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> Apple mice seem to be the canary in the coal mine. If Apple starts designing mice we all want to use - it is a sign their engineering practices have turned u

> Apple mice seem to be the canary in the coal mine. If Apple starts designing mice we all want to use - it is a sign their engineering practices have turned upside down and their products will not have the same minimalistic qualities that make them incredibly popular. Apple mice suck. Period. They're practically unusable, poorly tested, unreliable, overly expensive garbage. Problems with their pointer devices are noticeable to anybody withing the first 5 minutes of using the device. To make matters worse, the way mouse inputs are handled is similarly bad. Unusable and unpredictable acceleration curve with no exposed configuration to tune it, and decades of trying everything possible to avoid having a second button has created all kinds of nonstandard ways of handling right mouse clicks and all kinds of legacy keyboard gyrations for simple actions that could just be handled through a right-click context menu. Option-Shift-Command-Delete really, so I'm modifying a modification or a modifier key? Wow, that's totally discoverable. The semantics of such a command astound. (it's slowly improving, but right-click context menus are not really in the Apple culture). It's bizarre because Apple is really the first company to design their devices around non-keyboard input, even going to far as to remove arrow keys off of the keyboard in early devices to force people to use the mouse, their touch devices have reinvented mobile computing, and their interface standards are extremely high, why is it then that the mouse I had with my original single body black and white Macintosh is more usable than anything the company has produced since the ridiculous hockey puck mouse in the 90s? Does nobody in the company actually use their products? Is everybody just walking around with MBPs using the trackpads? One lesson to be learned though is that there simply is a certain amount of complexity you have to deal with in modern computing. You can shift that complexity around (eliminate the right mouse button, but then you have to have awkward and non-discoverable four key combinations), but it's very hard to eliminate it. Trying to find the optimal balance point that allows the best possible management of this complexity is hard.

snom370 16y ago
I can't use a mouse on a Mac for extended periods of time due to the mouse acceleration curve problem. I've never experienced them as unreliable or garbage, but I just don't like using them. Using synergy and an external Linux PC to drive the mouse solves the problem. But I like the Mac touchpads so much that the mouse problem sort of disappears, especially now with the new external touchpad. Now, I find even using a mouse (or touchpad) on other Windows / Linux computers is slightly annoying.
- angrycoder 16y ago
  The acceleration is easily disabled. Just run this command in terminal. defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1
  - mrtron 16y ago
    I wouldn't call the secret preferences macs have easily disabled. The vast majority of users encountering this problem won't be able to take advantage of this!
    - weaksauce 16y ago
      True it's not the easiest to do manually but there are plenty of preference panes that can open up this feature if you are motivated enough to fix it.
  - snom370 16y ago
    The problem is that I don't want to disable the acceleration entirely, I just want a _different_ acceleration curve: http://db.tidbits.com/article/8893 http://db.tidbits.com/article/8893 I'm not sure if this command will help with that. But in any case, I'm sold on the trackpad now, and I'm not going back. :)
- calloc 16y ago
  The acceleration curve makes so much sense to me, for some reason it feels right. Whereas I hate using Windows or Linux because it doesn't have the same sort of curve. The touch-pads are extremely nice though. I have used Mac's since 2001 beginning with an iBook and since then find it difficult to use a mousing surface on other manufacturers laptops. It just doesn't have the same smooth feel, there is more resistance or it doesn't correctly pick up on my motions, the surface Apple uses to cover their touch pads is something special and different.
  - snom370 16y ago
    The acceleration curve came directly from NeXT (traditional Mac OS had a more similar curve to Win/Linux). So my best guess is that Steve Jobs also likes this acceleration curve ;)
absconditus 16y ago
Ctrl + click is the only combination needed for right clicking. This provides a context menu in most situations. This has worked for as long as I can remember. Two button mice have also worked for a long time. The newest Apple mouse has two "buttons" in fact, but this functionality is not enabled by default.
city41 16y ago
> Is everybody just walking around with MBPs using the trackpads? I wouldn't be surprised. My hatred of Apple mice is about equal to my love of their trackpads :)
- mrtron 16y ago
  I really like the trackpad for scrolling while coding or going through forums. Any situation I don't want my hands to leave the keyboard area but I need to scroll. I usually do a combination of hotkeys like the spacebar in a browser and using the trackpad.
  - elblanco 16y ago
    Which is interesting (I agree with your general sentiment BTW, a big responsive trackpad is nice) since for many years, Apple went through all kinds of exercises to try and get users off of the keyboard and slow the interface input down. Other than typing, I almost never remember using the keyboard on my pre-PPC macs. Now they are emphasizing the keyboard (and near keyboard input devices) as the way to go. I actually dislike the trackpad for precision work, but do like it for broad gestures like scrolling.
- mikepurvis 16y ago
  Neither would I. I love my MacBook's trackpad. The first few times I used the computer, I plugged in a mouse, and then realised I wasn't even using it because the trackpad was so easy and convenient. Now, that's not just the hardware--- OS X's single-button usability makes a huge impact here. When I have to boot Windows for SolidWorks or Matlab (or pretty much anything else), it's basically unusable without also plugging in a mouse.

