“If AppleInsider’s reports are to be believed, it appears as though Apple, after nearly more than 20 years of preaching the finer points of key strokes, has caved in to the pressure and is ‘feverishly working on a two-button wireless optical mouse,'” Michael Simon writes for Spymac. “Why now? Two words: Mac mini.”
“I’m guessing sales of the little wonder are far exceeding Apple’s most generous estimates while mouse sales are proportionately lagging. By offering a two-button mouse direct from Apple, all those switchers who just can’t seem to figure out the point of a single button will have an option to complete their aesthetically-pleasing computer with an equally-eye-appealing mouse,” Simon writes. “But rest assured, Apple’s one-button mouse will never be discontinued, and I’m quite certain it will remain the default on all new Macs. But with a two-button option, switching shoppers will likely linger in Apple’s store just a little longer before running home with their new Mac mini. So don’t be offended, and stop preaching all those doomsday prophesies. It’s not the end of the world, nor is it the end of Apple’s trademark one-button mouse. Think of it as nothing more than the start of a new world of Apple-branded options.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote earlier this week when this endlessly-recycled rumor resurfaced, we’d like an Apple-branded two-button mouse to be available, though not necessarily shipped as standard for Apple’s consumer Mac models. Like many of you, judging by your email from the previous “mouse” article, we currently use the Kensington Studio Mouse (three buttons and a scroll sensor) on our Macs, while the one-button Apple mice that shipped with our Macs sit in their boxes doing nothing.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
RUMOR: Apple may soon debut two-button mouse – March 15, 2005
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
It should be the other way around: the single Apple mouse as an option for kindergarten and granny.
When I switched to Mac, I bought an iBook, and since it only has a one button trackpad, I had to learn the one-button way. It has been a god-send in terms of my productivity. The mouse is the key to slowness, and since a one button mouse sort of forces you to learn keyboard shortcuts, I have suddenly become a keyboard shortcut expert. I have Apple to thank for helping me realize all the productivity I have been missing all these years. So, thank you Apple for sticking to your guns and forcing me to become a better computer user.
PS I know I could have bought a seperate two button mouse if I’d wanted, but I knew there had to be a reason for Apple not going the two button way, so I stuck it out.
It’s about friggin time! I hope it comes with a scroll wheel too.
“…I knew there had to be a reason for Apple not going the two button way, so I stuck it out.”
hmmm…Stubbornness…
For god sakes, don’t justify Apple’s weaknesses.
A one-button mouse to remain the default of all Macs???? I don’t think so. The one-button mouse has been dead for 10 years. Apple’s obstinate position on this has been one of it’s greatest blunders. If you want to attract Windows users, you have to CATER to them. Multi-button scroll mice are the standard and are the choice of anyone who uses a computer for games and/or productivity. Using a one-button mouse and a freaking keystroke to pop up contextual menus is counter to Apple’s ease-of-use philosophy. Get rid of the damn one-button mouse already. It’s insulting to everyone’s intelligence. And you Macheads who stubbornly cling to the one-button philosophy, you need to let go and open your eyes. Keep your damn one-button mouse while the rest of us move into the 21st century. The one-button mouse, lack of software, price, and unituitive method of finding and launching apps in OSX are, IMHO, key areas in need of change. If Apple put half as much energy into its computers as it does with iTunes and iPods, we’d be done already!!!
Well said, iMaki. Finally, someone on this board not afraid to at least mention some of Apple’s weaknesses.
As a Laptop user, I love the single button design. Using the touchpad I move the cursor with my forfinger and use my thumb to select. On Windows laptops, which I have to use from time to time, I hit the wrong button 50% of the time.
I watch other windows users with laptops and they’re either using 2 hands, or they have to stop and look at what button they’re about to press. Either way it wastes time.
Please, Apple, retain the single button on laptops, PLEASE!
I won’t believe Apple is going to sell a two-button mouse until I see it advertised on their website. Until then, this is all just wishful thinking.
How can something be “nearly more”?
You wanna know why I like the two button mouse with a clickable scroll wheel? PORN PORN PORN. I couldn’t imagine clicking through porn with a one button mouse. PORN speaks volumes more than any Mac fan about why the one button is better.
