Slashdot Mirror
Review Of The New Apple Mouse
Noctrnl writes: "Just caught this review of the new Apple optical mouse over at CNN. Looks like Microsoft may finally have some competition for the optical IntelliMouse."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
I have a feeling scroll wheels, even though they supposedly are more ergonomic than mice without them, are just as likely to cause RSIs than regular mice.
:P
I'm using one right now, and I can feel the knuckle of my index finger and the muscles on that side of the hand moving every time I use the wheel.
In fact, once you start paying attention to the feeling, it becomes rather uncomfortable.
Try, people, to understand that computer companies, for the most part, do things as simply as they can. If you understand the more complex stuff and want a more complex mouse, get one by all means. Don't expect that everybody in the world needs a 3-button optical wheel mouse, or trackball, or whatever it is you own, and certainly don't expect the company to force your mindset on other people.
And as for being one button being misguided, sheesh, the OS is designed to work just great with one mouse button and can accept as many as you want.
Windows is designed with two buttons in mind, and that makes it nearly impossible to do tasks like getting properties without a two button mouse.
X-Windows is designed with 3.... do you see where I'm going? Different OSes have different minimal mousing requirements. Apple's OS needs only 1. If _you_ need more to function on the Mac OS, by all means, buy one.
Hrm, this scroll wheel hurts now
First off, I own a MS 5-button. I love it. It's great for what I want. However, when someone says to a new user, click, the user only has a 1/5 chance of getting it right. That's why Apple has 1 mouse button--to make it easier for a user. In fact, the OS is designed so that novice users only ever need 1 button. All I have to say, is that 1 button on the new mouse is perfect. The mouse is so smooth (both physically and operationally), and it looks absolutely goregous. If you want to see something cool, turn the lights off when you're using it. Furthermore, to give you an idea about Apple's attention to detail, on the bottom ring, where you set the clicker's tension, there's a magnifying glass right on the ring so that you can easily see what tension you're using. Wow! Even owning my M$ mouse, as soon as I saw this thing, I knew I wanted one. It's absolutely goregous, and really delievers the type of design only Apple seems able to create nowadays.
I recently attended a lecture on software engineering by one of the developers of Microsoft Office, and he mentioned that a significant number of users that they had polled for research didn't even *know* that there was a second mouse button on their PC mouse. I can't for the life of me remember the exact percentage, but it was pretty significant... something like 30-40%. If that's true (and it's an accurate measurement), then IMO Apple's one-button approach isn't a bad idea.
magic chef
well, it's not like the surface of the mouse is touch sensitive or something. it's just a big hinged button. you tilt the top of the mouse, and it presses the switch down. one switch==one button. the rumors of the mouse registering various tilts as different clicks didn't pan out - and i'm not sure how it would be done, unless the hinge were a ball joint or something...
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
The article frequently mentioned that mouse pads would be a thing of the past if users all switched to optical mice. While it's true that optical mice can work on a variety of surfaces, I don't think that the mousepad industry will be shutting its doors any time soon.
I bought an Intellimouse w/Intellieye earlier this month, and proudly set it on my desk without a mousepad. The response was decent, but I switched back to a mouse pad for one reason: comfort. The pad is soft, which minimizes the physical feedback I get from pushing it around. It also provides some traction: I don't want the mouse slipping around all over the place. Lastly, a lot of people have custom mouse pads that have everything from calculators to picture frames built in. It'll really be a vanity thing, IMO.
Mouse pads aren't going away. Not only do they provide ergonomic advantages as detailed above, but there are probably many people out there whose desks just aren't suited for optical mouse technology.
For more information, click here.
This is slightly off topic but I rant whenever I get the chance. WHY ARE LEFT HANDED PEOPLE BEING NEGLECTED !!!!!
I tried once to get an ergonomically correct left haded mouse. aparantly it doesnt' exist and for teh few comapnies that make one I have to pay more money. I have also used those sun mice with the grid pad and it is impossibel to use. I have to cross my eyes and turn the pad upside down for it to work I cant' take it. one of my greatest deleits in life is watching a right handed person try to use my computer.
Okay, I use a Sparc10 a lot, and calling that disaster of a mouse a breakthrough is an insult to, uh, lots and lots of stuff. viz.
1. It requires a special pad. If you lose the pad you have a serious problem. If you damage the pad you have a serious problem. If the pad is not big enough you have no other option. If you want a picture of whatever on your pad you're out of luck.
