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Apple Patents: Rotary Mouse

HA!

Originally posted by beatle888
absolutely disagree. the fingers were "designed" for lateral motion, though it is limited. also, apple isnt suggesting any lateral movemnet that wouldnt be natural. they are simply suggesting a continuos swirl. i think every male and female past a certain age is already well aware with this (from your perspective) tricky maneuver.
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LOL!!!

I pity the fool that aint well aware of this "tricky maneuver"!

From his history I think Jobs fully expects it...

Oh, man, that's funny...:D
 
In the Past. . .

Way back in the last 1980's, I worked on an HP system that had a "wheel". These were the 68K Based computers that they primarily sold for use with test equipment setups. They ran a funky HP OS, and you programmed with using "Rocky Mountian Basic" (because the BASIC as developed at the Colorado facility). This basic was rather GOOD for the time, could run in interpreted mode, or "compiled" mode. I actually wrote a "scheduler" to download mulitple test units.
Anyway, the keyboard (a very nice one to boot!) had a wheel flat on the keyboard, in the upper left corner (if memory serves me). Spinning the wheel was equivalent to scroll up/down. I think <SHIFT> and wheel movements were back and forth. You could do this with one hand, and was pretty efficient! It will be interesting to see how Apple plans to "re-invent" this.
 
Originally posted by buseman
I would like the scrollwheel to be vertical for the thumb. Scrolling sideways for the pointing finger is very unergonomic.
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Ugh! Please no! I really detest pointer devices that try to use the thumb too much.

As to scrolling horizontally with existing scroll wheels, I think that the point isn't that it's not possible, so much as that it's really counter-intuitive to scroll a wheel up and down in order to scroll a page left and right.
 
Re: one of the few things windows does better

Originally posted by billyb

Finally, I find that the control-click isn't as easy as people make it out to be (I use Macs all day at work). Sometimes you have to hold 'control' to get the special right-click. sometimes it's 'alt.' once i even had to use 'shift.' these are little gripes, but it's annoying to have to try 3 keys before finding the correct one--when all you want to do is find the right-click function.
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It seems to me that your issues with modifier keys are not an Apple problem, but a software make problem. Apple has been standardized on using Control-Click for contextual menus since MacOS 8. So, if a software company can't get their act together and produce a version of their product that is in accord with the HIG in the course of five+ years, then I think the blame lies with them, not with Apple.

Personally, I like multi-button mice...
 
Re: akin to a mini trackball

Originally posted by gandalf55
like a mini-trackball...

move forward, scrolls up... if you hold your finger there... its scrolls continously. same in reverse for down. side to side, angles, etc.

perfect for pshop, web pages, 3d apps, etc. !! no more needed to hit the space bar to get a grabber hand and then scroll around with the mouse pointer!!!!!!

i'd love this.
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Exactly.
 
Re: It's the pod's pea!

Originally posted by marklander
You guys are missing the potential of this brilliant design!

In this case, function follows form. Suddenly Apple has reinvented the human interface to the personal computer allowing the entire OS to evolve into a three-dimensional GUI. Imagine a file system that is interlinked in a virtual circle surrounding you--like the internet. Instead of browsing horizontally and vertically on a square mouse pad, one would navigate infinitely clockwise or counter clockwise. Wider screens would eventually give way to virtual room sensations--made possible by a three-dimensional GUI.

OS 3d will blow Longhorn away!
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OK, has anyone here seen Lawnmower Man?

"Floating, falling, flying....what's next, ****ing?"

Anyway, I don't know about rotating clockwise and counter-clockwise through your GUI, but I like this in the "tabbed interface" sense of things...

Anyway, am I the only one who sees this interacting with piles?

To all you folks who say they won't switch because of a one-button mouse: get over it and buy a two-button mouse.

To those of you who say the above to people who won't switch because of a one-button mouse: Apple should have been including one a long time ago.

To those of you who think Apple should have included one a long time ago: many PC users don't even know how to work their two-button mouse very well, one is easier to learn.

To those who think a one-button mouse is easier to learn, so it should be the default: I am really sick of having to hit CTL for my contextual menus and COMMAND for my spells in Diablo II.

