The mouse Apple should've made or atleast made it an option.

[ITR 81]

http://www.macmice.com/images/front_main_480_blk.jpg

It's the Apple Mouse basically but has intergrated 2 buttons and a scroll wheel.

To find out more about the this optical USB mouse go to:

www.macmice.com

They say they will be at Macworld so if you go you can try them out for yourself.

Looks like a good product even though it's not made by Apple.

[smada]

theyre also planning to come out with a wireless version at macworld. if they do, im getting one. no questions.

[voicegy]

Only 1000 made, and only 400 left as of this writing, at 40 bucks each.

Well...if it were wireless....;)

[dukemeiser]

Has anyone used one of these, or know where they have a good review? I've never seen a review of one of these. They do look very good, if they were wireless.

[ITR 81]

Actually they just recently came out.
Their first mouse ad is in MacAddict's Jan 04' edition.

http://www.macmice.com/images/mouseltd_240_1.jpg

So far they are USB only but I bet if they prove popular we'll see a wireless ver. shortly.

They probably won't get reviewed until sometime after Macworld since they will have booth there as well so folks can play with them.

[Powerbook G5]

If it were wireless and had a blue light I would be all over one.

[sonofslim]

that's the first good-looking mac mouse alternative i've ever seen. wireless? bring it on.

[Powerbook G5]

The best looking Mac mouse I have ever seen has been the Kensington Studio Mouse, it is amazingly beautiful and unique, but unfortunately its wireless version uses RF instead of Bluetooth. :(

[iChan]

i like one buttoned mice.

[Kid Red]

Originally posted by iChan
i like one buttoned mice.

They still make those?

[iChan]

Originally posted by Kid Red
They still make those?

yes, are they're freakin' swell.

[Thirteenva]

Isn't that the store owned by the infamous jack campbell?

I've never personally dealt with this company but have heard enough bad things to make me stay far away. I personally wouldn't even consider ordering from there. But thats just me. You'll have to search around and form your own opinion.

[Hemingray]

Originally posted by iChan
yes, are they're freakin' swell.

Just out of curiosity, have you ever actually spent a long, and I mean extended, period of time with a multi-button mouse and scrollwheel in OS X? I would never, ever go back to a one-button mouse. There's too much functionality at stake.

[Powerbook G5]

Are there any good multi-button bluetooth optical mice out there for OS X? I just haven't found anything that seemed very impressive so far. I love the Kensington but it is RF and so is most of the Logitech stuff it seems. I've seen lots of Microsoft mice, but I've heard they are pretty choppy.

[1macker1]

Me too.
Originally posted by iChan
i like one buttoned mice.

[ITR 81]

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
The best looking Mac mouse I have ever seen has been the Kensington Studio Mouse, it is amazingly beautiful and unique, but unfortunately its wireless version uses RF instead of Bluetooth. :(

"Kensington Studio Mouse" is what I use as well and I recommend to everyone I know. I have the USB ver.

Well I the the macmice mouse can only go so far in copying the Apple mouse before Apple gets pissy. I'm sure us can hack it and put a Apple logo under it's shell and change the red leds to blue ones.

[iChan]

yes, i have use a two-buttoned mouse with scroll wheel, it was actually my GF's kensington studio Mouse... while I think the funtionality is good... I don't think it warrants to lesser aesthetic appeal of my Apple Bluetooth Mouse and powermate... I next to always have one hand on the keyboard for shortcuts and the like as well...

so... one for mouse, other for shortcuts and powermate. it's the way I work and it's so efficient...

[7on]

I like one-buttoned mice, but price is the main concern here. There is no way I'm spending $70 on a mouse (Apple's wireless mouse). If Macmice can make a $40 (or lower) BT mouse, then I might consider it.

[neoelectronaut]

In all honesty, for about 85% of my Mac use, I use my stock One-Button mouse. It's just that it looks so cool and is a neat feat of engineering. Otherwise, yeah, I use a logitech two-buttoned scroll wheel.

[iChan]

yeah, i think any other company that produces a wireless mouse and not use the built-in bluetooth available to all powerbooks will be shooting themselves in the foot...

