Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Phasing Out Magic Mouse in Favor of Magic Trackpad?

Change is coming

I threw my Magic Mouse across the room and smashed it on the wall. Worse Apple product ever made!

Trackpad is almost there but a little uncomfortable IMHO.

My prediction is that both the keyboard and the mouse will be replaced with one large touchpad with sofrware driven keyboard and gesturing similar to iPad. It will take getting used to but we will eventually never type on keys again.
 
ArcaneDevice said:
Not using an Apple mouse it doesn't. I haven't used an Apple mouse in ten years. Not enough buttons.

And when I'm not using a mouse I'm using Wacom so no loss for me if they discontinue the mouse. Apple only want consumers so the trackpad will be perfect for them. Anyone who values productivity dumped the Apple mice years ago.
Click to expand...

That's irrelevant. Nobody uses Apple mice. But Apple still has to offer mice, if they are going to offer input. If they are removing mice and replacing it with magic trackpad, that's like saying you don't need mice anymore, this is better. They either remove all input and make people buy 3rd party, this includes keyboard as well, or they keep offering input, and then they have to keep offering mice.

Consumers are also better off with a mice most of the time as well. Navigating on OS X with a trackpad is always harder than navigating with a mouse even for the average consumer. Don't forget consumers play games as well in which trackpads are useless.
 
I've never liked Apple's mice either. The only thing I'd use a mouse for is gaming, and many games kinda require two physical mouse buttons, rather than the virtualized ones that Apple has been including on their mice ever since the Mighty Mouse. Can't fire both weapons with akimbo P90s if you can't use right and left click simultaneously. ;)
 
Having just bought a trackpad for my Mac Pro...

I REALLY hope the Magic Mouse doesn't go anywhere.

There are somethings that a trackpad just isn't as nice to use.

Precision work, for example.

So much so I might actually sell my Magic Trackpad.

I'm undecided if it's worth £50 over the magic mouse.
 
Can't see them removing mouse completely. As others have stated, hopefully an update - aka - a better Magic Mouse!?
 
I've read through quite a few of the posts in this thread and I'm thinking that many people who say the trackpad sucks have never actually used one?
 
e-coli said:
I predict a run on mouses. Try working in Photoshop or Illustrator with a trackpad. Ouf. Horrible.
Click to expand...

You should really be using a Wacom tablet in that case. A mouse isn't much better, it's like trying to paint with a brick. :p
 
please don't be true

:(

My magic trackpad is sitting here barely used. I much prefer mice and so do my arthritic wrists. I need the control of a mouse. I'm old school as far computers.

I'm fine with touch screens but not trackpads.

I'll repeat myself, I hope by the time I'm done with university I WON'T need a computer and just be able to do everything on an iPad, including taking classes online.
 
highlight a group of cells

I have yet to figure out how to highlight a group of cells, in Excel, effectively using a trackpad. A mouse does this so effortlessly.
 
Trackpad is not as precise as the Mouse. I have both and the Trackpad is a hassle sometimes. There is some arm movement in mouse use, which is absent from Trackpad. So, the trackpad relies on finger and wrist and it's going to lead to problems for many.
 
iBug2 said:
But Apple still has to offer mice, if they are going to offer input.
Click to expand...

No they don't. There's plenty of 3rd party vendors out there. They don't have to offer floppy drives either or even optical drives, so long as 3rd parties are there and Apple builds the OS support or DDKs, there is nothing stopping them from dropping some Apple branded hardware devices and let users rely on 3rd parties.

Apple doesn't offer tablets either, yet tablets are very well supported on OS X, ask anyone with a Wacom.

skinnylegs said:
I've read through quite a few of the posts in this thread and I'm thinking that many people who say the trackpad sucks have never actually used one?
Click to expand...

For the 2 years I played WoW, I did so exclusively on a cheapo Dell trackpad of all things, never touched a mouse. Yet I was in a raiding guild, even did some main tanking for a while there. Never had any issues. Not even all games require mice.
 
