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Don't know about the death of the mouse; using a 4-button programable roller-ball device (technically not a mouse I suppose), multi-touch won't ever match the capacities of what I have. Every application can be programmed for different functions and/or keystrokes, so repetitive key commands are set for a particular button or combination thereof. I enjoy (and miss) some of the features on my trackpad when using my desktop but nothing compared to what I miss in the trackball features when using the laptop.

Jun 25, 08 - 10:39 am Comment from: ron

Look out for the farmer's wife.

Apple may ditch the mouse within a couple of years, but it will take Microsoft PCs several years to catch up.

Jun 25, 08 - 10:44 am Comment from: Buster

I am not convinced....sure the trackpad is great but I think people wold like to have both. Sometimes it is as superficial as having a designer mouse. But programmability is another important feature.
We'll see.

Since when have they been able to turn Mice in to Rats? Why isn't this a bigger story?

Jun 25, 08 - 10:48 am Comment from: Jay-Z

Touch computing is vastly different than traditional computing. Imagine sitting at your desk touching your screen instead of using a keyboard and mouse... Your arms would be tired in minutes. Under the current computing model, the ergonomics just don't work. I'm sure there's another solution out there that will bring touch to computers, but touch-screen computers like the Surface and ones from HP aren't it.

I'll always prefer a mouse. It's much easier to keep clean since some of us often have lotion or some other lubricant on our hand when navigating a computer.

@ R2?

Pr0n much?

Jun 25, 08 - 10:57 am Comment from: HMCIV

My guess is the only way the mouse will go is if the traditional GUI goes with it.

Jun 25, 08 - 10:59 am Comment from: Ampar

Preemptive Afib, Ha, ha, He, he, Ho, ho ho strike (what's next tee hee hee, giggle, snort?):

Apple mice have always sucked, fanbois. You pathetic, uneducated, biased and smelly idiots are clueless. Apple has secretly purchased every single MacBook Air to avoid embarassment. Apple's sales are in decline because I know more than any of you. I don't have to prove it. You do. Stinky fanbois.

Eventually the mouse will disappear but no way in the next 2 to 4 years. Apple did away with the floppy how long ago and people still use floppy disks. Granted not as much but they aren't dead yet.

No one uses floppys
They are dead.

RIP

Rather than Apple dictatorially mandating what is "best", why not let consumers make that decision? No doubt, the replacement for the mouse will be more expensive and have limited functionality.

Give the consumer choices, Apple!
Give the consumer options, Apple!

Apple, think of how poorly "brain reading devices" will function for the likes of Ampar, MCCFR, and Jubei.

"Neural network not detected"

"Associated hardware not located."

"Brain not active, please reinitiate."

"Application cannot open."

"Cranial connection needs major repair."

"Invalid volume detected."

"Block volume zero."

"Incorrect block count."

"Address error."

"Illegal instruction."

"Unimplemented core routine."

"Miscellaneous hardware exception error."

"Driver cannot respond to Read call."

"illegal instruction."

There is an application for the iPhone that you can use the iPhone touch screen to control the mouse pointer in the computer. I believe that iPhone era is coming...

Jun 25, 08 - 11:07 am Comment from: Toasty

Well think of Replacing your mouse and mouse pad with a 6x8 sized OLED pad that has Multitouch and pen capability. It could essentially be used for any kind of input. Would have custom user defined buttons if you want. Great for CAD, photo work, or even gaming. Whatever you want it to be it could be. I would change over to something like that in a heartbeat.

Jun 25, 08 - 11:10 am Comment from: Toasty

Continuing thought...

Hell, put 2 of the Multitouch pads together and make a virtual Keyboard!

@ Jay-Z... Exactly on point.

The mouse is so popular because it requires so little effort to move around and interact with the screen. And people with disabilities will still favor a trackball.

I can't see HP's new touch computer doing very well either. Anyone who has used an iPhone knows all that flicking and scrolling gets tiresome after awhile. Do that on a bigger screen and you have a recipe for a real workout (not that there's anything wrong with that... but some people use their computers for relaxation).

Trackpads will have to likely emulate a mouse better if they're going to supplant it.

Jun 25, 08 - 11:12 am Comment from: Jim - TIV

Ampar... very good impersonation. Except he showed up as a Ho.

I'm all about touch, my hands have suffered enough under the repetitious clicks of the mouse. Touch is organic and natural and the future of UI and only apple can do it right.
Bring it!