[mms]

Two button mice are the best. Those contexual menus make everything easier and I can't live without a scroll wheel. Although I personally prefer trackballs, I would be willing to give it a try if it is as good as the Apple mouse in terms of tracking.

[King Cobra]

Originally posted by iChan
i like one buttoned mice.

Damn straight.

I don't like scroll wheels all that much. Too much finger work. (There are much better finger exercises than spinning a wheel. :p)

Plus, often, I click above or below the scroll bar to jump a whole page and skip areas of a page I don't want to read. So I don't need the scroll wheel.

Although I can see the beneficial functionality of a two button mouse (and I deal with those quite often at college, and I have at my H.S. fairly often as well...I know what they're like), I like the simplicity of one button. And, actually, if you think about it, you don't get things done too much faster with a second button. You still would have to use option-click or command-click for some Finder shortcuts, in which case a four button mouse would be sufficient.

(Oh, and I used to use a Kensington four button + trackball for about a year. That was HELL, since LITERALLY 5 to 10% of the time I clicked a button on that damn thing, the computer didn't respond. That s*** didn't happen with any other mouse as often, except maybe the MacAlly iBall bondi blue :mad:)

Even with a four button mouse for shortcuts, I think the "livable" factor depends not on how much functionality you devote to the mouse, but on how often you want to use strictly keyboard shortcuts.

For example, I want to delete a selected file from my desktop. (1) Drag to trash + (2) File menu > Empty Trash + (3) Confirm - takes about three seconds. There is also the likelyhood of misclicking. In contrast, (1) click + (2) command + delete + (3) option + command + shift + delete - takes about one second. There is less of a likelyhood of misclicking, since only one mouse operation, the click, is required.

Basically, the preference of a one or two button mouse comes down to the force of habit of how much someone knows/wants to use key commands. I wouldn't be surprised to meet a one button computer user, who relies on key commands more often than the two button mouse user.

[iChan]

misclicking is a problem, but there is much less likelyhood that you will press command+shift+delete by mistake... (that is the shortcut to empty trash)... I also turned off empty trash confirmation BECAUSE you'd never press that combination by mistake anyway.

[ksz]

The Great Mouse Debate is not going to end anytime soon and nor should it. It's a matter of how well the human interface device is adapted to a user, and how well the user adapts to the device. Computers are all-purpose machines which means they make possible a boundless set of use cases. Some use cases - and users - are better served by one button, other use cases are better served by different configurations.

Before the Context Menu was invented and widely adopted, there was little justification for the 2nd button. Before the popularity of the Internet (and more specifically the shift to reading magazine, newspaper, research, and other articles online), there was little need for the scroll wheel.

But when you're using a highly object oriented application or operating system, it is a natural and effective evolution of the human interface to support context menus directly. And when reading long articles or even browsing forums such as this one, it is again a natural extension of the human interface to support direct scrolling. Several of these are leisure activities where it's enjoyable to sit in a relaxed position, hold a cup of coffee in one hand, and read the online newspaper and whatever else with the mouse - without the inconvenience (and time) of having to maneuver the mouse pointer into up/down scrollbar icons or having to drag the thumb, both of which require you to take your eyes momentarily off the text you're reading to make sure the mouse pointer is properly situated.

Further, when there are scrollable text boxes embedded within other scrollable text boxes, or simply multiple scrollable document windows, it's more efficient to just drag the mouse into the view (anywhere in the view) and begin scrolling.

Things change quickly in the information age. It's a dynamic world and what is true and sensible one day can become outmoded and outdated the next. I find the 3-button scrollwheel mouse to be indispensible to the way I work. I lose nothing; if I want to use only one button, I have that choice. If I am working with a rich OO application or reading documents, I find the multi-button mouse is far better adapted to me. And that, after all, is what any human interface device is supposed to do -- to adapt to you.

Memorize and use keyboard shortcuts?? Two-key shortcuts are okay (CTRL-F for find, Command-C for copy, etc.). But three-key and four-key shortcuts (can you still call them shortcuts if they require 3 or 4 keys)?? That's like fingering the chords on a piano. And what are all those symbols for Shift, Option, and Command keys?? And what's the difference between Shift-Option-<X> and Command-Option-<X> and Command-<X> and Option-<X> and Command-Shift-Option-<X>?? Forget it. I will use the mouse, thank you.

