If you hadn’t been able to tell from the array of podcasts this week and from a whole assortment of other tech news, some small part of hell just froze over because Friday Apple announced that it was releasing a mouse with -gasp- more than one button. But then again, leave it to Apple to release a mouse with multiple buttons that actually doesn’t have any..well..buttons. Don’t believe me? Well, meet the Mighty Mouse [ http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/ ] and here he comes to save the day! (I know, I know, I couldn’t resist)
Seriously though, as soon as Apple released the thing, geeks like me rolled our eyes and breathed a collective “about time” and “oh for crying out loud” sigh, namely because it’s been way overdue since Mac OS 9 introduced multi-button support, and it’s natively handled in OS X (all versions, for that matter). Essentially this means that Mac users for the past 5 years at least have bought their macs, ditched the Apple mice that came with them, and immediately ran out and picked up a cheap Microsoft or Logitech to make use of the multibutton support. So Apple finally wisened up. Good news. But look at it-the little trackball in the center, and the fact that it looks like it only has one button (and can be configured to only have one button) and the little squeeze-clicking by squeezing the sides? Oh come on. I have to admit, even I, an Apple die-hard, rolled my eyes. And yet, they still flew off the shelves! I haven’t gotten my hands on one to play with yet, but PCWorld has, and here’s their First Look:
[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122072,tk,wb080805x,00.asp ]