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What if Apple killed the mouse!?

jonjamesm

jonjamesm

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 4, 2008
143
0
I've just been thinking - forgive me if someone else has thought of this - but what if apple decide to do away with the mouse entirly, replacing it with a multi touch pad intead.

reasons for a portable pad enabling the user to manipulate and gesture objects on a desktop in the same fasion as they can on a macbook.

They could still have wired and wireless

The possibilities for presentations are pretty cool.

you could lean back in your comfy chair and gesture and swipe your way through emails on your big cinema display

Its the exact type of innovation apple looks for.

They are obviously going down a multi touch / TED tech road without going near touch screen.




not to mention - It Would be FREAKIN SWEET




I think this is a pretty likely candidate for apples future technology.

Imagine being the company to kill the mouse with a new age of computer interaction.

They've allready killed phone keys, i think the bbury storm proved that soon every phone will be touch based.


Merry Christmas
 
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Despite what tallest would have you believe, we have no clue when it'll happen or if. I personally like the MacBook's trackpad more than mice, but there are certain things that the mouse just can't won't be replaced for, such as gaming. Atleast not soon.
 
ZiggyPastorius said:
Despite what tallest would have you believe, we have no clue when it'll happen or if. I personally like the MacBook's trackpad more than mice, but there are certain things that the mouse just can't won't be replaced for, such as gaming. Atleast not soon.
Click to expand...

I agree. I do believe that the mouse won't be around forever, but I think it will be a while.
 
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themoonisdown09 said:
ZiggyPastorius said:
Despite what tallest would have you believe, we have no clue when it'll happen or if. I personally like the MacBook's trackpad more than mice, but there are certain things that the mouse just can't won't be replaced for, such as gaming. Atleast not soon.
Click to expand...

I agree. I do believe that the mouse won't be around forever, but I think it will be a while.
Click to expand...

And I don't think a trackpad will be what kills it. If they had that kind of power, they'd've been researched way more a long time ago.
 
I would love to see a redesigned apple keyboard with a multitouch trackpad below the spacebar -- pretty much like a MacBook. Imagine not having to move your arm to move the cursor on screen. I can see something like this coming out soon.
 
The mouse will probably still be there as an option.
And chances are that if the trackpad was also an external accessory it would be more expensive than the current Mighty Mouse.
Also, what about us PC users who use an Apple Might Mouse with their PC?

BTW, I'm not using a PC by choice, I despise them.
 
Macs have never really been for gaming anyways, I'm sure they wouldn't take that much of a hit in sales solely on the reason that you wont be able to game.

I can't do things as precisely on a trackpad than a mouse, that might be because I've used a mouse for so much longer but still. I think there would have to be some significant improvements to touch technology before it becomes a serious contender.

Personally I think touchscreens are the future, not trackpads. They are a lot more precise and seem more functional. I'd rather Apple made the mouse obsolete with a touchscreen Mac rather than a Macbook trackpad.
 
ZiggyPastorius said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

Despite what tallest would have you believe, we have no clue when it'll happen or if. I personally like the MacBook's trackpad more than mice, but there are certain things that the mouse just can't won't be replaced for, such as gaming. Atleast not soon.
Click to expand...

Very true. While I can definitely see a trackpad replacing the mouse for many purposes, in which multi touch gestures certainly prove more efficent than left and right clicking on a mouse (or even using the ball click and side buttons on the mighty mouse), utilizing a mouse for certain purposes will undoubtedly continue to prove more efficient than if they were to be carried out on a trackpad. Examples: Precise design/editing work, gaming, etc.
 
Stebus said:
Macs have never really been for gaming anyways, I'm sure they wouldn't take that much of a hit in sales solely on the reason that you wont be able to game.

I can't do things as precisely on a trackpad than a mouse, that might be because I've used a mouse for so much longer but still. I think there would have to be some significant improvements to touch technology before it becomes a serious contender.

