Apple Has Finally Begun Killing Their Horrible Mouse

It’s time to give my hands a break

De Christopher W. in Wikipedia

Two Apple products are sounding the death knell of their mouse, one available now and one scheduled to come out next year.

I’m happy because Apple has struggled with their mouse since introducing the hockey puck mouse that came with the fruity iMacs in 1998.

I liked the curvy mouse they released in 1993, but mainly because the slight plastic(?) texture made it easier to hold.

The mouse with the little ball on top was a train wreck. I broke the button on it numerous times.

The Magic Mouse has a couple of issues.

One is the idiotic way to charge it. Come on, Apple, why haven’t you fired the person responsible for designing the charging port on the bottom?!

It’s also not ergonomically friendly. Who’s hand is this supposed to fit? I recently came across a product called MouseBase, a cradle you put your Magic Mouse into to make it more hand-friendly. The fact a product like this exists makes my point.

Maybe I’m just hard to please in the mouse department. I’ve tried third-party mice, but most of these are made for PC’s, so not all buttons were programmable.

The death of Apple’s mouse has been predicted before, most notably when the trackpad was introduced in 2011. But then Apple added similar gestures to their Magic Mouse, enabling their mice to stick around for many more years.

However, it feels like Apple is now doubling down on gestures that don’t require you to touch a device.

For example, the recently launched Apple Watch 9 has a feature called Double Tap. You can do things like answer a call or play and pause your music simply by double-tapping your thumb and index finger.

The Vision Pro coming out next year has eye tracking and gestures. You can type on a virtual keyboard without actually touching anything.

While gesture-based devices are not new, Apple does have an excellent track record of bringing these innovations into the mainstream.

Gesture-based devices will also increase usability for those suffering from accessibility issues.

To be fair, the Apple mouse has not always been the worst pointing device. That crown belongs to those nubby little joysticks on the IBM ThinkPads.

I know you may love your Magic Mouse, but then I will put you in the same category as my wife, who refuses to give up her roller ball mouse. I hate needing to use or fix her work or personal laptops. The cursor seems to be swirling around at random.

She says she’s been using a roller ball mouse for almost 30 years, so it may simply be a case of “she’s too used to it to try anything else.”

All I know is that I am cheering on the gesture revolution.

I’ve been seeing it in movies for years, and it’s about time the real world catches up.

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