DigitalArts magazine issue 1 (formerly Digit) arrived today complete with reviews of the MacBook Pro laptop and Mac Pro 8-core computers. Both trashed their competition not only in performance but on price, easily winning Best Buy recommendations from a magazine usually geared towards the Windows world.

The reviews showed the Mac Pro is massively cheaper than equivalent workstations from the likes of HP and Dell with the latter being nearly a whopping two grand more. So much for the “expensive toys” label often used to describe Apple’s products. However, the reviewer marked down the MacBook by suggesting it needs a second trackpad button. This fetish for buttons seems to be almost am addiction for some computer users. Macs have been able to use virtually any USB mouse for years, including Microsoft’s.

This looks like a job for Mighty Mouse
It is only recently that Apple shipped computers with their Mighty Mouse. This can be used as an up to five-buttoned beastie but on appearance looks buttonly challenged. It looks as if it were just a single-button-plus-nipple device. The rubber-coated nipple is in place of a scroll wheel and works as another button as well as for 360 degree tracking. The main left and right buttons don’t actually exist, instead the front of Mighty Mouse each side of the nipple can be pressed so that the mouse clicks and dips down to give feedback. In reality it is touch-sensitive and the nipple’s clicks are from a tiny speaker. All of the ‘buttons’ are user-definable.

Give the right gestures
As far as trackpads and laptops needing more than one button, this is something beyond our comprehension. When our new MacBook arrived recently, the lack of a second button hadn’t occurred to us, even though we each use a Mighty Mouse most of the day. Apple’s laptops have a trackpad that accepts one and two finger scrolling and ‘gestures’. Clicking a second mouse button – right clicking – can be done by using two fingers on the trackpad. Or pressing the Control key and clicking or tapping on the trackpad.

The other thing we find weird about this insistence on two-button mice and trackpads is the main buttons are on the left. We find it far more comfortable to reverse the buttons so the most-used is on the right and both buttons are pressed with the same finger, either the index or middle finger. They can be far back from the front of the mouse, well away from where ‘real’ buttons would force them to be. This means the hand holding the mouse is more relaxed, there is no tension in whatever tendons it is controlling that part of the hand.

The two-fingered approach is something we find very easy to live with because it also works for 360 degree scrolling. Some rumour sites are saying the next Apple mouse will have a trackpad style top instead of a nipple. This sounds very interesting and it will also stop and mechanical problems occurring from dirty nipples. In any case, they can be cleaned by turning the mouse upside down and rolling the nipple around on a clean piece of paper.

All very reminiscent of the days when real mice had balls.