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Apple Applies For Rotary Mouse Patent
Dregs of Tar writes "According to an article at The Mac Observer, Apple has applied for a patent on an interesting new mouse idea. A rotary disc on the surface of the mouse can be pushed straight down as a mouse button, tilted forward or back to scroll vertically, and tilted side to side for horizontal scrolling. In other words, it's a rotary scroll wheel! Could it be so? Could we soon see Apple-branded, multibutton, scrolling mice?"
I think WTF is the perfect one word description of this product. I thought it was a joke when i first saw it, apple needs to get with the times and join us in the world of 5 buttons
Cool. A mouse with a trackball on top of it.
I think someone should make a mouse with a keyboard on top of it. That way you can type without every taking your hand off the mouse.
From the people with a 1-button mouse, who then moved to a NO-button mouse, we now have a mouse with an extra 4+1 directional button?!?1
"I have a thumb button on my mouse that I programmed to be the ENTER key, and it's be hard for me now to do without."
You call that power usage? I've bound my thumb button to a macro that automatically creates a flame bait post for slashdot. Saves me hours of hard work every day!
That you had to lose your job at 9AM on a Sunday morning. You may think it's cold hearted, but myself and John decided that it would be best to give you a chance to hit the unemployment line on Monday morning. A fresh start, if you will. Don't worry, we cleaned out your desk and hired and trained your 22 year old replacement while you were on vacation. You, my fine feathered friend, are fired. And I'm going back to bed.
here
Looks like this will bring a tighter focus on mac gaming too, finally! All you PC-ers, prepare to get fragged!!
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
Speaking as an editor, if all of my clips start turning into dead people, I'm gone, FCP or no.
Would this system allow editing of video that *didn't* implicate you in a violent crime?
Internet navigation
Down and up could mapped to hop to the next and previous link on a page (like tab) and left/right could act as the back and forward buttons. That'd be kinda neat. Er, if I didn't use lynx.
Have you seen Trust's product lineup? A friend of mine bought this monstrosity from them the other day that had -- I kid you not -- the usual two buttons, two scrollwheels (one horizontal, one vertical; one was also a button), and another two buttons on the sides. That's a total of nine buttons, folks (counting the wheels as two buttons each). The Windows driver was about 60Mb.
It is a regular joke amongst our friends that it is only a matter of time before Trust made a mouse with a trackball on top of it, and that will be rapidly followed by a joystick mounted on top of a trackball atop a mouse. In the version 3, they'll add a four-way view switch button to the joystick and another half-dozen buttons to the bottom of the mouse. Version 4 will probably be wireless and integrate a toaster, oven and water cooler into the base of the charging cradle. You heard it here first.
You win again, gravity!
Hey, 1989 called... they want their browser back.
Ergo, the more buttons on your mouse, the faster the computer crashes.
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
You'd have to put two next to each other so you can coordinate the movements, but such a technique would allow you to scroll around a big screen quickly and accurately after a few minutes of practice.
/. nickname is quite fitting. :-)
You mean, like this?
Your
~Philly
> I work as a musician and producer and a one button mouse is a right pain when working on the Mac.
It's too bad that's there's no aftermarket suppliers of 2 or three button USB-based mice. Yup, just too bad...
Doesn't Mac know that everybody uses touch-tone now? These young wipper-snappers wouldn't know what to do with a rotary mouse.
We ARE talking about Apple users here. Better stick to the one button mouse or prepare for a flood of support calls asking about this "new-dangfangled" device.
It's a rotary dial, like on the iPOD, or those old telephones.
They should add redial to the mouse then, so I can click and redial instead of doubleclick. I'm a lazy person..
What? You want text to add to that glorious title?
Stupid lame filter.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
Could we soon see Apple-branded, multibutton, scrolling mice?
I'd be happy to just to see an Apple-branded, multibutton mouse.
</obapplemousecomment>
(yes, I know they're available, but all display-model Macs I've seen to date have at most one mouse button, and some hardly seem to have a button at all... in other words, refer to my
Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
...and read "Apple: Apple Apples"? Oh well...