With an oldie, but a goodie, AppleInsider dishes the dirt on Apple’s “jaw-dropping” new two-button mouse.
“According to sources who have so far filed accurate reports on Apple’s future hardware plans, the company is feverishly working on a two-button wireless optical mouse that it intends to release,” Katie Marsal reports for AppleInsider. “Apple enthusiasts have longed for an Apple-branded two-button mouse for over a decade, but their requests have gone unanswered. So what has changed? According to sources, ‘it’s the company.’ With Apple now profiting from low-priced consumer electronics as it makes a push to reclaim market share from Windows, a two-button mouse is ‘almost an essential,’ sources said. It’s unclear when the computer maker plans to introduce the mouse. Insiders warned that anticipation may continue to build for months as the company perfects the product.”
Marsal also reports on rumors of new Apple AirPort wireless base stations in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Question one has to be, is this finally going to happen this time? Question two would be, how “feverishly” long does Apple have to work to “perfect” a two-button mouse? Question three has to be, of course, is there any Mac-related rumor older than the one regarding a two-button Apple mouse? For the record, we’d like an Apple-branded two-button mouse to be available, though not necessarily shipped as standard for Apple’s consumer Mac models. BTW, we currently use the Kensington Studio Mouse (three buttons and a scroll sensor) on all of our Macs.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Why Apple ships a one-button mouse even though Mac OS X supports multi-button mice – January 29, 2005
Macworld Poll: 34 percent say Apple Mac one-button mouse a mistake – April 07, 2004
Why no Apple two-button mouse? – September 17, 2003
The time has come for Apple to ship a two-button scroll mouse standard – June 09, 2003
Should Apple reconsider the one-button mouse? – October 23, 2002
About bloody time! I’ve been using a Logitech mouse with my iBook for a year now. It’s absolutely mandatory. I hope the Apple one will have some sort of scroll wheel, too.
Yea, that’s pretty funny to say they are feverishly working on a two button mouse, as if they just got wind of the demand over the weekend, and as MDN points out, how can the design wizards of the Mac MIni, iMac, and iPod need years to come up with an Apple-branded mouse feauturing not one -but two – buttons.
More importantly – when will the split-button trackpad emerge?
make it so
WOW. They are so innovative. Two button mice are so, like, 1995. What really ticks me off, is that the new trackpads dont allow for clicking using the pad like the older PowerBooks…Weak.
Hey, April 1st is still 2 1/2 weeks away. A little early on this aren’t we?
I guarantee the Apple two button will be the sweetest two button on the market. I bet the scroll wheel wo’t be a wheel at all, but a something you just slide your fingers over to scroll, using the same tech on the iPod…
my two cents…
I’ll bet it’s not a two button mouse but a no moveable parts mouse with a strip of tracpad arc-ing around the front 1/3rd that can be programmed for tapping/scrolling or up to 8 different zones for clicking.
That way apple can make a multi-button mouse without making a two button mouse.
magic word finally… as in blah, blah, blah..
Apple should no longer sell any of their own input devices. They used to make really solid, industry leading keyboards and mice, but no more. Apple favors form over function too much.
Two buttons, shmoo buttons! I’m perfactly content with a one button mouse. I’ve used a two button mouse with my Mac before and, frankly, I just don’t see any need for it. Follow Thoreau’s advice and “simplify, simplify, simplify”.
I’ll bet it’s a hot-diggety, souped-up, sensor-laden, nuclear-powered, pinstripe-bearing, four-button-on-the-floor, leather steering wheel, double-barrel carb, dual-exhaust, pimp-rockin, jam-daddy, sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet mother of a ride!
Gimme a break. Apple and two-button mice go together like Michael Jackson and other people’s kids.
Of course, if it’s from Apple, you know it’s gonna be cool, daddy-o’s!
I like the mice from http://www.macmice.com
Unfortunately I can’t say anything of their functionality as I’ve never used one.
I’m surprised that Apple hasn’t said anything in regards to their obvious similarities to the current single button mice from Apple.
perhaps Tiger has a lot of built-in features for a second mouse button and Apple is trying to get their mouse finished before it releases Tiger
kernalpanic:
you said: “new trackpads dont allow for clicking using the pad like the older PowerBooks…”
You are kidding me right? My white iBook does. It’s under system preferences. Are you sure? You are kidding me right? I was looking to get a new Powerbook or iBook.
I am going to try it before I buy it. If the iBooks do it I am getting that instead.
G Spank, the scroll-less scrollwheel is already a part of the Kensington Studio Mouse mentioned by MDN.
How about simply a mouse with the iPod click wheel?
Jeez — Jef Raskin dies and his legacy just goes down the shithole.
I use MS 4-button + scroll mouses on all my Macs, but I think that for beginning users the single button mouse is the right thing.
Of course, most people out there now have used PCs before, so the benefit is dwindling.
Apple should offer the choice of mouses. Of course, that would probably mean they’d have a warehouse full of single-buttons sitting unused somewhere.
king_alvarez,
OS X has ALWAYS had support for right-clicking. It’s intuitive and more efficient than CNTL-clicking.
Yes, the track pads on newer iBooks do allow tapping on the pad for clicks. It’s under system preferences.
It works great.
Bet all of you are at home beating off with excitment that Apple will bring a two button mouse to our world. Laughing my ass off!
FINALLY!!! If true, it couldn’t come at a better time. The one-button mouse was obsolete 10 years ago at least. It’s one of Apple’s biggest marketing failures. Anyone who uses a multi-button scroll mouse knows what I mean.
gosh, it’s rather chilly in hell today…
Zupchuck,
Yeah I know about the support as I eventually gave up the aesthetically pleasing Apple mouse and transitioned to a two-button mouse myself. I was just thinking that perhaps Tiger had more uses for the second button than previous OS X versions…or maybe even a new idea that goes beyond what everyone is expecting…something as revolutionary as the mouse itself was decades ago.
How about this. They put a scroll wheel lifted from the iPod onto the mouse. Split the scrool wheel into half. Then by “scrolling” you go up/down the page. Clicking either crescent of the wheel scrolls left and right and the centre button retains the one click effect as with thodays one button mouse. Or the middle button is not present and the whole chassis click as it does today. Just a thought.
Easy. Apple is intergrating their iPod wheel design into a mouse. Buttons for left/right clicking, plus you can scroll pages by moving your finger in a circluar pattern on the mouse.