4 ms·

I absolutely agree that their mice suck, but I think the Magic Trackpad is hard to beat. The keyboards aren't too bad either. The glossy screens are another erg

I absolutely agree that their mice suck, but I think the Magic Trackpad is hard to beat. The keyboards aren't too bad either. The glossy screens are another ergonomics nightmare though. With Apple's short keyboard form factor, I can have the alphabet, the "mouse" (trackpad) and the arrow keys all in comfortable reach. Feels much better than my old setup with a vertical mouse & Microsoft ergonomic keyboard.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
I wish Apple would release a full-size wireless keyboard. I can't stand the smaller one with that annoying fn key and tiny cursor keys. Also, I wonder if Apple will ever cotton on to the fact that quite a lot of us use the '#' symbol from time to time. Other than that, I love their keyboards.
- escherba 13y ago
  Typing with this keyboard right now: http://matias.ca/laptoppro/mac/ http://matias.ca/laptoppro/mac/ Much better keyboard than Apple's own wireless thingy.
  - scholia 13y ago
    Looks good but it weighs around 2 pounds! There are lighter laptops ;-)
dzhiurgis 13y ago
Magic Trackpad is amazing. And 'crazy gestures' actually save you so much useless mouse movements once you customise them - close tab, reopen tab, switch between tabs, refresh, previous page, next page.
mistercow 13y ago
Glossy screens are just a matter of preference and your typical environment. There's no denying that as long as you're in a low glare setting, colors look better on a glossy screen. The question is just whether that's the kind of environment you usually work in.
- judk 13y ago
  Who works in a setting with neither light bulbs nor direct sunlight? There is like one spot on my couch at the perfect time of day when my setting is low glare. And watching movies, which I do, on a TV.
  - lostlogin 13y ago
    Radiology department checking in.
  - mistercow 13y ago
    >Who works in a setting with neither light bulbs nor direct sunlight? You can have bulbs all you like. They just need not to be in the cone in front of the screen where they will reflect distractingly. I usually use my computer while sitting on my bed. Bedside lamps don't cause problems, and there are no lights behind me, so it's fine. In fact, I very rarely notice glare on my screen.
calinet6 13y ago
All of the Apple trackpads are pretty incredible. Coming from the PC laptop world, I used to hate trackpads and thought of them as highly inferior devices. I thought the epitome of mobile mousing was the ThinkPad TrackPoint (to keep this discussion PG rated...) and I detested trackpads with a vengeance. Turns out no one had made a good one yet. I got the first unibody MacBook Pro and started to prefer the trackpad over any mouse. That thing is a glorious input device and incredible proof that the fine details really do matter in HCI. The difference between a standard PC trackpad and the Apple Magic Trackpad is slight, but the improvement in the experience is exponential.
mwfunk 13y ago
Agreed, they're my favorite keyboards and the trackpads in general (including the Magic Trackpad, which has weaned me off mice altogether) are fantastic. Mice are definitely one area where it seems like the accusations of going with form over function actually hold some water. I'm not sure why this one particular peripheral (especially one that has been so central to their products) has gotten so little love over the years. For example, I actually loved the Mighty Mouse. However, it only takes one attempt to use the weird squeeze buttons on the sides (one on each side, and they have to be pressed simultaneously for it to do anything) to pretty clearly see that those side buttons were an ergonomic nightmare. The means of triggering a right-click were also pretty insane- you had to make sure that you weren't touching any part of the left side of the mouse when you clicked it. I get the engineering tradeoffs that required it to be implemented in this way, but it was really nonintuitive and wasn't documented anywhere as far as I could tell. Lots of people just did ctrl-click for right clicking instead of using the mouse, it was such a hassle. The only saving grace there is that right clicking isn't nearly as fundamental to most Mac UIs as it is on other platforms. It's surprising how many people use Macs every day and don't even know that there is a right click, even though I can't imagine using OS X without it. I pretty much just ctrl-click these days when not using a trackpad or a third-party mouse.
lostlogin 13y ago
Don't forget the rear USB slots on the iMac. If you have to plug in multiple times a day you go bat shit crazy. And if, heaven forbid, you tilt the screen to change the angle (in tall) the cable must be free. If someone has pushed the desk back as jammed the cable against the wall, tilting the screen pulls the power cable out. Great stuff.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago

