Rumours have been rife of late that Apple were seeking to replace their current Mighty Mouse with an all new, fully touch sensitive bit of kit. One of the major complaints regarding the Mighty Mouse was inconsistent scrolling, caused by a build up of gunk in the scroll ball workings. This usually rendered the downward scrolling of the mouse useless, unless you had the nerve to open it up and clean it yourself. Plug time I made a guide for this very problem here.

Apple have also been battling with the naming of the Mighty Mouse, with medical company Man & Machine claiming rights for the name. Man & Machine have released five revisions of their Mighty Mouse. Since losing this case, Apple has rebranded their version, simply, Apple Mouse. Today though, we were introduced to it’s successor, the Magic Mouse.

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What’s new in the new Magic Mouse? Two words, Multi touch. Magic Mouse expands on what the Mighty Mouse introduced. No buttons to differentiate Left and Right clicking, just sensors. You might have noticed that dreaded scroll wheel has also gone. Now you simply use the mouse much like a trackpad. Scrolling is taken care of with a single finger swipe in the centre of the mouse. The quicker you swipe your finger, the quicker it scrolls (where have you seen that before?) Apple have also added a few other nifty gestures, like the two finger swipe to browse through your Photos or iTunes library in Coverflow.

The Magic Mouse doesn’t come cheap though. Although it’s bundled with every new iMac, you’ll have to fork out £55 if you want one for your current setup. The one thing I must say is the design looks a lot more comfortable than the Mighty Mouse. The shape and curvature of the body looks like it’ll fit snuggly in your hand and work well for prolonged use. I am also very glad they kept some tactile feedback and didn’t just give us a touch screen slapped onto a mouse.

Head over to the Apple site to see a video of it in action.