Apple mouse marks a mighty change

[MacBytes]

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Category: Apple Hardware
Link: Apple mouse marks a mighty change

(http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20050812111334)

Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
Approved by Mudbug

[GodBless]

A good review. It looks like CNN is getting behind Apple in multiple ways recently. I hope the trend continues.

[nagromme]

It's AP, which is a mixed bag.

This one's a positive article, but...

"Apple has opted for sensors that detect where the user has clicked.

After a week of tests, I found the sensors to be accurate, though it did take a few minutes to get used to the lack of a physical button."

Let the myths blossom!

Now EVERYONE can think there's no physical down-click! :rolleyes: (Which there IS.)

Oh, well.


"My biggest complaint was the short length of the cord that plugs into a computer's USB port, though it's not likely to be an issue if you plug your mouse into a USB port on the keyboard."

Or on your display! Or a hub. Or a cheap extension cable. There's no solution for an overly-long cable (long cables drive me crazy), but you CAN extend a short one.


And since I can't help myself:

"a single-button technology that seemed stuck in the 1980s."

Yes, because adding a second clicker is SO high-tech :D Simplicity and eas-of-use are so passé. Why doesn't the iPod get more buttons? They should learn from competitors ;)

(Don't blame me for starting a one-lump-or-two war in this thread... it was bound to happen anyway! The value of BOTH kinds of mouse is obvious, and having choice is good... which will happen when Apple offers it BTO across the line.)

[mainstreetmark]

clicker is SO high-tech :D Simplicity and eas-of-use are so passé. Why doesn't the iPod get more buttons? They should learn from competitors ;)

(Don't blame me for starting a one-lump-or-two war in this thread... it was bound to happen anyway! The value of BOTH kinds of mouse is obvious, and having choice is good... which will happen when Apple offers it BTO across the line.)

C'mon, nag, don't you think that since the introduction of the contextual menu in OSX, a 2nd mouse button made more sense than a single? "Hold down the CTRL key?" That's not simpler for the novice to use. I suppose the novice would just never use it.

But I'm with you ALL THE WAY on long mousechords. You can easily and cheaply make them longer, but making them shorter requires soldering. Every time I put my chords in my bag, they come out all knotted up and it stinks. The Powerbook's chord winders on the power brick have been broken off for years, so I just put up with the permatangle.

Oh, and I've gone bluetooth on the mouse, since other wireless mice seem to have some thing you have to plug in. Otherwise, I'd be gettin me a Mighty Mouse.

[nagromme]

As I said, the value of BOTH kinds of mouse is obvious to me. Right-clicking is a useful shortcut for many people. For others, you're right: invisible shortcuts aren't something they'd use anyway. They'll go to the main menu.

Thus, there is room in the world for one-button mice, 10-button mice, and everything in between.

I feel the same about wireless--as a laptop traveler, I want Bluetooth, not some big pod which as often as not has... a cord!

(Also note: right-click menus have been in Mac OS since OS 8 and maybe longer.)

[winmacguy]

C'mon, nag, don't you think that since the introduction of the contextual menu in OSX, a 2nd mouse button made more sense than a single? "Hold down the CTRL key?" That's not simpler for the novice to use. I suppose the novice would just never use it.

But I'm with you ALL THE WAY on long mousechords. You can easily and cheaply make them longer, but making them shorter requires soldering. Every time I put my chords in my bag, they come out all knotted up and it stinks. The Powerbook's chord winders on the power brick have been broken off for years, so I just put up with the permatangle.

Oh, and I've gone bluetooth on the mouse, since other wireless mice seem to have some thing you have to plug in. Otherwise, I'd be gettin me a Mighty Mouse.

I think I am the ONLY person in a design studio of 10 people who uses or prefers to use the one button Apple mouse.

[winmacguy]

As I said, the value of BOTH kinds of mouse is obvious to me. Right-clicking is a useful shortcut for many people. For others, you're right: invisible shortcuts aren't something they'd use anyway. They'll go to the main menu.

Thus, there is room in the world for one-button mice, 10-button mice, and everything in between.

I feel the same about wireless--as a laptop traveler, I want Bluetooth, not some big pod which as often as not has... a cord!

(Also note: right-click menus have been in Mac OS since OS 8 and maybe longer.)

I was told by the guys at design school who were doing Maya that a one button mouse is not good for the 3D stuff since the contextual menus were originally designed with a multibutton PC mouse in mind and they don't all have keyboard short cuts for ALL the commands. That may have changed with the newer versions of Maya and other 3D programmes.

[Jay42]

How good of a review is that if the guy didn't even figure out there was a physical click after like a week of using it?

[stridey]

I was told by the guys at design school who were doing Maya that a one button mouse is not good for the 3D stuff since the contextual menus were originally designed with a multibutton PC mouse in mind and they don't all have keyboard short cuts for ALL the commands. That may have changed with the newer versions of Maya and other 3D programmes.

MAYA I wouldn't even want to do with a two-button mouse. Three is pretty much the way to do it.

[nagromme]

I was told by the guys at design school who were doing Maya that a one button mouse is not good for the 3D stuff
There ARE lots of good reasons to use a two+ button mouse, from 3D to gaming, to simply liking the shortcuts that it offers. I'm on a 4-button trackball at the moment... and yesterday I was using my one-button mouse by choice for UT 2004! (Only because the shape is more comfortable to me than my 5-button Intellimouse.)

People with those needs are one group of people, but there IS another group of people--and not a small one in my own circle--of people that prefer one button. They all understand two buttons, they all used two buttons before they had Macs. But they like one button. I do too--which is why I'm glad I have one in my arsenal. (Best protection from RSI: variation! Use several different devices.) I like my 5-button mouse too, and I'd buy one with more buttons in hearbeat! I'm one of the VERY rare people that doesn't take a religious stance on either side :)

(I do notice that one-button users NEVER tell multi-button users that they're wrong to like what they like. But multi-button users are not always so open-minded. To each their own--just make ALL options BTO is all I ask! Including having NO mouse with your PowerMac, so you can buy whatever shape and size you like.)


How good of a review is that if the guy didn't even figure out there was a physical click after like a week of using it?
I'm sure he knows... it's just badly written--and in EXACTLY the way that would mislead buyers. (And so is some of Apple's own info on Mighty Mouse, even after they downplayed the speaker.)

[combatcolin]

Does seem a very Japanease thing to have a short cable, polar opposite to the Microsoft decideing to give the xBox a bloody 3M cable.

Have you ever tried videogaming from that distance?, try it and then play up close.

See how much better you become by being closer to the screen.

[cberic3]

i came from the dark side about a year and a half ago always using a multi-button PC mouse.

I embraced the one button mouse with open arms and enjoy a more keyboard centric experience. Having one button has opened up a world of shortcuts on the keyboard i probably never would have used.

-Eric

[GodBless]

i came from the dark side about a year and a half ago always using a multi-button PC mouse.

I embraced the one button mouse with open arms and enjoy a more keyboard centric experience. Having one button has opened up a world of shortcuts on the keyboard i probably never would have used.

-EricThe same thing happened to me. But I would have still used a multi-button mouse if I bought a Mac desktop instead of a Mac laptop. Because of the laptop I relied on keyboard shortcuts more than the control key for contextual menus. I am happy now that I memorized almost all the Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts in the book. It even helped me when I had to use Windows. I wanted to learn the Windows keyboard shortcuts too (even though Windows shortcuts don't always make sense and are harder to memorize). About 2.5 years later I am more than happy I switched. :)