The Apple Mighty Mouse: The Epitome of Love/Hate Relationships

Might Mouse USD $49.00 (Wired), USD $69.00 (Wireless)

Website: apple.com


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 Logitech Optical USB Mouse. 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.

Software Review: NewsFire

Newsfire USD $18.99

Website: newsfirerss.com

I never really saw the value of using an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader or aggregator, but with the strong recommendation from a friend and the desire to spend less time browsing digg I decided to give NewsFire a chance. At the time I started using NewsFire my default BitTorrent client was Xtorrent, another Mac application by David Watanabe. My previous experience with Xtorrent gave me high expectations for the design and simplicity of the application, and in those terms I was definitely not let down.

NewsFire appropriately touts itself as "The 'Anjelina Jolie of applications'" on its home page. Using the slick brushed look of applications Apple's Safari, NewsFire looks like it belongs on your Mac. When a RSS feed is updated the feed entry swoops to the top of the list, grabbing your attention with a simple animation. While it doesn't offer many unique visual features, fitting into the operating system so well goes a long way for any application.

Also helping it blend into OS X, NewsFire allows you to set groups and labels to manage your content and even includes Spotlight integration. NewsFire can organize your content so you only read the things you care about. With the "Smart Feeds" feature, anyone familiar with iTunes will know what they are doing immediately. You can quickly make a "Smart Feed" based on combination of attributes like date, author, description, or type of file attachment. "Search Feeds" allow you to make a custom feed to pull from specific search terms on certain websites, which can be very useful if you find yourself repeating the same searches often.

The only problem I have so far, is that I wish there were more features. If NewsFire integrated tabs for the sake of having multiple feeds open and visiting links within the same application, the experience would feel much more streamlined. However, David Watanabe has developed an application so beautiful, simple, and stable that it feels like a feature Apple just forgot to include with OS X. Considering the current USD $18.99 price tag and the fact that it just feels to be missing a little something extra, it might not be the perfect application for a casual user.

NewsFire, being one of the few applications I always leave running, gets four stars and a whole-hearted recommendation to anyone who is looking for a simple RSS reader.

Originally Published on The MacCast

Disco: Up In Flames

Disco USD $29.95

Website: discoapp.com

When only in it's beta stages, I proudly gave Disco a five star rating this past December. It's an affordable, simple to use alternative to Roxio's Toast, boasting nearly all the disc burning features a casual user would never need. In addition to it's remarkable amount of features and level of simplicity, Disco has one of the most eloquent user interfaces available on any operating platform. If you know of the application, chances are it caught your eye with the smoke that emits from the application while you're burning. Unfortunately, at the time of the review that feature was not available to anyone with the Intel GMA950 Graphics Processor, leaving Mac mini and MacBook users in the dark.

With the 1.0 milestone, Disco has made a less capable version of Smoke available to the majority of modern Macs. It currently lacks full interaction on some of the less powerful Macs, but we are happy to see less people being left out. Despite this major feature now being common to the majority of users, Disco still retains some of its previous flaws. Its imaging and burning system is currently limited to IMG, ISO, DMG, BIN/CUE files, which can greatly hinder those migrating from other platforms. Support for other formats like Padus DiscJuggler's CDI/CDJ or MDF/MDS images is sorely lacking. For some, this will make the extra money for a different application worth spending.

Other lacking features are only noticeable if you are making your comparison to applications like Roxio's Toast and Popcorn. You will not find Disco to be the DVD authoring application you may have been hoping for, however it will properly burn VIDEO_TS folders already authored. Regardless of its not being an entire media burning suite, Disco makes itself worth every penny. Discography is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to keep their burning track record organized. Spanning, the ability to spread large files and folders across multiple DVDs and CDs, is also an ability so useful you'll find yourself missing when using other burning applications.

As of March 5th, 2007 the introductory price of USD $14.95 has ceased, and the full price of USD $29.95 is in effect. A 3 user family pack is available for USD $59.90, and is worth every penny. A free trial of seven burns is provided at the official Disco website, and a fantastic article on the history of the application was recently published on their blog. Disco being without a doubt one of the top applications to keep your eye on in 2007, it's safe to say we can expect nothing but the best from the team behind it in the future.

Originally Published on The MacCast