The Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse

I've owned two of these mice for over a year now. I keep one at home and the other at my office, and I really like them. They're the right heft and feel for a mouse, and the best implementation of Bluetooth I've seen for an input device. They look pretty jazzy too! I found them to be a great accessory for my old black MacBook and now my new late 2008 15" MacBook Pro.

I have two things I'd caution potential buyers about that you might not know. The first is that the scroll ball eventually picks up dust and oil from your fingers and will stop working. Since this mouse can't be disassembled, the only way to fix this is with a lint free cloth and a bit of alcohol. The ball needs to be aggressively rubbed in all directions to get it and the underlying contacts clean. On one mouse this worked, but on the other it still has something that is keeping it from being optimal in the down direction. It works, kind of, but clearly not as well as when I bought it.

Second, if you're older and/or arthritic, the side keys, which by default are programmed to use Expose, are a bit stiff and require some force. If you have weakness using your thumb and third finger, you'll have difficulty using this feature.

One last hint. If you do as I did and buy two of these mice for two different locations, you can pair both of them with your Mac. Only the last one used, however, will automatically mate at logon. If you need to change from one mouse to the other because you're changed location, simply left-click the mouse at the logon screen, wait one second, and the mouse will be auto-paired with the computer. I can't tell you how long that took me to figure out, and no one in the Apple discussions group could answer the question!