Apple's mouse is so bad Tim Cook uses another brand at work (2024)
glassalmanac.com
glassalmanac.com
I also have one and I can confirm that it’s a hell of a mouse. I would recommend it for nearly every type of intensive computer work: web browser stuff, CAD, software development, spreadsheets, editing tasks, anything really. I’ve had people try to convince me to switch before and I never believed it’d make a difference until eventually a friend (mechanical engineer) just gave me hers and now I can’t live without it.
Tip, if you don’t want to use the Logitech bloatware the apps LinearMouse and Mac Mouse Fix are both open source and help you get some of the advanced functionality back.
It turns out that you need third party tools for non-Apple mice, like Mac Mouse Fix.
Keyboard isn't much better, since Apple encourages you to bring your own keyboard, but doesn't even ship a keymap for PC keyboards.
It turns out that you need third party tools for
non-Apple mice, like Mac Mouse Fix.
It's been many years (10?) since I tried a 3rd party BT mouse with Macs. I remember it always sucking with both Logitech and (I think?) Microsoft mice.
FWIW they've always worked flawlessly with the previous-generation Logitech Nano receivers. I dunno anything about these "Logitech Bolt" receivers, other than that they appear to be USB-C and not USB-A which is kind of maddening.
I'd love a USB-C version.
https://wccftech.com/tim-cool-does-not-prefer-logitech-mx-ma...
Ooo - didn't know about that. Will have to test it out
The only thing I would wish for in a v4 is faster polling rate. I think it’s 1000 hz now. So not the best for gaming.
Even if we accept that wireless is "better", having the battery easily swappable in a few seconds would cost nothing and make the product much better.
And I don't think cables are that big of a problem on mouse, especially if they are correctly engineered with enough length, you just don't notice them and it's more a look thing that anything else really. This is particularly true if you heavily use the computer and the mouse, the benefits of wireless are badly counterbalanced by the annoyance of battery management. Freedom has a cost that is not always really worth it.
At least in the MX Master case you can use it wired if you wish, so it's not too bad.
Or they could come up with a shape that is similar but fits my own hand even better; that would be cool. The MX Master is the best I’ve found in recent years, but even so it’s not quite perfect.
Many years ago, Logitech used to make left-handed mice. No more :-(
So I switched to a 3DConnexion CadMouse Pro Wireless Left... The battery is still (semi-?)OK, but it feels like the buttons on it are giving up. :-( :-(
ETA: No, seems the name is actually “INFINMIND”, with only three i's. But Google found hardly anything with that spelling; with the extra i, it found much more... pointers to "Infinmind" mice. Weird.
To be honest, your whole comment seems to be very out of touch when it comes to modern PC gaming.
I also have a Magic Mouse (the V2, my V1 broke) and I have a wired Mighty mouse before. Outside of the ball being replaced by tactile scrolling, the wired mouse was a better product.
And if you had done your research, you would know that there is very little correlation between gaming peripherals and gamer level/quality. It just doesn't matter that much and those who play a lot will have 2 wireless mouse or one of the pads to make up for the annoyance of battery management (but it has a cost and is just a waste generally).
I don't want to call you an idiot, but I have knowledge on the subject far deeper than you can imagine, so I would say you are the one out of touch.
I think there's this perception that Apple is this authoritarian company that will execute you for using any competitors' product, but that really wasn't the case. When COVID hit, I bought a giant Samsung TV to use as a monitor, expensed it, and it was approved within the same day. For the first six months I was there, I used an Android, and it worked fine enough for that, even for 2FA stuff.
I don't really blame Tim Cook for using a different brand of mouse. It doesn't even imply that it's bad, just not the one he uses.
I will complain about my time at Apple all the time, but this is not something that I thought they were bad about.
Apple mice have always been bad.
One button mice were "simpler", but if everybody had to also learn to press control+click it wasn't really one-button.
Ahd how did they ever ship that round mouse you could never orient? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_puck_mouse
By thw way, have you ever tried to use a mighty mouse with an FPS game? It doesn't really work. Most games use one button for fire, the other for zoom. But you have to lift your fire finger off the mouse to click the zoom button.
the magic mouse... even worse.
I won't even go into games and apple, they're bad at that too.
Tesla is going down the same road, removing stalks and everything on the touchscreen.
Far from the most important mystery. But, the most baffling.
It's just bizarre because they tend to get other ergo factors right, such as making the best touchpads in the business.
Their 5-year nightmare of bad laptop keyboards was frustrating but at least there was an explanation: it seemed to pretty clearly be an artifact of Ive prioritizing thinness over functionality, and thankfully they belatedly righted themselves. The mouse situation just has no obvious explanation.
One can only imagine that the team responsible for designing the mice is some kind of third-class citizen inside Apple. But like... have the people on that team ever used their own products?!? How does that team use their own crap, and then use a Logitech mouse or even a $12 generic mouse from Amazon, and think they are competitive?
I've met and worked with lots of apple developers. Many truly are fighting the good fight. Some are quite good, but wisely can only shrug about some apple-isms. You can only do so much.
But there are a few I've met that ... they are certain apple can do no wrong. sigh.
You will not yet escape them on "Hacker" News.
By default, Apple expects you to own the Magic Mouse. Which is probably a part of their plan to upsell you to the Magic Trackpad - the rift in quality between the two accessories is so great that it's hard to imagine they're made by the same company.
I think it's like the IBM keyboard nipple. I have one on my Thinkpad, but I never use it, but I know some people who refuse to use anything else.
