Once you’ve registered with the service and set your time zone, you simply forward your email to a specially formatted @followup.cc email to specify when the reminder will be sent (at a specific time or on a certain day). For example, to set a reminder three days from now you would add the email address 3d@followup.cc to the email, or to set a reminder for for 4 p.m, you add the email address 4pm@followup.cc. There’s a full explanation of the reminder syntax here (note that adding the followup.cc email address to the “To:” or “Cc:” fields means that everyone who receives the email will also get the reminder — if you add it to the “Bcc:” field, only you’ll get the reminder).

Reminder emails quote the original email, and include a box telling you when the reminded was created. They also contain “snooze” links, which let you quickly re-set the reminder for some time in the future.

Helpfully, you can get a calendar view of all upcoming reminders at the Followup.cc site; clicking on a reminder allows you to edit or delete it:

A settings page is also available at the website, where you can get links for adding reminders to your RSS reader or calendar, and also get a bookmarklet that allows you to set follow-up reminders on web pages.

Need some tips on how to construct that follow-up email? Check out Dave Clarke’s excellent recent article, “The Art of the Follow-up.”

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(Via Download Squad)

I generally wait to see how a new product is received before upgrading. I’ve been holding off on moving to Mac OS X 10.6.4, for example, because it’s reported to break some software that I depend on. But for some reason, I decided to upgrade to iOS 4, the latest version of the operating system for my iPod touch, the first day it was available. Unfortunately for those of us who use Exchange to sync our mail, calendars, and contacts with Google Apps, the upgrade required the re-syncing of this data, which in turn slowed Google’s servers to a crawl. It took almost 24 hours before I again had a usable device.

During that time, I got to thinking about the questions I should have asked myself before starting the update. Here’s what I came up with; please add your thoughts in the comments.

• Do you need the new features of the update? If it fixes security issues, then probably yes. If not, then you should consider whether the update will actually improve your workflow. For example, one of iOS4′s new features is the ability to create “folders,” or groups of applications, on the home screen. Is this important to you, even given its limitations? Another feature is multitasking, which has gotten mixed reviews, at best.
• What will the update cost? Of course, some new hardware and software isn’t free, but even if the manufacturer isn’t charging, what is the value of the time and effort it will take you to move to the new version? I suspect that evaluations of this question are why many companies are still using Windows XP and IE 6.
• Are there technical issues in the new version that may cause problems? This is where blogs and discussion forums can be lifesavers. If I had waited only a couple of hours before starting my iOS 4 upgrade, I would have found several posts and threads describing the exact issues I encountered, and would have known to wait until they were resolved.
• What are the consequences if something goes wrong? How easily can I revert to a previous version? Can I afford down time? Luckily, I wasn’t going anywhere the other day, but if I had been, it would have been very inconvenient not to have access to my email, calendars, and (especially) to my contacts.

How do you decide when to upgrade?

Image by Flickr user .schill, licensed under CC

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So what, right? The ads are probably incorrectly labeled, or something. But the word on the street (well, the word on Engadget, anyway) is that these might predict the much-anticipated Mac refreshes that we’ve been waiting for.

From Engadget:

Apple’s Australian online store lists the most affordable versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Pro at A$1599, A$1999 and A$3599, respectively, but the ads show significantly higher “starting at” prices of A$1899, A$2399, and A$4499.

Following the ads to Apple’s Australian online store reveals the same Mac models at the same old prices, so either these ads are terribly wrong or they’re been released a little early…

It has been over a year since Apple released a major update to its high-end Mac Pro computer. I know very well because I bought one last April at an astronomically high price, and as such, guard it with my life. (No one else is allowed near it. No one!) If history has taught me anything, it is that I am not allowed to have the best and brightest kit for long. Therefore, an update is imminent. As for the MacBook Pro, we can probably expect to see Apple upgrade it with Intel’s powerful i7 Chipset.

But why so much more expensive? Engadget’s Vladislav Savov suggests:

The rise in MacBook Pro pricing could be attributed to the cost of the i7 chipset, but it seems unlikely that in a recovering economy Apple would increase their prices significantly without having a cheaper baseline model available.

I am hoping to see something more than just a chipset upgrade this time around; support for Blu-Ray is one of those things I want (even though it’s something most people don’t need) and who wouldn’t like to see high-capacity SSD’s as-standard?

