Tech Olive

This is not a lame fanboy rant that you will easily find on any of your local forum websites. I happen to like Apple products, as well as my own PC hardware. I love the iPhone and their computers and software are top notch, no doubt about it. They are probably one of the few companies that have an excellent good to bad product ratio, but I have always had one huge bone to pick with the company; their mouse. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great mouse ergonomically due to it’s symmetrical shape, but other than that, Apple screwed the pooch on this one.

There are three big things about the Apple mouse that absolutely make no sense, no matter how many times an Apple fanboy tries to explain or justify it to me. There is the one lonely button. Even after the big craze of the two-button mouse years ago, Apple somehow thought that it would be a good idea to stick with old ways of thinking. I am not exactly sure what Apple has against the secondary mouse button, but that thing really is a godsend. Apple eventually gave the Mighty Mouse a secondary button, but it’s still a one-button designed mouse that was half-assed to include a second button, which isn’t even functional out of the box. You have to go into the settings to activate the secondary button. It’s almost like Apple was thinking, “Alright, we’ll give in and include a secondary button, but we still think it’s extremely stupid.”

I am sure we are all familiar with the very helpful scroll wheel. If not, then you are probably a Mac user. Again, another feature that was not cool enough to land on an Apple mouse. They did include a trackball on the Mighty Mouse, but honestly, it is not any better. It is the size of a small BB pellet and barely sticks out from the surface just enough to tease us to no end. And don’t get me started about all the gunk that gets stuck in the trackball, just see for yourself.

The last problem pertains to the shape of the Apple mouse and is by far one of my biggest concerns. Earlier I mentioned that it’s a great mouse ergonomically due to the symmetrical shape, but that’s all it has running for it and nothing else. I first met an Apple mouse several years ago during the dying days of the G3 desktop Macintosh. Back then they used a hockey puck-shaped mouse and if they were trying to make my hand as uncomfortable as possible, they couldn’t have done a better job. Since then, the mouse has been upgraded to a pill-shaped design, which honestly is not any better.

I can’t forget Apple’s newest creation though. The Magic Mouse is the first ever multi-touch mouse that uses finger gestures like swipes and scrolls, no buttons. It’s an incredible concept, but even with the newly designed shape, it still looks extremely uncomfortable. The human hand has numerous, delicate contours that need to be addressed when using a mouse. Apple has yet to tap into this.

I am actually looking forward to the day when Apple releases a kick-ass mouse that competes with a great mouse makers like Logitech. For now, I guess we will keep dealing with mediocrity.