Magic Mouse - The world’s first Multi-Touch mouse | Hacker News Reader

Magic Mouse - The world’s first Multi-Touch mouse

apple.com

22 pointsajbatac28 comments

Apple lost something big when they lost Jef Raskin.

The genius behind his one-button mouse was not that it looked simple, but that it was simple. You could do one thing. Click. And it was easy to see that that was all you could do.

Looking at the Magic Mouse, it's entirely unclear what operations are afforded to the user. Can I click? double-click? scroll? swipe? Without prior knowledge of Apple products, one is forced to read an instruction manual to determine the sundry operations this device is capable of. (Has the design team misplaced their copy of Psychology of Everyday Things? This violates rule #1.)

Visibilty of affordances was the reason Apple pioneered the GUI to begin with. Hiding the affordances of what is arguably the main input device on a computer is more than a step backward.

I agree with you that good UI should have affordances that are easy to use. But, you are missing a bit point in why this mouse is good for UI; The single button is still there in primary action without any need for tutelage. The things that people may need help on is the advanced features that most people will not use. I agree with PoET in things that you don't use everyday should be easy to grok without a minimum of effort but I think that with something so essential to the modern computing experience that we are OK with making some features harder to understand to for the novice in making the device that more valuable to the advanced user. (But really, other than moving the cursor, the mouse only has 5 things it can do if you count the swipe gesture as two operations.)

Good point. I think you nailed my problem, that I am not an every-day user of OS X :) but I expect there to be affordances for "advanced" features. This is really no different from their current trackpad offerings -- when I use a friend's MacBook, I'm usually befuddled enough by the trackpad that I stick to basic point+click+keyboard.

There needs to be some balance between discoverability and usability. The most discoverable interface, after all, is a black screen that does nothing. It doesn't do anything, so it's easy to learn. It's also completely useless.

Remember mice before they had scroll wheels? Neither do I -- my brain has blocked out that painful memory. (It may have been "hard to learn to use", but once you learn a simple motion it makes every day significantly easier. Multi-touch may be similar, or it may not be... I can't say since I avoid the mouse now.)

What I hate about the previous mouse from Apple is having to lift your index finger in order to right click.

Some of my right-clicks were lost which is very frustrating.

I really hope they addressed the problem.

You might want to try one hands-on before you order it.

the video shows the exact lifting of the index finger as you are describing so it doesn't look like that is going to change

Since it can detect two fingers, you'd think users would be able to customize a two-finger-click as a right click >_>.

I really hope that is not the case because I think this mouse could be excellent if it actually knew where the rmb was.

I have a suspicion that the video did this just to emphasize the right mouse click for video and not because it was a physical limitation of the device. Or at least that is my wishful thinking because I really like the MBP multitouch trackpad.

I can't wait to try this out. I've been hooked on the multi-touch on my MBP and can't stand having to go back to an old mouse when I connect the laptop to to my 24" monitor.

It looks interesting, but I wonder if all that side to side finger movement will be a new source of repetitive stress?

First thing that came to my mind. Also, pressing on a surface with zero physical or simulated haptic feedback over and over.

(How are people in general holding up to their iPhones?)

I haven't used one yet, but if you watch the videos closely, you can see it seems to physically move when clicked.

Like the mighty mouse before, this mouse too is unusable for Unreal Tournament 2004 (and probably other games, but for me, only UT matters these days) as it does not allow the user to press both mouse buttons at once.

Keep that in mind.

Also: Why wireless only? I never felt hindered by the wire and I certainly don't see a reason to waste even more batteries.

Also, I feel much more accurate and comfortable using a trackball, but this certainly is a very personal point.

$69 in USA || £55 ($90) in UK || €69 ($103) in the rest of Europe

How do you middle-click?

I prefer to use my multi-touch keyboard instead.

I want a keyboard that can detect finger movements on the surface of the keys. Imagine tiny touchpads on each key.

The keys stay tactile, and you can use the whole keyboard surface like a large touchpad.

Not tactile, but http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html

Apple bought them. Hence seeing the technology in iPhone multitouch, gestures, recently in touchpads and now mouse.

Very interesting. I don't think I would ever enjoy using a keyboard like this, but I kept reading their site because they had a section about Emacs commands. (I have found enough keys to do everything they advertise in one key sequence... but at least they are trying. Much better than "hurr, you can zoom Google Maps more easily.")

I'm a vi user, but only use when I ssh to a shell. When I'm in vi I usually switch to my laptop keyboard unless it's just a few keys :) Have never bothered learning the vi (or emacs) gestures.

I never timed, but it never felt like I was typing very slowly once I got used to it. The gestures like opening/closing a window, exiting an app, copy and paste etc is really handy. Especially as they apply across all apps, not just within a specific editor. The gestures are also configurable, and supports different OS modes. Most importantly, it reduced the pain in my wrists and fingers (might just have been a side effect of typing slower).

Bought it about 6 years ago, have been using it since. Was pretty disappointed when I heard the company has closed down. And a few years later when I heard about the iPhone pinch gestures, my first thought was - this must be the reason!

The PS3 Messaging pad has a function like this so you can rub your finger across the surface of the keys to move the mouse pointer. :)

hopefully it handles repositioning of your hand okay. why no pinch to zoom though?

ha! just watched a video demonstration. the phrase "oops I didn't mean to do that" was heard a few times in less than 5 minutes. Of course with any new tech you have a period of adjustment...

Wondering why it doesn't have 3/4 finger gestures, like the trackpad does

Because you have to hold it (likely between thumb and ring finger) while you do the gestures. You'd have to use both hands to pull off a four-finger gesture.

What bothers me is the inability to buy a USB multitouch trackpad. I've only seen one model for sale, only in Japan, and lacking Mac drivers.

Apple is personally responsible, they bought out the company that created the original (or at least first commercially succesful one) http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html

You can pick them up on ebay but they're now quite old and extremely expensive.

Well, it's even worse than that.

Many modern touchpads support multitouch in hardware but it's disabled in drivers [1].

I believe it has something to do with Apple sitting on multitouch patents. Even Android phones were supposed not to have multitouch because of Apple.

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[1] For example Synaptics ones in Thinkpads. You can get multitouch using modded drivers.

Can anything capture the tactile sensation of clicking better than actually clicking?

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