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Magic Mouse

Roberto Baldwin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:27:00 -0600

New Apple Mouse features innovative Multi-Touch technology.

While Apple excels at creating best-in-category hardware and software, every time the company has unleashed a new mouse, well…let’s just say that their rodentia haven’t lived up to the Apple name. And sometimes their mice have just plain sucked. But now with the Magic Mouse, which brings Multi-Touch technology to the desktop, Apple has created an input device a bit more worthy of its pedigree.

Every previous Apple-branded mouse had tried to change the mousing game with innovative new features. So does the Magic Mouse, but this time Apple has succeeded, at least to some degree. The mouse is smooth and buttonless and could easily be mistaken for a piece of modern art, if not for the Apple logo on top. But make no mistake: All the usual mouse controls are available. You get two “invisible” mousing buttons (similar to the Mighty Mouse), with which you can scroll up and down, left and right, and even in 360-degree rotations.

Two rails run the length of the mouse on the bottom, alleviating the filth buildup found on other desktop rodents.

Even without the tactile feel of an actual scrollwheel, you quickly get used to swiping your finger down the middle of the mouse. In fact, you can use nearly the entire surface, swiping from the very upper tip of the mouse to the top of the Apple logo at the bottom of the mouse. Couple that with the momentum feature, which matches the speed of scrolling to the speed of your swipes, and you’ll even find yourself working more quickly.

We’re guessing that Apple considers the “money” feature to be the two-finger swipe, which lets you navigate through websites and photo galleries one page or image at a time, the same as you would with your MacBook’s trackpad. The system works, albeit awkwardly. To keep the mouse stable during swiping, you end up grasping it with your thumb on one side and your pinkie and ring finger on the other, using your middle and index finger to swipe. Typical use of the two-finger swipe spared our hands of the dreaded claw syndrome, but during intense swiping--you know, to really take the Magic Mouse for a spin--our hands began to cramp. Consider yourself warned.

Part of the cramping issue could be tied to basic ergonomic problems. Instead of having the back of the mouse higher and thicker than the front (which would give you a place to rest your palm), the mouse is a uniform curve from front to back. It’s a beautiful sight, but we wonder what the long-term effects will be on power users, especially those with larger hands.

The Magic Mouse suffers from the usual heavy-wireless-device complex. The added weight of batteries gives the mouse a heft that is unexpected at first glance. Those used to the wireless weight will be fine with it, while tethered mouse users may require a few days to adjust.

Give Your Magic Mouse More Gestures

Cory Bohon — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:38:44 -0600

The new Apple Magic Mouse might be magical in some regards, but many owners are bummed because the mouse can’t do some of the cool Multi-Touch functions that the iPhone can.

MouseWizard, a small and inexpensive application for the Mac, hopes to remedy this situation by bringing even more Multi-Touch goodness to the Magic Mouse. The application, which costs $2.50, adds four additional functions to your Magic Mouse: Middle Click, Fourth Click, Zoom/Shrink, and Sleep.

The fourth click is customizable for Exposé, Dashboard, and Spotlight, and is accomplished by placing two fingers on the mouse surface, one on the right edge and one on the left. The selected action will then be completed without even having to do a click.

The Zoom/Shrink function is probably one of the coolest reasons to own a Magic Mouse and this software because it allows you to zoom in and out iPhone style by pinching and stretching two fingers across the surface. It works in many applications and can come in handy when you need to zoom in on an image or PDF in Preview.

The last new function that MouseWizard will give you is the ability to sleep your computer by covering the entire mouse surface with your hand and clicking.

The MouseWizard software is a simple application that stays in the menu bar. When you click its icon you will be able to set your preferences in a System Preferences styled window, complete with a testing area to try out the gestures. The application must remain open in order to keep using the new gestures.

Overall, we found this application to be a great addition to the already great Magic Mouse. We also discovered that if you own a MacBook Pro that you can also use this software to give your Multi-Touch trackpad some additional features.

You can get a 10-day trial of the MouseWizard software from the developer's website.

Apple's First Bath Accessory - Magic Mouse Soap Dish

David W. Martin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:38:49 -0500

Apple's new Magic Mouse started to show up in Houston area Apple stores on Thursday. The reduced footprint packaging is receiving accolades, but a recent discovery would make any Home Economics teacher proud. The top portion of the packaging can be removed and inverted making it one of the best bar soap dishes money can buy!