Personally I think touchscreens are the future, not trackpads. They are a lot more precise and seem more functional. I'd rather Apple made the mouse obsolete with a touchscreen Mac rather than a Macbook trackpad.
Click to expand...

False. The Mac Pro isn't a capabale gaming device? Just because, traditionally, many gamers use PCs, if you look around a good number use Mac Pros and even less powerful Macs
 
slieu92 said:
thank jobs, cuz they make the ********* mouses ever.
Click to expand...

Right.. Because a Mighty Mouse is worse than your typical Windows standard mouse. I'd like to see you support that argument with any credible evidence.
 
Kevster89 said:
False. The Mac Pro isn't a capabale gaming device? Just because, traditionally, many gamers use PCs, if you look around a good number use Mac Pros and even less powerful Macs
Click to expand...

You'd seriously buy a Mac Pro for gaming? Most gamers aren't cashed up as you apparently. If you look around a good number of people don't use macs for gaming at all, or only minimally. That's exactly why Apple don't target that market.
 
slieu92 said:
thank jobs, cuz they make the ********* mouses ever.
Click to expand...

Kevster89 said:
Right.. Because a Mighty Mouse is worse than your typical Windows standard mouse. I'd like to see you support that argument with any credible evidence.
Click to expand...

i agree with slieu92. mice is not apple's strength. all you have to do really is look at their past mice

hockey puck: big time fail
pill mouse: big time fail
mighty mouse: going the right direction but still not very good

the MM sucks imo from using it. had to go back to a pc mouse which by the ways is loads better
 
The point of the original post was more to introduce the idea of a Multi touch / new interface for Mac users... not to start another MM flame war.

I just think it would be extreamly "apple" of apple to say F*** you to the mouse in favour of a new tech, especially now. And afterall the mouse is what, 25 years old now?

Apple would'nt have developed Multi touch if they didnt want to investigate using it... and I'm not just talking about a portable trackpad as we know it - Multi touch is just a baby - I'm sure it will have a huge depth of development in terms of how we use it with programs - but someone has to take the first step and develop a hardware to do so!

I'd love it if they brought it out at macworld - i'd like to see it be backwards compatable on my whitebook.

I'd also like to see it be the next iPhone of mice, in terms of every company cloning it.

And I'd love to see microsoft shi*t they're pants when half the world are looking like Tom Cruise in Minority Report and the other half are wishing they were Tom Cruise in Minority Report.

I'm off to have my first Christmas beer - aww yeah!

Have a good one!


EDIT: Oh and I don't think that we'll ever have Touchscreens that people like. Simply for finger prints - but if this portible track pad had a slick visual interface, that would be neat! BTW I'm talking about something along the lines of a a5 sheet of paper in mind -

How do you guys imagin this as a concept - I'd love to see someone render it up.
 
Stebus said:
You'd seriously buy a Mac Pro for gaming? Most gamers aren't cashed up as you apparently. If you look around a good number of people don't use macs for gaming at all, or only minimally. That's exactly why Apple don't target that market.
Click to expand...

Who are you to represent the majority of Mac consumer? I for one, play game on mac.

Even if apple does someday abandon the mouse entirely, i do believe the mouse will and still remain as an optional device.
 
28monkeys said:
Who are you to represent the majority of Mac consumer? I for one, play game on mac.

Even if apple does someday abandon the mouse entirely, i do believe the mouse will and still remain as an optional device.
Click to expand...

I agree the mouse will be around for a while - untill its about as redundant as sitting at a computer desk is. Which to my understanding should be a while...

Regardless I think the mouse pointer will always be there - I'm not talking about a new GUI for mac

but maybe this device could bring a new age of game interaction - You remember how TED interacted with the Earth/ map environment that could be brought into warcraft / god games.

Games ultimatley would help make this product a success - well that or porn. But I don't like the idea of multitouch interactive porno. :confused:
 
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