I know only this; I’m a weak-willed slave to Apple’s hardware. I was the same way with PC’s, but let’s face it, a tech-obsessed geek with a weakness for shiny new toys will usually spend far less on generic PC equipment than on the latest newness from Cupertino.

At a time when the entry-level iPad would more than easily meet my needs, I know for a fact that, instead, I’ll be ordering the most expensive model available when we Brits can (finally!) get our hands on them. The same thing happened a year ago when I bought my painfully-expensive Mac Pro — truth is, I could have gotten by with an iMac. And even now, despite having twin 30” HD Cinema displays, I feel like I’m missing out not owning a 27” iMac as well. Thankfully, I’m in a tiny minority of crazy people.

Are these ads correct? If they are, will we have new Macs before the end of the month? Apple’s New Zealand online store also displays odd pricing inconsistencies along similar lines to those on the Australian store. Perhaps we’re reading too much into it (as Apple crazies want to do) but let’s face it, one of two things will happen from here; either the ads will be replaced with ‘corrected’ prices, or, one day very soon, that little yellow sticky note will appear on Apple’s online store and insane gadget freaks like me will reach for our credit cards…

Am I as crazy as I think? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Popbox is the latest product from Syabas, which has been creating hardware for connecting TVs to PCs for a while. When asked what differentiates Popbox from Roku, Popbox marketing lead Jeff Reine pointed to the content that is available beyond video, which includes casual games, social networks like Twitter and Facebook, music, and photos. Reine also said that according to developers he’d been working with, it was far far easier to build apps for Popbox than to build them for the Roku box, primarily due to Popbox’s use of Flash Lite.

Developers are given complete control over their apps — “it’s the mall approach,” Reine said, wherein a mall offers slots to various stores, who then decide how to use the space — and the SDK is coming out soon. The banner ads seen on the box interface in the video above are not paid ads, but rather opportunities to promote partners within the channel.

Popbox is aiming for global distribution, and while there’s no official street date yet, the box should hit the streets sometime this spring. UPDATE: Popbox will be released first in the U.S., but currently has no plan for international distribution.

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27 years old, with longish hair (no helmet), wearing tan boots and a light-colored shirt with sleeves rolled back (no black turtleneck), Jobs looks like he’s having the time of his life riding the two-wheel Bimmer in San Francisco freelancer Moira Johnston’s feature “High Tech, High Risk, and High Life in Silicon Valley,” published in the magazine’s October 1982 issue.

However, notwithstanding his (excellent) taste in bikes, Steve’s stated ambition, when interviewed by Johnston over herb tea at a vegetarian restaurant, was modestly at the time to become “the Volkswagen” of the microcomputer sector rather than its BMW — which became a popular automotive analogy with Apple-watching commentators later on — although he emphasizes that “We’d rather call the Apple a personal than a home computer.”

The article notes that the Apple computer “has inspired a dedicated cult of hard-core enthusiasts who trade new uses for the computer in the columns of Apple magazines” and that Jobs had “become a potent role model for a new breed of bright kids who are writing and selling software programs and, with their arcane computer skills, gaining the prestige formerly tasted only by the high-school football team.”

Johnston also reports that besides the BMW two-wheeler, Jobs, already holding $100 million worth of Apple stock, also owned “the requisite Mercedes,” but that “success seems not to have spoiled the first folk hero of the computer age,” who still preferred according to an unnamed friend quoted, “to drive his motorcycle to my place, sit around and drink wine, and talk about what we’re going to do when we grow up.”

Of more than passing interest is that not unlike Apple’s performance through the current economic recession, the company seemed to be weathering a late ’82 downturn the microchip sector rather well, with revenues soaring 81 percent year-over-year and Apple occupying 22 buildings in Silicon Valley as well as having plants in Texas, Singapore, and Ireland.

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

Read here for a scan and transcript, with photos, of the entire National Geographic article.

A tip of the hat to Modern Mechanix for posting the article scan and to Peter Orosz of jalopnik.com for drawing my attention to this fascinating snippet of history.

