News Bits: Intel & Boeing, Apple Mighty Mouse, PSP Browser, ThinkPad Sale

[Andrew Baxter]

Intel and Boeing to Combine on Wi-Fi in the Sky Effort

Intel and Boeing announced a partnership this week in which Intel will test and approve wi-fi setup on passenger airplanes by the company Connexion (Connexion is a division of Boeing) and help to promote the availability and use of Wi-Fi during flights.  Right now only 70 planes in the world offer this service, those airlines offering it include Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Japan Airlines, ANA, Singapore Airlines and China Airlines (notice none of these airlines are American, yet Boeing and Intel both are -- every U.S. based airline is just trying to stay out of bankruptcy right now I guess, you don't even get a pillow or peanuts for free these days flying domestic U.S. -- forget wi-fi).  The thinking is that if you can take a laptop on board a plane and still be able to send emails and be connected to the web or a company VPN, then you can be just as productive in the sky while travelling as anywhere else.  Of course, wireless will come at a price to start out, it'll be $29.95 per flight.  Expensive, but hey I'm sure there's plenty of businesses that'll pay to keep their employees productive literally everywhere (and squeeze every last ounce of work out of them).

Fly with these airlines to get Intel/Connexion wireless offered:

More: http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2005/q3/nr_050801k.html

Apple Introduces Two Button Mighty Mouse With a "Clean" but Really Stupid Design *

The new Apple Mighty Mouse two button mouse, uhh, sort of

Apple for 21 years refused to release a two-button mouse.  Apple's argument was that one button kept things simple and you could do all that was needed via this one button approach.  I guess they changed their minds and that's not the case anymore.  So they introduced a new mouse today that works with both Apple and Windows machines and has a left and a right mouse button (as Windows based PC mice have had since the beginning) and it has a multi-direction scroll wheel. Well, I guess I should clarify that, they sort of released a two button mouse.  It actually looks like there are no buttons on the top, Apple loves to go for a clean looking design, so designing the mouse that has no obvious outline of the left and right mouse buttons and just using touch sensitive areas is what they've done.

I'm no product designer, but I did take a basic engineering class that they make all industrial engineers take in college and the very first thing we learned was you must have a "forcing function".  A forcing function is something that makes it obvious to the user where to push a button and how -- like on a door where the sign says "Push".  Not putting clickable buttons or outlines of buttons (the Mighty Mouse buttons are "touch sensitive" and don't really depress individually) is completely counter to good design.  The buttons don't even really click, they offer a synthesized click.  Holy mackerel!  I've experienced teaching computer basics to newbie adult and senior computer users and some can hardly understand using a two button mouse, try teaching them to use a two-button mouse that doesn't appear to have any buttons or that you have to go into a software program to configure the two buttons to work.  Yeah right.  Sorry Apple, you are no way and no how the choice for beginner computer users if you're going to throw out stylish but impossible to use designs such as this.

You have to configure the Mighty Mouse to work with two buttons instead of acting like one, in this software config screen it's painfully obvious the "primary button" and "secondary button" are not physical buttons but touch sensitive areas that will not give the proper look or obvious feel of a true two button mouse

Okay, rant over

* I do own Apple products and like the company, but not this product or their approach with mouse input devices

More: http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/

Sony Adds Web Browser to PSP

New PSP browser launch page (view larger image)

Sony has released a firmware update for the PSP in Japan that includes a web browser for the PSP, this same update should make it to the U.S. around August 12.  In case you didn't know, the PSP is a wi-fi equipped gaming machine.  So if you're a gadget geek but don't carry your laptop everywhere but need to get on the net sometime the PSP might be a good solution.  Hey, you can even checkout this site using the new browser:

NotebookReview.com article at Just-Fit settings on the new Sony PSP browser (view larger image)

NotebookReview.com article at Smart-Fit settings on the new Sony PSP browser (view larger image)

Brian, one of the guys that runs this site, has a full review of the browser here.

Lenovo / IBM "Back to School, down to Business" ThinkPad Sale, up to 25% Off

All of a sudden I'm a big fan of the Lenovo takeover of the IBM PC division as they're for the first time I can ever remember giving a big sale, no strings attached, on all of their ThinkPad offerings.  These prices are the best I've seen in recent memory.

Picture from Lenovo website promoting offers on ThinkPad notebooks

All Lenovo / IBM ThinkPad notebooks and PCs are on sale at IBM.com for a special July - August promotion.  Save up to $665 / 25% on certain ThinkPad notebooks.

Link to Sale Details

[Mood]

Hey a$shole, I don't know what your problem with apple is, as clearly you hate their products. They didn't need to make the two button mouse, they made it because the consumers wanted it, not because they needed to makei t. I still don't see what the problem with this mouse is. Apple does not go by any "de facto" standard int he pc world. That's why they are innovaters and create unique ideas even in mundane and banal things like mice. Have you even used the mouse ? It works very well with OS X Tiger and feels ergonomically correct and all the "buttons" work very well. Instead of criticizing a product that just came out, just state that the product came out, don't give us this garbage that you don't like it otherwise me and many other people will be tempted to beleive that you're extremely biased to microsoft products, and to date, i haven't seen any mice that are exactly stellar. Also, I don't know why you put that tidbit on senior citizens and old people. Who gives a F.uck if some small minority of users doesn' tknow what the difference between a left and right click is, the concept is still the same. You're saying that this product is $hit because it doesn't cater to senior citizens? Nice review, tool. You're just another troll attacking Apple because you're still a Win-Doze slave. I don't know what this website is catering to, but if all you're going to do is attack Apple, even though Microsoft has repeatedly copied and relentlessly did so in fact, and embellish high priced crap like Dell laptops then this website is just another cnet.com.

