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Apple Phasing Out Magic Mouse in Favor of Magic Trackpad?

daveathall said:
Why? I ask this question because I don't know the answer, what is the advantage?
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1. it doesnt stop working because the batteries are down (**** where are my replacement batteries?)
2. no incidental delays and more precision (at least for the mouse, but i assume this would also be the case for the trackpad)
3. more friendly to the environment (no batteries involved)
 
igorleandro said:
Along came the Magic Mouse. Up to Snow Leopard, it suffers from the same sluggish pointer movement, being fixed in Lion. However, as it still uses two AA batteries, it is way too heavy and clumsy, I still vote that they do need to make these with AAA batteries. Who cares if you need to change it more often?
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<raises hand> I do. The batteries already have to be changed once a week, switching to AAAs would mean they'd barely last a day. That's PATHETIC.

I support an office with 60 or so wireless pointing devices and a handful fewer wireless keyboards. The three users with Magic Mice need replacement batteries 10 times as often as the other 57 users combined.
 
Good, that itty, bitty mouse is useless anyway. Unless they decide to upgrade it and make it usable for people that don't have small children hands.
 
I may be a minority, but I think the mouse is only good for playing Quake III.

For everyday use, I'd much prefer moving my fingers instead of my forearm.
I'd much prefer gestures, and I'd much prefer not having to lose a portion of my desk to the mouse.

I don't get people who use a mouse with notebooks, either: WTF, you have a trackpad right under your fingers, why moving your hands away from the keyboard to fiddle with that primitive device from the 70s?

But, to each his own.

EDIT: Of course, tap-click is the root of all evil. I'll take a 1980s Amiga mouse over a tap-click-trackpad anytime.
 
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absynth said:
1. it doesnt stop working because the batteries are down (**** where are my replacement batteries?)
2. no incidental delays and more precision (at least for the mouse, but i assume this would also be the case for the trackpad)
3. more friendly to the environment (no batteries involved)
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Must admit, I'm not convinced that that is a good argument if the answer is to do with batteries, (The mac gives a warning well before they are about to run flat) number 2 isn't really relevant, but thank you for your answer all the same.
 
I know I need to get w/ the times, but damn, I NEED tactile feedback for some reason. I'm stuck using a mouse w/ buttons that click for the foreseeable future.
 
Of course this is abject heresy, but I have to admit to mostly using a Microsoft Wheel Mouse USB/PS2 Compatible optical mouse for probably the last 6 years on my main Mac Pro. It has been incredibly reliable, traveled all over the U.S. with me.

I do not own a wireless mouse nor do I understand the purpose of owning one really. And while I'm comfortable using a track pad, I don't feel I should be forced to make such a change against my will. Same with Steve Jobs decisions on getting rid of DVD Superdrives and Blu-Ray. People should have options, not restrictions.

I once had a dream that I had a wireless mouse in bed with me and was controlling this huge wall sized display from across the room and could get up and touch it to make changes the mouse or trackpad couldn't do. Then I woke up and realized CNN's late night election results were still on. :D

I do own an Apple clear/white optical mouse, but it is significantly less functional than the Microsoft mouse, which by the way was designed to be Mac compatible. I know, burn me at the stake now but I like it better.

But back to my main point...

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OR ADVANTAGE OF A WIRELESS MOUSE?
I just don't get it.
 
HyperZboy said:
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OR ADVANTAGE OF A WIRELESS MOUSE?
I just don't get it.
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Sure, let me list the purpose/advantages for you:

  1. It doesn't have a cable (i.e. wireless)

The tangled mess of a regular PC is such a beautiful sight, isn't it?
 
ricardobeat said:
Sure, let me list the purpose/advantages for you:

  1. It doesn't have a cable (i.e. wireless)

The tangled mess of a regular PC is such a beautiful sight, isn't it?
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First, this has nothing to do with PCs. PCs have more wireless options than Macs ever will. Second, do you really want to go into this old "form over function" argument? I thought the idea of using a computer was to look at the screen not at the mouse.
 
ricardobeat said:
The tangled mess of a regular PC is such a beautiful sight, isn't it?
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If you add a USB Bluetooth adapter, you can use a wireless (Bluetooth) mouse with a PC. Same for most wireless mice that come with their own USB receivers.

But I do get your point (You'd have to buy a separate Bluetooth adapter; PCs, AFAIK, don't come with Bluetooth on-board)

EDIT: lilo777 beat me to it.
 
TMRaven said:
I like the magic mouse way too much. :( Hopefully they will have a new and improved magic mouse successor, and not just the pad.
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The Jobs has spoken.

As with physical restore media...as (presumably) with optical media...so sayeth the Jobs, "and unto the flock, be they eternally purified in its light, the Magic Mouse be of little faith, thus to the ashes and dust from whence it was born."

steve_lives-2.jpg



Anyway, my iMac came with both a Magic Trackpad and a Magic Mouse, for some reason. I use them both interchangeably because I sit on my couch with my iMac. The Trackpad doesn't click on the couch, the Magic Mouse does. The Magic Mouse doesn't track on my glass coffee table, the Trackpad does. So I'm forced to use them both, at least for now, until I decide to buy new furniture, which is pending a job offer in a different state.

The Magic Mouse has its limits. So does the trackpad. I know at work I do use my mouse - a Microsoft mouse - more than the trackpad, simply because it's easier to navigate with.
 
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utahnguy said:
To automatically draw the conclusion that Apple would be phasing out the mouse completely because stock seems constrained is ridiculous. It would be a far more logical assumption that they're making an "upgraded" or all new design.

Phasing the mouse out.. Please. What is Cult Of Mac smoking?


[EDIT: I just remembered reading in some other blog that Microsoft is about to release their own strikingly familiar "Touch Mouse". From Microsoft's site:

"Featuring natural gestures, Microsoft® Touch Mouse is the most fluid way to navigate Windows®"

And..

"A superior multi-touch mouse for Windows. Microsoft Touch Mouse makes navigating Windows 7 a breeze. Discover how its elegant design quickly handles everyday on-screen actions like scrolling, minimizing/maximizing, and docking with easy-to-learn finger gestures."

Image

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Apple decided to revamp their own Magic Mouse to remind everyone who the real king of "touch" really is.]
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*removed*
 
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Who cares?
Logitech, etc. mice are far better anyway.... and if you want the scroll & gesture experience have a trackpad near you...
 
Obi-Wan Kubrick said:
I do a lot of work with AutoCAD and I prefer to use both a trackball and mouse together. I find it easy to zoom in and out with the mouse wheel and pan around the drawings. While I use the trackball for the rest.
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Same here, I had a go of my CAD drawings using the MacBook pro track pad, zooming in and out was truly awful compared to the wheel of a mouse.

I could never do work on CAD using a track pad.
 
BlueHedgehog said:
If you add a USB Bluetooth adapter, you can use a wireless (Bluetooth) mouse with a PC. Same for most wireless mice that come with their own USB receivers.

But I do get your point (You'd have to buy a separate Bluetooth adapter; PCs, AFAIK, don't come with Bluetooth on-board)

EDIT: lilo777 beat me to it.
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My 2004/5 Dell did.
 
revelated said:
The Trackpad doesn't click on the couch, the Magic Mouse does.
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Set "tap to click" in the preferences and you never actually "click" the Trackpad ever again. Two finger tap brings up contextual menu. 3 finger drag to drag windows around. None of these actually "click" anything.
 
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