Apple Interface Mysteries

How the Mac Mouse Got Complicated

Point and click. Sounds simple. But over the years, the way Mac users and their mice have interacted has changed, encompassing many additional gestures—even if you don’t count the digitus impudicus that frustrated users often employ. And the mice themselves have changed as well, or been outright replaced by other kinds of pointing devices. We’ll look at mice first.

The Which Mouse Affair

For more than two decades, the Apple mouse remained functionally changeless, even as its exterior look went from the original boxy beige design (which, in fact, predated the Mac, having first seen light with the Apple Lisa) through physical changes of height, weight, shape, and color, and its sensor evolved from a primitive ...