Archive for March, 2007

One of my most beloved and biggest problems with the Mighty Mouse is the scroll ball. I’ve been waiting for a Mac compatible mouse with a scroll ball since I saw something similar back in 1997. The scroll ball is perfectly placed and has a good tactile feel to it.

So if it’s so great what’s the problem. Dirt, yes dirt. Get the slightest piece of dirt on or under the scroll ball and scrolling becomes extremely frustrating. I keep a can of compressed air near my Mighty Mouse so I can blow it out when it starts acting up. Which is about once a day.

I would rather clean it more than once a day than do without it. It’s that good.

So why would Apple introduce a new one if the current one works so well? Eliminate mechanics with electronics, that’s why. Remember what they did with the first iPod? It has a physical wheel, then was replaced with a faux wheel. None of the functionality was lost. Look at the iPhone, one button, the rest is touch sensitive.

What does this mean for the Mighty Mouse? It means the scroll ball will be replaced with something that resembles the scroll ball exactly in size, shape, height and placement. What will be replacing it will be similar in functionality to that of the track pad. They will even place a switch under the new scroll ball for clicking. None of the functionality will be lost. Since the new scroll ball will be stationary it will lose it’s tactile feel and become very smooth for easy finger movement. The only movement of the new scroll ball will be the downward click. The click could be replaced with a tapping function on the faux scroll ball eliminating the need for the click switch.

There is also the possibility (my preferred option) during development of the new scroll ball that Apple will simply incorporate the scrolling feature on to the new Mighty Mouse invisibly. Meaning they will add scrolling the same way they enable the right click. You can’t see the right click button but it’s there. Another example of electronics replacing mechanics. The new scroll ball could be invisible to the eye but functional to the finger with finger tapping to replace clicking. This would make the new Mighty Mouse look like Apple’s previous wireless mouse. Only this one would have right and left click with scrolling.

Which will Apple choose? I can see the reasons why they would choose to use the faux scroll ball but in the end the invisible scroll ball will win because it also eliminates the click with a tap. It also eliminates parts. Do I think I could use a Mighty Mouse with no visible buttons or scroll ball. Yes, it all becomes second nature.

Steve Jobs and Apple do a great job of making stuff I didn’t know I needed or wanted. This time I’m beating them to the punch. They may have designed the Might Mouse but I know what I want from the Mighty Mouse 2.0. There was a seemingly long time between the release of the Mighty Mouse and the wireless Mighty Mouse. Hopefully this new design won’t take as long to come to market.