Atimi is one of the leading iPhone development firms in North America and by December of 2009 had produced more than 25 iPhone applications for leading U.S. brands in Media & Entertainment; Fashion; Health; Education; Finance; Games; Municipal Mapping and Utility. Atimi is also is one of the leading Macintosh development houses in the world; it supports global firms in development and porting of applications to the Mac platform. Atimi’s immediate partnership goal will be to help AT&T support its ever-growing base of iPhone and Mac desktop clients.

thePlatform’s new mpx Beta is designed to help video publishers adapt to the changing broadband video landscape faster and more efficiently. mpx Beta provides all the scalability, flexibility and industrial-strength video management capabilities you’ve come to expect from thePlatform, but adds a new layer, one that promises increased efficiency, simplicity and adaptability.

Media producers and editors using mpx Beta’s completely redesigned interface can manage large content libraries more efficiently with personalized workflows. And they can speed through the publishing process with powerful and adaptive Publish Profiles that can be applied to any media object with just one click.

Take advantage of the increasing opportunities in online video. Contact thePlatform today to see our new mpx Beta system at work.

A new report by BroadPoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall about the cost of production of the iPad based on the going rate for component parts, manufacturing cost and built-in warranty repair costs reveals quite a wide profit margin on a per device basis. The entry-level $499 model apparently generates $208 in profit, while the top of the line $829 model more than doubles that, raking in $446 per unit.

Marshall estimates that the cost of making the 16GB Wi-Fi model of the iPad runs around $270.50, plus $20 for warranty costs for a total of $290.50. Most of that cost accounts for the 9.7-inch touchscreen display, which Marshall guesses costs around $100. Apple sees considerable savings on its own in-house A4 chips, which run around $15 per unit. With a cost of $290.50 and a selling price of $499, Apple stands to see a profit margin of 42.9 percent with each sale.

On other models that margin ranges from 48 to 55.1 percent, giving the iPad line as a whole an overall profit-generating power of about 50 percent, a number which assumes that the Wi-Fi models will sell considerably more than the 3G-capable devices, a reasonable assumption. Computerworld points out that while the number seems fairly high, it is in fact on par with Apple’s other hardware offerings:

High profit margins are standard for Apple, which earlier in the week boasted that its corporate margin for 2009′s final quarter was 40.1%. Some products, in fact, have estimated margins even higher than Marshall’s iPad numbers: The consensus for the iPhone 3GS is above 60%, for example.

iSuppli, a research firm which is well-known for its Apple product tear-downs and component analyses, has refrained from making any estimates about the iPad’s cost to build as of yet, though it does acknowledge that there’s reason to believe many costs will be similar to those found in the manufacture of the iPhone and iPod touch:

We really want to wait until we know a little more about what’s inside. We’d rather not just throw numbers at it yet. It does seem like a gigantic iPod Touch, which means that although some costs would just scale up from the iPod, like the display and the touch screen, a lot won’t.

Considering that the iPad is a brand new product just getting out of the gate, news that it already enjoys such a wide profit margin is a very promising sign of things to come for future Apple customers. Just like it eventually became profitable for Apple to sell the iPhone 3G at a subsidized $99 price point as parts became cheaper and manufacturing costs went down, so too is it conceivable that we will eventually see a significant dip in the price of the iPad. If the 1G iPad sticks around when Apple eventually introduces a 2G camera-equipped model, for instance, 1G pricing could drop to a point where it would decimate netbook sales.

There’s also the possibility that the iPad will eventually get the same subsidy treatment the iPhone currently enjoys, though Apple doesn’t appear to want to go that route with consumers just yet, preferring instead to keep the device unlocked and therefore theoretically available to a broader buyer-base. Subsidies attached to contracts could reduce the initial purchase price considerably, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see $199 as the cost of entry for the 16GB Wi-Fi/3G model.

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Two weeks ago, the second series to be commissioned under the TSIY banner, LG15: Outbreak launched under the creative lead of Gregory Austin McConnell, known originally to members of the fan community as Greg Mason, a fictional critic of LG15.

While it’s common for LG15 fans to create their own contributions to the series’ narrative, though, McConnell didn’t start off as a fan: “I really didn’t like the show,” he said via phone. “And being the sort of mean-spirited guy I am, I thought I’d give them a piece of my mind, so I created [Mason] within the universe of the show to criticize it.” However, the community responded positively to Mason’s comments, so he continued producing videos critiquing the show — and submitted his own idea when the second round of TSIY came up, figuring that he “could do a better job than they’re doing.”

