By Adli Yashir, a journalist and Internet coordinator with Berita Harian

OUT: mechanical gears for moving things like the text or cursor around the screen or scrolling through an image gallery.

In: Magic.

Perhaps that is why Apple has aptly named its latest rodent the Magic Mouse: the entire surface of the pointing device is the touch pad.

There are neither mechanical buttons nor wheels on this device, which Apple says is the world?s first multi-touch mouse. Just a smooth and easy surface for your fingers to work their magic.

The wireless connection works from 10m away and my iMac detected the gizmo almost immediately.

Leveraging on laser technology, the device works on almost any surface ? even the back of my hand. Getting it to move smoothly around the screen is almost effortless.

Click or double click the left side to select folders or launch applications. Click on the right surface to bring up the menu, allowing you to Cut, Copy or Paste.

The multi-touch magic happens when you scroll through image thumbnails or zoom in on a picture.

To scroll up or down, simply glide your index finger up or down. And left or right if you want to scroll in those directions. So, there is no issue of left-handed or right-handed usage.

To zoom, use a combination of up-down finger gestures and the Ctrl button.

Another key feature is the two-finger gesture ? flick your fingers on the Magic Mouse the way you would when flipping the pages of a book.

Magic Mouse works only with Mac OS X Leopard version 10.5.8 or later. Feed it two AA batteries for it to work.

Final say

Get into the two-finger flicking habit and the Magic Mouse will win you over.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

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