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Magic trackpad vs. Magic mouse?

Five-year-old Mighty Mouse (trackball) is reaching end-of-life, i.e. best efforts to clean scrollball are no longer working. So it's time to replace it with a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad. (Tried a non-Apple mouse and did NOT like it). I have Lion installed on my Intel Mac Mini, am ambivalent about it, but feel (for whatever perverse reasons) that I must shrug and go forward and give myself a chance to experience whatever multitouch and gestures provide.


First question: is there a functional difference between what you can do with the magic mouse and the magic trackpad? Does the mouse support all gestures? Or is the trackpad somehow "more multitouch" than the mouse--is their functionality you have with the trackpad that you don't have with the mouse?


Second question: does the trackpad work reasonably well for tasks like drawing and doing simple Photoshop editing, or is the assumption that the trackpad is just for communicating commands to the UI and that you'd have a separate tablet if you wanted to draw?

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Dec 26, 2011 4:09 AM

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Posted on Dec 26, 2011 6:06 AM

Before I chose between Magic Mouse and Trackpad, or both, I asked quite a few friends who have used Mac for long time. Surprisingly, all of them don't like Magic Mouse, and told me that any decent non-Apple USB mouse is better it. They do recommend Trackpad (since this is a mini, with no built-in trackpad) for multitouch and gestures.


So now I am using the Trackpad and a Logitech USB mouse, and very happy.


I think Trackpad would not be good for tasks like drawing.

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Question marked as Best reply

Dec 26, 2011 6:06 AM in response to Daniel P. B. Smith

Before I chose between Magic Mouse and Trackpad, or both, I asked quite a few friends who have used Mac for long time. Surprisingly, all of them don't like Magic Mouse, and told me that any decent non-Apple USB mouse is better it. They do recommend Trackpad (since this is a mini, with no built-in trackpad) for multitouch and gestures.


So now I am using the Trackpad and a Logitech USB mouse, and very happy.


I think Trackpad would not be good for tasks like drawing.

Magic trackpad vs. Magic mouse?

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