What year is this? I haven't used a one-button mouse since the mid 80s, and don't know anyone who stuck with Apple's default mouse. The argument out of Cupertino that single button mouse make things simpler doesn't wash with me. You tell me which is the easier scenario: using the right mouse button to bring up a contextual menu, or hitting the option key + the single button? Right clicking is so integrated into every single OS X program (including Apple's own!) that I just don't understand why on earth they would bother shipping a $70, single button wireless mouse. And even without a second button, there's no doohicky wheel! Can you imagine paying $70 for a mouse that didn't even have a scroll wheel? I paid significantly less for a wired mouse not too long ago that has eight buttons and a scroll wheel. How Apple thinks they can get away with only one button is beyond me.
Posted by jason at September 16, 2003 11:04 AM
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Having done phone support for many years, I can tell you right now that the average user does not understand 2 buttons. One of the most common questions from new users (like my mum!) is "what button do I press" when they see both.
I've had people on the phone and you tell them to right click on something and they go "right click?!?".
You are right about one thing though, wireless keyboards and mice are pointless. Especially when you have to replace the batteries and they're so grossly over-priced.
There is one very good use for wireless mice. Giving powerpoint presentations. I kid you not, hook in your laptop, turn on the projector, and you can walk to the front of the room...mouse in hand...and drive the presentation from there.
But that's the ONLY use for them that I've seen :)
Now children, no arguing. :)
The Apple wireless mouse is totally weird because it's got no visible buttons and no wires. Which means it's just this strange lump of white plastic.
It looks to me just like the Apple Pro Mouse with the wire taken off. The original APM is a great piece of hardware design, except its one flaw being the single mouse button which makes it basically useless to most anyone.
Well yea, it is a Pro Mouse with the wire taken off. But think of it as just sitting there on the desk. It no longer looks like a mouse. It just looks like a lump of white plastic. With no buttons, no wires, no ball it has nothing anymore that makes it clearly a mouse.
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