Apple Releases Multi-Button "Mighty Mouse" 1502
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."
Apple Innovates Again (Score:1, Insightful)
Welcome to 1986 (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Welcome to 1986 (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Finally (Score:1, Insightful)
From the site: "Alas the fate of the one-button mouse in today's multibutton world. Who has time for intuitive, elegant design when there is so much clicking to do? Thanks to a smooth top shell with touch-sensitive technology beneath, Mighty Mouse allows you to right click without a right button."
WTF?? How does making two buttons look like one, make this more intuitive? Elegant, maybe; intuitive, no fucking way.
Re:Apple Innovates Again (Score:3, Insightful)
Same rhetoric as it was for the x86 chips. x86 was terrible until Apple adopted it, right?
Re:Welcome to 1986 (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
PowerBook!? (Score:4, Insightful)
Anybody else think this'll be truly awful gaming? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Mighty usable? (Score:2, Insightful)
According to the pictures [macnn.com] I'd seen so far it doesn't seem to have any buttons, or any markings for buttons, or where they might be.
I've got my flame-retardant jumpsuit close to hand just in case, but... this does seem like more style at the expense of actual usability. You have learn where the buttons are in the same way as Das Keyboard [daskeyboard.com], but with this mouse you first have to realise that there *are* buttons.
Very stylish. Nil point for usability.
Re:Welcome to 1986 (Score:3, Insightful)
Bluetooth? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
You don't get it do you? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Looks OK, but with a few possible problems (Score:2, Insightful)
it is a four button mouse, with a trackball in place of a scroll wheel. I hope they did a lot of user testing with this because it looks like they missed some obvious possible problems. First, try telling a clueless user to right-click or even left-click over the phone. Not only is there the confusion of multiple buttons, but they are invisible buttons. I foresee very frustrated tech support people. Second, the original one button rocker mouse was a pain for new users because when they ran out of mouse pad it was hard to pick up without releasing the button. This was supposed to be done using the two non-moving pads on either side of the mouse, but realistically a lot of people held the mouse a little differently which made the task impossible. I saw users try to drag something reach the end of the mouse pad, then turn the mouse 90 degrees and keep dragging sideways then reach a corner and turn it again so the mouse was upside down and keep dragging. Some of this problem can be solved by turning up the mouse sensitivity, but realistically many novice users don't know you can even do that. Also, older users with bad hands can't turn the sensitivity up too much or they can't accurately select anything, but they still need to drag thing a long ways sometimes (like when dragging an item into a place in a long list). This new mouse has buttons right where those two pads were located. Users accustomed to using the old rocker mouse will have a lot of trouble learning not to grab those two spots.
I'm not a big mouse fan myself. A trackball takes up less desk real estate and is less a pain for long, straight lines. I'd love having a 360 degree mini scroll ball instead of a scroll wheel though. How long before these show up everywhere?
Re:Finally (Score:1, Insightful)
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.
Let the Apple zealot modding-down commence...
Re:Apple Innovates Again (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:You don't get it do you? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:You don't get it do you? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:4, Insightful)
Hey, these aren't crumbs! Crumbs aren't curl-eeeeew!
Re:Hell... (Score:3, Insightful)