Apple Pro Mouse a piece of crap?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I think it is. My phone line and DSL connection mysteriously got knocked out today (only at my house, none of the neighbors) so I'm using my grandfather's computer. He has an Apple Pro Mouse and it's pretty crappy. I'm not rich so I still use a computer with ADB, and my mouse of choice is a Macally one button ball mouse. But this pro mouse feels a bit light and cheap, and it tracks terribly. It's always jumping around, even when I move it really smoothly. And the click feels very soft, a far cry from the sharp, definite click of my Macally.



Come to think of it, the new Pro Keyboard isn't that great either. My Apple Extended I is far better.



Anyone else have these problems?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 25
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    I don't own one, but I've used them plenty of times. I really don't like them too much but I know a lot of people that do like them. It's just a matter of personal opinion.
  • Reply 2 of 25
    brianmacosbrianmacos Posts: 548member
    I use an Apple Pro Mouse and love them.
  • Reply 3 of 25
    The tracking problem shows itself when you move the mouse too quickly, but if that is not the case, the surface upon which you are using the mouse could be the culprit. Tracking is done through the optics on the thing, and it has to be able to have something to 'see' to be able to track properly.



    Personally, I don't mind it. You can adjust the clicking thingy on the mouse. Yeah, it's not gold plated, but in my opinion, it's fine. I use a Wacom tablet most of the time anyhow. Same with the keyboard, I actually like the pro keyboard. Took a week to get used to it, but I like how it feels. It's all preference... and this is why people other than apple make keyboards and mice for your mac
  • Reply 4 of 25
    Keyboards are very personal.



    Optical mice, however, perform very well indeed, far better than ball-mice. It is, as mentioned, simply a matter of tracking surface. Printed surfaces like conventional mouse pads are bad for tracking because under red light the pattern is basiccally a grid of black dots. "Wood" veneer can be bad because the grain is semi-repetitive, as can faux-marble. If an optical mouse is skipping under normal office use, it's either on the wrong surface, has a dirty lens (rare) or is plain-out broken.



    Now in gaming, it's possible to move the mouse so fast it can't keep up. The mouse takes on the order of a thousand pictures a second of a circle between 0.5 cm and 1 cm wide, so if you move the mouse over 5 m/s, it skips. My personal feeling is that people who report noticing this problem really have tracking surface problems, because 5 m/s is pretty fast. I don't doubt that great gamers go that fast often, but if they were moving the mouse at that speed for a tenth of a second the mouse would be way off the desk, half a meter to the side. So you might miss some movement on the corners from time to time but it shouldn't be noticeable to any but the very best players. Like many comparisons of digital vs. optical, it's hard to verify the real-world effect of the fursthest limits of each design.
  • Reply 5 of 25
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    So what is a 'good' surface to use an optical mouse on?
  • Reply 6 of 25
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by torifile:

    <strong>So what is a 'good' surface to use an optical mouse on?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I haven't any problems on my wood desk.
  • Reply 7 of 25
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    At school I use a printed (not reflective) Gateway mouse pad. Written over the 'w' in 'Gateway' is a nice 'g.' <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />



    The school just bought a new computer lab consisting of 30 new iMacs...and my teacher is letting me help administrate them being as the tech also works for another school and isn't there all the time. And I have a class with comps during three periods next year...yay!



    As for the Apple Pro Mouse...I like it, the click is adjustable, it looks great, and it's fine if one-buttoned mice are your thing. But the price...59 bucks is too much for any mouse.



    The Pro Keyboard...hard to type on. My MacAlly iKey4 is a LOT easier to type on and has a nice power key. Plus it arches up a lot more as well. Not the greatest design in the world, though it matches slightly and it is usable.



    My vote for best optical mouse...Kensington Mouse in a Box Optical.



    [ 07-07-2002: Message edited by: Spart ]</p>
  • Reply 8 of 25
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    I think it was the tracking surface. The desk I was using was wood, with the grain running horizontally. The mouse would jerk straight to the right, whenever I moved the mouse quickly up and to the left.



    Well, my brother doesn't have any problems with his Logitech, but he uses it on a very plain solid color mouse pad. I use a 3M precise mousing surface for my ball mouse, and it tracks as perfectly as I could ever hope for (unless it needs cleaning, which is not often and takes very little time).
  • Reply 9 of 25
    nebagakidnebagakid Posts: 2,692member
    Well,for all the a-hole who steal mouse-balls from the computers at my school, optical ones would be nice.
  • Reply 10 of 25
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    [quote]Originally posted by torifile:

    <strong>So what is a 'good' surface to use an optical mouse on?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I have a nice black leather mousepad I use with my optical mouse. Has my initials in it, was a gift. Anything that is a solid color should work.
  • Reply 11 of 25
    My only gripe with the pro mouse is lack of invincibility. Let me explain. Art students have the ability to destroy anything. In a lab of 25 brand new G4s it took less then a year for them to break 12 of the optical mice. How did they break you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. The cord, right above the mouse, where it bends a little... well, it shorted out in 12 mice. This took a while to figure out, but gently jiggling the cord causes the laser to just turn off. (and also freezes the computer because of the freaky USB error). Apple replaced all of them for free but still.... man, they sure get over used and wear out fast. On a personal note my optical pro that I use at home has stood up to the test of time and the test of having a 3 year old. It hasn't shorted yet. I really like it. Apple must have seen this design flaw happen with 'over use' since the new ones they sent to us have thicker white cords instead of the clear translucent cords the old ones have. Just my 2 cents.
  • Reply 12 of 25
    Good surfaces are relatively natural surfaces, like leather or cloth, that either have a unique texture at first or develop one trhough the wear of the mouse moving daily.