Jun 25, 08 - 11:18 am Comment from: Macromancer

Not going to happen.
Try doing design work with your fingers, holding your arm out at length for 8 hours a day.

"Apple's sales are in decline because I know more than any of you. I don't have to prove it. You do."

No, fanboi, Apple does. Sales data for publicly owned companies are not state secrets. However, if you know where these data are located, please share.

Please no more links to Apple's PR unit aka Apple's Ministry of Propaganda aka Department of Fibs, Exaggerations, Concoctions, Errors, and Shams (F.E.C.E.S.).

Jun 25, 08 - 11:28 am Comment from: Mr. Peabody

Track pads give me serious problems in my wrists and hands over time. I tried converting to a track pad many years ago, and after about six months the doctor was recommending that I have an operation. I'm all for doing something other than mouses - I've been using a trackball for many years and find it to be an overall improvement over a standard pick-up-and-put-down mouse.

Maybe the mouse will RIP sometime, but not yet awhile.

Mice and/or pens have better ergonomics than multi-touch for repetitive jobs, particularly graphics intensive programs like Quark and Photoshop.

Ampar,

Jim TIV posted, "Monkey see, monkey do." Even your staunchest advocates recognize that you have no inherent imagination, no intrinsic wit, and no native intelligence.

Jun 25, 08 - 11:28 am Comment from: Ampar

Thanks, Jim. Our latest troll, the Incredible Sulk is getting freakier and more desperate by the minute.
I wonder if he had some frightening or tragic experience with Avril Lavigne?

Jun 25, 08 - 11:31 am Comment from: Metryq

ROM (read operator's mind) will be a comfortable headset made out of a metal called cranium. The military will not use this new device because it is prone to colonel panics.

Jun 25, 08 - 11:33 am Comment from: iWill

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jun 25, 08 - 11:33 am Comment from: Ampar

Macromancer: Ape arm is definitely a problem. But there are interactive displays being developed for quick information retrieval or games that have better possibilities.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20987/

"A Display That Tracks Your Movements
Samsung and Reactrix move beyond touch screens and try to make hand waving the next big computer interface."

"These displays can "see" people standing up to 15 feet away from the screen as they wave their hands to play games, navigate menus, and use maps."

Jun 25, 08 - 11:34 am Comment from: shen

wow Ampar, first pre-emptive strike i have ever seen that a) hit the right target and b) ended the fight before it began. nice.

"Touch computing is vastly different than traditional computing. Imagine sitting at your desk touching your screen instead of using a keyboard and mouse... Your arms would be tired in minutes"

so if the people who say this can see that touch is so different from traditional, why do they immediately assume you will be using touch in a traditional way?

"No, fanboi, Apple does. Sales data for publicly owned companies are not state secrets. However, if you know where these data are located, please share.

Please no more links to Apple's PR unit aka Apple's Ministry of Propaganda aka Department of Fibs, Exaggerations, Concoctions, Errors, and Shams (F.E.C.E.S.)."

so lets get this straight, what he says doesn't matter, cause he isn't Apple. what Apple says doesn't matter, cause it lies, so provide Apples sales data without getting it from Apple, but it can't be from someone else......

yeah, and Ampar is the nutcase around here.

Jun 25, 08 - 11:35 am Comment from: Roberto

I use a Mac Pro.
Points 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 have no relevance to me.
Continue using mouse ad infinitum.

I don't get it. What do you mean Apple's sales are in decline? Obviously it isn't. What am I missing?

Jun 25, 08 - 11:36 am Comment from: Predrag

to Jay-Z and others who don't believe in (multi)-touch on desktop:

How did people work before computers? Did they have a working surface in front of them, at eye level, positioned vertically? Did they have to hold their arms up in order to write/draw/flip pages? Is it that difficult to divorce oneself from the current keyboard-mouse-monitor paradigm?

Throughout the history of human race, we have been interacting with our work (more-or-less) directly. Writing, drawing, chiseling, scraping, cutting... whatever the activity, we were doing it directly to the object of our work. Then, a fraction of a second ago ( in a liftetime of human history), computer arrive. Suddenly, this fairly unintuitive concept is thrusted upon us, where we press or move an object on our desk, and something seemingly unrelated happens on another object (display) elsewhere. We were compelled to learn the cause-and-effect of this concept and we did. By now, everyone in the world who ever sat in front of a computer knows what to expect when they move a mouse or press buttons on a keyboard.

