Without a doubt, the worst feature on this computer is the way it handles windowing. ![]() NOTE: Everything beyond this point is 100% personal opinion! I am sure my experience will differ greatly from yours. In fact, I can definitely say that when this computer no longer holds its value, my next upgrade will also be to a Mac.įor this retrospective, I want to start with the bad and progress to the good so that we can end on the positive notes (which are far greater in this case). Despite a few flaws, which I'll cover, the experience with my MacBook Pro has been overwhelmingly positive. In honor of the the Apple WWDC 2011 keynote and event, I thought I would take a few minutes to reflect on my transition to the Mac and how I feel about the computer after a year of dedicated use. So far, it’s surprisingly good, and I’m finally going to unplug and pack away my tragically flaky MX Revolutions.I'm coming up on my first full year of being a Mac user since my Lenovo died last August. With just one big surface on top and two thin low-friction rails to make contact with the desk on the bottom, it’s even easy to clean. It seems solid so far, but it’s only been two days.Īnd it provides huge advantages in simplicity: no software, no USB dongle, no charging cradle, no buttons, no wheels. This hasn’t been a huge problem for me, although I have accidentally sent a left-click event when I intended a right-click a few times. It still has the inconvenient behavior of Apple’s recent mice that requires you to lift your left finger off of the mouse in order to right-click. (I don’t use the non-scrolling gestures on the laptop trackpads, either.) I suspect that attempting to do them on a mouse, which is likely to move itself and your pointer while you perform each gesture, is less convenient than performing them on a bigger, flatter, stationary trackpad. So far, it hasn’t been.īeyond scrolling, I haven’t used any of the touch gestures yet. ![]() It’s tiny, which seems like it would be an issue with comfort or ergonomics. Inertia scrolling is intuitive and well-executed, and I can use it just like I used the MX Revolution’s auto-unlocking wheel: flick quickly to scroll a lot, tap to stop. I tried a Magic Mouse and was very impressed, so I took the risk and bought one. Inertia scrolling, optional but enabled by default, makes the scrolling continue slightly after you stop the scrolling gesture, similar to scrolling views on the iPhone. The Magic Mouseįortunately, Apple provided an alternative with the Magic Mouse. But the auto-unlock wheel is so helpful in my everyday tasks that I didn’t want to give it up. With three different MX Revolutions flaking out in three different ways, I was ready for a change. In addition, the MX Revolution in my home setup has started suffering from quirky behavior. I had a warranty replacement sent from Logitech, but it has other strange issues and a completely different-feeling and less-precise scroll wheel, so I don’t use it. These features only reactivate if I unplug and replug its USB receiver, a procedure that I’ve now become quite good at performing. In addition to the software complexity, a more fatal flaw with the MX Revolution at my work computer drives me crazy: at least once per day, the mouse becomes unresponsive for a few seconds, then reactivates at factory defaults with no auto-unlock wheel and no button mappings. To get mine to work the way it should, I had to install Logitech’s software to enable the auto-unlock wheel, uninstall it, and install SteerMouse instead to enable most other functionality. Setting the auto-unlock wheel mode requires the Logitech software, which screws with the standard OS X pointer sensitivity and scrolling acceleration. This is an amazingly useful and intuitive function when scrolling through very long content, like a long web page, large documents, or an iPhoto library.īut it comes with a cost. The MX Revolution is a great mouse for many reasons, but the real revolution was the weighty, flywheel-like scroll wheel that moves in the normal notchy, incremental way unless you flick it quickly, at which point it unlocks from notchy mode and free-spins until stopped. Logitech’s premium mice follow the opposite design paradigm: make a big honking thing full of buttons and wheels with 13 different functions. The Mighty Mouse, and the ball-less, no-button wonder before it, seemed to put form over function in the worst, Steve-Jobs-glass-laptop-screen way. ![]() The new Magic Mouse, left, replacing my huge, awesome, but flaky MX Revolution.Īpple’s previous mice haven’t quite agreed with me. A programmer, writer, podcaster, geek, and coffee enthusiast.
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