    Also good is any mouse pad that lets you "personalize" the surface by slipping your own photograph under a plastic cover. Either a detailed photographic print or a picture made with a desktop printer set to "diffusion" instead of "half-toning" will work well.



    Some commerical printed mouse pads also are printed using diffusion, or so densely that the half-toning isn't a problem, but I'd only buy that kind of pad from a dealer with a good return policy. Ask specifically at the check-out if you can return it if it won't work with an optical mouse.



    Spart: I agree, it's too much for a one-button mouse. I prefer the Intellimouse series myself.



    Jonathan Brisby: Just for the record, it isn't a laser diode. It's just a red diode. Laser diodes are more expensive and have a special bi-mirrored cavity to ensure that light coming out is in phase and monochromatic. Lasers wouldn't work in an optical mouse because they'd pick out too much detail from the tracking surface, which would then be aliased as it was recorded by the CCD, and the data changes with the angle of the laser to a specific tiny point on the surface.



    If you take a laser pointer and shine it on a surface, you'll see how the light is a single grainy spot and seems to sparkle. That's the light individually catching the tiny pits and mountains on the surface that, incidentally, cause friction. The sparkling pattern you see is the same thing an optical mouse with a laser diode would see: an pattern of microscopic bright and dark points that changes essentiallly randomly as the diode is moved relative to the surface. Not useful for tracking.



    If, on the other hand, you shine an optical mouse on a surface from some distance, you'll se the light illuminates the surface and spreads normally, like a flashlight. Just a high-intensity red diode that shows the surface into as a monochromatic pattern for easy processing.
  • Reply 13 of 25
    buggybuggy Posts: 83member
    Same problem here



    Out of 6 optical mice in the lab 2 of them have died. Exact same problem (wires breaking at edge.)

    Still trying to get a replacement. They are over a year old and warrenty is dead. I think with this info I am going to try harder for replacements.
  • Reply 14 of 25
    obi-dunobi-dun Posts: 19member
    Yeah it is totally depend of the surface you use with your optical mouse. This is not only pro-mouse problem. Is all optical mouse problem.



    There are some Japanese mouse pad designed for optical mouse. But they are no big deal.



    Use it directlly on desk or printed mouse pad is fine.



    NOT TO USE IT OVER RED COLOR



    Red color will effect the reflaction of the tracking bean.
  • Reply 15 of 25
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    The MS Intellimouse Explorer is very similar to the Kensington Mouse in a Box Optical. I try to stay away from Microsoft branded products...bad mojo you see. <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
  • Reply 16 of 25
    junkyard dawgjunkyard dawg Posts: 2,801member
    I love Apple's keyboards, but I'd have to agree that the pro mouse is crap.



    It is totally unergonomic. The shape is made to look cool, but it doesn't fit well in the hand and after long use it actually gets worse.



    I also dislike the single button. OS X works far better with two buttons and a scroll wheel that also acts as a button.



    It's an example of function following form, and that is unacceptable based on the cost of Macs.



    Yet, compared to the puck mouse, the pro mouse is amazing.



    Why can't Apple offer a REAL mouse with their computers? It's not hard to do...they ship a crappy mouse by choice, which makes it all the more pathetic.



    But I do like the pro keyboard, and even the micro keyboard before it. I simply love the feel of it, the light touch of the keys, it allows me to type very fast without much effort at all. It's also fairly quiet compared to many PC keyboards.
  • Reply 17 of 25
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    I think the keyboard is not that great, but it's much less bad than some keyboards I've used. Specifically the Apple Design Keyboards. I have used three of them. Only one had a good feel, semi-soft, but it had problems where it would stop working once in a while. The other two were bad and worse, with very little if any tactile feedback. It was like trying to type with the keys set on a pillow.



    My laptop keyboard is pretty nice, and it's extremely quiet. My Extended I keyboard is really great and it has great feel, but it's loud and heavy. The Pro keyboard is fine. I think the original USB keyboard was okay, but it has a problem with some keys sticking, especially the arrow keys. The two I have in my home each have one arrow key that always stays down. It's not constantly registering, but it's annoying. Also, it would have been nice if it had a full set of full sized keys, but the small size is good if it's on your lap.



    I think the problem with the mouse is that, when designing it, they decided that just about any oblong mouse would seem great when compared with the puck mouse. They added a couple of novel features (optical instead of ball, and the no-button thing) and all of a sudden, everyone really loved the thing. But now we realize we can do better.



    [ 07-08-2002: Message edited by: Luca Rescigno ]</p>
  • Reply 18 of 25
    obi-dunobi-dun Posts: 19member
    I like the Microsoft IntelliMouse very much. Actually I dislike Microsoft's stuff, but the 5 buttons interface is excellent......



    Is there anyone know why apple still working on one button mouse? I agreed the design of pro-mouse is very good and look very nice. but it is not a user-friendly device.



    The 5 buttons mouse is just fit most users requirement and behavior



    This should be a point that Apple need to mention about
  • Reply 19 of 25
    The insistence on a one-button mouse is one of the world's ultimate mysteries. People have theories. Some people say that since not all programs can read a right-click Apple doesn't want to ship inconsistent hardware, but considering the hodge-podge of interfaces in the digital hub applications, it's clear Apple tolerates shipping other inconsistent products.
  • Reply 20 of 25
    The pro mouse is pretty crappy and is in now way "pro". It tracks fine, but has a cheesy feel to it and the button clicks by accident a lot. The biggest problem, however, is its lack of multiple buttons. I use a Kensingon mouse -in-a-box optical pro with five buttons and a scroll wheel. It is immensly more useful than the pro mouse and has a better ergonomic design.
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