Apple released the multi-touch Magic Mouse in 2009. The top curved surface of the Magic Mouse is a touch-sensitive area that allows right-clicking, left-clicking, and two-finger scrolling. The top of the mouse is white and the base is silver aluminum. This mouse connects via Bluetooth and uses two included (non-rechargeable) AA batteries.
Several gestures are supported by the Magic Mouse, including click, two-button click, 360°-scroll, screen zoom, screen pan, two-finger swipe, one-finger swipe, two-finger double tap, and one-finger double tap. This is Apple’s first muse to use laser-tracking.
The Wireless Mighty Mouse was a Bluetooth version of the (corded) Mighty Mouse that was released a year before it. The original Wireless Mighty Mouse used the same opaque white coloration as the corded Mighty Mouse.
The Mighty Mouse was the first Apple mouse to have multiple buttons. The buttons consisted of two touch-sensitive areas on the top of the mouse and two “squeeze areas” on the sides of the mouse. Because it had no physical buttons, the entire body of the mouse could be clicked. The top of the mouse also had a mini free-spinning track ball that allowed scrolling in any direction.
The Wireless Mighty Mouse makes a sound when the scroll ball is rolled that is produced by a tiny internal speaker in the mouse. The sound cannot be disabled by settings.
The Mighty Mouse was the first Apple mouse to have multiple buttons. The buttons consisted of two touch-sensitive areas on the top of the mouse and two “squeeze areas” on the sides of the mouse. Because it had no physical buttons, the entire body of the mouse could be clicked. The top of the mouse also had a mini free-spinning track ball that allowed scrolling in any direction.
The Mighty Mouse was opaque white with light gray touch-sensitive squeeze areas. The mini trackball on top was also light gray.
Mighty Mouse makes a sound when the scroll ball is rolled that is produced by a tiny internal speaker in the mouse. The sound cannot be disabled by settings.
In October 2009, Apple renamed the Mighty Mouse the “Apple Mouse” due to legal issues regarding the name. Although Apple had licensed the Mighty Mouse name from CBS (a cartoon character originating in 1942), another company had been selling a “mighty mouse” product before Apple. This is an example of Apple’s sometimes-confusing naming practices. in this case, Apple returned to using the name of a previous product (from 2003) that had a different design and different features.
Apple’s first cordless mouse was the Apple Wireless Mouse, a Bluetooth version of the white Apple Mouse. The Apple Wireless Mouse used Bluetooth 1.1 and shipped with two 2 AA lithium (non-rechargeable) batteries. This mouse had a power switch on the bottom that slid to protect the optical sensor when the mouse was not in use.
Although based upon the Apple Mouse, the surface of the mouse was opaque white, rather than the transparent acrylic used in the wired version. Like the wired version of the mouse, the entire surface served as the clickable single button.
The Apple Mouse was very similar in design to the Apple Pro Mouse released in 2000. However, the Apple Mouse was white and removed the ability for the user to control the click-force setting on the bottom of the mouse.
The surface of this mouse was crystal clear acrylic with a base insert in white that matched the keyboard that shipped with it.
This mouse was included with the Power Mac G4 (mirrored drive door), Power Mac G5, eMac, iMac G4, and iMac G5.
The Apple Mouse was very similar in design to the Apple Pro Mouse released in 2000. However, the Apple Mouse was white and removed the ability for the user to control the click-force setting on the bottom of the mouse. The surface of this mouse was crystal clear acrylic with a base insert in white that matched the keyboard that shipped with it.
This mouse was included with the Power Mac G4 (mirrored drive door), Power Mac G5, eMac, iMac G4, and iMac G5.
The Apple Pro Mouse was introduced in 2000 along with the G4 Cube. This mouse dropped the rubber ball used for tracking in all previous Apple mouse designs and replaced it with a solid-state LED optical sensor. The design of the mouse appeared to have no buttons, but the entire mouse surface allowed for a single click. The shape of the mouse was an an elongated rectangle with two round sides (replacing the previous round design).
The surface of this mouse was crystal clear acrylic with a base insert in black that matched the keyboard that shipped with it.
The Apple Pro Mouse also included a ring to allow for three different click force settings on the underside of the mouse.
The Apple Pro Mouse was introduced in 2000 along with the G4 Cube. This mouse dropped the rubber ball used for tracking in all previous Apple mouse designs and replaced it with a solid-state LED optical sensor. The design of the mouse appeared to feature no buttons, but the entire mouse surface allowed for a single click. The shape of the mouse was an an elongated rectangle with two round sides (replacing the previous round design).
The surface of the original version of this mouse was crystal clear acrylic with a base insert in black that matched the keyboard that shipped with it. This version replaced the black insert with a white insert, and the bottom of the mouse used a translucent white screen.
The Apple Pro Mouse also included a ring to allow for three different click force settings on the underside of the mouse.
The successor to the Apple Pro Mouse was called the Apple Mouse and the ring on the underside that controlled the click settings was removed. The bottom of the mouse was replaced with opaque white plastic and a light gray gliding surface (shown below).
The Apple Pro Mouse was introduced in 2000 along with the G4 Cube. This mouse dropped the rubber ball used for tracking in all previous Apple mouse designs and replaced it with a solid-state LED optical sensor. The design of the mouse appeared to feature no buttons, but the entire mouse surface allowed for a single click. The shape of the mouse was an an elongated rectangle with two round sides (replacing the previous round design).
The surface of this mouse was crystal clear acrylic with a base insert in black that matched the keyboard that shipped with it. The original translucent gray/silver cable was less rugged than the mouse with a white cable that replaced it in 2003. Both examples are shown below.
The Apple Pro Mouse also included a ring to allow for three different click force settings on the underside of the mouse.
The Apple USB Mouse was first released with the original iMac. The mouse was translucent white and accented in translucent Bondi blue, the same colors as the original iMac. The mouse was round and often referred to as the “hockey puck” mouse. Like previous Apple mouse designs, the USB mouse used a single button and a rubber ball for tracking. However, the rubber ball was two-toned to add design interest by capitalizing on the translucent case.
The mouse has been described as a rare design mistake for Apple because its round shape made it difficult to feel the top of the device, making tracking difficult. Soon after its release, Apple added a dimple in the graphite version of the mouse at the top above the button. The dimple remained on all subsequent versions of the USB Mouse, including this example.
The mouse also had a short cord. Although the cord worked well when plugged into the USB port on a matching iMac keyboard, the cord was too short to use (for right-handed users) with Mac laptops at the time since USB ports were located on the left side.
Early versions of the USB Mouse included a two-toned blue and white trackball (regardless of the color of the mouse). Later versions switched to the more neutral gray and white trackball. Both versions are shown below.
