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Apple Releases Multi-Button "Mighty Mouse"

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tue Aug 02, 2005 09:01 AM
from the now-that-is-freakin'-awesome dept.
Input Devices Businesses Apple
TheRaven64 writes "Hot on the heels of the announcement of x86 Macs, Apple announced a multi-button mouse, known as the Mighty Mouse. It appears that the entire surface is touch-sensitive, allowing the mouse to be programmed as a single-button, multi-button or scrolling device."
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Apple Releases Multi-Button "Mighty Mouse" 50 Comments More /

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  • Finally (Score:5, Funny)

    by RandWalker (903696) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:03AM (#13221124)
    A zero button mouse from Apple! Truly less is more!

      • Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Reaperducer (871695) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:45AM (#13221623) Homepage
        How does making two buttons look like one, make this more intuitive?

        It's not two buttons. It's still one button, but there are sensors similar to the ones used in the iPod scroll wheel that sense which finger you're using.

        intuitive, no fucking way.

        Calm down, sport. It's just a mouse. It will be O.K. No one's going to take your Logitech away. But you might consider trading it in for some anger management classes.

        • Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Paradox (13555) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @10:17AM (#13221978) Homepage Journal
          Because the Apple fan-boys have been arguing that one button is best for many years, so they have to continue to pretend that one button is somehow better. Even though they have basically caved in on this issue and realised that extra UI hardware might actually make the UI better to use.
          Dude. Very few people are saying, "One Button Is Better." The people who are saying the one button mouse has merits are considering grandma and grandpa, who had to practice to learn to double click. No really, they actually did. For them, a single mouse button makes far more sense.

          Apple users who care though, can now simply change their perspective, click a checkbox, and progressively disclose new features. Heck, they can do it on their user profile, so that grandma and grandpa can share the same computer with me and still be comfortable.

          I think it's a rather elegant migration strategy. I didn't think that a multi-button mouse could have also looked just like a single button mouse.

          • Its always apeared that its the apple apologists, not Apple, who make the excuse that grandma can use one button more easily.
            I think the real reason is design and style. Apple has focused more on how the computer looks than on how easy it is to use.

            Apple's site says "Single buttons looks, multi-button charm". This suggests that the one button thing has more to do with *looks* and design, than functionality. There was the recent no-button mouse by Apple; pretty but a pain to use. There was the infamous iMac

  • Hell... (Score:5, Funny)

    by jwthompson2 (749521) <jwthompson2 AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:03AM (#13221125) Homepage
    has frozen over and the devil has taken up hockey and ice fishing...
  • It's great that Apple finally came to their senses and created this mouse, but what I thought was really interesting is the fact that they allow you to still program it to use as a one button mouse. They're really holding onto their beliefs that people can only handle one button at a time with this thing. But, if they believe that people want the simplicity of a one button mouse, wouldn't they ship this thing out of the box with only one button functioning? Those people that want the simplicity of a one

    • Re:Welcome to 1986 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Daniel_Staal (609844) <DStaal@usa.net> on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:21AM (#13221362)
      Apple is perfectly aware that intelegent users can handle more than one button at a time. They just don't believe that the average developer can handle more than one button at a time. At least, not and keep a good interface.

      So, they force the delevopers to think 'Oh, shit: this is a Mac, the user only has one button!', and then they actually think about what goes on the second.

    • Re:Welcome to 1986 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Golias (176380) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:26AM (#13221410)
      But, if they believe that people want the simplicity of a one button mouse, wouldn't they ship this thing out of the box with only one button functioning? Those people that want the simplicity of a one button mouse surely won't be the ones changing the settings to disable the other buttons. After all, that sounds awfully hard to do!

      If I'm a dad with young children, I might want to set up the mouse preferences differently depending on the user. Full-functions for me and the older kids, one-button for the toddlers and grandparents. It's actually a pretty fucking cool idea.

  • Gettting cold in here (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FunWithHeadlines (644929) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:04AM (#13221139) Homepage
    Man, Hell isn't as hot as I was led to believe. Is it getting cold in here or is it just me?

    Hey, wait a minute, what will the Apple trolls do? Won't somebody think of the trooooollls?

