Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free shipping / LIfetime warranty.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, MacBook Pros and more. Optical Drives for Apple iBooks, Powerbooks, MacBooks, MacBook Pros in Stock. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.

OWC: Big Drives, High Performance - Not High Prices! SATA 3.5" up to 1.5TB. Notebook up to 500GB. FW up to 6.0TB. 1.0TB Drive Models from as low as $97.99 www.MacSales.com

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Second Class Macs & Road Apples

Round USB Mouse

three

Dan Knight - 1999.07.09

Second Class Macs are Apple's somewhat compromised hardware designs. For the most part, they're not really bad - simply designs that didn't meet their full potential. (On our rating scale, the more brown apples, the worse the hardware.)

Apple's round USB mouseIn the history of mouse design, none have earned more scorn than the round USB mouse the Apple ships with the iMac and USB Power Macs.

From an aesthetic standpoint, the puck-mouse nicely complements the curvaceous iMac, but from a user perspective, it's incredibly frustrating to move the mouse one way and have the cursor go another simply because there is absolutely no tactile feedback to let you know you're not holding it straight.

All I know is that not a single one remains in use among all the iMacs and Blue G3s at work. They go in the equipment closet with the spare ADB cables, power cords, etc.

On the positive side, the round mouse has driven an industry of third-party solutions: USB mice, shells for the Apple mouse, and mouse alternatives such as trackballs. After all, if there are around 2 million of these inexcusably un-ergonomic mice out there, that's one very lucrative market.

I've used a lot of mice over the past 15 years: Apple's chunky mouse from the original Mac, the rectangular ADB mouse, their teardrop ADB mouse, the Kensington TurboMouse, the Contour UniMouse, and still others back in my DOS days. There wasn't a single one you could grab wrong without immediately sensing it.

To those who say you have to learn how to hold it in your palm or with your fingertips, I remind you that Apple has always promoted the mouse as an intuitive input device. Grab it, move it, see what it does, and work with it. A mouse should not require training.

Back to the drawing board, Apple. LEM

NOTE: Apple did go back to the drawing board, releasing a modified round mouse in mid-1999. The new mouse has a dimple on the mouse button, giving more tactile feedback of the mouse is significantly misoriented. A smaller dimple or more ergonomic mouse would be nice, but it's a step in the right direction.

Best of all, at Macworld Expo New York in July 2000, Apple replaced the puck mouse with a gorgeous optical mouse - and it wasn't round.

Links for the Day

Recent Content

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.