2. If you rotate the pad 45 degrees or more, the mouse fails to work. I find it absolutely amazing that a company like Sun that makes such hot-ass stuff would ship a mouse that fails to work if the pad is rotated. Of course, Sun, in their infinite wisdom, failed to put any grip stuff on the bottom of said pad just to ensure that I get a nice break every 15 min. to re-align my mouse pad.
3. Who here hasn't had to walk over to a rack-mount with a keyboard and bring a binder for a mid-air mousepad? Does Sun make binders for their optical mice?
4. The mouse itself is shaped like a paperback. Very ergonomic... if you're a robot.
5. The buttons are a half centimeter wide. Is Sun getting kickbacks from the Very Narrow Button Company?
If the Sun optical mouse is a "technological breakthrough" then I'm hooking up with the unabomber...
2 1337 4 u!
The mouse is also a breakthrough in technological design.
Ummm...how? I used my first optical mouse in...1993. Apple will be the first company to bundle an optical mouse with all its desktop systems.
Nope. Sun was selling optical mice with the SparcStations LONG ago.
--
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
1. context menus were invented because an unnamed operating system (well, windows if you must know) designed a UI that would give you a theoretically unlimited number of menu bars. Gee, which Edit menu do I want? This one? This one? hm. The contextual menu is a hack to make up for lack of planning at msft.
2. Uh, if you hold down the control key while clicking you get the contextual menu in the macOS. It's there as a total sop to winders users, but it's there.
3. Hot keys are fun. Use 'em I say. On the mac, your hot keys are consistent across all apps so they're actually usable. In the winders world, quit can be ctrl-x, ctrl-q or even (get this) alt-F4. Add this to the fact that close-the-only-window and quit-the-app are the same thing and that close has probably a half dozen different keys and... well you'd be using contexutal menus too if your UI was so badly crippled that keyboard was only good for text input.
spending five minutes aligning the cursor
I hope this is hyperbole.
2 1337 4 u!
Background: At the computer labs in the school I went to, they kept a tight hold on those mice. You had to give them your ID, and they returned it when you returned the mouse. Apparently they had a rash of thefts. To which I say, they ARE nifty toys ;-) Oh, and the help desk people used to come to me for any Sun questions. What the hell made them think I knew anything?!!?? Of course I did, but that's irrelevant.
me: this mouse you gave me doesn't work.
"help" desk: did you try cleaning it?
me: I wiped it off, yeah, and I wiped off the mouse pad. still nothing.
hd: did you clean the ball?
me: there is no mouse ball.
hd: well, that's the problem then. it needs a ball.
me: no it doesn't. it's optical.
hd: where did you get that?
me: from you. less than a minute ago.
hd: oh, it must be broke.
me: okay then. Can I have a new one?
hd: no.
me: why not?!?!
hd: you broke it.
me: I didn't have a CHANCE to break it. I just got it.
hd: then why didn't the person before you say it was broken?
me: Because they broke it
hd: I don't believe you.
me: Fine. You don't have to. Just give me my id back.
hd: I can't do that.
me:(growling) and why not?
hd: Because you broke it.
repeat this for another 15 minutes or so. sigh.
Bad things often happen to good people,
It is up to them to see that they remain good.
People are saying that the mouse is horrible for gaming, since there's only one mouse button and no wheel.
I'll say the near-opposite. The fact that there's no wheel follow's Apple's classic strategy -- simplicity.
Does no one hate Microsoft for making the mouse as complex as it is now? I know that when I go to my friend's house and he has a Logitech 4-button mouse I just can't immediately figure out how to use it.
One button is simple. It's cool.
Erm, anyone got a nice flat mousepad sized black hole?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
I don't know if there's any sort of flaw in the IntelliEye technology (which I understand Apple licensed from Msft), but I have horrible problems with my IntelliMouse Explorer. The left mouse button 'clicks' when I don't press it, and frequently double clicks when I do. It also has occasional problems detecting movement on the black keyboard extender surface on which I rest it. I hope Apple's doesn't have these same difficulties. On the other hand, I love the two buttons on the left side. I use them as substitutes for the forward and back buttons of the browser. A one-button mouse like Apple's would seem way too limiting after having this feature. In fact, when I use a normal two-button mouse I frequently find myself squeezing the left side, trying to press these nonexistent buttons. It's surprising how quickly you can get accustomed to using them.
