Apple’s strongest security feature: the Mighty Mouse
Posted by iGor
We’ve all heard the stories and seen the movies about jealous PC users who break into Mac user’s houses while they’re sleeping and try to mess up their Macs. While Hollywood has perhaps sensationalized the stories slightly (often trying to shoehorn in a love story or car chase), the threat is all too real.
Apple computers have long held a virtually spotless record when it comes to warding off viruses and hacking attacks compared to its Windows-running rivals, but the fact is your Mac is just as vulnerable as any PC once someone has physical access to your computer. Leave your computer unattended for just a minute, and if someone really wanted to, they could quickly drag all your photos or music to the trash and empty it in about 20 seconds.
Apple to the rescue!
Luckily, Apple has got you covered with a $49 ($69 for the wireless version) security device known as the Mighty Mouse. Using a Mighty Mouse virtually ensures your computer will be inaccessible to just about any jealous PC-using evildoer who may wish to do your Mac harm.
Setup
Setup is easy; simply plug the mouse in, and you are good to go. In our tests, the average PC user who attempted to click on something using the Mighty Mouse took approximately 40% longer than with a conventional mouse. Even when they were able to click on something, they actually performed a right click 30% of the time. Those extra seconds add up, and usually allowed us time to get to our office and flick the lights on and off, thus scaring them away.
Total lock down
For the ultimate in security, Apple allows you to assign its Exposé feature to the Mighty Mouse (you can do this in System Preferences> Keyboard and Mouse).
If you assign Exposé’s “All Windows” function to the Mighty Mouse’s scroll wheel (middle button), the average PC user will only be able to perform an endless cycle of causing your windows to slide back and forth, never getting close to damaging or deleting any of your files. In our tests, all PC users walked away in frustration in under 2 minutes when the Exposé feature was applied.
Buying advice
The Mighty Mouse acts as a veritable Fort Knox, protecting your Mac from unwanted access the way no other device can, and it looks great doing it. We say $49 is a small price to pay to to get that little extra piece of mind that comes with knowing you’re files are safe from PC-loving evildoers.
April 11th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
My kids can’t use my computer for exactly that reason! The MM baffles them.
April 11th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
yes a might mouse might slow me down, only if it was not attached to the computer.
April 11th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
ha ha, yes I’ve noticed this. It takes some getting used to.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
That’s so funny. Last week a friend of mine couldn’t get a cd to burn on his pc, so he brought the files over to us. We have a Mac Pro with a mighty mouse, and he tried to show us where the files were on his usb stick using the mighty mouse, and he kept doing the expose thing every time he clicked. He must have done it 4 times before looking at me helplessly, and I then effortlessly opened the drive. so funny!
April 11th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
well, i guess mac users need SOMETHING to feel superior about.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Erm, nice article, but it doesn’t say anything about “security from the terrible PC users who want to walk into your house and manually delete all your files” on the Apple site… because people like that exist…
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant
April 11th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
what will the mighty mouse do when I throw the mac out the window?
April 11th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
None of my friends can ever get a left click in on my mighty mouse…
April 11th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
The MM was a little hard to get used to. Its fine for me now.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Ahahahaha useless Macs.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Aahaha… dugg and dugg. awesome stuff… using a wired MM right now at work, and y’know… the exact same thing happens when people who have worked here for years longer than I have can’t operate the damn thing… priceless.
I still like my regular wireless PC mouse more however. APPLE, MAKE A CONTOURED MOUSE FOR ONCE!
April 11th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Oh my god, a user unfamiliar with a piece of hardware will have trouble using it!
But of course, when a Mac-for-life user who’s never had more than one mouse button tries to use a PC mouse with 2 buttons, and clicks the wrong one all the time, it’s not a “security feature”, it’s “unintuitive”.
Pfft.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
“Apple computers have long held a virtually spotless record when it comes to warding off viruses and hacking attacks compared to its Windows-running rivals”
Because nobody fucking uses it. Most of the people who use it are tech savvy and won’t get hacked. DA DA DA! I personally enjoy Vista!
April 11th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Indeed, and whoa betide those who don’t clean that scroll pea.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Another sub-standard product from Apple. Kudos! Let’s have a two button mouse look - and sometimes function - like a ONE button mouse! Form over function!
I think you need more than a mouse if people are randomly deleting stuff from your ‘puter. WTF mate?
April 11th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Oh damn that’s hilarious
April 11th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
“I personally enjoy Vista!”
So you do like Mac OS!
April 11th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Tommy Tuttle,
This article was a satire, he wasn’t lauding the Mighty Mouse’s excellent security features, he was making fun of how hard it was to use. I’m not sure what your so ruffled about.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Hmm, I thought MACs were supposed to be intuitive? Seems to me a PC user would figure this out in about 10 seconds while a MAC user would only figure it out from stubborness to get online and gripe in forums about it.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Macs Rule!
