Apple Magic Mouse

Apple’s Magic Mouse is the first mouse to support so-called multi-touch: in addition to moving it physically to move the pointer on-screen, you can swipe or run a finger along the top surface of the mouse to get it to do specific things.

Unfortunately it’s only compatible with Mac computers that have the new Snow Leopard operating system installed, and not with Windows PCs at all. Connecting the mouse to a Macbook over the Bluetooth connection took seconds, but we also had to download and install an update to enable the scroll functions.

Scrolling with the top surface was seamless and smoother than using a conventional scroll wheel. It was especially useful when browsing large documents that require scrolling left and right as well as up and down.

You can also flick through photos and web pages by swiping with two fingers on the mouse top but this was trickier to master.

There are no noticeable buttons on the mouse – you tap it in a particular place to left-click and can change the preferences to enable the equivalent of a right-click.

At £55 the Magic Mouse is expensive but too basic. It’s well designed but it’s a shame it cannot be customised. Style aside, there are better wireless mice available for less money.