Apple plans Mighty Mouse makeover - Page 4

OMFG finally. The current apple mouse is inaccurate and shaky you look like you have parkinson's.

Exactly. When mine broke I didn't say "I will figure out how to fix this wonderful mouse". I said, "Great, now I can go out and buy a mouse that I'll actually enjoy using."

Did it twice, in fact : )

I could really go for a right mouse button. Anyone else? They should have folded 20 years ago on this issue.

Seriously, has Apple ever released a half decent mouse? They come up with a lot of good stuff, but somehow they can't get this right.

You've been using the wrong mouse button this whole time?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Chalk me up as one more person who liked the puck. What the reaction to the puck revealed, mostly, is that the vast majority of people hold their mice in a way that is more or less guaranteed to destroy their wrists. That's why they need those bulky humpback mice: they don't bother to keep their wrists up otherwise, either when mousing or when typing. And then they wonder why they get carpal tunnel.

Anyway.

The Mighty Mouse is... OK. It could very easily be better. I've run into the dead scroll wheel problem and the context-click processed as a select-click. The ergonomics are adequate.

I'll be interested to see how they improve the design, but with my current computer setup I'm looking at tablets.

Try harder next time, please!

Apple seems determined to move away from physical buttons with tactile feedback to touch interfaces. In response I will continue to purchase 3rd party mouses with real buttons.

The person who commented on the positive ergonomics of the hockey puck mouse when used as originally intended missed the fundamental problem with the thing: it was round and the cord caused it to rotate to some completely bizarre position if you ever took your fingers off the thing to type.

I hate the mighty mouse because there's nowhere to rest your fingers that isn't recognized as a touch or click. In order to perform a right click you must lift your index finger off the thing and hold it in mid air. It's far worse for left handers who have to lift their entire hand off the thing to perform a right side click. The fact that the tiny scroll wheel is also a very easily pressed button is also very annoying. Those who actually use the darn things also complain about the scroll ball clogging and the side buttons being both difficult to press and being in exactly the place where you'd put pressure while picking it up to re-position it.

I honestly can't see a single thing about the Mighty Mouse that isn't a serious design flaw.

Having had Macs for decades, I've been through a lot of Mac mice designs.
I had high expectations for the Mighty Mouse, even going so far as to almost order one sight-unseen. Thank god I did not.

In my use of many of the Mighty Mouse(s), my own and clients, I just have never found one that properly right-clicks. Always I (and the user) find we have to intentionally aim for the front right edge, practically falling off the front of the mouse (causing it to shift back and down - losing the cursor click spot intended).
I mean, it is so ludicrously poorly designed that I wonder what they are thinking/smoking/drinking in the mouse design department. Probably another case of art-museum design takes priority over actual human being usage.

I have filed official complaints with Apple support, have sent one back for replacement (new was no better) and just end up buying and using third party mice, as do most of the folks that I work with.

So sad that we spend our money on a mostly user-friendly Mac computer, and then have to put the Apple OEM mouse on a shelf and buy a third-party mouse to get actual usability.

(Specific issues are: (1) right-click very difficult to make work reliably, (2) the MM side buttons are a disaster for me, because they are right where I want to hold and pick up the mouse to move it when it gets to edge of table/pad space, thus inadvertently activating the various expose etc. -- so I disable the side buttons.)

I hope they have tested with real humans who have had experience with a wide range of computers and mice...

I just realised that if this drawing is accurate:


Then this can only be the bottom of the device.

If that's true, then where is the IR sensor? Around the edge?
This makes no sense to me unless the "multi-touch mouse" is actually a "multi-touch trackball."

Relax, it's only a drawing. The FCC isn't concerned about looks only radio waves and shit.

I had a ThinkPad for 3 years. Hated the trackpoint with a passion. I like mighty mouse much better than the trackpad.

To each his own.

This is the best post I've seen in a while. Sorry Spam, I may have a new favorite.

I have come to the conclusion that if Apple designed a car which was essentially the same as every other car, but had the steering wheel above the drivers head on the ceiling there would be people out there that would argue: "it's a good design choice, you're just using it wrong".

Considering their amazing array of innovative products and the fact that Apple was the first tech company to take the computer mouse mainstream, it amazes me that the company has never made a good mouse. I remember in the 90s scratching my head wondering when Apple would introduce a 2 button mouse... the answer: 2005!?! JESUS!

I hope they bring back the hockey puck design... that thing was a winner.

I hope Apple doesn't waste too much resources over-innovating and obsessing over the mouse. Other things are more important, Logitech has proven the mouse has reached a certain apex of design and usability. With Apple's track record, I don't expect a "superior multi-touch experience" to blow me out of the water and run out and get the new Bluetooth Apple mouse.

Get to work on the tablet. By the way, last night I thought the tablet would be killer in all sorts of education environments, K-12 to college/university. The tablet would re-ignite Apple in education... Which isn't too bad so far, but globally an affordable tablet may extend far beyond US campuses.

