1/20/01
Optical mice are the wave of the future. For a long
time now I have been using a Kensington 4 button mouse.
It has been a great mouse except for one thing ... it
has a mechanical means for moving the cursor around
on-screen - namely a rubber ball and rollers. Like most
mechanical mice of the past, this ball and roller contraption
has the tendency to get gunked up with all sorts of
crud, necessitating periodic cleaning. When I first
got the Kensingtom mouse it seemed like I was cleaning
it almost every other day.
Well optical mice don't suffer from this problem. Gone
are the clunky ball and rollers and in their place is
a gently glowing, accurate, optical sensor - no mechanical
parts to absorb the dust, skin secretions and other
detritus from your mouse pad. The optical sensor will
work on almost any surface, the exception being overly
smooth surfaces like glass, or reflective surfaces like
mirrors. If you have a glass desk you will probably
need to continue to use that mouse pad.
Apple has now included as standard issue with their
new computers an optical mouse that is both sleek in
design and simple in function. Below we look at 4 optical
mice from 3 third party manufactures; Macally, Contour
and Microsoft, each of which allow for more complex
mousing than the Apple optical mouse.
All the mice, except the Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical,
come with colored plastic clip-on panels, so that you
can color coordinate your new mouse with your modern
Mac. These mice also are all appropriate for both left-handed
and right-handed bipeds.
The mice vary in size, functionality and design but
all of them, with the exception of the Microsoft mouse,
we can whole hardheadedly recommend. Which one to choose
depends more on what your mousing needs are.
The mice reviewed below were tested on a revision "B"
iMac and a 20th Anniversary Mac that had a USB PCI card
installed.
Contour MiniPRO Mouse
This elegantly designed, beautiful two button mouse
fits right in with any of Apples modern desktop/tower
computers and iBooks. It is a very small mouse, petite
you might say, measuring in at just 3 1/2 inches. When
I first saw the mouse I thought that its size might
be a problem. That such a small mouse would cause hand
cramping after sustained use. This proved not to be
the case. Instead, my mousing habits changed. I found
that I was holding the mouse more with the fingers than
with the palm of the hand, and that I kept the mouse
more in one place, lifting it slightly to obtain larger
movements of the cursor. The mouse is light and and
moves smoothly across any surface. I have moderately
sized hands and so asked someone with large hands to
use the mouse for a while to see how they liked it.
They had no problems with its small size. When I went
back to using the Kensington mouse I found it clunky
and awkward.
The mouse is plug-n-play. Just plug it into a USB port
and the mouse lights up and is ready to use. However
to get functionality in the second button you will need
to download enabling software from the Contour web site.
For software Contour decided to use a customized version
of USB
Overdrive by Alessandro Levi Montalcini, instead
of developing something in-house. The software is good,
if a little clunky. Alessandro, the genius behind KeyQuencer,
is known more for his programming acumen than interface
design. You can program the second button for all sorts
of actions, from auto-scrolling to triggering keyboard
keys or combination of keys. Software settings can also
be application specific. For example you could have
the second button scroll in Netscape Navigator,double-click
in the finder and do something completely different
in a third application. The second button is placed
to the rear of the main button and is a little awkward
to reach, but not disablingly so.
The Contour mouse was also designed with the mobile
computer user in mind. In addition to its small size,
it comes with a small plastic carrying case into which
you put the mouse and wrap the cord. This keeps the
cord safe from kinking which Contour says is a big no,
no.
Though this is not the mouse I would choose for personal
use (I need more mouse buttons and a scroll wheel in
my line of work), it is the mouse I liked the best.
It is ideal for those that don't need or want more sophisticated
mousing capabilities. Kids will love it, Grandma and
Grandpa will like its simplicity and the average computer
user will find the functions adequate. Those with large
hands or that use the mouse extensively might want to
consider if such a small mouse will work for them. For
us it wasn't a problem. The mouse comes with a standard
1 year limited warranty. It should also be noted that
the first mouse that Contour sent us developed problems
with one of the buttons, sometimes double-clicking when
it should have made a single click, and sometimes failing
to click and hold items when the mouse button was depressed.
Contour sent us a replacement mouse and so far, in several
weeks of usage, it has worked fine.
Hits: Beautifully designed mouse, lightweight,
software takes good advantage of second button,
inexpensive, uncomplicated
Misses: Some users may not be comfortable
with its small size, software interface needs some
polish, cord is just a tad short, anemic warranty
Rating: (5 possible)
Requirements:
- Any USB capable Mac
- OS 8.5.1 or newer.
Macally Ioptinet & IoptiJr
These two optical mice are aimed at power users that
need more functionality in their mouse. Each has three
effective buttons and a scroll wheel. Left and right
standard buttons reside at the top of the mouse and
in-between them is a scroll wheel that will not only
scoll in any application, but also can be depressed
to act as a third button.
The IoptiJr is similar in length to the Contour mouse
described above, but is both thicker and wider giving
the hand more support area, if that is an issue for
you. The right and left buttons have convenient crevasses,
giving tactile clues to where the buttons are (without
looking at the mouse). They also provide a place for
your fingers to rest.
The Ioptinet is the IoptiJr's bigger cousin. But where
the IoptiJr is short and stout the Ioptinet is long
and streamlined. It has the same left and right buttons
and scroll wheel but the buttons are not crevassed.
It is a full sized mouse that fits into the palm of
your hand, instead of being maneuvered by the fingers,
as the smaller mice are.
