Mighty Mouse - October 21

A couple of days ago Apple unveiled a whole truckload of new products that they're releasing including this multi-touch, buttonless, wheel-less mouse. It works like this. You simply click something just push down on the top left of the mouse, to right click push down on the top right. Need to scroll down? Just run your finger down the mouse and it will scroll, same with side to side. Something that really sets it apart that other mice don't have the capability of doing is the full 360 degree scroll which you can do by moving your finger in a circular motion. This will make it easier to work with large photos or files that have a size much larger than the window it's in. To zoom in, hold the control key and run your finger up or down the mouse to zoom in and out respectively. And if you don't like any of those features you can just stick with the good ol point and click. And lefties don't need to worry, left and right click can be switched around and customized.

Sounds great huh?! Well it doesn't seem very practical, especially to someone who doesn't usually use a mac. I don't really understand how it's easier to move your finger in an unnatual motion down the mouse to scroll than to use a scroll wheel. This way makes it seem like you almost have to lift your hand up, especially if you don't have the most nimble of hands. While I do think that superscroll feature is pretty cool, how useful will it really be to someone who doesn't work with editing programs? I would hate to be playing a game, accidently make that motion, and all of a sudden I have my grenade out with the pin pulled because I accidently touched the top left to set my hand back down. The lack of feedback is going to absolutely destroy people's experience using this. People are used to instant feed back when they use a computer, if there isn't any then SOMETHING must be wrong. Think about how hard it would be to use a keyboard that was completely touch based, and the only feedback you got was on the screen. This mouse is made for anyone but a normal user. Yes it may lead to better designs, I really truly hope it does, but please leave us the buttons until then.