And when you unplug the mouse because you're on a plane, or carrying your machine to a different location in the office for a meeting or a demonstration....
("You can fix it with peripherals!" is not a valid solution when everyone else for the last 20 years has fixed the problem *without* peripherals.)
I was refering to his comment about desktops. Using your desktop would be impressive, and one hopes you have some kind of mouse while using your desktop for a presentation.
I've never found the 'press control' solution a problem.
Uh, nobody mentioned desktops. At any point, as far as I can tell.
I've never found the 'press control' solution a problem.
I have. It's nonstandard, it involves two hands, and it causes the known behaviour of a standard action to change. This makes it, frankly, interface hell. Which is what I'm supposedly going to a mac to escape, isn't it?
Yes, on a desktop you can just plug in any old two-button USB mouse and it will emulate the right-click. I take issue with the Mighty Mouse though, because it was so laughable when it came out. NEWSFLASH: APPLE ACKNOWLEDGES THAT A SECOND BUTTON ISN'T JUST A FAD. I couldn't believe they were serious.
No, but you can do a right-click using two fingers from one and only one hand. You know how almost all touchpads allow you to tap the pad as a click? Well on the Macbooks (and mine is 2 years old, so it's not even the newest, fanciest touchpad with the 3- and 4-finger gestures) you just tap two fingers and that's a right click. Believe me, I was a critic of the lack of a right mouse button for a long time too, but the two-finger tap really is more efficient and easier than having a separate right mouse button. Also, if you put two fingers down on the pad and move them in parallel, it scrolls the page just like a scroll wheel.
Two-finger tap is only more efficient if you leave tapping on, and you're used to the nonstandard interface. And it still requires you to take at least one hand off the keyboard, so it's slow.
(And I don't leave tapping on, because "tap" touchpads always detect my repositioning my fingers as tapping and result in all kinds of clicks in the wrong places at the wrong times. Turning tapping off is, in fact, usually the third thing I do after sitting down in front of a computer with it enabled - the first is misclicking, and the second is correcting the results of my misclick.)
Ouch, I guess that would be an issue then. I have a pretty firm touch, I've worn away the finish on most of my touchpad. I guess if you have a lighter touch that could be annoying though. You can independently turn on/off left-tap, 2-finger tap, and 2-finger scrolling though, so I'd probably just turn off whatever setting was giving me issues.
PS: I hear the new no-button mac fixes this, by making the touchpad itself clickable *and* letting you bind sections of it to act as regular-click and context-click. Which is great, except it makes the usable touchpad area smaller. Still, it's a great improvement, even if there's still room for, say, a second mouse button.
I haven't had a chance to play with any of the new macbooks, but my understanding is that they removed the button all together (instead the whole surface clicks up and down), converting that space to more trackpad real estate (and macs already had a larger touchpad than most other laptops). The 2-finger options don't require any extra real estate, you just tap your two fingers anywhere on the pad. It's not like those HP laptops I've seen that have one edge of the pad devoted to a scroll function. You do your mouse gesture anywhere on the mac's trackpad and it works.
The scroll-edge thing is selectable, like tapping. And the point of programming the new mac's touchpad is that you can have part of the touchpad be left-click and part be right-click, allowing you the same power as a two-button mouse.
As long as you program the right part of the touchpad.
If they can make it one-finger-click versus two-finger-click, on the same touchpad, without lifting your hand or presing something different, then that's a SERIOUS improvement. Still not *standard*, of course, but it's a big advantage.
Because, sure as hell, Apple is *never* going to make it easy on a user. Meaning, *everything* they do will either be adopted by everyone or, like one-button mice, be abandoned even by Apple.
"Our way or nothing" is, after all, the Apple philosophy.
So true. And it's definitely Steve Jobs that drives it. Like his stubborn insistence that there will never be buttons on his iPhone, and there will never be an FM receiver in an iPod. But the cult laps it up.