The result, Outbreak, is a mystery-laden new entry focused around Crystal (Dani Martin), a mysterious and attractive young woman who refuses to discuss her past with her new YouTube friends, but appreciates the support they offer when, her first week in her new apartment, she experiences a strange break-in and advances from a creepy neighbor. The narrative so far is pretty light, with the focus on building up character taking precedence even over kinda-big plot developments like the Eiffel Tower being destroyed, but the fan interaction and use of text and video content is classic LG15.

The only notable difference is that Outbreak videos are filmed with a lot more visual flair than previous LG15 installments — a change to the house style, but cleverly explained. In Crystal’s case, the production quality of her videos are explained by her being a film school dropout who studied editing and animation; in the case of Mason, whose updates are the biggest hint at the larger mystery at work here, the dreamy style fits his circumstances.

A Missouri-based filmmaker, McConnell found the $5000 budget sufficient for putting together the show, though his production company, Tempest Films, already had a full complement of production equipment. Outbreak is scheduled to run for eight weeks, with new video or text content being posted every day. “Now that I’m doing what they did,” said McConnell, “I understand exactly what it takes and the kind of investment you need.”

From the very first episode, he and his team have been working to make sure that they kept the audience fully engaged with the narrative, in some cases rewriting entire storylines when fan response went in an unexpected direction. “In the first episode, Crystal pulled a book out from a box,” McConnell said. “It was a last-minute prop, because what we wanted was for people to ask what was inside the box. But instead they focused on the book, so we had to sit down and figure out how to build the plot around the book instead.”

But McConnell sees this sort of twist as key to the interactive nature of LG15. “You can’t really run a show like this without looking at the fan perspective,” he said. “The show thrives on having an audience who’s willing to play along.”

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According to a report over the weekend on HotHardware.com, Apple may have more to announce at its special event this Wednesday than its mythical tablet.

We have been led to believe by an inside source that AT&T will lose their iPhone exclusivity on the same day, though it’s not yet clear what other carrier (or carriers) will be stepping in to also carry the phone.

It doesn’t come as any great surprise to hear about the end of AT&T’s exclusive partnership with Apple, but I will be surprised if El Jobso deliberately announces it during his keynote. After all, if he did announce it, at what may become the most-watched-and-reported-on  keynote in Apple’s history, the predictable whoops of delight from the attendees will be hugely embarrassing for AT&T. Will Jobs be so insensitive?

AppleInsider says AT&T’s contract with Apple expires in June this year. Certainly, AT&T has recently been shoring-up its offering of smartphones to include Android-based handsets, but that’s hardly unusual for a mobile operator striving to remain relevant in a crowded and hugely competitive market.

While Apple may be looking forward to ending the exclusivity deal, I don’t think the same is true of AT&T. They have attracted and retained millions of new subscribers with the iPhone since its launch in 2007. The press hasn’t been kind to it, and even its own CEO has criticized its bandwidth-chomping customers, but I’m sure AT&T doesn’t regret one single lucrative day of that almost-three-year partnership.

Brand Loyalty

Incidentally, this is pretty much win-win for Apple, who — I am sure — will see tremendous sales on other networks despite the relative age of the iPhone. For instance, here in the UK, O2 enjoyed high iPhone sales throughout its exclusive partnership period.

But as soon as O2’s exclusive partnership with Apple ended, Orange reported record-breaking opening day iPhone sales. And more recently, a third major carrier, Vodafone, also started selling the iPhone and reported even higher opening day sales.

If this demonstrates anything, it is that significant numbers of customers remain loyal to their cellular networks, choosing to “make do” with whatever handsets are available to them, all the while quietly coveting the wares of competing operators. Personally, I have no such loyalty. Most of the operators here in the UK offer pretty much the same awful services at pretty much the same inflated prices, with only minor differences in tariffs. The biggest differences lie, as always, in the range of handsets they have to offer.

When I bought my iPhone back in 2007 I just happened to already be an O2 customer, but I readily admit, had I been with another carrier, I would have made the move without hesitation. I’m surprised, then, to learn that an awful lot of people are not so ready to switch. Apparently brand loyalty extends to products and services beyond Apple. Who’d have thunk it?

