Does anyone find the mac mice a little slow?

poppetpoppet
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hi there,



I am a pc user that is about to switch to mac and I really can't wait although I am trying to hold off to see what MWSF brings to us.



I know this sounds silly but when I was in the Apple store the other day I found it difficult to get on with some of the mice. I adjusted the system preferences but I struggle to get from one side of the screen to the other without large arm movements. I like my mouse to move quickly across the screen so I don't have to move anything other than my hand. I know this sounds really silly but I just wondered if I was the only thinking this or if I had missed something.



Any views would be appreciated I know it's a strange post so please don't give me a hard time.



Cheers



J

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    carniphagecarniphage Posts: 1,984member
    It is adjustable.

    Next time in the Apple Store - go to System Preferences (under the Apple menu) and fiddle around with the mouse speed setting.



    If you are not a fan of the mice themselves - you can plug in any USB multi-button PC mouse. I personally use a Wacom tablet for most stuff.



    C.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    poppetpoppet Posts: 90member
    Hi ya,



    Thanks for the response. I did fiddle about put it all to full speed. It did make a difference but still took some working to get across the screen. I did see the tablets. Are they just for design sort of stuff?



    Perhaps it's a case of me getting used to the larger area to scroll etc because the screens as so much bigger.



    J
  • Reply 3 of 10
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    I actually find mice in windows to be too fast, and worse, to have much too high acceleration.



    With that said, there is at least one freeware utility that can ramp up your mouse speed beyond the limits of the System Prefs Pane. I forget what it's called, but I bet if you do an internet search you can find a couple of such programs in a few minutes. I know that I had to use one to fix the Logitech MX1000 (which I dislike).
  • Reply 4 of 10
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    I have a Microsoft notebook mouse and the speed seems to be calibrated much higher than any desktop mouse I've used - this makes sense because you would generally have less room when using a laptop on the go. My tracking speed is actually set quite far down and it flies across the screen. Also remember, the mouse moves faster when you do because of the acceleration. If you drag the mouse slowly, the cursor is set to a lower tracking rate.



    For example, if I slowly drag the mouse across the screen, it takes my mouse 8cm of horizontal movement to traverse a 1280 pixel screen. If I flick the mouse quickly, it can get across in just 3cm mouse movement.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    mac mice are slow, its the OS. use USB Overdrive:



    http://www.usboverdrive.com/USBOverdrive/News.html
  • Reply 6 of 10
    b3ns0nb3ns0n Posts: 95member
    It's not necessarily that they're slow; the way in which the mouse moves is entirely different. You notice this most if you've ever installed OS X on a grey box PC, or when using boot camp on a Mac. I actually find it awful using a Windows PC's mouse now, I find the OS X style allows for greater predictability and precision. If you have a huge screen though, I can appreciate why you might want to accelerate it a little; my only lengthy Mac mouse experience is with by MBP 15".
  • Reply 7 of 10
    majormattmajormatt Posts: 1,077member
    You can always get a higher DPI mouse for faster movement.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    sandau, you're partially right. It *is* the OS... but it *is* fixable without resorting to addons.



    The mouse speed curve on Windows is linear - move the mouse twice as fast, the cursor moves twice as fast. On MacOS X, the curve is exponential - move the mouse twice as fast, the cursor moves much more than twice as fast. The trick is to 'flick' the mouse or trackpad. I can get from corner to corner, diagonally, on my 15" PowerBook screen, with one flick on my trackpad... with the speed set at one tic *under* halfway in the System Prefs.



    The reason? While you can get very fast movement when you need it with the flick, you can *also* get extremely precise movement when you go slow. Best of both worlds.



    Flicking is your friend.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    poppetpoppet Posts: 90member
    Thanks everyone for the posts.



    Is the same true for the wired and wireless mouse re: flicking motion?



    I obviously needed to use that technique.



    Thanks again everyone.



    I don't feel quiet so mad now!!



    J
  • Reply 10 of 10
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Yup. The acceleration is done by the OS. Some mice will have funky calibrations internal to them, however, so while the curve will be the same, the endpoints (max and min velocity) may not be.



    If it really does bother you, or your mouse has a bizarre speed calibration, or you just can't quite get the hang of The Flick(tm), then yeah, USBOverdrive is a good solution. It offers an insane number of customizations for multi-button mice, for instance, often going above and beyond the custom solutions the mouse manufacturers provide.



    Try the flick first though.
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