The Apple (formerly Mighty) Mouse



  • We all know Apple products are overpriced. But at least they are good, right? You know you'll always get high-end hardware?

    Well, that's what I thought before I discovered these:

    http://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4973/as-images.apple.com/is/image/AppleInc/aos/published/images/M/B1/MB112/MB112#.jpg
    Apple Store link

    This thing costs fifty dollars, and is worse than literally every other mouse I've tried.

    First, the design is like a bad joke. It has only one physical button, with no way to tell left click from right. Instead, the front of the mouse has capacitive sensors so it can tell where your fingers are touching it. To right click, you have to lift your left finger and press with the right one!

    But most importantly, the build quality is terrible.

    Our university has around 50 shiny expensive iMacs bought about a year ago, each with one of those mice, and by my estimation at least 1/3rd of them are already broken in some way. The stupid scrollwheelInnovative Scroll Ball and button in the middle is by far the most fragile part, but somehow the actual optical sensor also manages to break pretty often.

    And I'm clearly not the only person to dislike this mouse. Look at the Apple Store reviews:

    Obviously other people aren't very happy with it either. In fact, if we sort by date, we see Apple has been selling the same broken mouse model for 8 years and 7 months:

    Yes, those are the very first 3 reviews. Well, let's hope they can make it to a decade.

    And because it's relevant here, I'll also point out some other popular Apple mice: the 1998 "hockey puck mouse", and their latest design, the 2015 Magic Mouse 2, which still manages to be universally hated despite having no scroll ball.



  • I never understood the one button fascination with apple mice. Is this some minimalism thing? I bet one of the artsy fartsy designers who seem to be running the show these days decided they like how symmetrical the single button makes it look, and that was it. Bye bye ergonomics and common sense.

    Btw, I love how magic mouse 2 looks like a speared whale while it's charging.

    Another inspired design decision by Apple.


  • Winner of the 2016 Presidential Election

    That is a mouse?`
    1.) I hope it's upside down but knowing apple... I am not 100% sure
    2.) If it is actually upside down then why does it have 2 parallel rubber-lines? Do you not move the mouse anymore?

    Filed Under: At least it's not a touch-screen sold as a mouse... I guess


  • FoxDev

    My PC's mouse has similar rubber underneath, although it's four panels instead of two strips; it's actually hard and smooth, and works surprisingly well as a gliding surface. Thinking about it, it might be nylon, which IIRC is self-lubricating.



  • I don't think I've ever owned a product in my life, phone, camera, tablet, etc. that literally needs to be turned upside-down and made useless while plugged-in to charge.

    I guess my TV remote with the AAA batteries, but you only need to change those once every 4-5 years.



  • @Kuro said:

    2.) If it is actually upside down then why does it have 2 parallel rubber-lines? Do you not move the mouse anymore?

    Not to defend Apple's stupid design, but those are those non-stick strips you frequently find on gaming mice. I don't know what they're made of, some kind of slippy plastic.



  • @Kuro said:

    why does it have 2 parallel rubber-lines?

    My cheap Microsoft "Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500" has them too:

    I thought most mice did?



  • The key is that they are explicitly not rubber. If they were, the mouse would be pretty awful.



  • My old work replaced all those mice with standard Logitech mice. We called them "bar of soap" mice.



  • @anonymous234 said:

    To right click, you have to lift your left finger and press with the right one!

    The logic behind this is that people used to single-button mice often press with all the fingers that are on the mouse, not just with one finger per button. If you’re used to two- or three-button mice it’s slightly awkward, while if you’re used to one-button mice, having to remember not to touch the right side to left-click would be just as awkward. Since Apple could, I’m guessing, reasonably assume that most people using this mouse would have been used to single-button mice before, it was probably not as big an issue as it’s often made out to be.

    @anonymous234 said:

    Magic Mouse 2, which still manages to be universally hated despite having no scroll ball.

