Is Apple Magic Mouse Worthy for Your HTPC Media Center?

Apple is well known with it’s innovative approach in introducing new technologies. Apple has changed the current trend in the mobile device market with their iPhone. Now Apple tries to bring similar innovative thinking to the way how we control a traditional mouse.

Multitouch technology
Bringing multitouch technology into a mouse is a great step forward in peripheral technology. The question is not only whether Apple’s Magic Mouse is a a worthy mouse for your HTPC media center, but will it revolutionize the computer controlling in a similar way as they have done with iPhone for mobile devices. It will be interesting to see how other computer accessory providers such as Logitech will come up with in 2010. So far Apple has done good job on computers and portable media players, but they have not really impressed with their input devices.

Mixed opinions
As Apple tries to bring something unique to the traditional concept of mouse, it will most probably divide audience to extreme sides. One part will be very excited about it and say it is the best mouse ever while others prefer their mouse as it is and might feel awkward about the ergonomics and the fact that they need to learn a new way to use a mouse.

Learning curve?
As many users report, it takes couple of days to get used to the device, and you might be thinking switching back to the old mouse. The key question is how large number of people are willing to continue using the Magic Mouse for a few more days just to learn to use their new mouse. I think this is a challenging factor for Apple if they want to go mainstream with their new technology.

Setting future direction
As with many new technologies, the first products will not be the best product in the market, but they set the direction for the competition to refine the concept and develop something even better. Thus, I think that Mighty Mouse will not necessarily be worthy for your HTPC media center yet, but it will be an important innovation in setting the direction for the future development of computer controlling devices. For the time being, I am still betting the gyroscopic mouse becoming the more popular technology for the HTPC controlling. A good example of gyroscopic mouse is the Logitech MX Air Mouse.

If you have not had a chance to see how Apple’s Magic Mouse looks like, have a look at the following promotional video from Youtube.