Apple Files Patent For Multi Function Mouse

Arvind Srinivasan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:39:19 -0500

If it was possible to hate an Apple product, it would be the Mighty Mouse, without a doubt. Its insistence on looking nice and symmetrical wreaked havoc on our wrists, and the scroll ball had a tendency to fail. So, when Apple filed a patent that described a new “unibody multifunction mouse,” we got excited. However, we're still a little gun shy when it comes to embracing an Apple made mouse. We're looking at you puck mouse.

The concept describes a mouse that would have numerous “button zones” that would be linked to GUI actions (hopefully programmable). For example, they could invoke a certain menu action, open a certain program, etc. Where it gets interesting is the description of the actual mouse:

“The distribution of the button zones may be widely varied. For example, the button zones may be positioned almost anywhere on the mouse (e.g., front, back, sides or the like). Further, the button zones may be formed from almost any shape whether simple (e.g., squares, circles, ovals, triangles, rectangles, polygons, and the like) or complex (e.g., random shapes). The shape of multiple button zones may have identical shapes or they may have different shapes. In addition, the size of the button zones may vary according to the specific needs of each device. In most cases, the size of the button zones corresponds to a size that allows them to be easily manipulated by a user (e.g., the size of a finger tip or larger). Moreover, any number of button zones may be used. In most cases, the number of button zones correspond to the number of button functionalities offered by the mouse.”

Presumably, such a mouse would not have a large array of randomly placed buttons, and would employ touch-sensitive surface, and/or a pseudo-click like in the MacBook Pros. It sounds intriguing, but will it redeem Apple and its mouse mishaps?

What do you think. Would you buy a mouse like this? Would it be better than the Mighty Mouse?

Best Mac Drag-n-Drop apps

Cory Bohon — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:58:43 -0500

The Mac is the ultimate mousing platform, after all, it was one of the first consumer systems to incorporate the mouse. This would explain all the great drag-n-drop shortcut apps for OS X. TechRadar has complied a list of the "5 best drag-n-drop file transfer apps for OS X," and we'd have to agree with them.

They mention the following apps as their fav-fives:

- MoveCM

Of course, these aren't the only applications that let you move files around with drag-n-drop ease, and we could easily add our favorites like DropCopy and others. Our only question is: What's your favorite drag-n-drop applications for the Mac? You know, the kind that makes you want to add "clicking, dragging, and double clicking" to your resumé like Jen did on The IT Crowd (Season 1, Episode 1).

Industries Sown from the Seeds of Apple

Carol Pinchefsky — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:58:00 -0500

Apple’s reputation as a leader in innovation is well established, even legendary. But Apple’s successes aren’t just good business for Apple…they’re the source of competing and complementary inventions that never break orbit from Apple Inc. In other words, while some companies build products, Apple builds entire industries.

In many cases, Apple did not pioneer the technology that it became famous for (many credit the Newton as being the first PDA, which it is not). But, the company’s flair for capturing the imagination of businesses and of the public has made it the bellwether that other companies admit to following.

Here’s a look at some of the ancillary industries created as a result of Apple:

Mice

Apple Inc. did not invent the mouse--that milestone in interface technology goes to Dr. Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute and later used by Xerox--but the nascent company popularized the use of mice in 1984, when it released the Apple Macintosh.

Now most computers use mice in multiple sizes, shapes, and button configurations. Companies have been created to build a better mouse, and existing companies like Kensington, Logitech, and Creative, count mice as a staple of their product line.

Although Juan Rodriguez, global product manager of living space for Kensington, could not determine how many mice Kensington produces in a year, he agrees that the Macintosh’s use of the mouse has had an impact on Kensington’s business.

In fact, Kensington’s first product was made for the Apple II, back in 1981. “Our relationship with Apple goes back to our System Saver, a cooling power auxiliary device for the first Macintoshes,” Rodriguez said. Kensington has also built trackballs and other peripherals for the Macintosh.

Podcasting

Although podcasting came into existence just before the iPod, the fact that it’s called “podcasting” (coined by journalist Ben Hammersley in 2004) is a testament to the fact that Apple’s player boosted do-it-yourself audio content from a fringe activity to a mainstream medium that challenges broadcast radio.

Todd Cochrane, CEO of RawVoice, a podcast advertising company, has tracked between 25,000 to 30,000 podcasters. Five percent of these podcast full time (others broadcast as a hobby or a part-time). Cochrane, who represents 2,800 podcasters, says he writes checks for his clients that range from $30 to $15,000 each month.

