Lol! What a title, right? XD
I've had my iMac for 7 months now and with it came the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple Magic Mouse. They look all sleek and stylish on my desktop and while the Magic Mouse is good for browsing and normal use, it becomes quite heavy from prolonged use and resistant to quick movements needed for Photoshop.
I feel pain in my fingers, palm, wrist, elbow, forearm muscles, and shoulder. The places that hurt the most are the arm muscles, and wrist. Due to repeated pressure on the body parts from long hours of mouse use, I often go to bed having to massage away the pain. I'll wake up the next day, with less pain, but put the parts through torture again for the rest of the day.
These symptoms can relate to inflammation of tendons or irritation of nerves and may be the start of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The name already sounds evil.
Clearly, I cannot reduce the number of hours I spend on the computer so the peripherals have to be changed - the mouse.
Honestly speaking, I've never loved the Magic Mouse.
Sure, it looks cool, is wireless, and you can scroll sideways and whatnot, but more muscles are used to lift the heavy mouse, it devours battery like they don't cost a thing, and I find my fingers cramping from not being able to casually settle on the surface - they're lifted/strained in mid air - to avoid swiping in the wrong direction. I tried using a good mouse pad with a wrist cushion to alleviate the pain and create more speed in the mouse, but the pain is overbearing to notice any sort of comfort from it.
My brother uses the Apple Mighty Mouse, which I feel is much better than the Magic Mouse because it is lighter and wired. People in forums all have a love-hate relationship with the scroll wheel though. While it is made with 'touch-sensitive technology concealed under the seamless top shell', all that sensitivity turns to nothingness when the scroll wheel gets clogged and responses to anything but your desires. Like my brother's.
Then I thought of getting the Apple Trackpad. Er, not so good coz it will be hard to use for Photoshop. I reckon it's going to be irritating to hear my nails scratching against the silver board too.
Searching for 'mouse for photoshop' brought me to Wacom tablets, which are supposedly the best kind of device for heavyduty Photoshoppers. A Wacom Intuos4 Medium, which is a wireless pen tablet highly recommended by photographers and designers in forums, will set me back by SGD799.00. Whaaaaa.......?!?!?
No. Struck off the list. I need a good device, but not one that will unnecessarily create a crater in my wallet. Besides, a pen tablet is great for drawing and sketching, and I don't do those. Quite a waste of money since I will be totally under utilizing it. It's like using a smartphone only for the making and receiving of calls.
Finally, all that searching brought me to the world of gaming mouse.
Wow! What an eye opener! I mean, I knew gamers use a different breed of mouse coz they always have extra buttons for configuration but I didn't know what they really configured. Now I know they can switch weapons faster and be more precise in FPS (first-person shooter, a term I learnt from my mouse search lol).
In addition, gaming mouses/mice are the best kind because they are built for long hours in front of the computer. (You know, people have died while gaming and a Korean couple caused the death of their baby girl while they raised their virtual child. :()
The ergonomics of gaming mouse are better and suit the size and shape of our hand and fingers more comfortably than the average and cheaper ones. That's why they're more expensive, but they last a long time and for better comfort and reduced pain, I'm willing to invest in one. Investing in a good gaming mouse is akin to investing in MAC brushes.
The first gaming mouse I came across was the Razer DeathAdder 3500 Gaming Mouse, which is very light and responsive to the slightest movement. However complaints of wear and tear in the form on a sticky rubber surface kind of put me off.
Then people said you're better off with a Logitech MX 518 Optical Gaming Mouse. So I researched on it. OMG. It looks so sexy it reminds me of the shirtless, ripped, Abercrombie & Fitch hunks who paraded for the opening of the store in Singapore.
The MX 518 looks so offensively sexy I'm embarrassed to touch it.
Then people said you're better off with a Logitech Programmable Gaming Mouse G500.
YES!!! This looks simple yet sleek. The best part is you can add or remove weights depending on how heavy you want the mouse to be. Awesome! This costs USD54.98 on Amazon.
This guy made the best mouse comparison video of coincidentally, all three of the above ones.
I think I'm gonna get the Logitech Gaming Mouse G500.
A large mouse may look intimidating but will allow you to navigate, point and click without having your wrist touching the desktop.
But this looks like it will transform into a Optimus Prime cousin-brother thing at night. Goodness!
Mad Catz Cyborg Rat 9
Albino version.
And there're those that look more fun than functional, to me at least - Transformer Mouse named Trypticon. Tyrpticon is a 3 button mouse that works on both Windows and Mac OS based machines. It has an 800dpi resolution and costs $69.99 from Amazon.
By the way, how do you refer to more than one computer mouse? It's natural and correct to say 'mice' when I'm referring to the rodent version - one mouse, two mice. But when it comes to a computer mouse, 'mice' sounds weird and 'mouses' sounds even weirder.
Since M.O.U.S.E is the acronym for Manually-Operated User-Selection Equipment (betcha didn't know that!), and 'equipment' is already in plural form, 'mouse' should just be 'mouse', right? And not 'mouses' or 'mice. Like 'you', 'offspring', 'aircraft' - same single and plural form. Lol, I don't know, but since 'the fourth edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language endorses both computer mice and computer mouses as correct plural forms for computer mouse (source), we can use whatever we want then!
I'm going shopping for mouse, mouses, mice today.
What mouse do you use? Are you a gamer? What are the best mouse, mouses, mice you've used?
