You heard it here first; no feedback on the mouse click buttons or the scroll, a pain to use.
I saw it this morning on apple’s website and had the same reaction. The “mouse click” sensory feedback is an important feature on existing multi-button mice. From what I see there is no detent or movement at all in the apple mouse.
“Thanks to a smooth top shell with touch-sensitive technology beneath, Mighty Mouse allows you to right click without a right button. Capacitive sensors under Mighty Mouse’s seamless top shell detect where your fingers are and predict your clicking intentions, so you don’t need two buttons — just two fingers.”
Sounds like an interesting soulution, would like to try one to see if it in fact works, or just a pain in ass buttonless novelty.
$50 for a corded mouse? Yeah right…
You’d think apple would at least use Bluetooth on this thing!
You don’t see it, but it’s there–the entire top surface engages the switch.
This is obviously poor usability since there is no affordance for the button. This “two buttonless” mouse is worse yet (who’s to say it’s not a three or four button?) But then again, there’s no affordance for scrolling on the newer iPods: once you learn, you get it.
This is part of the “cache” appeal of the “new Apple” which has little to do with usability and everything to do with exclusivity. Simple yes, usable no.
But this is something you’ve already learned. You’ve been using mouse your whole life (my generation at least). Using a mouse has become so intuitive that affordance is no longer a factor in a big way. I think Apple understands this. I don’t think they’ll just put something out as gimmick. I give them credit for trying to evolve.
There are definitely pains associated with one-button mice. Apple likes to ignore the fact that they’ve been using command key modifiers as a crutch: “look, our computers are so easy to use you only need one button!” Yeah right!
Bottom line, this mouse wouldn’t pass my “Mom test.”
hmmm…sounds lowest comon denominatorish to me = boring outcomes zzzzzzzzzzzzz…
stephen berlin johnson claims we are collectively getting more intelligent. so why do we design for people as if they are a mass of unlearned troglydytes incapabale of learning.
cudos to apple for actually challenging users without confounding them.
stephen berlin johnson claims we are collectively getting more intelligent. so why do we design for people as if they are a mass of unlearned troglydytes incapabale of learning.
cudos to apple for actually challenging users without confounding them.[/quote]
do you really want to have to think about using everyday things like using a mouse? shouldn’t technology be something that improves our lives, not complicates them? is that not what the whole goal of innovation really is?
it sounds like you are saying that if people are capable of doing something on a extreme level, then it should be implemented into all products. how about we make your remote control out of solid steel - it will be stronger - plus we know you are up to the challenge of lifting the extra weight, right?
-the question man
I think you are misreading me. So far apple (ipod, mini, shuffle) has successfully asked more from the user without “losing” the user. The end result is an incredibly strong relationship between user and device because the device in a way subltly tells the user they are intelligent. In 30 seconds a person can figure out the Ipod’s UI without having to consult a manual or needing a million icons and colors to inform their decisions. 30 seconds is not too much time wasted “thinking” now is it?
Im not advocating design complexity for the sake of complexity. The user can be challenged to a degree with successful outcomes which the ipod,shuffle have proven and Im sure the “no button” mouse will prove. original ipod mouse excluded of course. 
strawman argument about the remote control and extreme tech. sorry but its a bad analogy.
There are learning curves with everything released now. You do have to think about using them and learn how to maximize their effectiveness thru instruction and useage and make that learning curve shallow, short an relevant to the task at hand. By a new cell phone and the feature creep eclipses most of the relevant features.
I’m on the fence about this, its seems simple enough, yet too complicated to pass the LCD (dumb it down so everyone can understand it) muster that marketing tends to have while giving the sales force the dearth of features to impress the biggest geek. While at the same time have that oh so niche exclusivity and mysteriousness that appeals to a Mac nut.
I dunno it does push the nut forward a bit.
funny, used to be the six year old test; but now tech advances so much most six year olds are more tech literate than their mom’s are.
innovate or die, right?
there is feedback to button clicking:
Mighty Mouse even sounds as good as it feels. The audio feedback built into Mighty Mouse provides an aural sensation that responds to your movements. When you scroll or click, Mighty Mouse produces subtle sound effects based on your actions.
I think its easy to dismiss this as crap, but I felt similarly about the ipod before I had used it in person with itunes. I would withhold judgement until you’ve tried it (I’m going to), hell they didn’t exactly rush at making a mouse with more than one button. I suspect (hope) they spent alot of time getting the ‘feel’ of this right.
Personally, I dislike wireless mice because they weight too much with batteries, though if I could lose the cord I would.
cg’s nailed it… Apple is form over function… Consider that it’s a company who’s ID department is so incredibly isolated from the rest of the organization and so omnipotently directed by one guy (steve) that the thought of real usability testing can’t even begin to enter the picture. It’s 90% cult of personality and 10% function… Apple ID doesn’t care what anyone in their own company thinks, let alone what you think - and many people love them for just that attitude. It works! That kind of skunkworks freedom gives them the ability to create art, not object. Don’t rain on their parade with trivial things like “it doesn’t have bluetooth” and “the whole thing acts like a button” - they’re not listening, la la la la, they can’t hear you.
maybe it had to do somtheing with this? just a hunch…
how to render the segway obsolete: a third wheel - or, in this case, a second button for the mac mouse.
slow claps wow, only took how many years?
and it still has a tail. i’m surprised it doesn’t hook on to a backpack with a display and iMouse tags.
A related Apple innovation: If you drag two fingers instead of one on their new powerbook track pads, you scroll the current window (both axis.) That’s pretty slick, but I’d still like to see more innovation in gesture-based interfaces.
yeah! that is cool, just tried it on my belowed widescreen-powerbook, but what if they made the pad repond to how hard you press the pad; harder = faster scrolling
Used one this weekend at a Apple store - worked fine.
If you’re in an office, using one of these mousies, nobody will know if you are working or not since there’s no clicking sound.
The central trackball was a great feature, easy for the bad finger to use and really low profile so there’s no strain.
Agreed they could have gone Bluetooth for a better product, and I’ve heard complaints about the tracking with their footprint. But I didn’t miss the ‘click’ feedback one bit, and it felt big, smooth, and chunky in the hand, like that soap bar I remember from the pen. 
I work on a PC all day and use all the buttons on my “intellimouse” so I know how usefull more mouse controls are but they would be pretty useless without programs that utilise them. That being said, the hardware and software integration has always been a strong point in Apple’s products along with the whole bleeding edge design thing! I’m not sure how you can say otherwise unless you just blindly hate macs. the DD in my office whines constantly about the 3 macs we use for graphics/video while he spends countless hours and $s fixing our PCs, just a hater!
My biggest concern in mouse design is ergonomics and useability, not what the thing looks like.
Don’t be a hater!
one thing that nobody has mentioned was the fundimental change in the side details.
in the previous mouse-is-one-big-button design, the only safe place was the two too small side areas of the mouse. once you get used to it, pushing the mouse around isnt too bad (then again people could probably get used to pushing a brick around, that doesnt mean its any good).
now with the mighty mouse they have turned this area into seperate buttons. first instinct for mac users…pushing the thing around by its buttons…no good.
add to it the fact that i dont see any functional innovation and i give apple no credit for something they should have done 10 years ago.