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Why wont Apple make a 2 button Mouse?

MacSA

MacSA

macrumors 68000
Original poster
.......Forget G5 Powerbooks, Apple need to concentrate on a 2 button mouse, the demand for one certainly seems to be there, so why won't they make one?
 
because one-button mouse is the apple way 😉 and, because they don't have a need to - there's plenty of 3rd party mice to choose from, if you really HAVE TO use, or CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT such thing.

there have been plenty of discussions why one-button mouse is better, and more specificly, why it's better for apple. do the search 😉
 
Apple is stubborn and Steve Jobbs wouldn't like to admit that the Windows way is actually better in this instance. Apple's comments that a one button mouse is simpler to use for computer newbies doesn't cut the mustard any more. (And how is ctrl-click more intuitive than right click??!) But there are loads of alternatives.
 
johnnyjibbs said:
Apple is stubborn and Steve Jobbs wouldn't like to admit that the Windows way is actually better in this instance. Apple's comments that a one button mouse is simpler to use for computer newbies doesn't cut the mustard any more. (And how is ctrl-click more intuitive than right click??!) But there are loads of alternatives.
Click to expand...

After I switched I decided to give the apple mouse a try, just for fun, I had a USB mouse ready from my old pc box and sold it after 6 months I was dealing with the 1 button mouse, I'm more a keyboard user and in case of hard image editing, my tablet wins hands down, that's at home, at work I don't do hard photoshop and the mouse is plenty ok, sometimes i used to miss the scroll wheel, Yes but as for safari, the main program I scroll, I found a fast way of surfing with the Keyboard... It's a matter of taste, but clicking with the apple mouse is plenty nice... 🙂 ... still have to try the logitech, because the new "Themouse BT" lookslike a broken apple mouse 😛

Edit: ctrl-click is pretty intuitive for a lot of people, specially for dummies calling tech-support...

Tech-support : just click on the icon...

User: Which click?

Those people are there everyday... We're from a minority of savvy computer users
 
I certainly doubt Apple would need to put much effort to make one. It's not like a 2-button mouse stumps their team... However it's not really needed. The only thing it's possibly needed for are games and/or high end apps. Honestly though... if you bought a Dell or Compaq or the like would you use the stock mouse that comes with the computer? Other companies accel in the mouse market. Leave it to them.

If you want more reasons just search the forums. It's been done to death.
 
Well Hell has already frozen over, so maybe something else will have to happen before we see an Apple 2 button mouse.
 
ThomasJefferson said:
Its an 80's thing.
Bet Steve still wears a members only jacket.
Black of course.
Click to expand...
Learn your history. Before the Lisa, mice and switch boxes has numerous controls. I have seen boxes with up to nine controllers on them. Apple's one-button mouse was a revolution. Two-button mice, three-button mice, scroll wheels are throwbacks to the 1970's.
 
I wonder how many people working at apple, from the developers to the accountants use the one button mouse. I'd guess a lot of them use a two button mouse.
 
MisterMe said:
Learn your history. Before the Lisa, mice and switch boxes has numerous controls. I have seen boxes with up to nine controllers on them. Apple's one-button mouse was a revolution. Two-button mice, three-button mice, scroll wheels are throwbacks to the 1970's.
Click to expand...

i think the scroll wheel on a mouse is a relatively new invention, no? (an M$ invention in the 90s, i believe...)
 
...for the very same reason MS won't make a decent OS.

Both Apple and MS knows that making these things would be good for them, but for reasons unknown to any living creature, they just won't ever do it.

Sure - Bill Gates might know why MS isnt going to make a good OS, but I do not qualify Satan as a living creature. Feeding off people's souls is much different than the regular respitory and cardiovascular processes involved in creating the basis of what I'd consider a "living" creature.
 
MisterMe said:
Learn your history. Before the Lisa, mice and switch boxes has numerous controls. I have seen boxes with up to nine controllers on them. Apple's one-button mouse was a revolution. Two-button mice, three-button mice, scroll wheels are throwbacks to the 1970's.
Click to expand...
Maybe you should learn your history.
The mouse was invented around 1963 and was a single button mouse. It was patented in 1970. It wasn't until later that the 2 and 3 button mice became popular.
 
