IPodPJ
MOT: Bellatone Audio
Caution: Incomplete customer orders
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2006
- Posts
- 7,870
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As a Mac Mini owner who was using an Apple Numeric keyboard but Logitech mice, I decided to upgrade to the Apple Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad to see if they would help increase my productivity in the graphics department, and general all-around use.
At first I didn't realize that the Magic Mouse wasn't able to perform pinch to zoom or rotation features (which is why I also purchased the trackpad) so that was a little bit of a letdown. (And yes, I know about the two software programs you can download --- and they aren't that good so I don't use them.) The mouse definitely takes some getting used to but its feature set is quite impressive and is generally a pleasure to use. Left to right page scrolling is nice, but isn't nearly as awesome as backwards and forwards tabbing through web pages. I don't find myself missing two distinct buttons since the touch recognition does a great job of identifying finger position.
The trackpad is also a crazy beast. I'm not one who has ever liked using trackpads. I don't currently own a laptop but even when I've used them I always used a mouse with them. However, this trackpad is 80% larger than a standard MacBook trackpad and as such is much easier to work with. It also has a wealth of gestural commands that will certainly take time to memorize fully but I've got most of them down. Pinch to zoom in and out is a familiar thing to me since I use an iPad and an iPhone, and this comes in very handy in Photoshop. The only thing that isn't very handy is the rotation gesture, which merely rotates the page view and not an actual cropped portion of an image. I still have to do that the old-fashioned way with a mouse, or with a three finger drag along the rotation arrows. The other major flaw is the click button. The trackpad has to be on a hard surface since the buttons are actually on the bottom of the device. The whole enclosure clicks, not just the pad itself. This is something that should be addressed in the next iteration, along with adding dual mouse-like buttons since gestures just don't cover everything, at least not in an easy way (and especially for someone who did damage to his pinky finger with a table saw).
I also now have to replace my numeric keyboard with the Apple Wireless keyboard so that all three can fit nicely on my desk in line with my 24" monitor. I hate having to give up the numeric keypad, but I guess it's a sacrifice I'll have to make for the majority of uses. I'll keep the numeric keyboard anyway for when I really need it.
All in all, I'm quite pleased with these devices and I'll probably purchase another Magic Mouse for my other job just to make my life easier. I doubt I'll purchase another trackpad though.
Magic Mouse: 8.5/10
Magic Trackpad: 7/10
At first I didn't realize that the Magic Mouse wasn't able to perform pinch to zoom or rotation features (which is why I also purchased the trackpad) so that was a little bit of a letdown. (And yes, I know about the two software programs you can download --- and they aren't that good so I don't use them.) The mouse definitely takes some getting used to but its feature set is quite impressive and is generally a pleasure to use. Left to right page scrolling is nice, but isn't nearly as awesome as backwards and forwards tabbing through web pages. I don't find myself missing two distinct buttons since the touch recognition does a great job of identifying finger position.
The trackpad is also a crazy beast. I'm not one who has ever liked using trackpads. I don't currently own a laptop but even when I've used them I always used a mouse with them. However, this trackpad is 80% larger than a standard MacBook trackpad and as such is much easier to work with. It also has a wealth of gestural commands that will certainly take time to memorize fully but I've got most of them down. Pinch to zoom in and out is a familiar thing to me since I use an iPad and an iPhone, and this comes in very handy in Photoshop. The only thing that isn't very handy is the rotation gesture, which merely rotates the page view and not an actual cropped portion of an image. I still have to do that the old-fashioned way with a mouse, or with a three finger drag along the rotation arrows. The other major flaw is the click button. The trackpad has to be on a hard surface since the buttons are actually on the bottom of the device. The whole enclosure clicks, not just the pad itself. This is something that should be addressed in the next iteration, along with adding dual mouse-like buttons since gestures just don't cover everything, at least not in an easy way (and especially for someone who did damage to his pinky finger with a table saw).
I also now have to replace my numeric keyboard with the Apple Wireless keyboard so that all three can fit nicely on my desk in line with my 24" monitor. I hate having to give up the numeric keypad, but I guess it's a sacrifice I'll have to make for the majority of uses. I'll keep the numeric keyboard anyway for when I really need it.
All in all, I'm quite pleased with these devices and I'll probably purchase another Magic Mouse for my other job just to make my life easier. I doubt I'll purchase another trackpad though.
Magic Mouse: 8.5/10
Magic Trackpad: 7/10