There’s your answer to a good reason why the two button mouse with a clickable scroll wheel is better. PORN surfing.
i think it is funny that the same people who want apple to switch to a two-button mouse because it is “standard” would barf if someone used that same argument to propose that windows is better than mac os x.
google desktop search is windows only… so why are there ads for it on a mac site?
All the whiners that are perpetually screaming for Apple to switch to a two-button mouse are the SAME people that shouted-down the iPod owners that prefer FireWire to, ‘Buy the damn FireWire cable if you want one!’.
Google might help you in your education as to why Apple PATENTED the one-button mouse, and how the ‘only-choice-available for the WinPC’, the’ two-button mouse’ never actually had a purpose until MS added contextual menus to their ‘OS’. In other words, a problem found a solution!
Please, try to think of the ‘control-click’ as though you might – by pressing the Shift Key you turn the ‘e’ into an ‘E’. What you want everyone to have is two UNLABELED keys for both the ‘e’ AND the ‘E’. Seriously consider that. (Ask call-center employees how confusing this is to many, many people. Mostly Windows customers!)
Apple, as do many of Apple’s customers, thinks the separation involved makes for better memory muscle.
Apple’s way: Shift-e becomes E.
OR…
The way you want everyone to tolerate: Left button is e and Right button is E. Or is that left is E and right is e? Remember, that the keys are infact UNLABELED.
Catching on, yet?
Anyway, if you don’t like the Apple provided USB2 cable…Ooops, I mean the one-button mouse, then you could always buy a damn two-button mouse!
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Oh, and game players that keep hammering your 9-button-mouse line.
It’s called GameCube, or PS2. Check into it.
Jeez, even an XBrick.
When exactly did it begin to make sense to spend $1000-1500 to play games? Is it spacebar that shoots or the s-key? Or the third of 9 mouse buttons? D’oh, I’ve got an email coming in!
If I were Apple I would make a multi-button (scroll wheel please) just for the Apple stores. You finally get the opportunity to have the typical windows user come in to check out your product and the very first thing they touch is something that they are generally not familiar with. The Apple mouse isn’t even a one button mouse it’s a zero button mouse.
iMaki re: the functional reasons why to use the multi-button mouse.
Maybe Apple, in a fit of benevolence is keeping the after market for mice “alive” so to speak. An aftermarket is good. It “cost” them nothing.
Oh, and if they did have a 2 button mouse, most of you would buy your favorite anyway. After all they probably wouldn’t be able to design the perfect mouse. If there were companies making aftermarket mice for the Mac.
mw soviet.
Who cares about buttons, it’s the clicks that count.
Walk into most any office running the standard outfit of cubicles and Windows PCs, ask 10 users what “right-click” means, and 7-8 of the 10 won’t know. And two-button mouse has been standard on Windows for what, 20-eleven years?
Most users don’t know what “right-click” does and don’t have much of an understanding of “context” information. That’s Windows users.
For Mac users, grab 10 of the average users (not power users, not those of us in the media, not instructions, but “average Mac users”) and ask them what “control-click” does on their Macs.
Again, 7-8 out of 10 won’t have any idea. It’s not that those users are stupid, it’s just that a “click” is what’s important to them, not all the “fancy” things you can do with a mouse.
That being said, I use a Microsoft two-button, scroll-wheel Explorer mouse. It’s great. I’d like Apple to make one like it, ’cause I’d rather have the money go to Apple (sorry, not buying the “wireless” hoopla) instead.
Why do I use a two-button mouse? Because I know how, I use the Mac much more than the average computer user, and I look for things to help productivity.
Most Mac and Windows users don’t. They simply “click” to get things done.
Tera Patricks
Mac360.com
There clearly are those here that do not understand Apple’s reason for using a one-button mouse. I’m surprised that the idea of elegant interface design holistically is lost on these Mac “enthusiasts”. For certainly only enthusiasts are reading and posting on this site.
When a major minority of users have one button, then designers must think of those users when designing the interface. This forces them to think about elegant user interface design.
You may have noticed that Mac programs usually sport better interfaces than Windows counterparts. That’s not just because the Mac is “superior” it’s a mindset that Apple doesn’t want ot lose, and I don’t want programmers to lose it either.