    OK, seriously, I hope this finally ends all the lame "Yeah, but it only got a one-button mouse" idiocy whenever Apple hardware is discussed around here. You always could use a multi-button mouse with OS X. Now you can do it with a shiny new Apple mouse. Let's put these snipes to rest, k?

    • It will only end the trolls if they ship this mouse with every machine... which I don't think they will be. A one-button mouse will still be standard, and you can still buy two-button ones. Nothing has changed.

  • Maybe I'm just oldschool... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pVoid (607584) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:05AM (#13221147)
    But I hate touch sensitive input devices which provide absolutely no feedback. Apple should know this from their own iPods. Gen 3 was fully touch sensitive, gen 4 has embedded buttons that go "click" to give you feedback that you've actually pressed the thing.

    As gentle as it might be, the hand always recognizes the threshold of 'clicking' a button, but I find that it's practically impossible to tell if you've clicked a touch sensitive surface or not.

    All of that, IMHO. I wouldn't go gaga over this mouse.

    • There's a little feedback (Score:5, Informative)

      by pjcreath (513472) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:10AM (#13221225)
      It sounds like the clicky noises on the iPod don't do it for you, but they at least did the same thing here. In small print on the side of the design page [apple.com], it says that "a tiny speaker inside Mighty Mouse produces button-clicking and Scroll Ball-rolling sound effects."

      Not quite as good as tactile feedback, but definitely better than none.

      • You click the mouse same as the old one, by pushing down on the whole mouse until it clicks - tactile. The mouse senses what side of the top your finger is on, giving you a left and right click. You can also click the scroll ball on top of the mouse for a third button - tactile. And you can squeeze the sides for a fourth button - tactile. All these are programmable, and the ball scrolls 360 degrees.
  • no not really, considering my fingers rest on my mouse (ever so lightly). Now a touch mouse? Bad enough that touchpad on my dell laptop always gets hit by the underside of my thumb.
    Just make a freaking normal mouse people.
  • Mighty Mouse? That name sounds too cheesy to be an Apple product, don't you think? No pun intended, of course.
  • I think TerryToons [toonopedia.com] should sue Apple's ass off
  • I think releasing a multi-button Apple styled mouse is going to be good press for them.

    Much better press than they recieved yesterday implementing Intels DRM scheme.

    Kinda coincidental release - dontcha think?

  • Scratch that off the list of things Steve Jobs would never do! First they announce they are going to use Intel CPUs [apple.com], now this. What's next a Video iPod [macrumors.com]?

  • First Mac fanatics believed that Apple would never use Intel processors.

    Then they said Apple would keep the one button mouse for ever.

    It seems like every month now that Apple is turning the world upside down. This certainly seems like something strange and new to me. Does anyone know if anything like this has been done before?

    At the rate they're going it makes me wonder what radical type of product or strange new feature they'll come out with next.

  • OK, this is pretty interesting - and about time that Apple came out with a multibutton solution. Provided that it's durable enough to last a few years, this seems like a pretty good product. I wonder how it will feel when clicking on a button that doesn't actually click. I think the tactile feedback is something we've all grown accustomed to.

    I'm not thrilled that you need Tiger to get full functionality out of it, but I'm not surprised, either.

    I guess my only question is - when is a bluetooth versio

  • I'd rather have a Danger Mouse [amazon.com] or two...
  • I wonder how long till someone does a hack to turn the scroll ball into a fully fledged trackball?

    Then you could reserve moving the mouse for... umm... scrolling?
  • ...because it's not the standard bundled mouse with their desktop systems. I just checked, and it's not even a BTO option to replace the one-button mouse.

    I'd bet, however, that once this has been around for a little while, they'll get manufacturing costs down and it will become the standard bundled mouse.

    And when they do that, the smart move IMHO would be for new systems to be configured out of the box to still see the mouse as one-button (for the n00bs), and let those who want more functionality enable the
  • My favorite mouse has a nub (pressure sensative Joystick used on thinkpads. They don't make them any more. I liked it for the multi directional scrolling. Glad the idea didn't die completely..

  • Where's the wireless version? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Scorpion_1169 (609426) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:15AM (#13221290) Homepage
    Or do we have to wait 10 years for that? Maybe a few weeks after they switch to AMD CPUs?

