[meesterdude]

As someone who is a big fan of "don't make me think" (just bought the third edition a few days ago, actually) I can attest that there are things that apple has done/designed that make me think or pause. I Don't think it's core to their philosophy - perhaps it is a part of it, but not front and center. I get snagged on too many things for that to be the case; and it's become noticeable in the past few years to the point of hindrance for me in some cases.

Their keyboards and mice particularly showcase this: they look pretty and sleek, but try using them all day, and then try using a regular keyboard and mouse. They weren't thinking about the human who has to use it, they were thinking of appeal and looks.

You're not wrong about the approachability of IOS; that's no accident, and required a good deal of thought and attention. But I think whenever there is a tie, and they can either improve the aesthetics or improve the usability, they lean towards the former, because it's sexier and will sell.

[philwelch]

> Their keyboards and mice particularly showcase this: they look pretty and sleek, but try using them all day, and then try using a regular keyboard and mouse.

Having done this, I prefer the Apple products:

1. The keyboards have very little travel so it is considerably less effort to type on them then to type on a standard keyboard.

2. The Magic Mouse has a large multitouch surface on it that enables gestures that I have a hard time going without. Also, it fits my hand. YMMV.

[ghaff]

Matter of taste or what you're accustomed to. I use a mechanical keyboard on my MacMini but genuinely like both the Apple Bluetooth trackpad and mouse--and have gotten beyond the trackballs I used for ages without much in the way of angst.

[meesterdude]

Have you tried the new keyboard and trackpad on the new macbook? the keyboard feels like buttons more than keys, and the trackpad is... not good.

but, still; matter of taste. there will always be lovers and haters, and you're certainly welcome to prefer one over the other.

[philwelch]

I haven't tried the USB MacBook yet.

[mercer]

I'd say the entire history of Apple products compared to any other popular product that is a 'computing device' indicates that you're wrong. They've consistently made traditionally complex things easy enough for mainstream adoption and perhaps more importantly, enjoyment.

Sure, they make mistakes. Probably quite a number of them. Nobody is perfect. But I'd say their mistakes are insignificant compared to their achievements.

Plus, sometimes they're not mistakes; they just don't target power users. A single-button mouse is an example of that. And to some extent choosing aesthetics over usability can be an example of this too. A non-tech person might prefer a pretty mouse and keyboard because he only checks his email occasionally and he's not a great typist anyways.

(mind, I do realize Apple often did not 'invent' these things. They just were clever enough to polish these things up and productize them, which rather bafflingly few companies did before them)

[nationcrafting]

Good point re: keyboard and mouse. Especially the round mouse, just looking at that gives me a funny feeling in the metacarpals.

[pilsetnieks]

Do you mean the round one-button mouse from the 1998 iMac?

[nationcrafting]

Indeed. Sorry, I guess I'm showing my age assuming everyone knows which one I meant.

Here it is: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Apple_iM...