To those who are tired of having to hit CTL for their contextual menus and COMMAND for their spells in Diablo II: why didn't you buy a damn multi-button mouse, you cheap-ass?

To those who are sick of reading this pointless post: hopefully we can all stop arguing about this. Looks like we're gonna get a two-button mouse, with a wheel, and it may, just may be worth bragging about.

Innovation and good looks are about all Apple's got going for it right now. Their first foray into multi-functional mice ought to and damn well better be a good one. Here's hoping it's as good as...uh, as we hope it will be.
 
Re: Mouse Wheel

Originally posted by stuepfnick
I would love to see a mouse with a small touchpad on it, for scrolling. So you can scroll vertically and horizantally, and all smooth, and not in such big steps! Especially, because Mac OS X doesn't interpolate the scrolling and is just bucking.

I hope the apple thing gets similar fine, or even better!

greetings,
Baboon
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Try out the StudioOptical from Kensington... it does have a trackpad like thing instead of a 'wheel' for scrolling.

In fact Kensington makes the best optical mouse in my opinion. Their DiamondEye technology is the best and their wireless tech is also the best... not to mention the serious superiority of their driver/pref pane.... the best.

I've tried the rest but I keep going back to the best, Kensington.
 
Re: one of the few things windows does better

Originally posted by billyb
I've been watching this site for a long time, thinking of switching to mac-land from windows. I've been wanting to switch for a while, but a few things have held me back. One is speed, which has been discussed elsewhere. But another is the input device. I use a MS Intellimouse that has 4 buttons and a scroll wheel, and use every digit on my hand except the pinky to control the computer. I've never figured out why Apple hasn't realized that we have multiple fingers and the mental capacity to control them separately. The note on how you might bump the scroll wheel while switching from one button to the other is hilarious to me--uh, you don't switch buttons. you have another finger. use it.
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There are many input device companies which make multi-button mouse devices with sufficient drivers for Mac, try one. I'm currently using the 5 button wireless optical MouseInABox from Kensington. Very suite..... every button is application specific programmable and the wireless and optical are the smoothest, seriously you don't know how nice an input device can be until you've tried one.

It's like the first time you tried an optical... no ball dragging you down... it's that much different.
 
UT2003 here we come

ahhhhh... finally i won't be forced to tuck tail and run when playing my pc friends in unreal. three cheers for the new mouse
 
Re: It's the pod's pea!

Originally posted by marklander
You guys are missing the potential of this brilliant design!

In this case, function follows form. Suddenly Apple has reinvented the human interface to the personal computer allowing the entire OS to evolve into a three-dimensional GUI. Imagine a file system that is interlinked in a virtual circle surrounding you--like the internet. Instead of browsing horizontally and vertically on a square mouse pad, one would navigate infinitely clockwise or counter clockwise. Wider screens would eventually give way to virtual room sensations--made possible by a three-dimensional GUI.

OS 3d will blow Longhorn away!
Click to expand...

They can make it like Quake... Browser around your filesystem and go through all the directories.

Shoot an item with one gun to open it, shoot it with another to move, and blow it up with a rocket launcher to delete it!

Wasn't there something like this where somebody altered the doom game so that you can run around, search for a process, and literally 'kill' it? It was a fun way to force quit those nasty programs that are always screwing up. Revenge is sweet!

Anyways, back on topic:

This idea for a mouse with a scroll wheel sounds like a good idea. If you don't like it, get another mouse...

Hopefully, if it does happen, Apple will find a way to make it cool and comfortable...
 
this sounds like it will be weird, just have to wait and see. from looking at my mouse it seemed like a scroll on the side of the mouse would be cool, but i am right handed, so it wouldnt work for a left hander.

iJon
 
Re: Prior Art

Originally posted by ajbrehm
Does the US patent office know the term "prior art"?
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They certainly do. Keep in mind that this is a published patent application, NOT a patent. These are the claims that Apple has asked for, not the claims that have been granted to them. Most likely the Patent Office has not even begun examination of this application, a process which depending on the backlogs could take several more years.
 
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