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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?"
Ok, let's just read that article one more time: It describes a mouse with a DISC, not a TRACKBALL. Also, I can't see any hint of the disc serving as a second mouse button in the patent description. This being Apple, that disc thingy will probably be the only control-element on the mouse. One thing that the article itself seemed a bit confused about, was whether the disc was ROTARY (i.e. something you rotate, as on an old telephone) or just a kind of cross-button with 5 directions (horizontal, veritcal, and down).
Jesus christ. How many times do I read this.
Go out and buy any one of a hundred multi-button USB mice and plug it into a Mac. The scrollwheel and contextual-menu buttons are supported out-of-the-box in OS X in all apps. Just because Apple don't ship a multi-button mouse does not mean that Apple don't support them.
Also, the round mice went out a long long time ago. Apple ship very nice optical mice with all Macs now. They also have a "no-button" design - rocking the mouse forward slightly clicks the mouse button. This is a very ergonomic design and means that you can use your whole hand to click, which reduces tendon strain substantially and makes the mice much better suited to anyone who suffers from RSI.
If you want to dislike Macs, pick a legitimate reason. If I had a dime for every person who says "I don't like Macs because x" and hasn't actually ever walked into an Apple store...