The podcast industry is also buoying makers of audio equipment and editing software. Although podcasters can easily create shows using inexpensive microphones and free software (such as Audacity), some can lay out hundreds, even thousands of dollars on a microphone and editing software (like the Peak Pro XT) plus supplemental expenditures like a Microphone Pop Filter. With the podcast industry growing exponentially, these manufacturers will grow along with them.

In addition, small consultancies like Adam Weiss: Podcast Consultant and Morley Studios now exist to help podcasters grow from small time to prime time or to create podcasts for existing businesses.

MP3 Players

Before the original 5GB iPod hit the market, the Nomad Jukebox was the MP3 player of choice for people who traded the convenience of freedom from CDs for a clunky Diskman clone with poor battery life. Then came the iPod, a music player with sharp good looks that can slip into your pocket. It rapidly became the world’s best-selling MP3 player.

Jon Tackabury, who created iTunes Sync—software that allows non-iPod MP3 players to synchronize with iTunes—said that only the tech-savvy knew what MP3 players were before the advent of the iPod. He believes the iPod made MP3 players cool enough to pique the interest of the general public. MP3 manufacturers took notice: where twenty MP3 players existed before the iPod, almost 300 exist now.

Although the iPod is a wonderful gadget, it has several gaps that rivals seek to fill. For example, the Zune can send and receive music wirelessly; other MP3 players offer the ability to tune into radio and can support other formats (like Ogg Vorbis). And then there’s the cost. Tackabury said, “The iPod has a huge price premium. Even the nano is still pretty expensive considering the storage you get.”

As long as people crave on-the-go tunes and don’t care to shell out the price of an iPod or crave a feature Apple has not yet seen fit to add, the rest of the MP3 market will be there to sop up the iPod’s run-offs. For example, Tackabury owns an iPod, but he purchased the less-expensive Sansa ($30) for his children.

Online Music Stores

In the beginning, Shawn Fanning created Napster, an online service that allowed people to share music across the Internet. But the Recording Industry Association of America looked upon it and saw that it was bad.

And Steve Jobs said, “Let there be iTunes,” a music store that charged 99¢ cents a song, and the RIAA (and Apple’s new partners, such as Sony, Universal, and Warner) saw that it was good.

So did the customers. Since launching on April 28, 2003, the iTunes music store has earned itself a majority share of the online music market: today 80% of all purchased music comes from iTunes.

“Apple created the market for paid digital downloads,” according to Joshua Boltuch, co-founder of Amie Street.com. Now companies such as his (almost twenty of them have catalogs of over 1 million songs) employ dozens of people. Napster, the portable subscription service that arose from the ashes of the first bankrupt company, employs over 100 people.

To carve out new niches in the industry, Apple’s competitors have found ways to engage the public in a way that Apple does not. For example, Amie Street bridges the gap between iTunes and Napster by allowing a more flexible payment schedule: songs start out free, but the more recommendations a song has, the more it costs, up to 98¢. Amie Street also has its own social networking site.

Of course, music downloaded by Amie Street can be played on an iPod and organized in iTunes.

Handheld Computing

The Casio PF-3000, the world’s first “digital diary” was released in 1983, and the Newton was released ten years later. So how can we claim the Newton was responsible for the handheld computing industry?

Apple’s Newton paved the way for the Palm and the PDA because it bundled many features that already existed, like a calendar, address book, and desktop computer synchronization, and married it to handwriting recognition. Palm simplified their PalmPilot’s handwriting recognition input, and a handheld revolution was born.

Okay, this is really Palm’s victory. But the Newton was there first.

Small Form Factor PCs

Apple’s G5 Cube launched in 2000. Shuttle, perhaps the best-known manufacturer of no-bigger-than-a-breadbox Small Form Factor (SFF) computers, launched their first model in 2001. Want to guess where Shuttle Inc. and the rest of the SFF industry got their inspiration from?

The NeXTCube, most likely, released in 1988, and acquired by Apple in 1996.

But the Cube was marketed as both a computer and a triumph of design. Businesses took notice. Currently, more than 75 SFF computers models are available. Coincidence?

Microsoft

Kidding. But you have to admit, Microsoft has done pretty well out of selling operating systems based on the concept of WIMP (Window Icon Mouse Pointer), a concept pioneered at Xerox Parc but brought to the public with Apple’s Lisa and original Macintosh computers.