Steven P. Jobs established Apple University as a way to inculcate employees into Apple’s business culture and educate them about its history, particularly as the company grew and the tech business changed. Courses are not required, only recommended, but getting new employees to enroll is rarely a problem.
Although many companies have such internal programs, sometimes referred to as indoctrination, Apple’s version is a topic of speculation and fascination in the tech world.
Mildly interesting puff piece on Apple, but what I found kind of hilarious is how the author chose Apple’s mice as a shining example of Apple’s philosophy. Apple makes some great, defining products – but Apple’s mice are absolutely horrible. The little mice timeline also curiously omits the most horrible mouse in computer history.
About 7-10 years ago, I was talking to a sales person at the oldest and then-largest Apple retail chain in my country (founded by the first Dutchman to own a Mac). The sales person was obviously a fervent Apple fan, but as we were detailing my Mac purchase, he said “do you want an Apple mouse, or a mouse that works?”
The first thing I do when I buy a new Mac is toss out the Apple mouse.
I agree with regarding the Mighty mouse, far to small and the small ball for a scroll wheel was useless as it would jam up after about 1 – 2 seconds of use.
I thought the magic mouse was good though, not as nice as logitech stuff but not terrible and certainly nowhere near PC OEM nastiness (Dell, HP)
However i think we iMacs the way to go is the trackpad, i use one and prefer it over any mouse, i am used to the gestures so dragging selecting etc.. is a breeze. The bonus is that it’s the same setup as my MacBook Air (obviously)
I would agree it was very good purely from the point of view of functional performance – it does what it does and does it very well. Tracking is great and the touch sensor works wonderfully…
My gripe is with ergonomics, which is a persistent pattern with with Apple designed mice. It boggles my mind how they repeatedly screw this up so badly.
Ergonomically, the magic mouse is the by far the worse mouse Apple has ever made (including the “hockey puck”). It is the only mouse I have ever seen that literally can cause lacerations on your hand from everyday use. Really, who the f*ck thought it was a good idea to put sharp edges on a mouse?
The fact that this even exists says it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxQRE71KFQ4
The latest ones involve a lot of clever thought, design and capabilities. However it still gets sidelined by every single member of the family. Frankly it distracts from the task in hand by doing stuff the user doesn’t expect (especially during Minecraft – so I am told).
Perhaps the way forward is to have such peripherals thoroughly road tested by gamers.
Edited 2014-08-12 12:29 UTC
The Apple approach to mice is a study in over-complexity in engineering. Its as if they can’t bring themselves to release an ordinary mouse, even though that’s all that’s needed, so have to think up spurious improvements.
Puts me in mind of the way TV manufacturers got upset about being left out of the exciting world of computing around the millenium, and reacted by scrapping direct control face buttons in favour of just three or four buttons that vaguely manipulated a nested series of incomprehensible on-screen menus.
I’m glad Apple eventually found a proper outlook for that improper tendency with the apparently rather good standalone touch pads.
It was USB, so in college I just carried a usb mouse with me and swapped it out in the lab. The mac labs were closer to my classes, and always, always completely empty. No waiting.
Mac Labs were usually jam-packed, and the PC labs were like a ghost town – though this was the time of Word Perfect and DOS…
Around the same time, at my university, the Mac labs were most of the time empty and mostly used by non engineering students.
Everyone was fighting for Aix and DG/UX X-Windows terminals, to avoid being left to VT-100 green phosphor ones or being forced connect to the said UNIX systems via telnet on the PCs.
What are these Mac Lab you’re talking about?
As someone who grew up with computers in the 80’s and studied Computer Systems Analysis in the 90’s I had only seen exactly ONE Mac (in a student dorm back in 1992) up until very recently.
A whole Lab of them? Wow. Boggles the mind, it does.
Edited 2014-08-13 07:54 UTC
At the university, back in the mid-90’s.
A room with about 10 LCs, don’t remember the exact models, for the whole campus.
Some faculty buildings had rooms with a pile of computers in them as labs, but only one building had those Macs.
