Jun 26 2008
The mouse is dead? It’s news to me!
This Article really cracks me up. I know touch screen technology is on the up and it frankly can’t come soon enough for me. I don’t really like mice, even though I’ve been using them for over a decade. There’s not really much alternative (I don’t like pens or trackballs either, for the record). Lets look at his points:
1. Apple’s giant trackpad with multi-touch. Available on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, this pointing device represents a body blow to the appeal of using a mouse with an Apple mobile computer. The new track pad is superior because in addition to pointing and clicking, you get gestures, which adds a whole new layer of control.
Yes, it’s neat, I won’t deny that. Touch technology *is* taking off and *is* becoming a reality. Apple’s trackpad is NOT the way forward though. Touch surfaces that are not on the screen they are designed to be used on are, essentially, no better than mice IMHO.
Gestures are cool when they work. Fair point.
2. Gaming pointing devices Remember when everyone used to play games on a PC using a mouse and keyboard? Neither do I. Console gaming has re-set the bar for gaming input devices, and now even PC games seem to call for joysticks, yolks, steering wheels and other non-mouse input devices.
WOAH, hold on a moment. I played Mass Effect on a PC not 2 weeks ago with a keyboard and mouse. All major PC MMOGs are mouse & keyboard powered. All PC FPS games are mouse & keyboard powered. Consoles are popular, hell yeah, and they have a plethora of controllers for different games. However, alternative controllers are numerous for the PC, and they have been as long as I’ve been gaming on the PC (15 years, for the record). The mouse is not a dead as a PC games controller AT ALL. You’re WAY off the mark here, sorry.
3. “Brain-reading” devices. Like the mouse between 1963 and 1981, these devices are still in the lab. But one company, Emotiv Systems, plans to place a $300 headset on the market by the end of this year that lets gamers control some aspects of games with thoughts alone (go here for the demo).
It’ll happen one day but I’d give it a decade. The difference between a first generation niche product shipping and a mass market device is vast.
4. Apple iPhone and the “iPhone Killers.” This newest category of cell phone boots physical keyboards and phone pointing devices (like BlackBerry’s “pearl,” toggle switches or the tracking sticks on some handsets) altogether in favor of full-size touch screens. Although people tend to see iPhone-like devices as replacing keyboards, they’re getting millions of people used to the idea of controlling an entire operating system with a touch screen.
For some systems, this is indeed ‘where it’s at’. Touchscreen is pretty much gonna kill off mouse-pointer type applications in the next 5-10 years. Good riddance, too, like I said I hate mice. Where it’s not going to challenge is in hand-eye applications. You can’t play an FPS on a trackpad, or a touch screen. Where the iPhone and iPod touch have put the ‘i’ in ‘interesting’ (oh god I can’t believe I just did that) is with motion sensors. For gaming, the mouse will eventually be replaced by motion sensing hand devices similar to the Wii, I feel.
The mouse isn’t dead. It’s not close to being dead. I mean the keyboard has been going for more than a century. Old habits die hard. Even when revolutionary input devices come around it’ll take a long time for a lot of people to move over.
