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Apple Files Patent For Display Mouse

Posted by timothy on from the mickey-caught-flashing dept.

astrodoom writes "AppleInsider has posted a story detailing a new patent application by Apple that hints at the possibility of adding a touchscreen to the company's magic mouse. At a basic level this could mean things like customizable colors or artwork displayed on the user's mouse, but the possibilities extend much further to fully customizable mouse layouts and program controls. Apple Insider comments on the possibilities: 'The display on the mouse would change according to what the user may be doing on their Mac. As an example, the application describes displaying a number of icons for quickly selectable options when a user is running Apple's Pages word processing application. Switching over to the spreadsheet software, Numbers would reconfigure the buttons on the screen to allow for commands in that respective application.'"

16 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Ick by catbutt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Terrible ergonomics. Your hand will block the view when using the mouse as it's meant to be used, and so see it you have to take your eyes off the screen. Seems like a bad idea to me.

    1. Re:Ick by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

      You are holding it wrong.

      -S. Jobs

    2. Re:Ick by CheerfulMacFanboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Terrible ergonomics. Your hand will block the view when using the mouse as it's meant to be used, and so see it you have to take your eyes off the screen. Seems like a bad idea to me.

      Me too. Context-sensitivity can be carried to an extreme. This sounds more like yet another Apple fashion statement than anything particularly practical.

      Actually, it sounds like just about all Apple patent stories on Slashdot: something that riles up the haters and isn't ever used in a product from Apple.

      --
      Fandroids hate facts.
    3. Re:Ick by nomadic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, with Apple's terrible track record at UI this will probably bea complete disaster....

      How's their track record on mice, though?

    4. Re:Ick by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 2

      As far as I'm concerned, all is forgiven with the release of the Magic Mouse.

      --
      http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  2. Re:Aren't there already products like this? by Amorymeltzer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe, but I haven't heard of one. Keyboards, yes, peripherals, yes, but mouse? I think the generally held wisdom is that your would fingers get in the way.

    --
    I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
  3. Re:Aren't there already products like this? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

    I don't know of any implementation of a a mouse + touchscreen specifically; but keyboards with LCDs for dynamic reconfiguration are shipping products, wacom digitizer tablet screens are shipping products, mice with dynamic settings(sensitivity, scroll speed, etc.) indicated by LEDs on the mouse are shipping products, and the general notion that a touchscreen can present a reconfigurable set of buttons is basically the foundation of the contemporary smartphone industry.

    Novel product? As best I can tell. Patent worthy? Srlsy?

  4. Who uses Apple's crap devices anyway? by Stormwatch · · Score: 2

    I love Apple's OS, I love their computers' style, but they have not produced a decent input device since they introduced the iMac. If I got an iMac right now, I'd put the keyboard and mouse aside, and get some quality stuff by companies like Unicomp, Cherry, Steelseries, Razer, or Logitech.

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
    1. Re:Who uses Apple's crap devices anyway? by Y-Crate · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think you haven't given their keyboards a chance. As far as I'm concerned, the Apple keyboard is the best keyboard on the market. My typing speed increased by ten words per minute after I got used to it. They do take a while to get used to because the flat keytops don't center your fingers for you like concave keys do, but I think that in the long term this leads to more accurate typing.

      Their mice, on the other hand, are terrible.

      A million times this.

      The current Apple keyboard looks like it would be a throwback to the shitty keyboards of the early '80s. I avoided using one for years, preferring loud, clicky keyboards that inherited the legacy of the Type M. Then I got a Macbook and had no choice in the matter. Turns out I was wrong all this time.

      The flat Apple keyboard is the best I've ever used, and I can't explain why. It does do wonders for your typing speed, and doesn't lead to wrist strain as easily as more traditional keyboards. I've got major arthritis thanks to a bad injury, and it doesn't get aggrivated as easily as it once did.

      The only drawback is that Apple refuses to produce a wireless keyboard with a number pad. Thankfully, those of us who want to stick with wired models don't have to deal with that nonsense.

      And yes, Apple's mice suck. Badly.

  5. Re:Aren't there already products like this? by GNUALMAFUERTE · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/26/loginoki-the-lcd-mouse-mod/

    --
    WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
  6. Link to PDF containing figures (images) by PatPending · · Score: 3, Informative

    The link in TFS is to the "full text" provided by the USPTO--"full text" does not include any figures (images)--to see the figures via the USPTO, a suitable browser plug-in for viewing TIFF is required. If that's not for you, this link (PDF) includes the figures.

    --
    What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
  7. Cool: mouse-display recursion! by Kaz+Kylheku · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They should put a little USB port on this display mouse, where you can plug in another mouse, to control a little pointer on host mouse's display, as an alternative to using it as a touch screen.

  8. Who the hell looks at their mouse that often? by Pezbian · · Score: 2

    This is like hunt and peck for your mouse. Memory and touch is the rule with typing and you still have those home row locator bits on the top of the keys to let you know where you are. I don't see any locators on a shiny Apple mouse. "It would ruin the look."

    --
    In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
  9. Re:Aren't there already products like this? by jcr · · Score: 2

    I don't see why it would have to be very expensive. The display you'd put in a mouse wouldn't have to be anything like the kind of display you put on an iPhone. Unit cost could easily be under $10 in the kind of quantities that Apple buys. As for wearing out, I have yet to have any Apple mouse die on me, and the oldest one I've got is an ADB mouse from 1996 or so.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  10. Do mice really wear anymore? by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    My many year old Logitech works just fine, in fact I don't know of a single optical mouse dying amongst all my friends that use them.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  11. Yo Dawg by AxeMurder · · Score: 2

    They should put a little USB port on this display mouse, where you can plug in another mouse, to control a little pointer on host mouse's display, as an alternative to using it as a touch screen.

    Yo dawg, I heard yo' liked scrollin' so I got yo' mouse a mouse so now yo' can scroll, while yo' scroll.