Apple has an actual knack for designing nice merchandise, which makes the awkward decisions evident within the Magic Mouse much more apparent. But Apple appears to be exhausting at work on methods to enhance the system, and whereas we will’t say whether or not it would repair the upside-down charging fiasco, there are encouraging indicators pointing in the direction of some fascinating new options on the horizon.
That’s as a result of a contemporary patent from Apple has revealed a couple of of the corporate’s concepts for bettering the Magic Mouse and increasing it into new areas. There’s no assure we’ll see any of those concepts put into motion, however they not less than present that Apple will not be completely satisfied to relaxation on its laurels.
Within the patent, Apple talks lots about mouse sensors and the way they could possibly be used to detect when a consumer is tilting the mouse. The thought is that this new motion may provide you with one other technique to work together with on-screen content material, past the same old clicking and shifting of the mouse.
For example, the patent says that “the specified operate could be any operate carried out by the computing system, whether or not visibly obvious on a show display screen of the computing system or not.” In different phrases, you may use this operate to zoom in or out, regulate the brightness or quantity, change a brush measurement, or one thing else.
Rotating, rolling and extra
Apple doesn’t simply give attention to tilting a mouse in its patent – it additionally discusses the way you may be capable of rotate a mouse to hold out different actions.
In its accompanying illustrations, Apple depicts a wide range of circular-shaped mice which can be fairly in contrast to something the corporate presently produces. If something, they’re harking back to the notorious “hockey puck” mouse that got here with the iMac G3 and should properly ship shivers up the backbone of anybody who remembers battling that individual pointer.
Apparently, whereas Apple says {that a} mouse’s tilted place may unlock further performance, the transition into that new place may itself be helpful. For example, Apple says that rolling a curved mouse could possibly be used to regulate inputs “in an analogous method to rotating a dial or spinning a sphere of a thumb ball mouse.”
There are quite a lot of concepts mentioned within the patent, and a few of them sound extra sensible than others. However what’s clear is that Apple is thinking about new methods of utilizing a really acquainted system. If the corporate can pull off a brand new and fascinating means to make use of the Magic Mouse, it’d go some technique to restoring that product’s fame to the place Apple would love it to be.