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?"

Comments

Re:Trackball

[Oculus Habent]

Except that a trackball is not a disc. The words rotary disc, as well as the picture on the article, bring to mid the "wheel" on the iPod. Integrating the single spinning disc with four buttons (Up, Down, Left, Right) and the ability to spin it, I assume.

More important to me than the four buttons is the rotary disc itself. The thumb wheel on the iPod makes for ridiculously easy scrolling through lists, long and small, with both fine control and super speed. That same ability on the desktop would be quite nice for:

• Navigating folders
• Any lists
• Video editing
• Brightness & Contrast settings

Pretty much any place a simple, unlimited movement with variable speed control is useful. In short, all over the place.

I think a disc would be much more convenient than a scroll wheel. While the wheel consumes less surface space on the mouse, the limited range of motion of your finger makes scrolling long distances with it painful. However, I can trace circles on a surface with my finger with much less effort.