It combines the near-uselessness of the mac software platform with the vast and varied combinations of fault-generating hardware of the PC platform with the half-assed and poorly supported drivers AND the incredible time-sucking horror that is "hack everything from your mouse to your network card into simply WORKING oh wait kernel panic" of the linux platform!
It's a trifecta of fun! But hey, at the end you can get most of the useless gloss that Vista and XP have been blatantly ripping off, AND you can run itunes! Wait, that's already on PC and it sucks. Uh... WoW! No, that originated on PC... Quickti-no... Crap, what's some exclusive Mac software that doesn't suck? Okay okay okay, it isn't as bad as that, in fact I followed OSx86 for a while, I wasn't hardcore geek enough to run it.
Yeah, I considered trying to tri-boot it on my laptop with vista and my flavor du jour of linux. Figured by the time I hamhanded the poor thing into something resembling a working order Apple would figure out paying $1,000+ more for 3/4 hardware performance on more easily cross-examined pentium platforms is something consumers aren't willing to do.
Yeah, and I want a pony, too, while I'm being unrealistic.
Honestly, I used XP for years, and I barely had a problem with it. (Okay, I had one hard drive malfunction that resulted in a complete wipe and reinstall... but that's over... seven years? Not bad.)
And strangely enough, I'm not having much of a problem with Vista either, despite all the hue and cry about how much it sucks.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 07:29 pm (UTC)At least on a MacBook w/trackpad. On a desktop, it's still pretty annoying to only have one mouse button.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 09:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 09:39 pm (UTC)("You can fix it with peripherals!" is not a valid solution when everyone else for the last 20 years has fixed the problem *without* peripherals.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 10:40 pm (UTC)I've never found the 'press control' solution a problem.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 10:58 pm (UTC)I've never found the 'press control' solution a problem.
I have. It's nonstandard, it involves two hands, and it causes the known behaviour of a standard action to change. This makes it, frankly, interface hell. Which is what I'm supposedly going to a mac to escape, isn't it?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 11:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 11:12 pm (UTC)I'm having a bad day.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 10:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 09:40 pm (UTC)No?
Then it's still broken.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 10:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 10:13 pm (UTC)(And I don't leave tapping on, because "tap" touchpads always detect my repositioning my fingers as tapping and result in all kinds of clicks in the wrong places at the wrong times. Turning tapping off is, in fact, usually the third thing I do after sitting down in front of a computer with it enabled - the first is misclicking, and the second is correcting the results of my misclick.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 10:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-22 01:37 am (UTC)Two fingers on the trackpad, thumb on the button. Comfortable + quick + easy.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 09:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 10:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 11:00 pm (UTC)As long as you program the right part of the touchpad.
If they can make it one-finger-click versus two-finger-click, on the same touchpad, without lifting your hand or presing something different, then that's a SERIOUS improvement. Still not *standard*, of course, but it's a big advantage.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 11:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 11:28 pm (UTC)"Our way or nothing" is, after all, the Apple philosophy.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 11:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 10:31 pm (UTC)It's a trifecta of fun! But hey, at the end you can get most of the useless gloss that Vista and XP have been blatantly ripping off, AND you can run itunes! Wait, that's already on PC and it sucks. Uh... WoW! No, that originated on PC... Quickti-no... Crap, what's some exclusive Mac software that doesn't suck?
Okay okay okay, it isn't as bad as that, in fact I followed OSx86 for a while, I wasn't hardcore geek enough to run it.
Yeah, I considered trying to tri-boot it on my laptop with vista and my flavor du jour of linux. Figured by the time I hamhanded the poor thing into something resembling a working order Apple would figure out paying $1,000+ more for 3/4 hardware performance on more easily cross-examined pentium platforms is something consumers aren't willing to do.
Yeah, and I want a pony, too, while I'm being unrealistic.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-21 11:26 pm (UTC)But, hey, MacOS without paying The Apple Tax! That's worth putting up with, like, maybe *half* the problems compared with XP!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-22 03:13 pm (UTC)And strangely enough, I'm not having much of a problem with Vista either, despite all the hue and cry about how much it sucks.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-22 03:28 pm (UTC)