Both these mice use the same software driver. The
Ioptinet includes the software on a mini CD that comes
in the packag. However you can't use this CD in Macs
that have slot loading CD drives - like the recent iMacs,
PowerMacs and Cubes. For these machines and the IoptiJr
(which includes no software), you will need to download
the software from Macally's web site.
The Macally software has a slick interface, but is
not quite as comprehensive as the USB Overdrive software
that the Contour mouse uses. However you can program
the buttons to do most things, including launching your
Web Browser, email client (or any other application)
and program buttons to trigger keystrokes.
It would have been nice if the software allowed for
'cording' of the two top buttons - cording means that
when pressed at the same time the two buttons would
act as a fourth button. Also the scroll wheel is both
a little noisy in operation and somewhat difficult to
depress when used as a button. These are minor quibbles
however to what are otherwise excellent mice. The Macally
mice come with a lifetime warranty!
Manufacture Suggested Price: $49 ........
check for lowest
Price
Hits: Intuitive software, good looking,
three buttons and a scroll wheel, generous warranty
Misses: Scroll wheel operation could be
smoother, scroll wheel button a little stiff
Rating: (5 possible)
Requirements:
- Any USB capable Mac
- OS 9.0 or newer. (we used this mouse on a machine
running 8.6 without problems)
Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical
This mouse from Microsoft, which has five effective
buttons and scroll wheel (that can also be programmed),
should be the ultimate power users mouse. Unfortunately,
design flaws make this a mouse we cannot recommend.
Sleek enough, the two tone IntelliMouse resembles an
armadillo shell, minus the bumps. Unlike Microsoft's
IntelliMouse Explorer it is made to be friendly to both
left-handed and right-handed persons. It is a full size
mouse, both longer, thicker and wider than any of the
other optical mice covered in this review. In looks
it is a throw-back to the Beige era and, unlike the
other mice in this review, has no design elements sympathetic
to Apple's post Beige machines. Never one for the understatement,
Microsoft has plastered their name on the back of the
IntelliMouse, a seeming implication that this is their
mouse, not yours.
Like the mice from Macally, the IntelliMouse Optical
has a left and right button on top of the mouse with
a scroll wheel sandwiched in-between. The scroll wheel
can also act as a button when depressed. In addition
to the top buttons Microsoft has added ones on each
side of the mouse. Unfortunately these side buttons
and the scroll wheel button are problematic. The three
buttons are extremely sensitive and are easily, unintentionally,
triggered. In moving the mouse around I found that just
the pressure of my hand often triggered one of the side
buttons. My assessment is that these buttons should
have been made smaller, placed further forward on mouses
side and required a little more pressure to activate.
The scroll wheel button function has a similar sensitivity
problem. Although the scrolling function is very smooth
(superior to the Macally mice) almost any pressure on
the scroll wheel causes the button to activate. I had
set the scroll wheel button to trigger a macro which
would hide all applications except the finder. It was
very annoying when scrolling in my Web browser to have
all my open applications suddenly vanish because I had
unknowingly applied just a little too much pressure
on the scroll wheel.
Of all the optical mice we reviewed Microsoft has the
best software. Not only does it have a Mac-like interface,
but it also has the most pre-programed options for the
IntelliMouse buttons. You can program the buttons to
move forward and backwards through Web pages, open Sherlock,
and to trigger keystrokes, plus many other options.
The software also has a welcomed 'snap to' function
which makes the cursor automatically move to the default
button in dialog boxes, freeing you from mousing there.
The forward and backwards motions of the scroll wheel
can also be programmed to do other things than scroll,
thus giving you an additional two buttons, or an overall
whopping total of 7. However I think it would have made
more sense to add the 'cording' function, described
in the Macally section above, to the existing buttons
before adding programming button capability to the scroll
wheel.
It is too bad that such good software is tied to such
a compromised mouse.
One other quirk of the ItelliMouse is that the cord
is almost 7 feet long! Given that most Mac user's plug
their mice into either the keyboard or (more recently)
the monitor, this length of cord is a nuisance, cluttering
up the desktop with the excess cordage.
The mouse comes with a USB to PS/2 converter, if you
want to use it with a Windows machine without a USB
port. The IntelliMouse Optical has a limited 5 year
warranty
Manufacture Suggested Price: $56 ........
check for lowest
Price
Hits: Seven possible programmable buttons,
great software, good warranty
Misses: Side and scroll wheel buttons too
sensitive, overly long cord clutters up desk, design
does not fit in with modern Macs (think of it as
a Windows port), expensive
Rating: (5 possible)
Requirements:
- Any USB capable Mac
- OS 8.5.1 or newer.
MacReviewZone's Recommendations:
We surprisingly found that the smaller mice were more
comfortable to use than the bigger mice. But we realize
that this may not be the case for all users. If you
want a full sized mouse that has multiple buttons, the
Macally Ioptinet is a good choice. Our pick for the
best three button mouse would be the Ioptinet's smaller
cousin, the Macally IOptiJR. Its small size, lightweight
and svelte design make it a joy to use. The Contour
simple,diminutive two button MiniPRO mouse is excellent
for those with less sophisticated mousing requirements.
Its industrial design fits right in with Apple's modern
computers. The Microsoft mouse was a disappointment.
Though it has a sleek design, it does not fit in style-wise
with Apple's current computers. The hyper-sensitive
side and scroll wheel buttons can only be regarded as
a design flaw, and its excessively long cord is obnoxious.
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(5 possible) 