Double-clicking in a properly-designed GUI is done when activating one or more elements from a list. Single-clicking selects, double-clicking "does more".
Whoa there, Tex. Let's take a moment for a reality check. A user interface is a mode of communication, and in the case of GUI's, it's a largely gestural mode of communication.
Germans (and I presume other Europeans) seem to like counting beginning with the thumb; Americans begin with the index finger. Some tribes in Papua-New Guinea indicate tens by placing their fingers on the opposite forearm. Schoolchildren trained in finger math reckon ones on the right hand and tens on the left. Some Chinese speak Mandarin, but many people in Borneo speak Malay, while the bulk of Peru's rural population speaks Quechua in utter disregard to the peculiar dialect of Spanish spoken in the urban centers.
It may be that endless flamewars are fought over which of these modes is "better", but those people are just as silly as those who debate about the correct number of buttons on a friggin' mouse and how many times you have to click to select a paragraph.
The simple fact is that it's all arbitrarily learned behavior and, within reasonable limits, any initial learning curve is irrelevant in the face of the bizarrely crotchety resistance to any deviation that develops in people once they've learned one convention. It's the same instinct that has spawned wars over languages and custom since the dawn of time, but reduced to the level of infinitesimal trivia.
Frankly, I don't give a rat's patootie for the [1|2|3] button mouse debate; I want an affordable version of one of those twenty-button pucks that comes on high-end digitizer tablets so I can do some real work with my mouse, but I'm not suggesting anyone else do likewise 'less you feel like it. If, for some reason, you feel compelled to let other people dictate the details of your life for you, forget mice and 1) take public transportation, 2) recycle more, and 3) refrain from buying products with excess packaging, or 4) anything else that actually matters.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Apple and Microsoft aren't the only ones. Logitech is shipping their padless optical mouse. It looks to be a nice mix of design: Two buttons and a scroll wheel, but not as bulky as the IntelliMouse.
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
As for serial mice, where exactly are Mac users going to plug those in?
For those who really HAVE to have more buttons, Apple have conveniently put 101(ish) of them on a big flat thing nearby. With the aid of some rubber bands and a rollerskate, you can easily have a 102 button mouse that's about as well thought out as your argument.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
OK, I can understand Apple only having one button, as misguided as it is. But why not include a wheel? I can't imagine living without a scroll wheel, and that would not add more confusion.
Probably the usual Apple Not-Invented-Here syndrome.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
I'm getting quite tired of this "Sun had optical mice back in the early fourteenth century" thread.
The Sun optical mouse (which I've used since 1990) is NOTHING like the new "optical" (actually CCD camera) mice.
The Sun optical mouse contains an LED which shines onto a reflective, gridded mouse pad, and is detected by a simple light detector. This means that you have to use the (slippery, glass-like) mouse pad, and you have to move the mouse in the same coordinates as the mouse pad (since the mouse pad itself is gridded). I tend to move my mouse in a slightly diagonal (top left to bottom right) motion, and it's annoying that I can't just slightly change the orientation of the mouse--I have to move the whole pad.
The new Microsoft (and presumably Apple) mice use CCD cameras, which means that they don't require some easily-cracked-or-dented, hard-to-replace mouse pad.
The bigger problem is probably that we use the term "optical mouse" for both mouse systems, when they really don't have that much in common.
Double-clicking in a properly-designed GUI is done when activating one or more elements from a list. Single-clicking selects, double-clicking "does more". A list can be a sequence of textual icons, a window full of icons, or any other grouping. The interesting thing is how quickly newbies (at least those who haven't been previously scared by Windows) pick up on that mechanism whether or not it's explained to them, because it's designed to mesh with the whole concept of icons and lists - and with the one button mouse. The only overloading of double clicking on the Mac is the behaviour in text strings, where one click selects a point, two clicks selects a word, and three selects an entire line, but this doesn't seem to cause confusion (perhaps because selecting text is fairly modal in the minds of users).
One assumes your criticism here is supposed to be directed at Apple's one-button mouse used with the system and OS it's bundled with, but making an argument that one button isn't enough (or double clicks are evil) based on the Windows implementation is pointless. Get a little broader exposure before you go on your next rant.
-- Life is short. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. ~ Robert Doisneau