    I’ve not used that one, but I’m very happy with its predecessor that I use all the time. I’d prefer one with a USB cable on it, though, to save changing the batteries every so often :)



  • @cartman82 said:

    Btw, I love how magic mouse 2 looks like a speared whale while it's charging.

    <...>

    Another inspired design decision by Apple.

    This is just dumb. I remember owning a wireless Microsoft mouse many years ago, where you could attach the charging cord in a way that made it look like a normal wired mouse, and you could continue using it while charging.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I don't think I've ever owned a product in my life, phone, camera, tablet, etc. that literally needs to be turned upside-down and made useless while plugged-in to charge.

    Fuck usability, can't have a charging port ruining our pretty design, can we?



  • @cartman82 said:

    I love how magic mouse 2 looks like a speared whale while it's charging.

    My favourite feature about the Magic Mouse is that it throws out all sense of ergonomics and is about 1.5cm tall. Because why would you want to get a comfortable grip on the input device which primarily requires you to grip it?

    Oh wait...

    edit (because I remembered my uni)

    @anonymous234 said:

    Our university has around 50 shiny expensive iMacs bought about a year ago, each with one of those mice, and by my estimation at least 1/3rd of them are already broken in some way.

    Ours had a room of Macs for ITMS students, and they had the good sense to buy Microsoft Basic Optical mice... except they got them in white. And kept the white Apple keyboards. Naturally, they got very filthy, very fast.

    I don't know what the Macs in other faculties are like (the approach my uni's IT department took to macs was essentially "go away, you can sort them out yourself we don't want anything to do with them" which led to fun issues like the ITMS ones having the inability to print).



  • @Douglasac said:

    uni's IT department took to macs was essentially "go away, you can sort them out yourself we don't want anything to do with them"

    That’s pretty much the basic attitude any IT support person used to/trained on Windows has when asked about a Mac, in my experience. It always comes across to me as “This isn’t Windows, I don’t want anything to do with it!” I remember one time when I had trouble getting a Mac mini onto a network, and luckily the network admin guy was around — but when he saw I was using a Mac, he remarked something along the lines of, “I don’t know anything about Macs, you’re on your own” without even bothering to look from less than a few metres away. But, I said, we’re talking about a network problem and I know my way around the preferences for that — all I need from you is help figuring out why it’s not working. (IIRC, it then turned out to be because he’d felt our little department didn’t need internet access and had switched our line off at the central office without bothering to inform us …)



  • Similarly, I once replaced a 'Mighty' (aka 'the scroll "ball" will die faster than your average modern Logitech scroll wheel) mouse with the first-generation 'Magic' mouse, and had nothing but disconnecting issues that according to a web search appear to be really common (and usually worked around by 'placing paper in the battery compartment')...

    ... then again, I don't trust anything with a battery compartment anymore after the abomination of the Xbox 360 wireless controllers and their 'official' rechargeable battery packs.



  • @Douglasac said:

    Macs for ITMS students

    Macs for iTunes Music Store students? 🚎



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I don't think I've ever owned a product in my life, phone, camera, tablet, etc. that literally needs to be turned upside-down and made useless while plugged-in to charge.

    I guess my TV remote with the AAA batteries, but you only need to change those once every 4-5 years.


    My cordless-rechargeable electric razor won't run while it is charging but that's because it's a wet/dry one, and for godonlyknows what reason water inserted into the top (i.e. from your face) runs out through the hole in the other end where the charging cable (carrying mains voltage) plugs in. It's a marvel of :wtf: product design, especially since it's a consumer product, made less dangerous by the machine's refusal to run while charging.

    My Apple Watch also can't be used while it is charging, but it's arguably not in your category because you don't plug it in (electromagnetic wireless charging). And besides, you charge it overnight on a stand beside your bed, you know, while you're sleeping (or doing whatever else it is you do in bed), and aren't wearing a watch anyway.

    And we won't speak of the rechargeable cordless mice that have to be recharged on a special stand. (I never had one of those either. All the cordless mice I ever had used normal batteries, either alkaline or rechargeable, AAA size in both cases.)