Well i can't live without two buttons and a scrollwheel.
It takes longer time to learn to use a one button mouse.
I have had macs long before i used a two button w/scroll,
so i didn't come from the m$ world and felt that i was missing something.
I bought a Logitech 2b+scrollwheel for my beige g3 back in 1999, i used to game a bit then and that was the reason why i got it. It didn't take a long time before i found out that the scrollwheel made websurfing, and scrolling in general much faster. Later i got a Sawtooth with apples brand new puck mouse, and that was the worst mouse i've ever experienced, so i got a M$ explorer mouse for it (crappy mouse, didn't last more than little over a year..).

Well i'm a "two-button-scrollwheel-mosse-addict". 😀
 
I use a two-button mouse and scroll wheel on Windows because that's what I'm used to. I use the one-button mouse on the Mac because that's what I'm used to. Scroll wheels are nice, but I'm used to not having one on the Mac. Also, I don't need the contextual menus all that often, and I find Control-click to be much easier to explain to new users than the difference between right-click and left-click. Personally, I would rather NOT see a two button mouse from Apple - I say leave that to third parties, and put the necessary support in Mac OS X, like Apple has done.
 
grapes911 said:
Maybe you should learn your history.
The mouse was invented around 1963 and was a single button mouse. It was patented in 1970. It wasn't until later that the 2 and 3 button mice became popular.
Click to expand...
Engelbart's patent 3,541,541, filed 21 June 1967, is for a three-button device.

3541541-text.png


3541541-fig1.png
 
iMeowbot said:
Engelbart's patent 3,541,541, filed 21 June 1967, is for a three-button device.

3541541-text.png


3541541-fig1.png
Click to expand...

I'm sorry. I should have been clearer. The patent was for a multi-button mouse, but the first mouse was a one-button mouse:

The first computer mouse was invented in 1963-64 as part of an experiment to find better ways to "point and click" on a display screen. Due to space restrictions, the first mouse (see Figure 2) had only one button and was carved out of wood. An improved mouse eventually contained three buttons—an upgrade that was limited due to space required for the three microswitches.
Click to expand...
http://www.afrlhorizons.com/Briefs/Mar02/OSR0103.html
 
Yes, the very first first proof of concept unit had a single button, but all such devices built for actual use before Lisa used multiple buttons. If you watch Engelbart's very first public demonstration of the technology, the mouse has three buttons. The first production sytem using a mouse was the Xerox Alto (1972), and it used [edit: two initially, the third button was added when it went into production] buttons. The AT&T (Teletype) terminals had three-button mice as well. The Smalltalk system used three buttons.
 
johnnyjibbs said:
Apple's comments that a one button mouse is simpler to use for computer newbies doesn't cut the mustard any more. (And how is ctrl-click more intuitive than right click??!)
Click to expand...
It's not. But Apple, at least originally, put a lot of effort into trying to design their interfaces so that you wouldn't ever need to right-click or control-click, because everything you needed would be easily accessible. They've gotten away from that more than a bit in OS X...the Dock isn't half as useful without the right-click menus.

Still, as somebody who has brought old ladies their very first PCs, and as someone with two elderly parents that I provide tech support to, I can tell you that explaining the difference between a click and a right-click is more difficult than you'd think, so yes, the newbie argument does still hold water.
 
I love Apple and all of there products, but after buying my Powerbook I wanted a mouse to go with it and after using scroll wheels at school I liked the idea so I bought a 2 button with a scroll wheel and i couldn't be happier. I can't go back to the standard apple mouse with out feeling like something is missing. I hate to say it buy Apple really messed up with keeping with a 1 button mouse.
 
MacNut said:
I love Apple and all of there products, but after buying my Powerbook I wanted a mouse to go with it and after using scroll wheels at school I liked the idea so I bought a 2 button with a scroll wheel and i couldn't be happier. I can't go back to the standard apple mouse with out feeling like something is missing. I hate to say it buy Apple really messed up with keeping with a 1 button mouse.
Click to expand...
IMO, Apple keeps the 1 button mouse for computer newbies that don't understand the 2 button mouse and leaves it as your right to buy a third-party multi-button mouse if that's what you want. I think it should stay that way. Besides, you can find a two-button mouse that precisely suits you rather than being stuck with a two-button mouse provided by Apple that you absolutely hate.
 
If that is what Apple thinks that people can't understand 2 buttons than why is Microsoft so successful. People don't seem to have a problem using mice with windows, and if they do they seem to learn it really quick.
 
The only reason that Apple doesn't use 2 button mice is that they are ignorant and wont admit that they made a mistake.
 
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