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Apple Releases Multi-Button "Mighty Mouse"
TheRaven64 writes "Hot on the heels of the announcement of x86 Macs, Apple announced a multi-button mouse, known as the Mighty Mouse. It appears that the entire surface is touch-sensitive, allowing the mouse to be programmed as a single-button, multi-button or scrolling device."
A zero button mouse from Apple! Truly less is more!
has frozen over and the devil has taken up hockey and ice fishing...
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
It's great that Apple finally came to their senses and created this mouse, but what I thought was really interesting is the fact that they allow you to still program it to use as a one button mouse. They're really holding onto their beliefs that people can only handle one button at a time with this thing. But, if they believe that people want the simplicity of a one button mouse, wouldn't they ship this thing out of the box with only one button functioning? Those people that want the simplicity of a one button mouse surely won't be the ones changing the settings to disable the other buttons. After all, that sounds awfully hard to do!
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Hey, wait a minute, what will the Apple trolls do? Won't somebody think of the trooooollls?
OK, seriously, I hope this finally ends all the lame "Yeah, but it only got a one-button mouse" idiocy whenever Apple hardware is discussed around here. You always could use a multi-button mouse with OS X. Now you can do it with a shiny new Apple mouse. Let's put these snipes to rest, k?
As gentle as it might be, the hand always recognizes the threshold of 'clicking' a button, but I find that it's practically impossible to tell if you've clicked a touch sensitive surface or not.
All of that, IMHO. I wouldn't go gaga over this mouse.
"And with touch-sensitive technology concealed under the seamless top shell, you get the programability of a four-button mouse in a single-button design. "
I'd rather have a Danger Mouse or two...
Maybe you could also start typing with your keyboard instead of your mouse? (Or alternately, buy a mouse with a built-in spellchecker.)
Fuck it
Not quite as good as tactile feedback, but definitely better than none.
Or do we have to wait 10 years for that? Maybe a few weeks after they switch to AMD CPUs?
A little math problem or wishful thinking? The mid eighties were 20 years ago.
Same rhetoric as it was for the x86 chips. x86 was terrible until Apple adopted it, right?
11 Buttons? Are you sure it's not just a really shitty keyboard?
Someday a real rain is gonna come...
I think we should take this one step further and just put an optical movement sensor on the bottom of the keyboard! Eat my 113 button mouse suckers!
;) )
(Yes I know this is a dumb idea, but at least you would have to take your hands off the keyboard
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
Now all they have to do is make the button-bar underneath the touchpad on the PowerBooks be touch sensitive to allow for multibutton there too.
I think the design will be ok for basic desktop work (not so sure I'm keen on the ball), but as a gamer I question it. When I click, I want tactile feedback that it's been registered. Also, anyone who's played with anything touch-sensitive knows that it's never quite as reactive as as a regular mouse.
I don't question that'll be fine for the average user, and I know the Macites will blast me with "get a gamer's mouse then" (I have one for my Mac), but anytime Apple leads the rest of the industry tends to follow. Hopefully Apple led well.
According to the pictures I'd seen so far it doesn't seem to have any buttons, or any markings for buttons, or where they might be.
I've got my flame-retardant jumpsuit close to hand just in case, but... this does seem like more style at the expense of actual usability. You have learn where the buttons are in the same way as Das Keyboard, but with this mouse you first have to realise that there *are* buttons.
Very stylish. Nil point for usability.
So the company that stayed with a one button mouse because "users might get confused" releases a multi-button mouse with built in track button and squeezable sides? Worse yet, the side action is programmable? Pretty ironic.
What's next, the Danger Mouse, where squeezes will randomly deliver electric shocks?
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I'm really surprised there's no bluetooth version available, any idea why not?
20 just didn't fit with the parody song :-P
I have the same Logitech mouse and I have to say that it is a very good mouse. Perhaps it's not quite as "elegant" as the Apple one (for some), but it's still good looking and fits your hand well. To the others that are saying "omfgz wtf do you need 11 buttons for lol!!1", it's not as many as you might think. Left click, right click, 3 for scroll wheel (up, down, click), 3 right above the thumb groove, a button forward of the scroll wheel that by default scrolls up rapidly when pushed/held, one rear of the scroll wheel that does the same, and one just rear of that that switches programs. Thats a total of 11, all programmable, system wide or application specific (in Windows although I'm guessing you could do the same in Linux with imwheel or xmodmap or something). By the same standards, the new Apple mouse has 8: Left click, right click, left side button, right side button, and 4 for the ball (at least).
So maybe you don't need all those buttons but it's not like they are in the way. They are still very useful to have to map things to (just like Apple is touting).
OH I get it, you're just Mac/Apple fanatics. When Logitech does it, it's a big monstrosity. When Apple does it, it's sleak, elegant, and advanced.
The reason is quite simple: it is for programmers to make their applications in such a way that you can access ANY features using a single mouse button. Nothing is to be hidden in only right-click-only accessable menus.
THAT is a big part of the Apple UI philosphy. And, that is a good thing IMHO.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
You click the mouse same as the old one, by pushing down on the whole mouse until it clicks - tactile. The mouse senses what side of the top your finger is on, giving you a left and right click. You can also click the scroll ball on top of the mouse for a third button - tactile. And you can squeeze the sides for a fourth button - tactile. All these are programmable, and the ball scrolls 360 degrees.
Mike from www.myallo.com/blog
That's only one key short of being a Hawaiian-language compatible keyboard!
My writeup for this article (submitted nearly 4 hours ago) was a bit more detailed so I might as well post it as a comment.
As if we needed yet another sign of the impending apocalypse, Apple announced today that they will be selling a multi-button mouse. The aptly-named "Mighty Mouse" features two top buttons (actually, one that's a touch sensitive panel to determine which side of the mouse has been clicked), a secondary button that is activated by squeezing the sides of the mouse, and a clickable, bidirectional scroll ball. It also contains a small speaker to give user feedback when clicking or scrolling. The mouse is programmable from the Mac OS X Mouse Control Panel and will retail for $49. It has not yet been bundled with any Macs and is not available as a build-to-order option. It is, however, PC compatible.
Why not a self recharging mouse?
How much kinetic energy is generated with all that moving around? Enough to power a mouse?
Reality has a liberal bias
Its always apeared that its the apple apologists, not Apple, who make the excuse that grandma can use one button more easily.
I think the real reason is design and style. Apple has focused more on how the computer looks than on how easy it is to use.
Apple's site says "Single buttons looks, multi-button charm". This suggests that the one button thing has more to do with *looks* and design, than functionality. There was the recent no-button mouse by Apple; pretty but a pain to use. There was the infamous iMac gimee-carpal-tunnel-hockey-puck that stylisticaly was a good match for the iMac but, this was definitely not designed for human hands (chimpanzes maybe?).
The statement from the site, "for the best of both form and function", suggests this is true (single button=pretty, multi-button=functional).
From the site, "Stick with single-button simplicity or click with multibutton efficiency." *suggests* that they've known all along that the single button is less efficient.
Clicking the "Design" link takes us to a page with the statement "Who has time for intuitive, elegant design when there is so much clicking to do", again suggesting that the primary driving force for the mouse has been form over function.
Then I ask myself, why I am contributing to any forum about the mac mouse, that will always sink to flaming hell.
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"The advantages of the single-button mosuse for the experienced user should be that it is faster"
Hmmm...
Faster = click and wait
Faster = control-key click
Slow = right click
How could I argue with that.
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
This receptacle would need to be refilled periodically, like a Hoover bag, but in reverse. However Apple could patent the formula and interface, so you only use "genuine Apple Mouse grime".
I see Upside Margin Potential!