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Apple vs. Microsoft Multi-Touch Mouse Comparison

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the touch-me-baby dept.

blee37 writes "This is a side-by-side comparison of the Apple and Microsoft multi-touch mice. It includes video demonstrations of using the mice in applications, first-person shooters and 3D manipulation. It also has new photos of the internals of all the mice."

11 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Touch screens and the like by sopssa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Problem with this, like with many other touch screen like devices, is that you don't get physical feedback when you're clicking or scrolling or doing anything. There's a reason why you actually need to push the mouse button a little bit so it clicks. Not much, but it actually feels like a click. Keyboard presses need to be the same way too - you need the feedback.

    Another example is the scroll in mouses. My Logitech MX Revolution mouse has both seamless and non-seamless mode that you can activate for different apps. Seamless mode was activated by default for IE and I had to take it off, because mouse scroll also needs to "tick" and feel back when you're scrolling. The Apple video shows that you can scroll faster by moving your finger rapidly - guess what, you can do that with a normal scroll too, just by rapidly firing the scroller to either direction (the logitech software actually releases the tick for a bit so it works even better)

    Other thing to consider is how quickly the touch area gets dirty and less functional. I sometimes like to eat a great three story cheese bacon hamburger filled with majonese, chipotle ketchup and delicious cheese with deep fried french fries, topped with a cold beer and chocolate ice cream with strawberries and chocolate dipping. Lets face it, the touch area is going to get dirty. Will it function the same way after that and can you clean it as easily?

    1. Re:Touch screens and the like by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A Philips screwdriver and 15 minutes of your life will suffice to clean the inside of your mouse too.

    2. Re:Touch screens and the like by PizzaAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      However that isn't the point. Let me try to explain this in the way of an analogy:

      Lets imagine you're in the middle of a epic World of Warcraft raid. You're starting to get hungry, but it's still fun. Your option is to either quit the game and go make food in the kitchen. Second option is to quickly skype for a pizza delivery guy to bring you a large pizza with some mountain dew. Like in GP's case, I think what you're going to do is obvious. 15 minutes later and you hear the doorbell ring and after a short while your mom walking down the stairs with your delicious large hawaiian pan pizza. While grabbing the first slice, an alliance guy jumps out of nowhere and starts hammering you with fireballs. That scares you so much that the pizza flies from your hands straight to your 30" LCD monitor. While trying to catch the pizza slice in air, you knock over the mountain dew bottle over your new multi-touch mouse.

      The point here being, new technology isn't always a good answer for everything.

    3. Re:Touch screens and the like by Anubis+IV · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You DO realize that all of those text message records (except for the blindfolded one) were done on traditional number pads before touchscreen virtual keyboards even existed on phones, right? As in, typing a "c" would mean pressing the 1 button three times, rather than just hitting the "c" button on the virtual keyboard. The records are completely irrelevant when talking about modern smart phones with full QWERTY keyboards.

      I'm not in love with my iPhone's keyboard (tactile feedback would be nice), nor am I particularly gifted at using it (I don't have a texting plan and send e-mails rarely), but I'd place myself around 25-30 wpm. With practice, I'd imagine I could easily pass 40wpm. I'm not going to suggest that most people can type as quickly with an iPhone as with a normal keyboard (I certainly don't), but the records you're waving around as a counter-argument to his claims are entirely irrelevant and deserve to be pointed out as such.

    4. Re:Touch screens and the like by Yamata+no+Orochi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the issue at hand here is the difference between inputting text "fairly well" such that you can write pithy tweets or whatnot and inputting text "really well" such that you can write novels, code, etc, etc without suffering serious hand fatigue after the first couple paragraphs or code blocks.

      That wasn't and is not the issue at hand at all. Jurily supposed that the fact that the guy said he didn't have any problems with his iPhone's touchscreen meant that he must "never input text." He was just being a smartass.

      I contend that trying to input text "really well" on something like a fucking cell phone with buttons on the fold out keyboard instead of a touchscreen is an exercise in asstardery.

      That said, no one was discussing replacing the keyboard with some sort of touch pad, we were talking about inputting text on an iPhone. There are no cellphone equivalents upon which you would comfortably write slabs of code or a novel.

  2. R&D vs. Actual Product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't think anyone is denying that Microsoft R&D can churn out some interesting concepts from time to time, but there's a big difference between shipping an actual product with most of the details worked out, and merely mocking up a few prototypes that are nowhere close to being ready for actual sale. I'd be curious to see what prototypes Apple came up with before shipping the Magic Mouse. That'd be a more interesting comparison.

  3. They're all gimmicks. by argent · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Which multi-touch mouse do you want the most? Or are they all gimmicks?

    Nice card-forcing there.

    I like Microsoft's basic wheel mouse on Windows and Mac, and HP's 3-button optical mouse on X11.

  4. joke ? by Tom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, seriously, they post crap like that on the Internet?

    This is a comparison of a finished product that is shipping today, against a number of prototypes, none of which you can buy anywhere and most of which you will never be able to buy. Most importantly, none of which are finished and ready for use. We're all living in the tech world. We've all seen at least a hundred videos of prototypes that we were really looking forward to - and the final product either never arrived or wasn't half as good as the demo had led us believe.

    Make a comparison when they're both shipping. Everything else is dumb, and creating false expectations.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  5. Lifting fingers... by amaupin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So with my current mouse I can rest my finger on the mouse button, and press down when I want to click.

    With these new mice, when I want to click I have to lift my finger up from the surface of the mouse and then press down (if the video in the article is indicative of how it functions). I think constantly lifting my finger would become tiring.

  6. "Tame improvement" by Nerdposeur · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From TFA:

    The Magic Mouse is a straightforward application of multi-touch to mousing and is a tame improvement compared with Microsoft's more radical designs.

    ...and by "tame" we mean "already living peacefully in people's houses." And by "radical" we mean "awesome in theory."

  7. Re:What??? by Sulphur · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Do you have to look at your mouse?