Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t deny that Apple’s family of mouses (mice?) have come a long way since the dreaded Hockey Puck, and provide a dramatically different experience than almost any other mouse on the market. The entire line up of peripherals feature multi-touch gesture support, which can be modified (along with tracking behavior) quite extensively from the preference pane built in to OS X.
But why should it stop there? The mouse is the primary medium through which we interact with our computers, so it stands to reason that it should be an implement with almost limitless power. I’ve wrangled up seven great apps that extend the functionality of your mouse, whether you’re using a Magic Mouse, the external Magic Trackpad, or the built in trackpad. Heck, most of these even work with third party mice.
CatchMouse
Let’s start simple. CatchMouse is a handy little utility for those of us with multi-monitor set-ups. Dragging your mouse across double or even triple the standard screen real-estate can be tedious, so CatchMouse sets you up with a shortcut key for instantly moving your cursor to a given monitor.
Set unique shortcut keys for each monitor in your rig, and activate it to jump your cursor. Admittedly, it takes a bit of getting used to, but it can definitely improve your workflow.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5+
Developer: FTNew
Sapiens
Sapiens is a really unique mouse-oriented application launcher. Once installed, it is activated by moving your cursor in a circle on your screen until the radial application picker menu shows up. What’s more is that if you perform this gesture while dragging a file, you’ll be presented with a set of applications that you can use to open that file.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Sapiens is that it is “smart.” What the developer means by this is that, over time, Sapiens attempts to learn the ways in which you use the applications on your Mac, and presents you with the apps you’re most likely to want to run next. While Sapiens won’t always get it right (especially in the beginning), you can always begin typing to do a manual search for the app you want to launch.
Check out the developers website for an introductory video on how Sapiens works.
Price: $9.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6.6+
Developer: Giovanni Donelli
MagicPrefs
MagicPrefs is actually a System Preferences prefpane, so you won’t be able to find it in the Mac App Store. It is a utility that is designed to exponentially expand the functionality of your Apple Mouse, whether it’s the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, or Macbook trackpad.
MagicPrefs allows you to specify certain actions for 1-4 finger clicks, taps, and swipes, and even confine them to certain zones on your device to further increase the number of possible executable actions. Head over to the website for a more in-depth explanation of what’s possible with MagicPrefs.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.7+
Developer: Vlad Alexa
Mouseposé
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you wanted an elegant way to accentuate the location and actions of your mouse cursor? Perhaps you were creating a screencast tutorial, or you were giving a presentation on a projected screen. Well Mouseposé is designed to do just that.
Mouseposé will dim your screen, and shine a spotlight on your cursor, drawing attention to what you’re doing. It will also illustrate mouse clicks with a radial animation, so your viewers know exactly what you’re clicking on and when. The app will even call out keystrokes on a lower-third, so that all of your input is conveyed to your viewers.
If you find that you often have others watching your actions on your computer, Mouseposé is the way to go to make that a more enjoyable and effective experience.
Price: $1.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6.6+
Developer: Boinx
FinalTouch
FinalTouch is a highly specialized app, but also potentially one of the most useful. It is a lightweight menubar app that creates a shortcut key that can be used to toggle between two different mouse speed settings. If you dabble in the visual arts at all, and especially if you have a larger monitor, you will likely find FinalTouch quite handy.
Features include two different key modes (toggle, press and hold), customizable hotkey, and a slider that allows you to set a slower speed as a percentage of your default tracking speed.
Price: $8.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6+, 64-bit processor
Developer: Black&White
EasyDrag
EasyDrag is another very simple, single-use utility for improving the way your mouse works. Designed specifically for trackpad users, EasyDrag can bind a keyboard key to the left or right-click functions, making clicking and dragging using either button much easier.
You know how difficult it is to click and drag using your trackpad. Binding an unused keyboard key (the fn key, by default) frees up your fingers so that you’re free to drag files as far as you need to around your desktop.
Price: $4.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6+, 64-bit processor
Developer: Nikolozi Meladze
CursorCoordinates
CursorCoordinates is another very niche app, but to the right people, it can be a savior. Web developers, designers, engineers, and any other users that might deal with screen dimensions could benefit from this apps menubar display of the current coordinates of your cursor.
Additional functionality includes the ability to set the origin to any of the screen’s corners, the current location of the mouse, or a specific point based on a set of coordinates.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6.6+
Developer: Limit Point Software
Wrap Up
This list contains only a few of the most helpful apps for expanding the functionality of your mouse. Do you modify your mouse’s behavior in any other ways? Let us know if we missed anything awesome!