

Magic Mouse - The world’s first Multi-Touch mouse - ajbatac
http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

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colanderman
Apple lost something big when they lost Jef Raskin.

The genius behind his one-button mouse was not that it _looked_ simple, but
that it _was_ simple. You could do one thing. Click. And it was easy to see
that that was all you could do.

Looking at the Magic Mouse, it's entirely unclear what operations are afforded
to the user. Can I click? double-click? scroll? swipe? Without prior knowledge
of Apple products, one is forced to read an instruction manual to determine
the sundry operations this device is capable of. (Has the design team
misplaced their copy of Psychology of Everyday Things? This violates rule #1.)

Visibilty of affordances was the reason Apple pioneered the GUI to begin with.
Hiding the affordances of what is arguably the main input device on a computer
is more than a step backward.

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weaksauce
I agree with you that good UI should have affordances that are easy to use.
But, you are missing a bit point in why this mouse is good for UI; The single
button is still there in primary action without any need for tutelage. The
things that people may need help on is the advanced features that most people
will not use. I agree with PoET in things that you don't use everyday should
be easy to grok without a minimum of effort but I think that with something so
essential to the modern computing experience that we are OK with making some
features harder to understand to for the novice in making the device that more
valuable to the advanced user. (But really, other than moving the cursor, the
mouse only has 5 things it can do if you count the swipe gesture as two
operations.)

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colanderman
Good point. I think you nailed my problem, that I am not an every-day user of
OS X :) but I expect there to be affordances for "advanced" features. This is
really no different from their current trackpad offerings -- when I use a
friend's MacBook, I'm usually befuddled enough by the trackpad that I stick to
basic point+click+keyboard.

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colinprince
What I hate about the previous mouse from Apple is having to lift your index
finger in order to right click.

Some of my right-clicks were lost which is very frustrating.

I really hope they addressed the problem.

You might want to try one hands-on before you order it.

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83457
the video shows the exact lifting of the index finger as you are describing so
it doesn't look like that is going to change

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weaksauce
I really hope that is not the case because I think this mouse could be
excellent if it actually knew where the rmb was.

I have a suspicion that the video did this just to emphasize the right mouse
click for video and not because it was a physical limitation of the device. Or
at least that is my wishful thinking because I really like the MBP multitouch
trackpad.

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terrellm
I can't wait to try this out. I've been hooked on the multi-touch on my MBP
and can't stand having to go back to an old mouse when I connect the laptop to
to my 24" monitor.

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butterfi
It looks interesting, but I wonder if all that side to side finger movement
will be a new source of repetitive stress?

~~~
mey
First thing that came to my mind. Also, pressing on a surface with zero
physical or simulated haptic feedback over and over.

(How are people in general holding up to their iPhones?)

~~~
BigZaphod
I haven't used one yet, but if you watch the videos closely, you can see it
seems to physically move when clicked.

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pilif
Like the mighty mouse before, this mouse too is unusable for Unreal Tournament
2004 (and probably other games, but for me, only UT matters these days) as it
does not allow the user to press both mouse buttons at once.

Keep that in mind.

Also: Why wireless only? I never felt hindered by the wire and I certainly
don't see a reason to waste even more batteries.

Also, I feel much more accurate and comfortable using a trackball, but this
certainly is a very personal point.

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dc2k08
$69 in USA || £55 ($90) in UK || €69 ($103) in the rest of Europe

How do you middle-click?

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jrockway
I prefer to use my multi-touch keyboard instead.

~~~
forgotmypasswd
I want a keyboard that can detect finger movements on the surface of the keys.
Imagine tiny touchpads on each key.

The keys stay tactile, and you can use the whole keyboard surface like a large
touchpad.

~~~
hboon
Not tactile, but <http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html>

Apple bought them. Hence seeing the technology in iPhone multitouch, gestures,
recently in touchpads and now mouse.

~~~
jrockway
Very interesting. I don't think I would ever enjoy using a keyboard like this,
but I kept reading their site because they had a section about Emacs commands.
(I have found enough keys to do everything they advertise in one key
sequence... but at least they are trying. Much better than "hurr, you can zoom
Google Maps more easily.")

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hboon
I'm a vi user, but only use when I ssh to a shell. When I'm in vi I usually
switch to my laptop keyboard unless it's just a few keys :) Have never
bothered learning the vi (or emacs) gestures.

I never timed, but it never felt like I was typing very slowly once I got used
to it. The gestures like opening/closing a window, exiting an app, copy and
paste etc is really handy. Especially as they apply across _all apps_ , not
just within a specific editor. The gestures are also configurable, and
supports different OS modes. Most importantly, it reduced the pain in my
wrists and fingers (might just have been a side effect of typing slower).

Bought it about 6 years ago, have been using it since. Was pretty disappointed
when I heard the company has closed down. And a few years later when I heard
about the iPhone pinch gestures, my first thought was - this must be the
reason!

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nazgulnarsil
hopefully it handles repositioning of your hand okay. why no pinch to zoom
though?

~~~
nazgulnarsil
ha! just watched a video demonstration. the phrase "oops I didn't mean to do
that" was heard a few times in less than 5 minutes. Of course with any new
tech you have a period of adjustment...

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padmanabhan01
Wondering why it doesn't have 3/4 finger gestures, like the trackpad does

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modeless
Because you have to hold it (likely between thumb and ring finger) while you
do the gestures. You'd have to use both hands to pull off a four-finger
gesture.

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gamble
What bothers me is the inability to buy a USB multitouch trackpad. I've only
seen one model for sale, only in Japan, and lacking Mac drivers.

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TimothyFitz
Apple is personally responsible, they bought out the company that created the
original (or at least first commercially succesful one)
<http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html>

You can pick them up on ebay but they're now quite old and extremely
expensive.

~~~
bd
Well, it's even worse than that.

Many modern touchpads support multitouch in hardware but it's disabled in
drivers [1].

I believe it has something to do with Apple sitting on multitouch patents.
Even Android phones were supposed not to have multitouch because of Apple.

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[1] For example Synaptics ones in Thinkpads. You can get multitouch using
modded drivers.

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Dilpil
Can anything capture the tactile sensation of clicking better than actually
clicking?