snom370 16y ago

I can't use a mouse on a Mac for extended periods of time due to the mouse acceleration curve problem. I've never experienced them as unreliable or garbage, but I just don't like using them. Using synergy and an external Linux PC to drive the mouse solves the problem. But I like the Mac touchpads so much that the mouse problem sort of disappears, especially now with the new external touchpad. Now, I find even using a mouse (or touchpad) on other Windows / Linux computers is slightly annoying.

angrycoder 16y ago
The acceleration is easily disabled. Just run this command in terminal. defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1
- mrtron 16y ago
  I wouldn't call the secret preferences macs have easily disabled. The vast majority of users encountering this problem won't be able to take advantage of this!
  - weaksauce 16y ago
    True it's not the easiest to do manually but there are plenty of preference panes that can open up this feature if you are motivated enough to fix it.
- snom370 16y ago
  The problem is that I don't want to disable the acceleration entirely, I just want a _different_ acceleration curve: http://db.tidbits.com/article/8893 http://db.tidbits.com/article/8893 I'm not sure if this command will help with that. But in any case, I'm sold on the trackpad now, and I'm not going back. :)
calloc 16y ago
The acceleration curve makes so much sense to me, for some reason it feels right. Whereas I hate using Windows or Linux because it doesn't have the same sort of curve. The touch-pads are extremely nice though. I have used Mac's since 2001 beginning with an iBook and since then find it difficult to use a mousing surface on other manufacturers laptops. It just doesn't have the same smooth feel, there is more resistance or it doesn't correctly pick up on my motions, the surface Apple uses to cover their touch pads is something special and different.
- snom370 16y ago
  The acceleration curve came directly from NeXT (traditional Mac OS had a more similar curve to Win/Linux). So my best guess is that Steve Jobs also likes this acceleration curve ;)

absconditus 16y ago

Ctrl + click is the only combination needed for right clicking. This provides a context menu in most situations. This has worked for as long as I can remember. Two button mice have also worked for a long time. The newest Apple mouse has two "buttons" in fact, but this functionality is not enabled by default.

city41 16y ago

> Is everybody just walking around with MBPs using the trackpads? I wouldn't be surprised. My hatred of Apple mice is about equal to my love of their trackpads :)

mrtron 16y ago
I really like the trackpad for scrolling while coding or going through forums. Any situation I don't want my hands to leave the keyboard area but I need to scroll. I usually do a combination of hotkeys like the spacebar in a browser and using the trackpad.
- elblanco 16y ago
  Which is interesting (I agree with your general sentiment BTW, a big responsive trackpad is nice) since for many years, Apple went through all kinds of exercises to try and get users off of the keyboard and slow the interface input down. Other than typing, I almost never remember using the keyboard on my pre-PPC macs. Now they are emphasizing the keyboard (and near keyboard input devices) as the way to go. I actually dislike the trackpad for precision work, but do like it for broad gestures like scrolling.
mikepurvis 16y ago
Neither would I. I love my MacBook's trackpad. The first few times I used the computer, I plugged in a mouse, and then realised I wasn't even using it because the trackpad was so easy and convenient. Now, that's not just the hardware--- OS X's single-button usability makes a huge impact here. When I have to boot Windows for SolidWorks or Matlab (or pretty much anything else), it's basically unusable without also plugging in a mouse.