MacRumors said:
We find this rumor difficult to believe unless Apple is planning to introduce a new mouse capable of registering the more advanced gestures found in Lion, as significant numbers of users strongly prefer mice to trackpads for their input needs.
Click to expand...
I think you're underestimating Apple's arrogance there. Apple have never been shy of pushing what they think their customers should want rather than what they actually want.
 
iBug2 said:
That's irrelevant. Nobody uses Apple mice. But Apple still has to offer mice, if they are going to offer input. If they are removing mice and replacing it with magic trackpad, that's like saying you don't need mice anymore, this is better. They either remove all input and make people buy 3rd party, this includes keyboard as well, or they keep offering input, and then they have to keep offering mice.

Consumers are also better off with a mice most of the time as well. Navigating on OS X with a trackpad is always harder than navigating with a mouse even for the average consumer. Don't forget consumers play games as well in which trackpads are useless.
Click to expand...

Yup, just like how they ship the iPad with a mouse.

If we're going to spout reasons why Apple can't do something lets at least stick to the realm of reasons that Apple might actually care about.
 
I don't even used a mouse or a trackpad on my desktop... my Wacom tablet is my sole device for moving the cursor.
 
love them both

I have the trackpad for my mac mini in my office... and now that i upgraded to lion, i'm really getting good use out of it.

however my iMac in my house has the magic mouse, and i really enjoy using it too. when i fart around in photoshop, it is a lot easier to use it with a mouse over a trackpad.

**Plus my old parents have a mac too with the magic mouse, i couldn't really see my mother getting the hang of a trackpad (even though she has had a laptop before)
 
I use both the Magic Mouse, a Microsoft mouse, and a Logitech mouse in the course of a day (3 diff boxes). I'll take the Magic every time by a wide margin.
Not really interested in the trackpad.

And the Mac extended keyboard is outstanding, too. I've used a bunch of Win-Mac boards in the last 15 years, no comparison. Very short keystroke distance, rapid response, quiet, rigid (no bounce/bending), nice to look at too. Would be better if the keys stayed cleaner, but that's about the only failing.

Best input combo IMO. Strafe away if you want.
 
Denarius said:
I think you're underestimating Apple's arrogance there. Apple have never been shy of pushing what they think their customers should want rather than what they actually want.
Click to expand...

I don't know who negged rep you, you're right, even if you did put it in an incendiary way. It's not that Apple pushes what they think customers should want, it's they push what they want to. White Macbook not jiving with their vision of the future of laptops ? Axed. XServe "not selling" ? Axed. Track pad gestures now a big feature and both magic devices competing ? Axe the magic mouse.

Makes sense to Apple. We can't force them to make and carry a product they don't want to. As long as they leave 3rd parties enabled to provide these devices we need (like optical drives or other hardware), there really I have no issue with Apple dropping their own Apple branded ones.

It's when they block options that it becomes a pain.
 
Not a bad idea. I am using my trackpad for most of my computing needs, and have a cheap logitech mouse for when I want to play starcraft. I think given a choice, most people would swap their apple mice for trackpads anyways, so may as well. :p
 
iBug2 said:
This doesn't really seem plausible at all. There's no way Apple will go mouse free, especially since the biggest market for desktop macs involves drawing on a daily basis.
Click to expand...

I think you will find that the biggest market for desktop macs is Facebook. Same goes for Mac laptops.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

A more likely scenario is that they are gearing up to deliver the next magic mouse, perhaps the one with a more interactive shell that can display information that they patented and have been talking about for the last year or so... I highly doubt they will only offer the trackpad
 
bpaluzzi said:
To everyone that's complaining about accuracy with it. Are you using your pointer finger to click? (Either pressing down on the pad until it clicks, doing a soft tap, or moving to the bottom corner?)

Try using your thumb to click. It's how I use my laptop and magic track pad, and it's brilliant. It takes a little bit of time to get the muscle memory worked out, but now it's second nature. With a laptop, it's especially nice because you don't need to move your right hand -- just pivot it on the "heel" of the hand, so that your thumb is closest to your chest and the finger tips are pointing to the left. Four fingers available for clicking + dragging, as much precision as a mouse (since you're not combining your clicking + navigating digits). Use the two finger tap for a right click, and you're set to go.
Click to expand...

Quoting for emphasis. Most people don't understand that trackpads are easier to use if you use them like trackballs (i.e. use your fingers to move the cursor and use the thumb to click). Maybe it is due to Apple's trackpads lacking a visible button (since the whole trackpad is a movable button).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back