Microsoft tops Apple with Built In Magnifier

Apple Computer is the design champion of the computer world. But the company has had one blind spot - the mouse. From January 1983, when it introduced the industry’s first mouse, through last month, Apple insisted on producing mice with one button and no scroll wheel.

Last week, Apple finally gave in, sort of. The company released an add-on mouse called Mighty Mouse that allows right-clicking and scrolling. But in a stubborn homage to the old dogma, Apple designed the Mighty Mouse so it looks like, and can work like, a one-button mouse. Those clashing design goals make the Mighty Mouse harder to use.
 
Meanwhile, Microsoft has also brought out a new mouse in the past few weeks, the Wireless Optical Mouse 5000. It isn’t as slick-looking as Apple’s new entry, but it’s better, in my view. The Microsoft mouse has an innovation that allows you to instantly magnify any portion of your screen without zooming into the whole display.
 
Apple’s Mighty Mouse costs $49. The new Microsoft mouse is only available bundled with a keyboard in a set that tops $100. It will be sold separately for $54.95 starting next month. Microsoft’s new model is cordless, like most modern, premium mice. Apple’s Mighty Mouse is tethered to the computer with a cord, like most low-end models.
 
The right-click button and the scroll wheel on the wireless Microsoft mouse worked quickly and surely every time, even on a Macintosh. But the key feature of the Wireless Optical Mouse 5000 is the magnifier button. You just click this little button on the mouse’s left side, and instantly a rectangular area around the cursor opens to magnify that portion of the screen below. The rest of the screen remains normal.
 
To dismiss the magnifier window, you just click the button again. This feature is especially great because instead of being just a temporary viewer, the magnifier window is an active area of the screen. You can work in it just as if it were in normal view - clicking, typing and selecting.
 
Read full article on Everett Herald, Washington State