Re: wow one button mouse...
Originally posted by pfranzen
I find it really hard to believe that people defend the one button mouse. I mean the argument that 'there are ways areound it' is just weak. Another way around it is to buy a windows computer...
It's not so much that there are ways around it or anything of that ilk, but if you "computer literate" types like myself have ever taken a basic computers class, surrounding around "Macs" which I had the pleasure to (it was either take it for the easy grade, or pay $25 for a test, only to have to supplant the course with credit hour work at an additional cost... you tell me which is better? Easy A all the way) take, and actually help teach (yes, it was that low a level course I was on a par or more knowledgeable than the instructor) that I'm going to tell you a little secret.
For non literate types ::gasping::
Are you ready for this?!?
1-button mice are hard to use.
😕
HOLY SHNIKEYS!! ::gasping::
The more buttons you add, the more complexity. Watching a non-computer literate person do that which you or I think is "mundane" is like watching a neanderthal figure out what to do with a pencil. I had a guy next to me that I had to actually explain the mouse, the desktop metaphor, the process of clicking on icons, the whole 10-yards.
So in a nutshell, while it might pain some of you to use a single button mouse and control-click, and for those that evolve... having a multibutton option (much like my Kensington Orbit trackball) is a Godsend. For novice users that use eMacs, especially with young kids in education where the machine is most prominent, or with consumers that struggle with the complexity of a 2-button mouse or aren't used to it or don't want the added button... having the single button mouse is a better option.
I just upgraded my father to a 4-button Kensington optical mouse. It's a great mouse, but I had to alter the buttons to simulate his usage of the old ADB beige single button mouse. So yes... right and left click do the same thing, the scroll wheel works like any scroll wheel, and the two outer blue buttons work as right-click. He still struggles with the right-click deal and "NEVER" has had much need to use it, but it just makes the point clearer. An "OPTION" is good for all (low-cost upgrade), but Apple doing away with the single button mouse is a bad idea IMHO for those that think they should dump it for the reasons mentioned above.
I personally will upgrade to a 2-button mouse with scroll wheel. I prefer it and am adept enough to use it, plus I like the right-click contextual menu functionality, as well as the scrollwheel scrolling in applications and web-browsing.
So I'm for Apple to continue on with 1-button mice, because I understand "WHY" they are good.
Yet I'm also for Apple to lose the ridiculous "PRO" nomenclature for a simple one-button mouse and basic keyboard in favor of a two-button mouse with some sort of scroll apparatus (maybe something like Kensington's or a simple wheel), as well as a keyboard with media key functionality (and perhaps a split layout, with a curvature like the Kinesis keyboard, with a usable number pad), and perhaps an iPod-like scroll wheel (could place it between the banks of keys on a split keyboard, with the same media keys as the new iPod; without the illumination; although illuminated keys would be cool too). It might add some heft... but let the end-user choose the Apple Keyboard or Apple Media Keyboard, as well as the Apple Mouse or Apple Pro Mouse. Let them mix and match based on their needs, and have them available to all models on a BTO plan.
I'd even like a wireless RF or Bluetooth keyboard version... although I'd probably take a wired mouse unless they have a recharging station with theirs. Having to have a pesky mouse that goes through AA batteries like candy is not my idea of evolution in the proper sense. LoL Wireless keyboard (without illumination of course) would be practical... wireless mouse that's optical (LED constantly lit) along with transmitting some signal to a receiver is bound to chew some juice. Thanks, but no thanks without a recharging base station (which the iPod now has... so it's not out of the ordinary).