[iChan]

you could have a five button mouse... but that mouse will only provide you with 5 functions... what i am trying to say is that, you will have to resort to shortcuts one way or another in the long run...

so instead of simply pressing apple-v to paste, your going to move your hand to the mouse, find the cursor, move up to edit, click, find paste in a contextual menu and click again, (or release hold if that is what you prefer). give me a break...

having a single button mouse is the easiest, most efficient way... having a second button is confusing for a new user and TBH, i don't see a big enough advantage in it for apple to change its tradition and years of user conditioning...

[Powerbook G5]

I can see the need for a second mouse button. Holding down a key while pushing down the mouse button is anything but intuitive and efficient. It would be one thing if there were simply a "menu button" that would call up any contextual menu, but there isn't, and that is why a second button would be ideal. Beyond that, I wouldn't care since I am a fan of keyboard shortcuts, but there is no way out of having to ctrl+click for a menu. I know there is an "action" button now, but having to mouse up to a GUI element is never going to be as efficient as an actual button.

[ksz]

Originally posted by iChan
you could have a five button mouse... but that mouse will only provide you with 5 functions... what i am trying to say is that, you will have to resort to shortcuts one way or another in the long run...

so instead of simply pressing apple-v to paste, your going to move your hand to the mouse, find the cursor, move up to edit, click, find paste in a contextual menu and click again, (or release hold if that is what you prefer). give me a break...

having a single button mouse is the easiest, most efficient way... having a second button is confusing for a new user and TBH, i don't see a big enough advantage in it for apple to change its tradition and years of user conditioning...
You should read my last paragraph again. Two-key shortcuts are okay and efficient, more so if they perform the same function in all applications (consistent behavior across applications). I would hate to learn that CTRL-F means Find in MS Word, but it means Format somewhere else or Font or File or an application-specific function.

I am not a proponent of bloated design. All I want is a three-button mouse with a scroll wheel. With the Microsoft USB Optical Explorer that I was using until recently replacing it with Belkin's BT mouse, I used the scrollwheel button to switch between applications (Command-Tab). A tremendous fit for those busy periods when I shuffle between apps. Logitech's 8-button mouse?? That's overkill and a little grotesque for me -- a mouse with too many appendages!

Having a single button is the most efficient and easy way for you. What makes sense today might not make sense tomorrow, even for you. As for Apple:

1. Look at the requirements for Shake...a 3-button mouse is required.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/71508/wo/Pe6P9JstbNWl21QQjOz1wtvG4ei/1.3.0.5.10

2. Bluetooth in Panther makes use of the right mouse button and scroll wheel. Apple might not (yet) provide the hardware, but its O/S fully supports it.

3. Expose supports additional mouse buttons, and may be the application that finally begins to convince Apple to change with the times.

[Mord]

in the words of some writer bloke:
"The only way i'd stop using a mac is if I die and you pry my single button mouse from my cold lifeless fingers"

it's just no the same with a doublle button mouse I generaly use the keybord for most things and I use the command line half the time.
plus drag and drop in osx is taken to a new level lets face it apple is never going to relese a two button mouse ever it would be like changeing the companys name to peach or tangerine it's just not apple

[ksz]

Well, that's the point. Human interface devices should adapt to the way an individual works. A one-button mouse works for some, but not for all. I don't care too much about this because I already have choices from third-party companies, but I do care that there's only patchy support for the third mouse button (through a vendor's own drivers).

Whether Apple makes their own multi-button mouse is no longer relevant to me. But I suspect Apple will. First a crack in the walls and then the dam will burst. Anyhow, never say never, and eternity is a very long time (but probably not longer than another 20-30 billion years when our universe succumbs to "entropy death" if current expansion theories are true).

[Powerbook G5]

I have been using the one button trackpad on my PowerBook since the day I switched in 1999, but mostly because I can never find a mouse that would warrant my switching to a two button. Now that BT is out and my new PowerBook has built in support, I am more than open, but I just have not found a good mouse yet. I don't understand why Bluetooth has such a limited adoption rate right now. Whenever I go to the store, the hardly seems to be any bluetooth mice, and if there are, they are limited to the PC world. I just wish there were less RF mice and more bluetooth because the point of wireless is that you don't have to plug anything in.