Ah well, just rambling on here, just woke up.

Touch area for scrollwheel. Not that actually blows me away. That could be really cool...!!!

It doesn't have the best tracking on various surfaces, other mice do better sometimes.

i've been suggesting that for months!

Yeah. But the FCC won't let me be or let me be me, so let me see...They try to shut me down on MTV*...

*http://www.lyrics007.com/Eminem%20Lyrics/Without%20Me%20Lyrics.html

I think a trackpad is already a compromise for a real mouse. Laptops have trackpads because they need to have some sort of facility to move the cursor built into them. A proper mouse easily blows them away as far as usability is concerned. I really can't see Apple backtracking on usability for the iMac where there's no need for a trackpad.

That's quite the mandate. I imagine there's an interesting story as to how the areas of responsibility were originally divvied up.

Count my vote as being very happy with the Mighty Mouse. About once a year I need to clean the scroll ball with a rag and some screen cleaning fluid, but it only takes a moment. Otherwise the scroll ball works just fine. I find it very comfortable and effective to use and do so constantly. I find the left, right, & center buttons and the pinch button very convenient and effective as well. It functions so naturally that I get frustrated when I have to use my PC at work with a regular PC three button scroll wheel mouse - it feels like something is missing. Sorry others are having troubles, but the Mighty Mouse has been great for me.
I do have the wired version though - don't know if that would make a difference.

My Mighty Mouse is extremely steady and precise and very responsive. Much better than the mouse on my Dell at work. Maybe you have a bad mouse or a bad mouse pad? (I did find that my first mouse pad was not too good with the Mighty Mouse.)

Right click works just fine for me on the Mighty Mouse. The side click buttons for expose work just fine too. That's where I usually rest my fingers and pick up the mouse and they never activate unless I want them too. I find it very handy. I will say that when I've tried my mother's & brother's computers the side buttons are overly sensitive and annoying though. They have emacs, I have an imac G5 - I wonder if it could be different on different macs, or maybe just some Mighty Mice are made bad?

As for those posting about difficulties to use left handed, just go to the settings panel and switch the functions of the left & right buttons.

A mouse is better than this.

If Apple doesn't re-release the white iMacs, I won't be buying. An aluminum mouse? YUK! That would look horrible, not to mention feel awful in your hand. Hard, cold metal is not appealing when you have to touch it all day long. I predict another mouse failure for Apple if they really go in this direction.

I don't know why Apple insists on making our computers look like crappy kitchen appliances. Bring back the WHITE iMacs! They are classic, and white goes with everything.

You left one item out of your list:

-- There's NO way to tell that a second button/right-click function exists for non-Mac users in a computer lab setting. Our campus has over 700 Macs in our computer labs, and ~70% of our students use Windows and have NO knowledge of the "Mighty Mouse" at all...how are they to know that they can right-click? In one lab, we had to put little signs on each Mac with right-click instructions ("lift your left finger up and click only with the right..."), and you should have heard the jeering from the Windows folks -- the "so easy to use" Macs need a sign to tell people how to use the mouse.

So until Apple comes into the 1990s and makes an actual physical 2nd button on their mice, I've been removing the not-so-Mighty Mouse and replacing them with real 2-button, working scrollwheel mice...from Dell (we have hundreds of spares lying around, luckily).

Sometimes the truth isn't pretty. Thanks.

Well, the radio waves are for the FCC, but the other stuff is actually the responsibility of the EPA, which regulates all kinds of shit.

There are no Mac programs that need the right mouse button, so I don't know why you're going to such pains to tell people about it. Anything that is on the right mouse button is also in either the "gear" menu or ctrl-click.

Really?
DO you need a mouse with your laptop?
No carpal tunnel with this.

Yes.


No.

While this is a great start, it doesn't state that it provides all the functionality of the MBP touchpad, i.e. gestures. I'd love to have a touchpad I could use with my Mac Pro that has the exact same functionality as the MBP touchpad. The current Mighty Mouse is a step up from the single button pro model of before, but the trackball needs to go. So happy to see that Apple is redesigning the MM. I'll be buying one when they are released.

Damn, you're beating me to making the jokes. Well done... Not that I've been very funny lately anyway.

I think the more keyboard shortcuts the mouse eliminates, the better. I've been trying to get by with OSX, but it just requires far too many keyboard shortcuts for everyday use to be practical.

And Jobs and Ives manage design and shit.

Holy crap if this is really the new mouse I am gonna stay in tent all night to get it. The touch scroll ball idea is pure genius and I would love for this to be true.

I just made up that design. I wouldn't say I'm a genius, but thank you.

I actually created my first touch scroll area mockup about two years ago, then someone pointed out Apple had a similar patent. It's funny they patented it about five years ago, perhaps 4, and still we have to deal with the crap they give us.