Hell Just Froze Over

[adderslj]

From a press release that just dropped into my in-box:

CUPERTINO, California—August 2, 2005—Apple® today introduced Mighty Mouse, its next generation mouse with several innovative new features that make using a Mac® even more powerful and easy. Mighty Mouse offers power users up to four independently programmable buttons, without compromising simplicity for users who prefer just a single-button mouse. Mighty Mouse also introduces an ingenious Scroll Ball that lets users scroll in any direction—vertically, horizontally and even diagonally. With the Scroll Ball, users can scroll with natural, fluid movements, making Mighty Mouse perfect for applications from viewing web pages and photographs, to video editing and music creation. Mighty Mouse is priced at just £35 (inc. VAT).

More here.

Comments

[fraserspeirs.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! *races to Apple Store*

[sailormur.livejournal.com]

heh. This was one of the three reasons holding me back from getting a mac... I can't imagine how hard it would be to train my fingers to do option click instead of right click.

So yay. Now if they just had more games for the mac... and the price went down just a smidge...

[adders.livejournal.com]

How much cheaper can the Mac mini get? :)

[sailormur.livejournal.com]

ah yes, but the mac mini is just one machine, and one I have decided I do not want. The powerbook remains quite expensive when compared to Windows laptops.

And yes, I'll likely pay it, because I want the machine, but still. Grump.

[adders.livejournal.com]

Why a Powerbook as opposed to an iBook? You going into video production? :-)

[sailormur.livejournal.com]

No, I'm just wanting a good, poratble machine for podcasting (and writing of course, but I can do that with anything), with good storage and DVD burning capability. Note that I am not a hardware geek, and much further debate will leave me shuffling my feet and complaining, "I dunno" to much further questioning.

I talked it over with the Apple guy, he recommended the lower end powerbook over the iBook. Perhaps he was trying to upsell me. I have no idea.

Oh yeah, the ibook and the mini do not have recording capabilites; you have to buy an external sound card. I do know what one.

[adders.livejournal.com]

*looks at side of iBook. Fails to find audio in port*

Oh yeah. The sales guy was spot on. :)

FWIW, while Macs are that touch more expensive than Windows laptops, the bundled software you get with them really boost the value-for-money ratio.

[sailormur.livejournal.com]

That is a very good point. I am looking forward to testing out Garageband.

[izzylobo.livejournal.com]

I will also say that while Apple laptops are not necessarily the utterly bulletproof monsters of impervious reliability they were a few years ago, they are still significantly better, overall, than many of their competitors when it comes to HW reliability, sturdiness, and service length.

(This is not to say you cannot buy good PC hardware that will last forever and a day - I'm sitting in front of a Presario 17xl and a Toshiba 7140CT that put the lie to that statement - but both machines are 4+ years old, and my experience with more recent PC laptops is decidedly less optimistic in this regard, given how many new-or-nearly-so Dell and Compaq laptops I've had to have in for service at various places of employment over the last three years).

Scott

[minus9.livejournal.com]

You'll want an external sound card for the PowerBook too -- the mic input isn't really much use.

Or, much better yet, get yourself the new MicroTrack from M-Audio

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack-main.html

R

[kit-hartford.livejournal.com]

Hmm. If I hadn't already got a two-button bluetooth mouse, I'd be tempted to get one for use with my iBook. As it stands, I'll hold off until I get that Mac desktop I've been promising myself ...

[adders.livejournal.com]

I'll be replacing my Starck two-buttoner on the iMac with one, I think. I'll stick with Bluetooth for the iBook.

The Starck mouse will probably head to the office.