[ksz]

I think the Bluetooth concept and more importantly the Bluetooth vision is not being marketed well. Wireless mice and keyboards are already on the market (RF) as are IrDA (still remember that?) printers/PDAs. So why should someone be interested in Bluetooth and the higher expense of BT devices? If a consumer looks at Bluetooth products in isolation they will be confused.

Bluetooth is about changing the way peripherals interoperate within a work area. A computer is used in conjunction with one or more peripherals: a mouse, a keyboard, a printer, a PDA, a graphics tablet, a microphone, a speaker, a cellphone, etc. This set of devices constitutes a work area and is riddled with wires. Wouldn't it be nice if the work area of the future employed a secure, short-range standard wireless protocol allowing work area devices to interoperate, even to discover each other, without wires and without hassles? Future Bluetooth standards might raise the transfer speeds enough to also support (compressed) video (iSight). This level of convenience would justify the extra cost - initially, of course.

I think wireless networking was also met with some skepticism, but it did not last this long. I remember Apple's debut of AirPort which, I believe, was the first consumer application of 802.11b. At the introduction I remember thinking to myself...huh? I did not get it. At the time 100 Base-T was the dominant standard and Gigabit Ethernet was the future. But with 802.11b we were taking a step in the backwards direction, back to 11 Mbit. So I passed on it.

However, 18 months ago the talk about wireless networks was everywhere and I decided I would try it for myself. Wow! I was impressed. The speeds were more than acceptable and I could move freely around the house and in the back yard while surfing through my DSL connection. Soon everyone popped wireless cards into their laptops and desktops, and the home was fully networked.

We finally got it, but it was not because of any marketing or advertising I had come across. It was through word of mouth, particularly my peers.

Today, I'm the only one in my world who has Bluetooth. And I'm paying more for BT peripherals simply because I have bought into the vision of a work area where all peripherals interoperate through proximity sensors alone.

P.S. I am a BMW fan, so I was delighted to read that the new 5-Series offers Bluetooth connectivity for cell phones. A phone-specific cradle is still needed to connect to the car's microphone and audio systems, but the rest of the hands-free operation takes place through Bluetooth. For example, dialing a number or viewing the phonebook on the iDrive screen is handled via Bluetooth. I believe the cradle is only needed for analog sound I/O.

This is important because it's no longer necessary to buy the cellphone from BMW. Just BYOC -- bring your own cellphone.

[alset]

Can't compare to my Logitech.

Dan

[Powerbook G5]

I know that BT may be more expensive, but when you have a laptop, RF is completely redundant. I want a mouse that is completely wireless, not one that is wireless up to the point where you plug a massive receiver to the USB port. I don't need high speed with a mouse, just something that works so I could turn it on and use it. So far, every wireless mouse I've found for the Mac uses RF, so what is the point of even having BT built into my PowerBook if no one will develop the hardware for it? I was really impressed with the Kensington Studio Mouse and the Logitech MX700 and such, but I only seem to find these in RF which just won't cut it. I'd love to buy into a multi-button mouse, but I am not going to go in half assed, either, so until I find some compelling hardware answers out there, I don't think I'll ever be able to escape a single button existence.

[ksz]

Just give it little more time, say 3-6 months. It's not too much to ask for a 3-button scrollwheel BT mouse with full driver support in a compact form factor for $40 and no stinkin cradle. I don't even want rechargeable batteries.

The Belkin BT mouse works well for me right now. As I've said, the 3rd and 4th buttons are not compatible yet, but I still prefer something smaller.

[Powerbook G5]

I'd love something similar to the Studio mouse, just without the bulky dock thing and using BT instead of RF.

[ksz]

I was holding out for a BT version of the Kensington as well. I will drop by their booth at MacWorld San Fran. Just maybe there might be some surprises.

[scem0]

I couldn't stand to use any computer without a 2 button mouse. It makes the whole computing experience so much easier and convenient.

Im not pointing any fingers, but I think there are some mac enthusiasts who claim to love 1 button mice just because apple manufactures them. Im betting if apple started selling 2 button mice then it would be hard to find anyone at this forum who prefered a 1 button mouse.

scem0