April 11th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
So… someone, who shall remain nameless (Becky Zemo) likes Vista -
That’s one.
/Nice job M$ you have one person snowed already!
April 11th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Don, take a piece of advice. Macs suck, MS Vista RULE!
April 11th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
I was expecting the obvious answer to local security. Set a password on your screensaver and make the hot corner be the top right. Then you use the mouse to move to the top right and your desktop is secured.
Burried. Lame.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Well with Windows being on 95% of all machines out there it’s easy to say anyone else has a spotless track record when it comes to viruses and hacking, not exactly hard to crunch those numbers. Personally I’m enjoying Windows Vista Ultimate, on my PC that is
April 11th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Photar, you can’t bury things as lame here. I think you’ve spent too much time on Digg. I picture you walking around in your daily life saying ” Burried. Lame” whenever you don’t like something, be it a cheeseburger or the latest gas prices.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
AppleFan: Just because you use something thats un-intuitive does not make you clever. It just means your willing to sacrifice usability for style, spend to much and then gloat over it.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
That’s weird. I am not a Mac guy by any stretch, but I have yet to run into any PC user who likes Windows Vista. Although, I will say this, it is nice to see Windows users starting to defend their OS as vehemently as Mac users do, even if they’re wrong.
(BTW, I have never seen a Mighty Mouse, but I thought this article was funny).
April 11th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
It’s, it’s, it’s a joke, son.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
What a dumb article. A Mighty Mouse is the easiest peripheral to use.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
when you cant use a mouse…how about u try the keyboard they have shortcuts for that reason…or upload a computer program to execute the command…wud take a short amount of time..
April 11th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Security through obscurity………I sense a pattern.
Don’t outgrow your britches lads or it will turn into a game of spy vs. spy.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I must be a super-genius, for it took me all of five seconds to figure out how the mighty mouse works! I wonder how many of these mac-hater posters have ever used a mac?
April 11th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
what about setting a hot corner to the screensaver and having the screensaver password protected?
April 11th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Been using Mac’s for two years - from day one though I had my 8 button Logitech trackball and never gave the Mighty Mouse a thought.
Funny thing is I feel more superior about the trackball then having a stable OS. Ohh you people who have to move around your hands to use the computer I feel for you.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
I’m a mac-hater, and its what they provide to us in uni.
April 11th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
What is funnier than this article is all the outraged, indignant PC fanboy responses. Guys, you’d think it was obvious from the first sentence. Movies about jealous PC users who break into Mac user’s houses while they’re sleeping? Oh yeah. There are soooo many of those movies. LOL
April 11th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Jono Cono nailed it…with maybe 5% of the total userbase teh Mac crowd doed not offer the cr/hacker/virus crowd much incentive; how do you brag about infecting 50 machines?!?
I also love how Macs are touted to, “Just work”. Today’s Macs are PC’s with alternative Operating Systems installed, so we know the advantage does not come from hardware, even though you pay at least 30% more for the exact same thing. Nope. Simple. If you limit any platform’s software library, you limit the number of possible issues. And with such a small user base, you can be sure that Mac’s software library will be limited simply by today’s market economy; limited demand, limited supply, limited growth.
I also love Vista. Give it plenty of memory and SuperFetch actually does a great job of making the system respond instantaneously. Combined with ReadyBoost, I see zero hesitation between me clicking on an icon and the application being open and ready to use.
The one good thing I can say about Macs is that a Mac user currently holds the high score in Photoshop!
April 11th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Its a little hard to get used to, but you get the hang of it in a couple of days.
April 11th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
I have the best of both worlds XP and mac os X tiger. Get them both and stop complaining. Thankyou very much. I must say MS did a great job with the photo copying of MAC OS X. We will see if MS can keep up and photocopy leopard. Maybe in five more years.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:08 am
Windows+L
April 12th, 2007 at 12:13 am
That’s just great. You’re like one of those guys who posts tutorials on YouTube showing how to pick locks. Your article tips off the bad guys to our secret weapon. What’s to prevent one of these enterprising wrong-doers from buying his own Mighty Mouse, and spending the requisite six month break-in period adjusting to a four-button mouse which only has one button? What then?
All we’ll have left is our lack of a “Start” menu to prevent our Macs from being shut down.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:14 am
@Becky Zemo
Mac users aren’t tech savvy!? Myself and most Mac users I know are seasoned Unix professionals with at least 10 years of experience. We prefer OS X to Windows because it’s Unix based. It doesn’t get viruses because it doesn’t allow any program to run as the administrator user and do as it pleases.
