Apple’s Touching New Mouse
A new computer mouse is generally an afterthought—a new shade of pink, a slightly more ergonomic form—but Apple’s new Magic Mouse takes a step further by imitating the touch-screen experience of an iPhone.
Without any physical buttons, the input device—available for $69—is itself the button, Apple said. Using technology employed on the iPhone and iPod Touch, the top of the Magic Mouse is a sensor that reads touch gestures to scroll, pan, swipe and click on documents and in applications. Earlier iterations of Apple mice were criticized for a rather sloppy feel and loose fit.
The new device is Bluetooth-enabled for wireless use, and Apple said it’s equally friendly to either left or right hands. But it will work only with Macs running Leopard version 10.5.8 or later; Windows users need not apply.
Magic Mouse also ships with a new range of desktop iMacs, announced Tuesday, as was an updated, bottom-of-the-line MacBook for $999.
The new iMacs’ LED-backlit displays come in either 21.5 or 27 inches. They start at $1,199 with Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz chips. The 27-inch display is fairly massive even for a giant desktop, and Apple said it displays 2560-by-1440 pixel resolution, which should translate to a stunning image—from about four feet away. It ships with a wireless keyboard should users care to kick back. That Mac sells for $1,699.
The new MacBook inherits the 13.3-inch LED-lit screen from its MacBook Pro siblings as well as a longer-life, seven-hour battery, but keeps a polycarbonate (rather than aluminum) housing and its price tag of $999. It ships with a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 gigabytes of RAM, and a 250-gigabyte hard drive.
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