I wish Apple would release a full-size wireless keyboard. I can't stand the smaller one with that annoying fn key and tiny cursor keys. Also, I wonder if Apple will ever cotton on to the fact that quite a lot of us use the '#' symbol from time to time. Other than that, I love their keyboards.

escherba 13y ago
Typing with this keyboard right now: http://matias.ca/laptoppro/mac/ http://matias.ca/laptoppro/mac/ Much better keyboard than Apple's own wireless thingy.
- scholia 13y ago
  Looks good but it weighs around 2 pounds! There are lighter laptops ;-)

dzhiurgis 13y ago

Magic Trackpad is amazing. And 'crazy gestures' actually save you so much useless mouse movements once you customise them - close tab, reopen tab, switch between tabs, refresh, previous page, next page.

mistercow 13y ago

Glossy screens are just a matter of preference and your typical environment. There's no denying that as long as you're in a low glare setting, colors look better on a glossy screen. The question is just whether that's the kind of environment you usually work in.

judk 13y ago
Who works in a setting with neither light bulbs nor direct sunlight? There is like one spot on my couch at the perfect time of day when my setting is low glare. And watching movies, which I do, on a TV.
- lostlogin 13y ago
  Radiology department checking in.
- mistercow 13y ago
  >Who works in a setting with neither light bulbs nor direct sunlight? You can have bulbs all you like. They just need not to be in the cone in front of the screen where they will reflect distractingly. I usually use my computer while sitting on my bed. Bedside lamps don't cause problems, and there are no lights behind me, so it's fine. In fact, I very rarely notice glare on my screen.

calinet6 13y ago

All of the Apple trackpads are pretty incredible. Coming from the PC laptop world, I used to hate trackpads and thought of them as highly inferior devices. I thought the epitome of mobile mousing was the ThinkPad TrackPoint (to keep this discussion PG rated...) and I detested trackpads with a vengeance. Turns out no one had made a good one yet. I got the first unibody MacBook Pro and started to prefer the trackpad over any mouse. That thing is a glorious input device and incredible proof that the fine details really do matter in HCI. The difference between a standard PC trackpad and the Apple Magic Trackpad is slight, but the improvement in the experience is exponential.

mwfunk 13y ago

Agreed, they're my favorite keyboards and the trackpads in general (including the Magic Trackpad, which has weaned me off mice altogether) are fantastic. Mice are definitely one area where it seems like the accusations of going with form over function actually hold some water. I'm not sure why this one particular peripheral (especially one that has been so central to their products) has gotten so little love over the years. For example, I actually loved the Mighty Mouse. However, it only takes one attempt to use the weird squeeze buttons on the sides (one on each side, and they have to be pressed simultaneously for it to do anything) to pretty clearly see that those side buttons were an ergonomic nightmare. The means of triggering a right-click were also pretty insane- you had to make sure that you weren't touching any part of the left side of the mouse when you clicked it. I get the engineering tradeoffs that required it to be implemented in this way, but it was really nonintuitive and wasn't documented anywhere as far as I could tell. Lots of people just did ctrl-click for right clicking instead of using the mouse, it was such a hassle. The only saving grace there is that right clicking isn't nearly as fundamental to most Mac UIs as it is on other platforms. It's surprising how many people use Macs every day and don't even know that there is a right click, even though I can't imagine using OS X without it. I pretty much just ctrl-click these days when not using a trackpad or a third-party mouse.

lostlogin 13y ago

Don't forget the rear USB slots on the iMac. If you have to plug in multiple times a day you go bat shit crazy. And if, heaven forbid, you tilt the screen to change the angle (in tall) the cable must be free. If someone has pushed the desk back as jammed the cable against the wall, tilting the screen pulls the power cable out. Great stuff.