Will Apple ever design a decent mouse

[danielruiz]

First off don't flame me I love Apple and I think there is no doubt that their designers are usually 3 steps ahead of everyone else. But they seem to have a blind spot when it comes to making mice.
I just bought a new tower and once again I will be replacing the mouse (I have a drawer full of them). Optical tracking great idea if the bottom was smooth but its not so every tiny bit of dust send the pointer flying in the wrong direction. The mouse before that shaped like a hockey puck enough said and all Apples mice going back to the first have one button. Anyone who says that one button is easier than two is just fooling themselves. Hell the people that invented the mouse Xerox Park had three buttons on theirs. Rumor is that Apple is now working on a wireless mouse, cool but I'd rather have a 2 button optical mouse (that isn't a dust collector) with a scroll wheel.

 

[agoldweber]

funny you bring this up cos I've been steaming about this for the last few days--I'm especially focused on the lack of a wheel mouse.

I'm about to buy a tower as well and the mouse I have lined up--one of the best for the money--is the MICROSOFT optical! eek!

you know things are grim when a dedicated Apple customer looks to the big ugly for help.

 

[AlphaTech]

MacAlly and Logitech make sweet mice for the Mac (both optical and three button). Don't give microshaft any of your money. The Macally one has one control panel item under OS 9.x and nothing under OS X (it just works with all buttons). I am using one right now on my TiBook under OS X and can click with both buttons and use the wheel to scroll about.

 

[Buggy]

I love the ergonomics of the optical mouse. Clean and simple as one can get. Plus it is beautiful (though that shouldn't matter.)

I have used three button Mice and became quite used to them. (Autocad'ng), But I have no aversion to using a one button mouse. I always have one hand on a keyboard for shortcuts anyways so the other buttons do not give me that much advantage, plus in may opinion it is just simpler.

My one complaint. The wires in the mouse fray and eventual break. We have had 2 of our 7 optical mice go in 1.5 years (always just after the warrenty expires )

cheers

 

[Mr. Anderson]

On the other post
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php3?threadid=3641

there's been a lot of discussion, but not many people using Apple mice. It seems that if this is the trend, Apple should see the way the wind is blowing and get away from the 'elegance' of a one button mice and make what people actually want to use.

 

[iGav]

They have......

It's called the Pro Mouse and it's truely superb........

I love the Pro mouse and would never consider any other mouse....... I've only just recently realised that you can adjust the click pressure aswell!! I don't read instructions that often, so was quite amazed by this....

I love the way it fits my hand, and that the entire casing acts as a mouse button..... and I have absolutely now problem with using my left hand to to key combos......

I would like to see a scroll function added to the mouse..... if they did this though... I'd expect from a company as innovative as Apple not to use a wheel......(how retro!! LOL) I like the idea of sensors underneath the casing that detects a scroll movement from a finger...... now that would be amazing!!

Anyone that is buying a tower, and has no intention of using the Pro mouse, please feel free to send it to me...... I'll give it a good home!!!

 

[Geert]

I think that the pro-mouse is freakin' cool!
But must agree that 2 buttons on it would be even better.
I think a couple of weeks ago there was a thread on a OSX compatible mouse that you could left/right-click just by rocking to either side. That would be a great feature on future pro-mice.

Further more: how future pro-mice should be designed!
Wireless of course, but without those freakin' batteries. How you might say?

OK, ok here's what I had in mind:
First of all we will need the light spectrum to do the tracking, so our mac sends an IR or equivalent beam (must be invisible of course imagine wearing sunglasses when mac-cing ) to our mouse, the mouse mirrors this to your desk, built in card generates all tracking info, and somehow uses the IR or equivalent to send this newly aquired info back to our mac. I think that the solar panel technology will add this cool feature, right?
second way is to use the bluetooth, but that will need some power/batteries I guess

If this was to be really invented, think about how your future desk would look like with wireless soundsticks, iSub, scanner, printer, keyboard

 

[teabgs]

some programs require multiple buttons. like animation software and cad. why not have a mouse by apple for users that need the buttons?

I dont want to get a 3rd party mouse, but I will so I can use Maya when I get my new tower. I wouldnt know what to do with myself if I didnt have 3 buttons for maya...

 

[eyelikeart]

I'm still not sold on the 2-button mouse...

I prefer to have 1-button....I can do anything I need to with it....

and the Pro Mouse gets lots of criticism...but I still love it....esp. at night with it's red glow....he he he

 

[rEd Eye]

All I can say on the one button mouse thing is......
C'mon Apple,get real!
1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-1xlick-....................Eeech!

 

[iGav]

teabags

I thought with Maya and other programs you can program the keyboard for specific functions??

Although I completely agree with you about Apple offering a mouse with more than one button, I think the choice should atleast be available to people that desire it.... atleast there is no excuse than to use a Microsoft mouse then!!

Eww......

For my needs one button is all I need, my left hand is fine press alt, option whatever I want........ I'm capable of multi-tasking you see!!!

Although... I'd like to try an Apple 2 button mouse, just to see if it'd improve my workload and productivity!!!

 

[teabgs]

Re: teabags

Originally posted by iGAV
I thought with Maya and other programs you can program the keyboard for specific functions??

Well yes you can. BUT, there are so many tasks that are already assigned to keystrokes. Also, things like zooming and moving the window around are done by holding down ALT and Using one or more of the buttons. ie Zoom in/out ALT+1st and 2nd buttons.