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If our usually reliable sources are to be believed, Steve Jobs has
finally relented. After the stunning success of the iPod, Jobs
now agrees that users may be able to handle more than a single
button on a mouse.
In 20 years of selling Macs, Apple has never sold a
multi-button mouse, although they are in common use everywhere else
in the computer industry. The revolutionary new Click Wheel
Mouse™ (too bad Macally already owns the iMouse name)
will go beyond anything any current mouse offers.
Not More, Better
Instead of two or three buttons up front, a scroll wheel, and one
or two thumb buttons of most contemporary mice, the Click Wheel Mouse
(hereafter CWM) is much more elegant. It shares the lozenge
shape of the current Pro Mouse, but instead of the entire mouse
being a button, Apple engineers have integrated the click wheel
technology used in current iPods to create a multifunction
controller where the traditional single mouse button went.
The button at the center of the click wheel is used just like a
traditional mouse button, and users can move their fingers around the
wheel itself to scroll up and down - just as the iPod's wheel lets
users navigate menus.
The creative genius of the CWM is the four click buttons
incorporated into the wheel, which can be used to scroll up, down,
right, or left in the current window by default - or
programmed in the new Mouse system preference to move a single
cell within a spreadsheet or perhaps a single pixel in a graphics
program.
Or they can be programmed to do pretty much anything you can do
with a mouse or keyboard, and users will be able to specify
different functions for each program they use. In a browser,
perhaps the "up" button would be set to "home" instead of "page up"
- except for the mouse button in the center, the CWM can be
completely software controlled.
Unlike many modern mice, the CWM is neither right- nor
left-handed.
The CWM will be available in both USB and Bluetooth
versions, and it will only be available as an accessory. Apple will
not bundle the new mouse with any current computer.
What Next?
Steve Jobs has often looked to past success to find a model
for the future. The original iMac was based on the all-in-one
design practically perfected with the earliest Macs, but with
a 15" color display instead of a tiny 9" b&w one. The success of
the iPod (and the failure of the display-on-a-ball iMac to
sell as well as the original) inspired the G5 iMac. And now
the iPod inspires a mouse.
What next, a compact, affordable modular Mac to repeat the
success of the Quadra
630, compete with low-end Windows PCs, and bring OS X,
the iApps, and Apple AV technology (the 630 supported a TV tuner!) to
the masses?
Nah, never happen. Apple really doesn't want to increase
unit sales, let alone market share, or they would have done
that years ago.
- Anne Onymus
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