This week, Apple released something that has the potential to be huge: A Fingerworks-inspired multitouch mouse. Apple’s track record with mice is so terrible that most are not expecting much from the latest in a line of odd input devices. I think the “Magic Mouse” has the potential to make Apple desktops as “necessary” as their laptop computers.
I think the laptops are necessary almost entirely because of their touchpads. There are other features that are desirable, but since the switch to Intel, I have hardly considered any non-Macintosh laptops for my primary mobile computer. Apple has sub-par screen resolution offerings, and until the Air came around their computers were much larger than the size/weight I would prefer for a travel machine. However, they all had large multitouch trackpads. I found that the more I used them, the less I wanted to use anything else, getting angry at the touchpads on my EEEs and the nipples on my Thinkpads. Any other input device on a laptop falls farther and farther behind every time Apple lets one more Fingerworks-style gesture into the wild (I am still waiting on the other 280 or so, but I am sure they will come back with time). I cannot write enough good things about the touchpad.
However, there is a huge area where the touchpad is embarrassingly bad, and that area is Windows. I already view the touchpad as a must-have feature, so I want an Apple laptop, however when I try to run Boot Camp on it, even the simplest multitouch features become unreliable. I am beginning to feel that both Microsoft and Apple to not have the right incentives to make Boot Camp perfect (and each can blame the other), but for the sake of productivity, I wish the two would get beyond the bickering and make the product perfect. For now, I travel with a bluetooth mouse that I use only for Windows when I have to do a lot of scrolling.
Back to the Magic Mouse, Apple is going to be at a crossroads. They have every incentives to make the multitouch desktop experience a killer feature exclusive to the Mac, so I only see Windows drivers coming from third parties, but they need to make sure that their desktop input device does not aggravate those who use multiple operating systems. Currently, on my Snow Leopard desktop, I virtualize Leopard, Sabayon, Ubuntu, Vista, and XP. I really want to love the Magic Mouse, but in what approaches an operating system agnostic environment where I use the best tool at any given time, I need my input device to just work. So, even if Apple decides to make their multitouch devices hell to use on other devices, they need to make their devices work with other software on their hardware. I use a Mac for my desktop, but I certainly do not have the same loyalty to it. While the laptops are perfect, my desktop comes with a bag of hurt when updating to high-end video cards and other problems that all of a sudden make Dell workstations look very attractive.
I hope that the Magic Mouse is incredibly successful, and Apple has some time to build upon any ergonomic mistakes that arise, but in the meantime, I am going to dream about well-working software comparability.
Separately, I am away and using my laptop for the weekend. Right now I am working at a desk, with a USB number pad. It is a different height than my MBP and has different sized keys. It ends up being difficult to use quickly.
I think that Apple should make a number pad that is pushed up to the same height as the MBP because it packs a battery inside. With their wireless obsession, I am sure Apple would want to make a bluetooth device, but it would make so much more sense to me if the pad could add a couple extra hours of battery life.
It would come with a MagSafe dongle (power discharge) and a USB dongle (input and power charge) in a single cable like the displays. The device would charge when the computer was connected to A/C power, and only discharge when both the MagSafe cable and USB cable were connected to a computer, to make sure that it would not accidentally discharge in a customer’s laptop bag. It is unfortunate that the MagSafe and USB ports are on the opposite side of where a number pad should be, but an extra 18” of cable would be a small price to pay for faster inputting and longer battery life.