A Harsh Light

AppleInsider suggests this brand loyalty probably had something to do with the relative sales success of iPhone alternatives such as Motorola’s Droid, which served as a “second best” choice for carrier-loyal customers who wanted an iPhone but weren’t prepared to leave their existing network operator.

…an announcement this week might effectively preclude a large group of consumers from upgrading to phones they might otherwise be interested in because they know the iPhone will be hitting the relatively stable Verizon network in just a few months.

Verizon’s network may be “relatively stable” right now, but wasn’t AT&T’s considered stable before the arrival of the iPhone in 2007? I don’t know, of course, but — wasn’t AT&T always a bit rubbish? Didn’t it take the arrival of the iPhone to shine a harsh light on its patchy service?

Or was it the arrival of the iPhone that caused the degradation in service? HotHardware’s Shawn Oliver thinks it was the latter.

The iPhone itself doesn’t really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very well, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail… It seems that AT&T is tired of taking the heat for this, and at this point, they may be smart to just let another carrier take some of those customers who are most inclined to complain.

Did he just imply iPhone customers are a bunch of moaning minnies?

So who’s right? Will the inevitable opening-up of the iPhone to other carriers in the U.S. destroy Android sales? Will Americans enjoy the iPhone price wars that (sadly) never happened over here? Or will everyone be too busy cooing over the Tablet to even care?

Or — worse — what’s the chance that Apple will have an AT&T-related announcement this Wednesday, but rather than confirming the end of the exclusivity deal, could Jobs announce a new, extended exclusivity partnership that includes the iPhone and the Tablet? What fresh horrors could such a partnership bring?

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For one thing, there’s the question of ubiquity. Due to standards issues, not all browsers support YouTube’s HTML5 videos. Users could only test the player out if they were using Chrome, Safari, or Internet Explorer with Google’s ChromeFrame installed, because its HTML5 videos are encoded using H.264, which isn’t supported by Firefox and Opera. Standards around things like video codecs are slow to develop, and until they do, so an HTML5-only YouTube probably won’t be viable across all browsers anytime soon.

Despite requiring a plugin, Adobe Flash is the leading technology for web video today, with more than 75 percent of all worldwide streams, including YouTube’s. That’s because the Flash client is installed in some 98 percent of Internet-connected computers, and is also supported by a wide variety of mobile devices. As Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch said at NewTeeVee Live, HTML5 “is trying to do what Flash already does today.” So if YouTube were to move to HTML5, it would actually reduce the number of users that would be able to access its videos, whether they needed a plugin or not.

More importantly, the vast majority of web video advertising is created with Flash in mind, and this is apparent with YouTube’s HTML5 testing ground. Videos that the company monetizes are not viewable through HTML5, for the basic reason that there aren’t any ads available to show. With the video ad market just now starting to take off, and the vast majority of those ads being created in Flash, it will be difficult for a video publisher to transition to another format without seriously hurting potential ad revenues.

It’s still early days for HTML5, but despite YouTube’s dabbling there probably won’t be any large-scale implementations of video sites adopting it anytime soon. Without a critical mass of users that are actually able to view the videos, or advertisers to support them, there’s little reason for them to do so.

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In a patent application entitled “Video Overlay Advertisement Creator,” Google outlines the “methods and systems for creating video overlay advertisements suitable for use with digital videos.” The system basically allows advertisers to specify the attributes of an overlay ad through a browser-based user interface, which would be communicated back to the YouTube server. The server would then provide a preview of the ad in the advertiser’s browser. In other words, it lets advertisers build their own overlay ads, without having to hire an agency to do so.

An image of what Google has in mind is embedded below:

The ability for advertisers to create their own video ads could lead to an increase in the number of small and medium-sized businesses advertising on YouTube, which previously didn’t have the resources to create the ads themselves or the cash to hire someone to create the ads for them. As Google writes in the patent application, “The conventional techniques for development of such multimedia advertisements are complex, requiring resources beyond the means of many small to medium-sized organizations.”

By opening up advertising on YouTube to companies that previously weren’t capable, Google could democratize video advertising business in much the same way that it democratized search advertising through AdWords. It could also create a brand new revenue stream and possibly monetize user-generated content that big brand advertisers don’t want to be associated with.

