?

    Re: david 63, you have won the internet!

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  23. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Teledildonics?

    So the touch sensitive membrane covers the entire surface of the mouse. Now all they need is some sort of haptic (vibrating) feedback mechanism and a bottle of Wet Stuff, and who knows what new iApps will spring up?

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  24. DanM
    Thumb Up

    An improvement on the mighty mouse

    At least you wont' have to turn it upside down and give it a good hard rub every week to get the grit out of the track ball. If only they offered a wired version so we didn't have to worry about batteries.

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  25. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
    FAIL

    Hmm.. only 2 kinds of people would pay that much...

    1. Gamers... and they wouldn't certainly buy anything like that lame mouse

    2. Err... no comment on the second group of people

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