From the first day I switched, I started looking for the perfect mouse to match the cosmetic look of my Mac. I knew after my first experience with the Mighty Mouse that I would have a difficult time using it. The issues with the Mighty Mouse however, proved not to be enough to hold me back from purchasing.
But for some people it may be nearly impossible to use.
The root of the problem is simply that it is not a true two-button mouse. For some people this will mean nothing more than changes in their computing habits.
Most noticeably, in order to right click with the mouse your left finger must be lifted completely up off of it. It could be that this issue is fixable with a simple software update from Apple or a hack, or it may be unchangeable do to the hardware. This annoyed me greatly, but after a few hours of regular use I found myself adjusting.
If you are a gamer this will probably stop you from purchasing it altogether. Why? As an example, imagine yourself playing a First Person Shooter.
As in most games you are holding down the right button to zoom in on your target, you finally have it in perfect view and you left click to fire. What happens? Nothing.
You have to exit the zoom by lifting your finger off the right button before you can make use of the left one. Personally that isn t an issue for me, but I m sure many Mac gamers that would never be able to switch for that reason alone.
Before using the Mighty Mouse I was using a standard .
Using the Mighty Mouse makes everyday computing feel much more eloquent than using a third party device. The scroll ball undeniably has a much smoother feel than your average scroll wheel, thus adding to your browsing experience. The four customizable buttons are fantastic, but it would have been nice to be able to set the middle button and side buttons too handle primary and secondary clicks.
Whether or not the Mighty Mouse is a good mouse for you, depends on what you do on a daily basis and if you are willing to make those habitual changes to your clicking. I would however not base my experience with the Mighty Mouse only by using it in the store, as after I brought it home I found myself enjoying it a lot more. But the truth is that at USD $49.
00 for the wired version and $69.00 for the wireless, you may feel completely unfulfilled as the mouse does not make its own gravy. I can t give it anymore than three stars whole-heartedly.
Have you heard the old joke?
When a person speaks two languages we call them bilingual, when they only speak one language what do you call them? American.
Now that joke may not apply to you but odds are that you don t speak as many languages as your Macintosh. And if you don t happen to speak Azerbaijani, Breton, Croatian, Esperanto and/or Tongan then those languages are taking up space on your hard drive. Even if you remember Spanish, French, or German from high school you may not ever plan to look at an application with the user interface set to that language.
If you could delete those language files then you would save disk space. How much disk space you will save will depend on how many applications you have installed and how many of those applications come with a multilingual interface. On my computer I saved 2Gb of storage space.
A friend saved 4Gb by deleting those files.
One tool that makes it easy to delete the unneeded bulk of both language files (as well as binaries compiled for a processor chip that you computer does not have) is the free application . Select what you want to keep and what you want to delete and then press a button and what.
Of course, before you do something like this a backup is always recommended.
Editors note: I will second Chris recommendation for having a good full backup prior to running Monolingual. You may remember a time when on the Maccast prior to them adding Universal support.
Needless to say some Intel Mac owners were not too happy. The application is Universal now, but still caution is always smart when modifying your system at this low a level. I personally avoid the need to use a tool like Monolingual by doing a custom install and only loading the desired dialect when I re-install OS X (which I will do when Leopard is released).
A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 181.
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New music, [ ]
OK. So anyone who has been listening to the Maccast in the last few months knows I cancelled my order for Apple TV and began a rant about how the unit apparently was designed to only work with ED or HDTV sets capable of displaying 480p or better resolutions. Now, to the best of my knowledge my information was accurate and based on the from Apple s own Apple TV web site.
The tech specs state the Apple TV has compatibility for, Enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen TVs capable of 1080i 60/50Hz, 720p 60/50Hz, 576p 50Hz (PAL format), or 480p 60Hz . No where in that spec do I see 480i, do you? So imagine my shock (and horror), when I saw the image (pictured right) of an Apple TV set-up screen pass by as I was watching over on Gizmodo.
It s a screen for selecting your TV resolution and it lists 480i!!!
So have I been wrong this whole time? I even called an Apple on-line store representative prior to cancelling my order and specifically asked if the Apple TV would work with my standard definition Sony WEGA 32 TV. I was told absolutely, NO.
They even reiterated the spec from the web site saying I needed an set capable of EDTV resolutions or better. So, does the Apple TV work with standard definition sets with component video connections? I am now dying to know.
Can someone who purchased one solve this debate for us once and for all? If it does, I will be angry and happy all at once as I rush to my local Apple store to get me one. If it does turn out to support a standard definition TV, then my deepest, deepest apologies to those of you who, like me, were led astray by misinformation from Apple.
Update: Well, thanks to Dan in the comments for finding at least one answer. Looks like the Teen Geek guys are reporting over on that the 480i mode is in there to support some older wide screen non-HD sets, but even that doesn t always work.
Poking through the unit’s settings, it turns out that Apple TV was in 480i output mode - we didn’t even know it had such a mode until that point - and the i’Art TV was using that mode.
So we switched to 480p, and the i’Art TV wouldn’t work. So was Apple TV to blame? Only partially: the JVC set is an example of a widescreen, non HD set that doesn’t work with Apple TV.
And the same 480i mode resulted in a color, but not properly formatted picture on another television we tested. So when Apple says in its tech specs that Apple TV supports 480p or better resolution, ignore the fact that there’s a 480i setting, and don’t expect it to work on a non-HD widescreen TV.
Oh well.
As also mentioned in the comments and covered in my the Mac Mini makes a much better Apple home media center solution anyway.
A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks.
Show 180. Apple releases Airport Extreme update. Apple releases .
Apple releases iTunes 7.1.1 update.
Apple issues iPhoto 6.0.6 update.
Updating tip, don t mess with optimization. Are you the next ?.
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264 for all! Apple is America s top retailer. iTunes has fixed blue dot syncing issues.
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Latest Stuffit Expander may crash Finder on Intel. Right delete on the Mac. New Quicktime update provides Apple TV HD clues?
Providing proof can get you better AppleCare results. Adding international characters to your text. Coverflow is fuzzy and not like the warm and kind.
New music, [ ].
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Episode 003 of the new Maccast Loop. The Loop , offers a whole new way to join the Maccast community.
It is recorded live each Sunday at 10:00 AM PST/1:00 PM EST. Using the network we offer live audience participation using text and audio chat. You can subscribe in or by using the links above and then join us live next week.
In this episode we discuss gaming on the Mac. We wax nostalgic about all the great titles form the early days of the Mac. Great games like , , and .
I give you a little history of for the XBox and how it actually began life as a Mac only game. We talk a little bit about what s happening with the latest games on OS X and ask how Intel may or may not change the future of Mac gaming. There is some discussion of iPod games and questions about what Apple might have planned for gaming on the new Apple TV.
Of course at the end of the episode we take time for some questions and talk a bit about the rumors of 8-core Mac Pros.
Thanks to my audio engineer and producer, Victor Cajiao (Typical Mac User Podcast [ ]) and to all the listeners and participants who make this show possible.
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