Keefer Madness

How Can Apple Continue to Go Astray on the Mouse Front?

// November 8th, 2009 // Apple, Computers

How can Apple — a company that’s done great stuff on both the hardware and software side continue to screw up the pointing device that is the mouse time and time again?

Starting as far back as the original iMac’s tiny little hockey puck of a mouse, Apple’s made sub-standard mice. the long-insistence of sticking with a single button mouse — even when many of the best and high-tech mice had tons of buttons, and a scroll wheel. Some of this may not be Apple’s fault, but Steve Jobs’ insistence. Whatever the reason, it step backward from a company that everywhere else was amazing in usability.

Apple tried redesigning the mouse again a few years back with its wrongly named Mighty Mouse. The thing was anything but in my humble opinion. Its smooth surface hid two button areas that were unmarked and ineffective.

The Apple laptops of the past few years have fared better, integrating multitouch into the touchpads, but now Apple sounds like they’ve again stumbled on the mouse front, even as they integrate the same multitouch tech into it: Is the Magic Mouse a Dog?

Regardless, my Macs will always tout a Logitech multi-button mouse devoid of any of the missteps and gimmicks of the Apple pointing device world — a world of mice that continue to be form over function.