ETA:
I never liked the multitouch mice either.
They have cultivated this like a bonsai, carefully making a thousand precision papercuts to ensure competitors have to be inferior. And Schiller testified a few weeks ago that Cook is the artist.
> Soon after, The Verge's Wes Davis attempted to replicate using every Apple product in a single day. During that day, Davis said he mostly used the MX Master 3, but sometimes switched to a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad.
> In other words, it was Davis who said he himself used a Logitech mouse, not Cook.
As usual though, rebuttals/acquittals/etc never get as much traction as the original bs or accusations...
[0] https://www.macrumors.com/2024/11/17/tim-cook-didnt-say-that...
It's been the same since the 90's. If you buy a mac, the first thing you should do is replace the mouse.
I remeber that hullaballo a few years ago, when they introduced a mouse with the charging port on the bottom, so you couldn't charge it and use it at the same time.
Are you saying they still build them that way?!?
> I mostly use a Logitech MX Master 3 but sometimes switch to a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad for funsies.
Which references a WSJ story, but either that was edited, or the link is wrong https://www.wsj.com/style/tim-cook-interview-apple-intellige... https://archive.is/3TwLu
The USB port isn’t the issue: you plug in your mouse, go make a cup of coffee or go get your lunch and your mouse is fine in a few minutes.
The bigger issue is that it’s not a very nice to use mouse. Apple mice haven’t been good in a while.
Magic Trackpad on the other hand is fantastic.
I don't get 10% as angry as most people regarding e.g. removing the audio jack, the MacBook USB power port, the touch bar, the shape of the mouse, lack of side-loading on iOS, app store rules, etc etc. Those were/are all bad - but I also see the other side of all of them.
The USB port being on the bottom of the mouse isn't in that list. It's like seeing insanity in a physical form. It's unaccountable.
Also the port is a retrofit over the previous model which took a pair of AA batteries.
It’s not some terrible design choice from Apple, it’s a lazy revision to an old removable battery mouse without much effort needed to update the plastic tooling to make it.
Apple isn't doing that so much now, maybe they can make a good mouse again with a port that lets it work as both a wired and wireless device. The way the Magic Trackpad does it is very nice.
For a company that prides itself for having very good UX and "it just works", the decision to put the port on the bottom is indefensible.
Worrying about the battery goes from a question of "rarely" to "literally never". And I never have to ask myself where the dongle is, which computer it's paired to, or the amount of wireless interference from my neighbors.
It's meant to compete with the junky little thing you get with your PC that's wired, with who-knows-what DPI and 3 buttons at best. It's meant to be something that slips into your laptop bag and doesn't add *any* more bulk than the laptop itself.
So, editorialized, "of course" he's not going to be using an entry level mouse for power user usage.
That doesn't change the reality of how good or bad Apple's mouse is because it's not being sold to a power user. From what I've seen, power users tend to use that magic track pad thing, if they're Apple power users using Apple things.
junky little thing you get with your PC that's wired
Mine is that generic ultra-cheap wired optical mice have been Totally Fine™ now for roughly 20 years! It's a completely solved problem.
They track fine, they have more than enough DPI for anybody except maybe hardcore twitch action gamers, and they all have vaguely ergonomic sculpted shapes.
Apple's mice lose out for me before I move the pointer because the first thing I notice is that the shape of the mouse itself has more or less no correlation with the shape of a human hand. It always feels like you're grasping some weird foreign object.
It's known as the Apple Tax because it's common.
Non-power users have complained about getting RSI because of it.
Of all the strange things Apple decides to compete in, why would Apple be trying to compete with logitech at twice the price? Honestly don't know why Apple bothers with peripherals though, its not like their keyboards are worth writing home about either.
If you want some stylish things there ya go. More specific features, yeah go get that.
I can't stop horizontal scrolling when I absolutely don't want it. I tried all the mouse settings and probed the mysteries of GIMP key remapping (it still may be there)
Excellent resolution, but sometimes freaky to use.
I really don't want to pay for software to fix all this.
I got an MX keys keyboard because Apple doesn't sell a lighted one except in laptops.
Plus horizontally scrolling on long lines of code (or terminal output) is unbeatable.
Am I the only one in the world who absolutely loves the Magic Mouse.
(I don't think that's bad or wrong. Input devices are very personal. I am glad they work for you)
- Is Apple’s mouse so bad that even Tim Cook prefers using a different brand ? (sic, can't even get spaces right in the title)
- Apple’s mouse is so bad that Tim Cook prefers using a different brand for work.
- Apple’s Own Mouse Falls Short, Even Tim Cook Opts for Another Brand
Shit editing elsewhere gives it away too, like literally missing the very first character in the first paragraph.
While the topic is somewhat interesting, this kind of garbage site should be flagged and killed.
Edit: Turns out the whole premise is blatantly false in the first place, according to the top comment of an earlier submission of the same blogspam (flagged):
> This is apparently a misattribution: https://www.macrumors.com/2024/11/17/tim-cook-didnt-say-that...
> > The Wall Street Journal last month published an interview with Cook, in which he said he uses every Apple product every day. Soon after, The Verge's Wes Davis attempted to replicate using every Apple product in a single day. During that day, Davis said he mostly used the MX Master 3, but sometimes switched to a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad.
> > In other words, it was Davis who said he himself used a Logitech mouse, not Cook.
No, Tim Cook doesn’t use a Logitech at work. This is a misinterpretation of an article from last November: https://www.macrumors.com/2024/11/17/tim-cook-didnt-say-that...