  • BINNED

    @Steve_The_Cynic said:

    doing whatever else it is you do in bed

    you really should wear the watch exactly then! Nothing as good as some statp0rn about your love life.

    And now I'm wondering how fitness trackes will catalogue this ... it's not a run or a cycling trip.



  • @Luhmann said:

    @Steve_The_Cynic said:
    doing whatever else it is you do in bed

    you really should wear the watch exactly then! Nothing as good as some statp0rn about your love life.

    And now I'm wondering how fitness trackes will catalogue this ... it's not a run or a cycling trip.

    Why don't you try it yourself?


  • BINNED

    @aliceif said:

    @Luhmann said:
    @Steve_The_Cynic said:
    doing whatever else it is you do in bed

    you really should wear the watch exactly then! Nothing as good as some statp0rn about your love life.

    And now I'm wondering how fitness trackes will catalogue this ... it's not a run or a cycling trip.

    Why don't you try it yourself?

    Does anybody have a smartwatch or fitness tracker I could borrow? I need it for an ... euh ... experiment! For Science!



  • @accalia has one, I think.


  • FoxDev

    @aliceif said:

    @accalia has one, I think.

    ara ara? i have a what now for a who?


  • BINNED

    a fitness tracker! for an experiment!



  • a fitbit.


  • BINNED

    I thought @Yamikuronue had something too ... I mean in the relevant category.


  • FoxDev

    @Luhmann said:

    a fitness tracker!

    i have a Misfit, but i'm not going to lend it to you! I don't want to know what sort of :giggity: you'd get up to with it, and i sure as the afterlife don't want to wear it after you do whatever :giggity: experiment you have planned!

    🍊


  • BINNED

    😞

    we'll why don't you perform some experiments!

    Hedgy! We need you! Pronto! For Science!



  • @Luhmann said:

    Does anybody have a smartwatch or fitness tracker I could borrow? I need it for an ... euh ... experiment! For Science!

    The sacrifices that we make for science...



  • @accalia said:

    i have a Misfit

    ?


  • FoxDev

    not quite:


    Full Size


  • FoxDev

    @Luhmann said:

    Hedgy! We need you! Pronto! For Science!

    Cute fluffy critter needed for science?

    ...

    *flees*



  • @Gurth said:

    That’s pretty much the basic attitude any IT support person used to/trained on Windows has when asked about a Mac, in my experience.

    Yeah... the IT staff weren't very keen on change or anything new. Example: they were very reluctant to move off Windows XP, they only finally finished in mid 2014. The reason we were given was that last gen Core 2 Quads and first gen i7s couldn't run 7 fast enough - I suspect that the real reason was that they were too stuck in their ways doing weird hacky shit to it to make it behave they wanted instead of doing sensible things.

    They also rigged all the machines so that the the only options were shut down and restart, and they would totally reimage themselves when they were done. They never completed this task in the 10 minute break between classes so the first 10-15 minutes of each class involving PCs was generally spent by students spinning around on chairs waiting for the logon screen.

    For fun (I assume), they also had at least one room of 40 fancy ass AIOs with i7s, 8GB RAM and SSDs... running XP. Gotta use that hardware to its fullest potential amirite?

    @NTAuthority said:

    Macs for iTunes Music Store students?

    Information Technology and Mathematics Sciences.



  • @Luhmann said:

    @Steve_The_Cynic said:
    doing whatever else it is you do in bed

    you really should wear the watch exactly then! Nothing as good as some statp0rn about your love life.

    And now I'm wondering how fitness trackes will catalogue this ... it's not a run or a cycling trip.


    What? No! I was talking about reading!



  • @Luhmann said:

    And now I'm wondering how fitness trackes will catalogue this ... it's not a run or a cycling trip.

    Old news, it's been done a million times.


  • BINNED

    @RaceProUK said:

    flees

    not the reaction I expected ...