Other than that, a few secretaries and teachers scattered had them as well.
In Portugal you would be insane to buy a Mac in those years. Just one importer, Interlog, and the prices for the average income were only at the reach of kids with very rich parents.
We had a couple Mac labs when I was at Arizona State University in ’91. You found the Mac labs near the buildings hosting liberal arts classes. Most labs on campus were Windows/DOS/PC and there was one or two very small Unix labs (Don’t remember the brand or flavor). I used to use the Unix labs because they were typically empty and they had the software I needed to perform chemical reaction simulations. They also had very large screens.
My school may have been different than yours. It was and is fairly large. When I was there, there were 45k students. It is maybe 70k now.
Well, it wasn’t in the US so Apple had pretty much 0 market share.
all of the labs were jam packed at my public university, at least the ones you didn’t need a specific major to get into.
see – labs had laser printers, and no mortal could own their own laser printers for a minute there.
once you could get a laser printer in your dorm at a decent prices computer labs weren’t the same.
the nerd mall.
random college computer memory — professor’s office —
she had a mac classic with 2 vertical full page size greyscale monitors
she had an entire wall of byte and macworld magazines. every one from beginning until then.
she had her own laser writer and scanner! well the little department could share it, but it was hers in her office, and it made her very popular.
this wasn’t the design department, they had a lab of mac quadras and centris’ running quark, and a couple of printers we weren’t allowed to use, pre-press stuff.
the audio department had a mac II maxed with a scsi raid and 2 monitors that rolled around for sessions.
the video department had a mac converted into an early avid system, running several monitors and hooked into the most hard drives i’ve ever seen outside of a server room.
the radio station had a cheap mac in the production studio running OSC deck.
the animation classes used amigas of varying models running out to some VGA monitors.
the TV stations used Amiga’s for their chyron systems, doing rudimentary titles and over the shoulder graphics.
this was the world i came up in. i think apple is just more ingrained in america, education and production in particular. PC’s were always around, always running spreadsheets and most office apps, and games. The middle ground of people who make things on the computer — that’s been mac dominated almost my whole life (at least in the states).
I remember the unix kids back then too, always holding their nose up at anything that needed a GUI. I remember one of them literally harassing me as I typed on an early macbook in a coffee shop because they had set up a linux machine for public use and he thought i was an idiot for using a mac.
he bragged about the numerous advantages of the unix OS, one being that he could search his hard drive for a random file or string faster than i could with my UI. i said give me an example, opened up the “find” window in mac os 7 (i think) and found his example faster than he could type in the proper commands. I sorta looked at him like “sorry” since he was so serious about it, but it’s dumb shit like that makes me think just use what you want and get your work done. but then i come to OSNews and comment…..
oh i know why — because i have unix and mac now, and things are good. that mac did crash a lot, no matter how nice the UI was. my unix mac never crashes, even as it runs os x and window at the same time.
<pedant>A Mac Classic was a specific model, it was one of the 9″ black and white all-in one Macs (the Mac Classic 2 being the last model with the B&W screen.) I had one, and it had zero expansion, no NUBUS and no processor direct slot. You might find it was either some other “Classic Mac” or an SE or SE/30, which both did have at least one Processor Direct slot IIRC. Basically, if it didn’t have an inbuilt screen, it wasn’t likely to be a Mac Classic.</pedant>
correct, it wasn’t a classic, i think i’m combining some memories. the classic didn’t have any expansion. i can’t recall what it was at this point, but the two page monitor setup stayed in my memory.
This was Hockey puck era Apple. The iMac was just released, they weren’t cool, just weird. Not even the art students ( who had their sculpture room right next to the lab) used them. No one knew how to use them. Its like they were alien space ships. The lab guy had no clue ( to be fair the lab guys never had any clue, regardless of computer problem), but it didn’t matter because I was the only one ever there.
You’ve probably never tried the magic trackpad. Better than any mouse I’ve ever used.