  • PowerBook!? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pergamon (4359) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:31AM (#13221466) Homepage
    Now all they have to do is make the button-bar underneath the touchpad on the PowerBooks be touch sensitive to allow for multibutton there too.
  • I think the design will be ok for basic desktop work (not so sure I'm keen on the ball), but as a gamer I question it. When I click, I want tactile feedback that it's been registered. Also, anyone who's played with anything touch-sensitive knows that it's never quite as reactive as as a regular mouse.

    I don't question that'll be fine for the average user, and I know the Macites will blast me with "get a gamer's mouse then" (I have one for my Mac), but anytime Apple leads the rest of the industry tends to follow. Hopefully Apple led well.

  • How Rich! (Score:3, Funny)

    by sysadmn (29788) <sysadmn@@@gmail...com> on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:36AM (#13221535) Homepage
    So the company that stayed with a one button mouse [slashdot.org] because "users might get confused" releases a multi-button mouse with built in track button and squeezable sides? Worse yet, the side action is programmable? Pretty ironic.
    What's next, the Danger Mouse, where squeezes will randomly deliver electric shocks?

  • My writeup (Score:3, Informative)

    by ZackSchil (560462) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @10:41AM (#13222239)
    My writeup for this article (submitted nearly 4 hours ago) was a bit more detailed so I might as well post it as a comment.

    As if we needed yet another sign of the impending apocalypse, Apple announced today that they will be selling a multi-button mouse. [apple.com] The aptly-named "Mighty Mouse" features [apple.com] two top buttons (actually, one that's a touch sensitive panel to determine which side of the mouse has been clicked), a secondary button that is activated by squeezing the sides of the mouse, and a clickable, bidirectional scroll ball. It also contains a small speaker to give user feedback when clicking or scrolling. The mouse is programmable from the Mac OS X Mouse Control Panel [apple.com] and will retail for $49. It has not yet been bundled with any Macs and is not available as a build-to-order option. It is, however, PC compatible.
    • You must be kidding us. Apple adds scrolling and an extra button and you think they have innovated? My Logitech mouse at home still blows this one away. It is 11 button, with all of the same stuff and more (except the squeezing).

      They made a different mouse, but hardly a better one.

      • Re:Apple Innovates Again (Score:5, Funny)

        by macthulhu (603399) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:26AM (#13221415)
        11 Buttons? Are you sure it's not just a really shitty keyboard?
        • Horsecrap. Basically, your argument is whatever Apple does is exactly right, and more/less is wrong. This is the same crowd that up until TODAY said that more than one button would lead to widespread panic, confusion, and anarchy. Now two buttons plus a programmable surface and a cursor that looks like it was stolen from a Thinkpad is perfection.

          Same rhetoric as it was for the x86 chips. x86 was terrible until Apple adopted it, right?

        • Re:Apple Innovates Again (Score:5, Funny)

          by el_womble (779715) on Tuesday August 02 2005, @09:28AM (#13221433) Homepage
          I think we should take this one step further and just put an optical movement sensor on the bottom of the keyboard! Eat my 113 button mouse suckers!

          (Yes I know this is a dumb idea, but at least you would have to take your hands off the keyboard ;) )
    • You don't understand why Apple advocates(d) the one-button mouse, do you?

      The reason is quite simple: it is for programmers to make their applications in such a way that you can access ANY features using a single mouse button. Nothing is to be hidden in only right-click-only accessable menus.

      THAT is a big part of the Apple UI philosphy. And, that is a good thing IMHO.

      /uses a 4 button mouse at home
      //can still get by 100% without it

      • Originally, yes. But now most apps depend on control clicking on things instead of right clicking.
      • 4-button mouse? Psh. I've got a *5* button mouse for *my* mac. With a scroll wheel. And flames painted on the side. And spinners. Bitch.
        • but the fact of the matter is that the 2+-button mouse and scroll wheel are the standard now, and apple should have conceded sooner.

          Actually, they did. The Mac OS has supported multi-button mice for years. Considering how cheap 3rd party mice have become, criticizing Apple for not providing one is a bit like complaining about the lack of Apple-branded 100baseT cables.

          What has changed is that Apple has come up with a mouse design that they can ship with Macs, providing single-button functionality for new us

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