Back in January, we had some discussion of Apple’s One Button To Rule Them All approach to mouse design. Today, Apple has launched a mouse with “single button looks and multi-button charm”:
Meet the mouse that reinvented the wheel. The scroll wheel, that is. At $49, Mighty Mouse features the revolutionary Scroll Ball that lets you move anywhere inside a document, without lifting a finger. And with touch-sensitive technology concealed under the seamless top shell, you get the programability of a four-button mouse in a single-button design. Click, roll, squeeze and scroll. This mouse just aced the maze.
I don’t know–“Mighty Mouse”? It lacks a certain je ne sais pas. And while we’re at it, the Apple copy writer probably should have left “aced the maze” in the draft copy. Oy.
I’m inherently skeptical of interface devices which are very small, but I’ll hold off judgement on the Scroll Ball until I actually see and touch one.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
is it just me, or does the button look like those awful pencil-eraser things they have on crappy laptops? I’ll stick with my scroll wheel, thanks.
Maybe it’s because I’ve only ever owned crappy laptops (I am a victi.. er, alumni of the Acadia Advantage), but I find I can’t live without those pencil-eraser things. I absolutely loathe having to use touchpads.