When I bought my current iMac I opted for the magic trackpad, as my experience with Apple mice has been horrible. I also asked for a wired full keyboard instead of that tiny wireless joke of keyboard.
So… wired Apple keyboard (that I love), a really cheap logitech white mouse that works fine has been my setup… but I gave a try to the magic trackpad… really good stuff. Has replaced the mouse for most uses now.
I actually have one. Trackpad is horrible on a desktop. Gave me instant pains.
Works wonderfully for me. 2 other macbook co-workers use them too when at their desk and attached to an external monitor.
Your Mileage May Vary on this one. For me the Magic Trackpad was a bit of a godsend. It relieved a lot of wrist strain, and because of it’s size I have a lot more control.
But it isn’t for everyone…
I have to agree that Apple’s Magic Trackpad is excellent. I was about to by a Logitech trackpad, but that one apparently has some compatibility issues with Linux and it hogs an usb port for its dongle, while Magic Trackpad uses bluetooth and worked without any configuration.
I don’t have a lot of experience with modern Apple mice, but we do have some computers around work that use the “Magic Mouse.” Absolute garbage.
The batteries are always dead. The ergonomics are horrible. There’s no way to not accidentally multi-touch something, destroying productivity. No tactile feedback.
I’d prefer a $5 Rosewill PS/2 mouse any day of the week.
I’ve been using the same Logitech thumb ball with 3 buttons and scroll since forever. Best right hand input device ever.
Last thing I’d compliment Apple on is their mice, past maybe 1990 or so. That’s about the last time I can remember a one-button mouse being a good idea. I think I remember using a mac II around then and complaining about the g*ddamn one button mouse! First pro-tools system I used around 1993 had a roller ball with 3 buttons. Heaven!
Apple’s hockey puck was horrible. I owned one, could not stand it. Any USB mouse was better than that. Mighty mouse isn’t bad. I never understood why they didn’t ship the mac with a standard 2 button mouse programmed to 1 button (mirrored) unless user turned on the “advanced” second button. That would please both the simpletons and the advanced users with 1 item, but alas…
Apple does have the best trackpads, always has. I’ve been doing nice multitouch for 5 years now and non-Apple devices still sorta suck at this. Crazy.
Yeah, reminds me of iOS and its lack of a back button. Now, don’t get me wrong… I don’t hate iOS, but every time I pick up an iOS device, I am constantly reaching for a back button that’s never there. Guess I’ve been using Android for too long
try swipe right from the left edge of the screen, that’s “back” in most browsers and standard iOS apps.
In addition to their mice being horrible overall, they are pretty much unusable for some games. Even if you wanted to use one, it’s impossible to press down both “mouse buttons” simultaneously. This is a serious limitation, for example in fps games.
Also the last time I tried using any kind of mouse with OS X (around the time of Snow Leopard, so it could be irrelevant now) there were some serious issues with mouse acceleration. Not only was the acceleration curve much different to what I’m used on Windows (the cursor would slow down to a crawl with slow movements, I absolutely hated it), I found it impossible to disable it completely for my Logitech mouse, even after trying some kernel hacks and the like. On Windows I just untick one checkbox in preferences.
Edited 2014-08-12 20:48 UTC
I like the Magic Mouse. Use it everyday at work. I like the smoothness of the scrolling surface. I don’t use many of the gestures that it provides, however.
My only complaint with it is that it sucks batteries. It take 2 AA, but I have the rechargeable Apple batteries.
Even still, they get replaced reasonably frequently.
At home, I have a Microsoft Mouse on my Mac. I have this specifically because of the gaming issue cited earlier. You simply can’t chord the two “buttons” on the Magic Mouse.
That MS Mouse is a miser. It’s single AA battery last a good long time. It’s a wire mouse that plugs in to a USB dongle. I’m pretty happy with this mouse.
That said, it’s my second one. The first one I wore out, notably the scroll wheel.
This Magic Mouse, this Dove bar shaped hefty piece of metal, has no moving parts (save the button). I don’t expect I”ll wear it out for some time.
