Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple to kill off the mouse!!!

T

trip1ex

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2008
3,296
1,978
It just occurred to me the mouse is dead. Apple will kill it off very soon.

They introduced the notion of multi-touch.

They expanded on that with 3 and 4 finger gestures.

They made the trackpad one big button.

They moved the sound, brightness and eject controls over to the left consistent with their laptops.

They recently shortened up their desktop keyboard so now it matches the laptop keyboard.

In the next step Apple kills off the mouse and introduces a trackpad/touchscreen for the desktop.

There's no reason not to at this stage. The trackpad has more and more usable functionality than a mouse has. Desktop owners are now jealous of this functionality. Who doesn't wish they could gesture their way to going backward and forward on the web instead of moving the mouse up to click the arrow or hit the arcane command-[ or command-] key combinations?

If they add an actual screen that is program-specific then its usefulness hits the stratosphere.

What say you MacRumors readers?
 
Mouse is best. Trackpad and touchscreen are both quite slow to use, especially in pro use. I have a laptop with external mouse because I HATE the trackpad, it's so slow.
 
Apple computers are often used for design. As a person that uses their macs for such projects, a mouse or trackball will be something needed until something better than a trackpad is designed. Manipulating images is too difficult with a trackpad.
 
I have to say that I'm not really jealous of the multi touch track pad, I do have a uni-body MacBook that I love but I prefer a mouse on a desktop machine trackpads on a desktop would just feel awkward to me.
 
Mice (mouses) will still be around for a long while. Maybe for home/portable use more functions will become touch-based but the precision of a mouse is still much higher than your finger(s).
 
Hellhammer said:
Mouse is best. Trackpad and touchscreen are both quite slow to use, especially in pro use. I have a laptop with external mouse because I HATE the trackpad, it's so slow.
Click to expand...

This.

Even a tablet cannot fully replace a mouse for design purposes.
 
I seem them introducing desktop keyboards with touch pads before they introduce desktops with touch screens. The latter is *way* too cumbersome. Even on a laptop it's PITA.
 
When I said touchscreen I'm talking about a touchscreen trackpad. Not a touchscreen monitor.

And the reasons folks give for using the mouse are pretty weak in terms of general consumer usage.

All the more reason Apple is going to kill off the mouse.

Apple likes to make those forward thinking, streamlined upgrades/decision that upset a small, but vocal percentage of their customer base. Eliminating the mouse is the next frontier for that.

Upset customers will buy their own mouse just like they do with laptops.
 
trip1ex said:
And the reasons folks give for using the mouse are pretty weak in terms of general consumer usage.
Click to expand...

You know, for Apple to present a revolution in input devices, that device should have some particularly strong arguments. Multi-Touch does not appear to have such strong arguments (enough to become the new primary input device). You're argument makes sense, but appears to be based on excitement rather than overwhelming practicality.

The mouse's legacy as a cheap and simple input device will not be overcome easily. Especially when there is no particular problem with the mouse.
 
Wacom!

I've been using a Wacom pen/tablet for several years for every application – not just Photoshop. It is more precise than the mouse and does not cause repetitive stress. I've recommended it to several friends who have had severe wrist pain from using the mouse and, in each case, it cured them. It takes a few days to get used to, but is a much better way to use the computer. Though I've used mice at work, I have not touched a mouse at home for several years.
 
trip1ex said:
It just occurred to me the mouse is dead. Apple will kill it off very soon.
Click to expand...
Apple can't kill off the mouse. It's not like they own "the mouse". As long as companies like Logitech keep making them, I'll keep buying them!
trip1ex said:
And the reasons folks give for using the mouse are pretty weak in terms of general consumer usage.
Click to expand...
Weak reason? Try this: I challenge anyone to a well-rounded day of productivity: web surfing, spreadsheet building, photo editing, emailing, etc. You do it with a trackpad and I'll run circles around you with my mouse! Trackpads are WAY too slow and inaccurate, compared to a mouse. To "kill them off" ... if it could even be done (which it can't) .... would have a horrible impact on user satisfaction.
 
i wouldn't really mind a trackpad kind of thing for a desktop. it seems like a lot of people who post on the Mac Setup forum have one of those Wacom touch pad drawing things (haha i honestly have no idea what they are).
if you're confused at what i'm getting at, look at these Google and pretend like the mouse isn't on those pictures.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/528.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/528.16)

Not quite, but I'm pretty sure we'll see a multi-touch mouse sooner than later.

I remember seeing Apple's patent a while back, and I suspect it's coming fairly soon.

I figure it'll be a mouse in the traditional sense in that moving it around moves the cursor on screen, but the entire top side will be a multi-touch surface similar to the trackpad to handle gestures.

The scroll ball will be gone, and you will scroll with 2-fingers similar to the trackpad.
 
here is a mockup of the keyboard Apple should have come out already... maybe we will get lucky and see this on the 3/24 with a black chicklet illuminated keyboard...

newtrackpad.png


my original post
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/661082/
 
alphaod said:
Trackpad for gaming and video editing—ha!
Click to expand...

Macs for gaming - ha!

Video editing done in by lack of a mouse? Hardly.

NO reason you can't keep your mouse and use it still. But Apple will kill it off from their product line.
 
trip1ex said:
NO reason you can't keep your mouse and use it still. But Apple will kill it off from their product line.
Click to expand...

I would love to buy a $3000 mac and then have to buy a mouse. I know its not an expensive peripheral, but it would be pointless to have some other input device. How about we leave those contraptions to 3rd parties.
 
p.luik said:
I would love to buy a $3000 mac and then have to buy a mouse. I know its not an expensive peripheral, but it would be pointless to have some other input device. How about we leave those contraptions to 3rd parties.
Click to expand...


Well that is the Apple way. :D

Most folks use laptops nowadays anyway.
 
mashny said:
I've been using a Wacom pen/tablet for several years for every application – not just Photoshop. It is more precise than the mouse and does not cause repetitive stress. I've recommended it to several friends who have had severe wrist pain from using the mouse and, in each case, it cured them. It takes a few days to get used to, but is a much better way to use the computer. Though I've used mice at work, I have not touched a mouse at home for several years.
Click to expand...

Yes repetitive stress is a big advantage of a trackpad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back