Pretty much all of the MOST tech savvy people I know use Macs, and the dumber ones use Windows.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:45 am
Funny, had no problem pairing the mouse, and figuring out how to use it on my pc running vista… ha ha ah ah ha
April 12th, 2007 at 1:33 am
90% of the commenters here have completely missed the point of this article. It’s satirising the Mighty Mouse. Helloooooo!!! Any intelligent life out there?!?!
(*echoes*)
(*tumbleweeds*)
Anyhoo, you can greatly enhance the security features of the Mighty Mouse, just assign both ‘left click’ and ‘right click’ to ‘Desktop’ thus making all the windows disappear whenever you click anything, and for those in the know, you can assign the ’squeeze’ button to be an ordinary left click. Forget the right click, who needs that anyway…… (cue more kneejerk debate)
April 12th, 2007 at 2:01 am
“What is funnier than this article is all the outraged, indignant PC fanboy responses.”
Totally agree. I say, whoever prefers Windows deserves Windows, so everybody’s happy.
April 12th, 2007 at 2:14 am
Lol.. i like hedgecore… hey man another thing about Mac that is different from PC is that Mac isn’t in all caps, it is just short for Macintosh.
to the rest of you all have fun hating on the OS that Vista is based on… and use a mac some time and you will notice the similarities… looks like Gate$ stole another OS idea just by changing a few things so it is essentially the same but he can’t be sued over it… exactly what he did the first time!
April 12th, 2007 at 3:53 am
MM sucks( and I do love MAC ). Setup the right “button” on the MM to be a left click and disable everyting else on it and a 2 year old can use it. Then you just spent a lot of money for a “stupid” one button mouse, that those little bastards have a much better time using than the 2 button
April 12th, 2007 at 5:08 am
Apple mice suck like hell!
April 12th, 2007 at 5:37 am
It’s funny, I never have that problem in Windows, because I just lock my computer. I know you can (somewhat) do this in OS X through fast user switching, but it’s lame and a pain compared to windows key + L. For a “secure” OS it sure does seem to want you to leave your computer open to anyone who walks by.
April 12th, 2007 at 5:49 am
@Aneudys
Perhaps you should see a certain presentation by Bill Gates about the whistler project a feew years before OS X was announced.
You may see some simularities between what M$ were working on 6 years ago and the ‘Original’ development ideas that apple had, even better if your sat in front of OS X.1 and following bill gates’ instructions as he navigates around HIS beta.
April 12th, 2007 at 6:20 am
just the other day i was at a hotel busy working on my friends MB Pro.Strangely,the only attention i got was from the male waiters.That was the last I ever used a Mac.Gee thanks Stevie.
April 12th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Today’s off topic anti-Mac rant brought to you by Jook… Such a delight to read old chestnuts warmed by the binary fire. He even threw in a Photoshop “game” joke to complete the package. It is to laugh.
As for the MM, I enabled two button mouse mode for my Mum and she kept calling me to tell me her computer was broken. Some people truly cannot get the MM. I don’t understand it, however, because I have never found the MM to be difficult to use even with two button mode enabled.
April 12th, 2007 at 7:20 am
I dont think ive read such bullshit in a long time.
April 12th, 2007 at 7:35 am
Am I the only person here who thinks…. PASSWORD ??
Set your machine to activate your password in your absence…. or go into the keychain peferences and turn on the keychain icon for the menubar… hey presto an option to lock your screen..
A mighty mouse for security… sounds like a post for the sake of a post and waste of time to read !!
April 12th, 2007 at 9:01 am
dominic thanks for clearing that up! what a great and clever idea to use a password for security! thank god. btw this is a comment for the sake of a comment, i hope i wasted a few seconds of your precious time.
April 12th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Maybe people can’t figure out the mighty mouse because instead of being well designed it is actually counter intuitive. Who builds a mouse that is pressure sensitive instead of having physical mouse buttons? PC Users rest their fingers on the mouse so even when they “left click” the mighty mouse detects the right-side pressure and sends “right click” to the computer. Man, those guys at Apply must be usability geniuses, cause I sure know that when I rest my finger on the right side it means I only ever want to be able to right click.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Let’s see what the Mighty Mouse can do against a refrigerator magnet.
April 12th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Yeah I’ll stick with my PC that I can build from scratch and allow for watercooling and overclocking (AKA I can buy a cheaper processor but speed it up to the point that it is equivalent to a very high-speed processor).
Oh yeah and I can upgrade any individual part in case the part gets out of date instead of buying an entirely new system.
Try that with a Mac.
April 12th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I REALLY disagree. The mice Apple have come up with are about the most horrible idea(s) they have ever had. Apple, I love every product of yours EXCEPT every one of your mice. Get over yourselves and make a standard three button mouse. I have come to the point of breaking down and buying a standard Microsoft 3 -button beige mouse simply because it is more EFFICIENT.
