The Apple Magic Mouse is definitely an innovative piece of hardware. Sadly, Apple doesn’t have the best reputation with creating ergonomic peripherals. Is the Magic Mouse any different?

The mouse is small, short, and symmetrical. Nearly every ergonomic mouse on the market is asymetrical and for good reason… It’s more natural! However that doesn’t bode too well for a multitouch mouse design. I tried one out for a couple weeks anyway.

Ergonomics aside I really enjoyed the mouse. The multitouch features are actually quite handy and natural. What makes Apple’s multitouch products feel so nice is that they have perfected the acceleration aspect. That means the faster you move, the faster the response, as well as having a small amount of inertia once you let up. The magic mouse is no exception. Of the people in my office, half of them fell in love with it the first time they used it, and the other half happily kept their old mouse. I think it’s a love or hate thing with this mouse, so if you can, make your way out to the apple store & try before you buy.

After a couple weeks I found that my index finger was cramping a bit from curling in towards my palm constantly. My wrist wasn’t very happy either from keeping it flush with the desk.

Given the symmetry I never intended to use it for longer than a couple weeks as an experiment. The party’s over and I’m back to using my trusty handshoe mouse.