  • area_deu

    @Steve_The_Cynic said:

    the hole in the other end where the charging cable (carrying mains voltage) plugs in

    Mains voltage in a hand-held device used in the bathroom? :wtf: What could possibly go wrong?

    Every single one of my shaving devices for the last 30 years had a mains supply plug converting thing with a measly (and safe) 3.6V or something like that coming out of the charging cable.


  • I survived the hour long Uno hand

    @Luhmann said:

    I thought @Yamikuronue had something too

    I have a fitbit. WTF is going on?


  • I survived the hour long Uno hand

    Oh, sex. I haven't worn it while giving a handy per se, but it seems to record my heart rate spike but not label it any activity when I engage in those sorts of activities.



  • @ChrisH said:

    Mains voltage in a hand-held device used in the bathroom? :wtf: What could possibly go wrong?

    Not as much as people think can, going by how few news articles and reports I see about stuff like fires or electrocutions caused by electric shavers in bathrooms.


  • FoxDev

    @Gurth said:

    @ChrisH said:
    Mains voltage in a hand-held device used in the bathroom? :wtf: What could possibly go wrong?

    Not as much as people think can, going by how few news articles and reports I see about stuff like fires or electrocutions caused by electric shavers in bathrooms.

    that's just because the government is covering them up man.... like the companies that makes those products are paying the government a lot of money to keep the "accidents" quiet so they can secretly abduct people to use as human test subjects in their experiments!

    That's why you never hear about that sort of thing!



  • @ChrisH said:

    @Steve_The_Cynic said:
    the hole in the other end where the charging cable (carrying mains voltage) plugs in

    Mains voltage in a hand-held device used in the bathroom? :wtf: What could possibly go wrong?

    Every single one of my shaving devices for the last 30 years had a mains supply plug converting thing with a measly (and safe) 3.6V or something like that coming out of the charging cable.


    Actually, now that you mention it, this one does indeed have a power brick. It's the other one, bought in Britain,, that has mains into the unit, but it's not a wet/dry model. (Also, British bathroom power sockets, although they are normal British mains voltage, use funky incompatible plugs that only shavers can plug into, and are mandatorily connected to the real mains supply through an isolating transformer. In effect, a single point of contact with you will not electrocute you because the voltage is floating and not tied to any earth reference - if you hold the two wires one in each hand, that's a different story.)


  • BINNED

    @accalia said:

    that's just because the government is covering them up man.

    Right! Just like they cover up all those exploding gas stations


  • FoxDev

    @Luhmann said:

    @accalia said:
    that's just because the government is covering them up man.

    Right! Just like they cover up all those exploding gas stations

    exactly like that yeah! you know it too man.



  • Also US mains is only 120v. Barely a tingle!



  • 120V RMS, which is not the same thing. 170V each direction every sexagesimth of a second.



  • The mouse with the mac my team used for testing Safari and IE at my last job didn't have the scroll-ball. It did have a very faint line where the touch-sensitive strip for scrolling was, but you had to squint at the thing to see it. Never mind stroking it in exactly the right place to scroll without several goes, half the time I'd get hold of the wretched device only to find the cursor going in the precise opposite direction I'd intended.



  • @CarrieVS said:

    Never mind stroking it in exactly the right place...

    :giggity:

    @CarrieVS said:

    ...to scroll without several goes.

    Aww



  • @CarrieVS said:

    It did have a very faint line where the touch-sensitive strip for scrolling was

    That doesn’t sound like an Apple mouse. The type with the scroll ball was followed up by one whose upper surface is almost entirely touch-sensitive, not just a small strip on it.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @anonymous234 said:

    before I discovered these:

    Why did you buy a mouse from like 10 years ago?



  • @Luhmann said:

    you really should wear the watch exactly then! Nothing as good as some statp0rn about your love life.

    Sadly, the best you can get is the number of hand movements per minute. Which is, coincidentally, the only thing 99% of smartwatch users will need.


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