My Apple keyboard looks nice but it shows the dirt and is not the best keyboard in the world (the keys stick a bit). I’ve also got mixed feelings about the buttons on my Apple Mighty Mouse (wired version) although the 360º clickable scroll ball (scrolly nipple thing) is particularly useful as it can be used to scroll left, right, up or down.

Except that my scrolly nipple thing frequently refuses to scroll down – and it seems I’m not alone (a quick google turned up “Shall I kill this damn mouse?“, “Mighty Mouse reviewed: Garbage” and “I hate my Mighty Mouse” – if you’re still not convinced then look at the comments on the Apple Store page for the product). Previously, some frantic scrolling has restored action but tonight I rebooted, plugged it into another PC and was just about ready to accept that I need to make a trip to an Apple Store to replace it when I spotted the tiniest piece of detritus on the edge of the case close to the mouse ball. After dislodging what I assume was just a few flakes of dead skin (unpleasant yes, but a simple fact of life), it jumped into life, but I’m a little disappointed as the whole point about optical mice is that they are not supposed to need cleaning – it seems that Apple’s design looks great on the surface but merely replaces a dirty ball on the bottom of the mouse with a similar one on the top.

It gets worse as anecdotal reports suggest that scroll ball issues (even after just a few months) are not covered under warranty as they classified as “wear and tear”. Hmmm. Apple have published advice on how to clean your Mighty Mouse though.