A wired mouse with a battery?
And a USB dongle. Weird little creature.
The battery is just for backup. You know, so that you can still use the mouse even if your computer loses power.
With no power how do you use it, no video, no HD so mouse is for what in that case?
I’m confused. What use could the mouse possible have if your computer has no power? You wave it around and create magical, trippy light effects?
Your (obvious) joke is confusing people
What, specifically Apple batteries?
And buttons do wear out (a small problem with my current mouse, gotta buy a new one…)
The puck mouse was pretty good. Comfortable, nice and weighty, a definite ‘click’ feedback, and attractive.
I used mine until it died.
Earlier Mac mice were also generally pretty good. Not weighty, but comfy and the things lasted forever.
I can’t understand the hate for Mac mice. Sure, they had only one button, but they were comfortable and precise and worked correctly every time. That’s more than I could say about early PC mice, which were all made as cheap as possible.
And it cannot be the single “worst thing”, as it is similar to an older VAX mouse :
http://www.oldmouse.com/articles/hawley/DEC-VAX.shtml
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eyekungfu/2517450591/
Yeah, the hockey puck mouse was an abomination. But at least it was an abomination in obvious, immediately-recognizable ways – their keyboards were awful in much subtler ways. Apple keyboards were never anything special to begin with – and were downright crap compared to keyboards that IBM put out in the 80s – but the iMac-era keyboards seemed to be an almost deliberate exercise in finding the cheapest, shittiest rubber domes possible. And their laptop keyboards were even worse back then: the same mushy, imprecise key action, but with even less travel.
And the only reason they’ve improved is because Apple took the copycat route & started using the scissor switch mechanism that Thinkpad keyboards have used for 15+ years.
Only if you are talking about their laptop keyboards.
Their desktop keyboards suck and are a recipe for RSI.
This from a company that in the past used to sell ergonomic keyboards.
Eh? Their current desktop keyboards are practically identical to their laptop keyboards: same layout and mechanism, but in their own separate case.
There are of course better keyboards available, even ones that use the same mechanism AND cost less (this IS Apple after all), but they could have done (and have done) much worse. E.g. if I were to set out to design a text input method that was intended to cause RSI, then I doubt I could find a better solution than typing on glass.
Too thin, without any proper wrist rest position and playing guessing games which keys to type.
I can get my kids (2 and 4) to use an Apple mouse where the scroll and “right button” are disabled, making it a one-button pointing device. Then they can play games on the Mac. They cannot make sense of a regular 2-button mouse with scroll wheel. (Actually, my 4-year-old probably can now, but not when she was 3.)
What’s cool is that we can just leave both connected, so when my wife plays Age of Empires III (where a real, physical 2nd button is mandatory, otherwise you’ll get carpal tunnel syndrom from having to lift your index finger while clicking), she just switches to the other one.
Look, the hockey puck mouse on the iMac was a terrible mouse – no doubt.
And, it turns out the right mouse click, and two buttons was better than Apple’s original idea for a 1 button mouse.
But, the magic mouse is essentially a two button mouse, at least it knows left and right clicks, lets put it that way.
I like the magic mouse, it works fine. I cannot imagine just ‘throwing it away’.
Edited 2014-08-13 17:56 UTC
I understand the hatred for the hockey puck, but once you figured out how to use it, it required much less hand movement than a traditional mouse as it only required you to use your thumb and ring finger to operate which much greater fidelity. But I too typically ditch my Apple mouse for something more traditional.
When people talk about Apple and design in the same sentence, they are not actually talking about design at all.
Looks are only small small part of the design and the way how something works is lot more important. Apple products are mainly about looks and form over function, so essentially a compromise.
Take sucky mouse from Apple and then pair it with sucky UI once again from Apple and you have the worst of the two worlds. ( Who ever thought the single universal Menu bar on top of the screen was a good idea had no clue at all. Compare it for example to something RISC OS has. No unnecessary mouse movements when the menu is there where the cursor is and it will also stay open until all settings are done if use the right mouse button.