That said, I think Apple should support a UNIX-stlye 3-button system where the third button pastes selected text and where window focus follows the mouse, but ONLY as an option. It would confuse the heck out of my mom, but appreciate the ease of use when it came to moving data around multiple programs and windows.
I also wish Apple was consistant in the way they supported drag and drop text. Lately I’ve been quite frustrated when I select text in TextEdit and try to move it, only to have it create a new selection instead. What gives Apple?
MW: Wall – as in, MS has hit a usability wall and should throw Windows out and start again, just like Apple did with Mac. Will they? I bet they will, right after longhorn flops.
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From what I was told by the guys doing Digital video when I was studying graphic design is that a lot of menus and features in Maya and the other DV editing software (most of which have been or are being ported over to Mac) have menus built around the 4 button PC mouse. Although I dont actually use any of the software myself so i cant comment on the accuracy of the comments from waht I have been told is that it is somewhat harder to do the same stuff on a Mac using the keyboard, but that may be down to the user being more familiar with the PC versions than the Mac versions.
Cheers
“For god sakes, don’t justify Apple’s weaknesses.”
You do realize what site you’re on, don’t you?
The only people that crave a multi-button mouse are the “switchers” from the Wintel world that refuse to let go of their archaic PC habits. They insist that the rest of us, mainly Mac users/supporters from day-one, adopt and follow their old ways. NEVER!!
Wintel slugs NEED a multi-button mouse because Windows’ menus are difficult to navigate and the menu commands are accessed the easiest via contextual menus via the 2nd mouse button. Rather than simplifying their menus, Microsoft complicated things further with a second mouse button to access a shortened menu.
Apple does NOT need to do any “feverish research” to make a 2-button mouse. I am quite sure they have many such relics from the 1980’s engineering team sitting on shelves they could dust off and manufacture. But, Apple chooses not to. Why? It is simple; it is simplicity.
I have no doubt that Apple’s constant strive towards simplicity combined with their long experience with 64-bit machine code will soon produce a mouseless Mac OS; one that responds with a 99.999% accuracy to spoken words, and even nonspoken sounds such as tapping for those unable to speak. This was made evident (to those of us not too busy crunching on a 2nd mouse button) when Mac OS X 10.1 reworded some of the menu items so they did not sound the same when spoken (“Print Setup” became “Page Setup” so the Mac wouldn’t go running off to “Print” before the user could say “Setup”).
If you need an example of your Mac’s built in intelligence, highlight the following lines and have your Mac speak them (in the menu Safari > Services > Speech > Start Speaking Text)…
1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The dump was so full, that it had to refuse more refuse.
3. We must polish the Polish furniture.
4. The soldier decided to desert his dessert, in the desert.
5. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
6. I did not object to the object.
7. They were too close to the door to close it.
8. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
9. How can I intimate this, to my most intimate friend?
10. It’s time to wind down the wind farm.
I don’t think it will be in OS X Tiger, but an accurate and intelligent speech recognition interface would be enough by itself to introduce an all new OS 11.
Mac doesn’t even need a ONE-button mouse… Hell, they don’t need ANY stinkin’ mouse!!
I don’t understand the big demand for the 2 button mouse. Nor do I understand why people control-click on their Macs. I just simply hold my one button mouse down for a brief second and the context menu pops up. For me, it is much simpler to use than right clicking or left clicking on my PC’s two button mouse. However, there are times a scroll wheel would be nice.
I use a Kensington Turbo Mouse Pro Trackball with 11 buttons so I think you can guess my opinion. Apple offers multibutton mice by other manufacturers in their online store so it only makes sense that they offer a alternative in Apple Mice. All my one button Apple mice are gathering dust. I agree for beginners it might be nice but people aren’t beginners forever.
What will happen with laptops though? It always bugs me to have to go to one buttoning when I am on the road. The Powerbook 170 I owned had two buttons but I believe they both just did the same thing (and were not left-right but rather were upper-lower). Apple should offer two buttons in its laptops too – maybe it could have them both do the same thing usually and let you reset it in system preferences for basic users or people who prefer just one button (tho rare they are out there).
The Powerbook 170 also had a trackball rather than a touchpad and I MUCH preferred it to trackpads (trackpads, in my opinion, suck). I wish they would go back or offer an option (but that is probably just me – I got hooked on trackballs by Missile Command way back when)