Pundit Decries Unnecessary Complexity of Apple's Multibutton Mighty Mouse
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- 2005.08.04
Faithful readers of this column may know that I was the Last Online Mac Pundit to publicly advocate for a one-button mouse. I wrote several articles about it, as a matter of fact, until just recently, when I officially gave up the ghost and became the Last Online Mac Pundit to Surrender and Declare His Support for the Two Button Mouse.
For example, see Two-Fingered Trackpad Scrolling Could Give Apple an Excuse to Build a Two-Button Mouse, where I say, "They wouldn't be surrendering their design principles; they'd be using them to promote a better, simpler, more functional mouse with fewer moving parts than anything else on the market."
I had no idea I had such influence in Cupertino!
I feel kind of like Jon Stewart did when he interviewed Colin Powell. Stewart asked Powell whether or not "W" knew of the Daily Show"
- Stewart: "Does he know I exist?"
- Powell: "No, Jon."
- Stewart: [expletive]!
I'd like to ask someone at Apple if Jobs knows I exist, just to be able to do a Shaternesque "Noooooooo!" when the answer turns out to be no.
Anyway, this little missive is
about mice, right, and the scroll ball, touch sensitive two buttons
that aren't two buttons, and the pistol-grip pressure sensitive
switches.
As is the case with all pundits, when we finally get what we want we have to point out all the flaws in it. That's just what we do (it's in the job description). Not that I actually have the new mouse to play with, but I'd certainly write a more cogent review if one of them came across my door (hint, hint).
Okay, so here goes: How easy is it to clean crap out of the scroll ball compartment? It doesn't look like it would be easily removable.
Next: How sensitive are the pressure switches? Are you going to be setting them off all the time?
Also: Is there a wireless version?
Finally: How long (or short) is the cord? Apple used to ship these ludicrously short cords with the old Blue & White G3 towers.
Now that I've considered all of that, let me be the first (and probably only) advocate on the Web to recommend that Apple switch back to the old one-button mouse.
Well designed software shouldn't need extra buttons, right? Maybe Apple should reconsider....
Sorry folks, it's an ugly job, but someone's gotta do it.
Recent Lite Sides
- What if Apple thought like a PC company?, 11.01. Apple has innovated and blazed its own trail. But what if it had followed the path taken by the PC copycats?
- How Microsoft can turn Vista lemons into lemonade, 10.22. How Microsoft could profit by no longer allowing manufacturers to sell new PCs with Windows XP installed.
- iPods that never passed beta or focus groups, 09.13. "What most Apple fans don't realize is that there were a few iPod variants that never made it out of beta testing and the focus group stage."
- Pigs fly, snow in Death Valley, and Dvorak uses a Mac, 08.03. What has the world come to when John Dvorak, founding member of the Axis of Macevil, walks into the temple of All Things Macintosh?
- More in the The Lite Side index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: iMac Core2, Sep. 2006 - Apple introduced the biggest screen ever in an iMac with a 24" Core2 Duo model at 2.16 GHz.
- List of the Day: MacBook List for those using a MacBook or MacBook Pro.
- September 6 in LEM history: 99: G4 vs. Pentium III - 00: Setting up a server - 02: Norton Utilities warning - 10 greatest computer annoyances - 06: iMac Core2 Duo - Mac mini Core Duo - The iMac Core2 value equation - 07: Apple seduction - Why I really want an iPod touch - iPod history, 2005 to present - Upgrading a Power Mac G - Apple intros iPod touch, classic, and video nano
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