I know it’s old news and all, but I just had to cough up my own review about Apple’s new Mighty Mouse. I finally got payed for my contribution to the August issue of MacAddict’s “50 Bugs” article, so I decided to pick one up along with an iSight camera and a new game (RailRoad Tycoon 3) on Friday.

After 3 days of using the mouse, all I can say is “Wow…” I’m totally blown away at the simplicity and ease of use. I’ve had no real troubles adapting to the scroll ball. In fact, using it has become very much second nature already. I think it’s much less work than a standard scroll wheel, and yes, if you get your timing down, you can actually scroll diagonally. Way too cool.

As for the left and right clicks, it took a little thinking about to get right at first since I’ve been working with a Logitech MX 310 dual button mouse with scroll wheel the last three months. I’m pleased to say that with a minimal conscious effort in the way I move my hand, I’ve easily adapted to the left/right click of the Mighty Mouse. All it took was learning to lift my index finger just the tiniest bit, nothing more. I still manage to miss a click every now and then, but it’s getting better all the time.

I haven’t used the two side buttons much, and contrary to what some may think, you must use both at the same time to invoke a “click,” which doesn’t quite feel natural to me yet. I find it’s easier to move my hand to squeeze with the thumb and middle finger than it is with the thumb and ring finger. I’m still up in the air about it.

Clicking the scroll ball as a button toggles Dashboard (the default setting), and is a feature I find really slick. I realized that I’ve avoided Dashboard for the simple fact that the keystroke of “fn + F12″ on my iBook is a little too out of the way for my liking. Yeah, I know, I could’ve changed it. Call me lazy…

Anyway, the bottom line… I think Apple engineers have done a decent job with this piece of hardware. Not only is it good looking, but there’s a cool psychological thing in having my “rig” back to all Apple hardware. If you’re still on the fence about picking one up, I’d urge you to go for it. You’ll probably be glad you did.