April 12th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I love my mighty mouse! Once you get used to it it rocks… esp. the 2-d scroll ball.
April 12th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Stu, we’re all surely very impressed that you can build a watercooled and overclocked computer. I’m sure you understand the drawbacks of your idea.
Those of us who don’t measure our self-worth on the awesomeness of our home-built computers will be over here, having fun and socializing with people, thereby learning what humor is.
But I do have a Mac, and I upgraded it by selling my old model and transferring all my settings (and I mean all of them) with a firewire cable and the amount of time it took me to have a few beers with some friends. Since all the components were top-of-the-line when they came out, they became outdated at the same rate, but due to the overall design of the system, the system retained value for longer than PCs, so financially my move was closer to an upgrade than a new system. I doubt your uber-cool overclocked CPU will be worth anything to anybody else.
I’m sure you won’t believe that, though. Go ahead, miss the whole point of the article and perpetuate your misconceptions.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
i have a Mac
but this article was just a loss of time to read , please do not waste our time with such cr….
April 12th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
HA HA!!! You got to be kidding. Thats a horrible mouse. Only a MacHead would use one.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
“It’s funny, I never have that problem in Windows, because I just lock my computer. I know you can (somewhat) do this in OS X through fast user switching, but it’s lame and a pain compared to windows key + L. For a “secure” OS it sure does seem to want you to leave your computer open to anyone who walks by.”
Uh … only for those who don’t know how to actually use it.
System Preferences > Security > “Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver”
Sounds extraordinarily simple doesn’t it? In fact this is exactly where you would look for a password-locking security mechanism if you weren’t already trained by Bill Gates to look for it in a monkey-like and irrational fashion under ‘Screensaver’.
90% of PC complaints are due to them looking in the same braindead places that Windows puts things (why should a security feature that should apply to both sleep and screensaver be found under ’screensaver’? it makes no sense) — and when they don’t find them there they give up immediately and blame the Mac because they are happy to have their prejudices confirmed.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
“PC Users rest their fingers on the mouse so even when they “left click” the mighty mouse detects the right-side pressure and sends “right click” to the computer. Man, those guys at Apply must be usability geniuses, cause I sure know that when I rest my finger on the right side it means I only ever want to be able to right click.”
You obviously have never actually used the Mighty Mouse, since you’ve got this exactly backwards. You have to actually lift your left finger UP to perform a right click. If you have both fingers down you always get a left click. This is why despite the satire above I find it hard to believe that very many people right click by accident. They would have to be touching only the right side of the mouse (possible, but not common).
No, the problem with the Mighty Mouse is not that it’s too easy to achieve a right click but that it’s too difficult. I constantly find that I am not lifting my left finger enough (because laziness always sets in), and even after I have acquired the correct habit, I eventually end up not getting the right-click when I want it. I don’t like the right-click system on the MM. But it certainly doesn’t degrade the left-click response. Because it errs on the side of the left-clicking. (It shouldn’t err at all, though, which is why I just set the whole mouse to left-click and do the right-click the old, 100% reliable way — with the control key).
Also, if you are an artist and you attempt do any kind of fine visual touching up or drawing with the mouse, you will come to hate the right click (on ANY mouse) with a passion. I have had many complex selection outlines have to be cancelled and started over on an ordinary 2-button mouse, because at the most intense moment of my clicking/dragging, I put too much pressure on the right side of the mouse, performed a right-click, and completely messed up my selection. Despite the other drawbacks I mentioned above, this can never happen on a Mighty Mouse because I’m not going to lift up that left finger, so I can put as much pressure on the right as I want.
The Might Mouse right-click is basically a right-click that doesn’t get in the way of visual artists. The tradeoff is that it is more difficult to achieve when you want it.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:32 am
If you haven’t used a Mighty Mouse should you be commenting on how bad it is?
April 13th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
That was funny and true… I still sometimes get the right click when I meant to left click.
I *do* like the scroll pea though, which is the only reason I haven’t just plugged in a $10 Logitech instead.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Haha. That’s pretty comical.
June 4th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
I have used Windows since version 2. I have been a PC person through and through. I use Vista at work, and it’s not bad. It does have its good points.
However.
Late last year I bought an old Power Mac (466MHz ‘Digital Audio’). I have since upgraded the graphics card, cpu and ram and hdd’s. It’s fantastic! I used to hate Mac’s until I used OS X. I had used OS 9 in the past and found it quite horrid.
Since upgrading my Mac, I have found that my PC only gets dragged out for LAN games with my friends, or if I have spare time, to play a few games myself.
Aside from that, my Mac is now my main machine. Now I come to work and get frustrated, because I try and do things that my Mac can, and Vista can’t.
Now I’m waiting for a 24″ iMac to fall from the sky. It’s the only way I’d afford one…