A large touchscreen, sitting on a desk (or a smaller one, in your hands / on your lap) will return us to the most intuitive paradigm. You touch an object on your screen, it does something. As intuitive as it gets (as confirmed by iPhone, which 2-year olds can quickly figure out without prior exposure to computers or any other technological devices).

I would dare to venture that Apple (mighty) mouse will be killed of just as suggested in this article (2 - 4 years). And I would further venture that its replacement will not be a trackpad; it will be a touch screen.

And obviously, for those (vertical) markets where touching isn't enough (designers with the need for precise drawing, software developers, or writers, who need to type a lot of text), there will always be options for add-on keyboards, trackballs with extra buttons, pressure-sensitive track pads, etc. Mainstream audience, however, won't need any of those. Multi-touch interface will be more than enough for everything they do.

Ampar,

Your "friend", Jim, "credits" you with no intelligence, no wit, and no imagination; and you thank him?

Explain.

Jun 25, 08 - 11:39 am Comment from: Ampar

To shen:

Jun 25, 08 - 11:42 am Comment from: Predrag

Pre-emptive apologies to grammar nazis for my poor spelling above. Nothing kills credibility more effectively than an ignorantly misspelt word or improper grammar. I'm sure my point will come across to those who continue to read through the errors.

Jun 25, 08 - 11:42 am Comment from: Ampar

To Olternaut:

Our newest resident troll that giggles when he types his alias has been spewing some crap about Apple's decline for a few hundred threads now. Be careful. I'm pretty sure he hasn't had his shots.

@ Moo,

Nah, I'm a lotion and lubricant technician

You can have my mouse when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

My Logitech MX Revolution that is.

Jun 25, 08 - 12:01 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

Apple (or others) are not ditching the mouse anymore than TV replaced radio or the internet is replacing Newspapers. Yes their importance changed, but they are not going away.

Made a nice headline though.

I won't change from my mouse! I treasure it just like my SCSI ports, floppy disk drive, and buggy whip.

Never say never. Gates once said no computer needed to have more than 1.??mb of ram too...

shen.

To keep you appraised of current events, Amapr's "first strike" was not "on target" and the "fight" is not "ended".

Post you later, half-wit.

@mrboma what you haven't herd of the big ass table?

Jun 25, 08 - 12:18 pm Comment from: shen

@R2 "Nah, I'm a lotion and lubricant technician"

so when the bottle says 'not tested on animals', it is you they test it on?

@he, he

whatever you say baghdad bob.....

A pen is mightier than a sword; a mouse is mightier than a board. Sometimes.

It's unnatural to touch flat objects. Consider the humble doorknob, for example, or the handle of a knife. Give me something with curves, shape, contours to lighten the soul. My current mouse is soft, breast-shaped and with two soft buttons that resemble humanity. The hockey-puck mouse was going in the right direction, but they stopped short.

Jun 25, 08 - 12:18 pm Comment from: Buster

I suspect Ho ho ho is nothing but a lonely single Ho!

His name given to him by his parents was overheard to be Oh oh! ....but that got quickly turned around.

Jun 25, 08 - 12:42 pm Comment from: Ampar

To shen: "To keep you appraised of current events . . ."

"Let's" "start" the "bidding" at one Zune point. Do I "hear" one?


Better to be thought a fool . . .

Jun 25, 08 - 12:44 pm Comment from: NCIceman

I don't think it will completely go away as long as we have user detachment from the display. Different interfaces have different preferred input methods.

But I love the Dvorak quote....he's had to eat crow so many times over Apple he should have sprouted wings by now...

Jun 25, 08 - 12:53 pm Comment from: Ampar

"But I love the Dvorak quote....he's had to eat crow so many times over Apple he should have sprouted wings by now..."

And you'd think he'd also be frightened of straw man arguments. Caw. Caw.

John Dvorak
a moron since 1984

Jun 25, 08 - 01:16 pm Comment from: Cubert

Brain reading devices?!?!?

I think my ex-girlfriend had one of those.

Jun 25, 08 - 01:49 pm Comment from: nekogami13

2 to 4 years?
No way.

10+ years-possible.
Touch screens are crap for desk tops. I do not sit close enough to my 20" or 22" monitor to touch either. I do not want to sit with my arms up at shoulder height for hours a day. Anyone who has ever taken boxing or martial arts knows this tires your arms/shoulders out fairly quickly.

I do not deny the possibility that Apple will devise some kind of keyboard/graphics tablet hybrid that will work nicely-just won't kill the mouse off in 2-4 years.