Think Outside Of The Box Or Stick With Dull PCs

[Neero]

i've used a lot of platforms from amiga,apple,pc and other things. i was planning on getting an ibook this year but decided to wait on that Intel deal.

it is a shame that some apple users get so defensive and just ruins the image of apple fans in general.

[Andrew Baxter]

Hey a$shole, I don't know what your problem with apple is, as clearly you hate their products. They didn't need to make the two button mouse, they made it because the consumers wanted it, not because they needed to makei t. I still don't see what the problem with this mouse is. Apple does not go by any "de facto" standard int he pc world. That's why they are innovaters and create unique ideas even in mundane and banal things like mice. Have you even used the mouse ? It works very well with OS X Tiger and feels ergonomically correct and all the "buttons" work very well. Instead of criticizing a product that just came out, just state that the product came out, don't give us this garbage that you don't like it otherwise me and many other people will be tempted to beleive that you're extremely biased to microsoft products, and to date, i haven't seen any mice that are exactly stellar. Also, I don't know why you put that tidbit on senior citizens and old people. Who gives a F.uck if some small minority of users doesn' tknow what the difference between a left and right click is, the concept is still the same. You're saying that this product is $hit because it doesn't cater to senior citizens? Nice review, tool. You're just another troll attacking Apple because you're still a Win-Doze slave. I don't know what this website is catering to, but if all you're going to do is attack Apple, even though Microsoft has repeatedly copied and relentlessly did so in fact, and embellish high priced crap like Dell laptops then this website is just another cnet.com.

Think Outside Of The Box Or Stick With Dull PCs

I stated that I do own Apple products such as an iPod and Airport Express. My gripe is that there's no forcing function for the buttons, definition here:

http://www.interaction-design.org/en...functions.html

I suggest you read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

The principles of design as laid out in that book are:

1. Use both knowledge in the world and in the head
2. Simplify the structure of tasks
3. Make things visible
4. Get the mappings right
5. Exploit the powers of constraints-Natural & Artificial
6. Design for Error
7. When all else fails, standardize

And answer the question, would it make sense to make a door and hide the hinges and have no push handle so you don't know which side of the door to push on? Or how about making a fire alarm and not having a sign that says "pull here", but making a user guess where to pull? No, so why remove the button outlines from a button that should be pushed.

Please don't use foul language, I won't edit it because it shows the type of person you are and missed my point. I like Apple, but not blindly, they often have great design such as the fact an iPod goes to sleep soon after you take the headphones out because....duh, you can't listen to it, I don't know of another player that does that. But in the case of the mighty mouse I'm not happy with the design.

[Brian]

Mood - you need to chill out. We don't bash Apple here but we do call things as we see them. I too agree that the design isn't very intuitive, though hard core fans like you may really dig it. To each his own...

[Mood]

I don't understand why this book and the mechanical mouse has become so necessary. In theory, the mighty mouse might make more errors, however, it does not! I've used it at the Apple Store and it's very intuitive (i showed my girlfriend as well who is computer illiterate and she figured it out quickly).

your gripe that there is no forcing function for the buttons and hte possibility for increased human error is unwarranted. If you play around with the mouse you will find that you need to "squeeze" the button and give it ample pressure in order for it to click left or right. It's impossible to review this mouse because it caters to user preference, however, I and many others have found it to be very accurate, and in regards to the forcing function, apple includes an internal audio chirp (the same used in the ipod), in order to tell you when the click was made.

and i'm sorry for the foul language in the previous post, it just pisses me off when people make strong claims about products they haven't used yet (especially when it's a quality driven product made my apple.) I mean, what other company would invest so much money in a mouse? This is Apple, as you guys have seen from all their other products, Apple doesn't make products that go along with the de facto standards, but creates them.

[Andrew Baxter]

I went to the Apple store here in NYC and used it too and that's what I'm basing my observations on, I don't own it though. Personally I think Apple should have gone the opposite direction and made the left and right mouse click buttons different colors, or make one area clear and the other opaque...anything but all one block white. They've always been about usability and making things blatantly obvious to use along with making them stylish, but this is all style and usability got put aside. An audio chirp as a substitute for the mechanical feel / spring feedback from a typical button mouse combined with the audio click at the same time just isn't the same thing.


As an aside, I wonder if Apple "borrowed" the name of this device from a 2002 Stanford Magazine article

http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/m...res/mouse.html

hmmm.

[Spare Tire]

Hey mood, for one thing it's obvious that you're the only one who is an a priori fanatic. I think your neutrality is a lot more questionable than that of the reviewer here.

[Rahul]

Man, its just a freaking mouse, if you don't like it, you can still just a standard Windows mouse on an Apple pc right? Or just use the one button mouse.

I personally think this new design is also stupid, not innovative or unique, just idiotic. Well, I've used Win-Doze all my life, so I tend to bash on Apple sometimes I guess.

[Barry J. Doyle]

I am with Brian on this one. To each his own. Apple has gone for form over function with their mice and trackpads for a long time now.