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Despite the monthly decline, the year-over-year picture is a little brighter, with unique viewers, number of streams, and time spent watching online videos each up over 10 percent from the previous year. Unique viewers grew 10.3 percent, to 137.4 million in December, with total streams at about 10.7 billion. The amount of time spent watching videos online was also up year-over-year, to 193.2 minutes per month, on average.

Four of the top five video properties in November saw declines over the following month. YouTube‘s streams were down from 6.7 billion streams in November to 6.4 billion in December, while the number of streams also declined at Hulu (from 657 million to 635 million), MSN (from 147 million to 141 million), and Fox Interactive Media (from 137 million to 125 million).

No. 3-ranked Yahoo proved to be an exception among the top five, growing from 197 million streams to 244 million streams month-over-month. Meanwhile, Turner Sports bounded into the top 10 — and all the way into the top five — with 142 million streams during the month.

Of course, not everyone believes Nielsen’s estimates, and some video companies — like Hulu — have expressed frustration over the research firm’s methods for determining the unique users or streams viewed. Nielsen is trying to change that, with a new initiative to install “Internet meters” in homes that participate in its National Television Panel.

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Consumer electronics manufacturers say 3-D is finally ready for prime time, and are making big bets on the technology over the next few years. Top CE companies Sony, Panasonic, LG Electronics and now Vizio will all be showing off 3DTVs at CES, following previous product launches by Mitsubishi, Philips and Sharp. While 3-D display market is still nascent, research firm DisplaySearch forecasts that it will grow from 0.7 million units and $902 million in revenues in 2008 to 196 million units and $22 billion in revenues in 2018.

Last week we opined that the success of Avatar might help jump-start that growth in the home 3-D market, but it looks like big, blockbuster 3-D films will only be part of growing consumer interest in the technology. Sure, with over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, the movie has shown that viewers are interested in 3-D, but it looks like a little more regular cable programming could help grow consumer interest in the home as well.

This morning, ESPN and Discovery both announced plans to roll out 3-D cable networks, finally giving early adopters something to watch on those fancy (and expensive) new TVs. ESPN says it will launch its 3-D offering on June 11, just in time for the first 2010 FIFA World Cup match between South Africa and Mexico. ESPN expects to show more than 85 events in 3-D on the new cable network in the first year, including up to 25 FIFA World Cup matches, college basketball and college football games.

Discovery, meanwhile, announced a joint venture with Sony and IMAX to create the first round-the-clock 3-D cable network in the US. While the network won’t launch until 2011, it will include “high-quality premium content from genres that are most appealing in 3D, including natural history, space, exploration, adventure, engineering, science and technology, motion pictures and children’s programming,” according to the press release. The network will have content from Discovery, Sony, and IMAX, of course, but will also include content from third parties.

Some have been skeptical about adoption of 3-D in the home, including GigaOm Pro’s Paul Sweeting, who believes the consumer electronics industry could be “putting the cart before the horse” by rolling out 3-D enabled TVs. But with some actual premium content from cable providers on tap, adoption of 3-D in the home might be ready to kick off in earnest.

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Holiday spending has seen sales of Apple’s Magic Mouse soar. According to a report by NPD and covered today by AppleInsider, last month saw a twofold increase in Apple’s share of domestic mice sales. By the end of November, Apple had captured 10 percent of the market.

NPD analyst Stephen Baker told AppleInsider:

Sales in November were through the roof. The Magic Mouse had the best month for a mouse product from Apple that we’ve ever seen.

It’s the first time Apple’s share of the domestic mouse market has ever reached double digits, and even more impressive considering the data was compiled from standalone sales. Units sold with new iMacs were not counted.

While that’s fantastic news for Apple, I find myself wondering whether those new Magic Mouse owners aren’t going to be feeling somewhat disappointed because, despite its name, the Magic Mouse is anything but magical. For a company that gets so much of its user experience spot-on, it does keep missing the target with its pointing devices.

Andy Ihnatko said it best:

I can’t think of a single good Apple mouse released this millennium. Ideologically, they’ve all been covered with spray-glitter and rainbow stickers.

When I got my Magic Mouse I admired its diminutive form factor and minimalist lines but it was clearly not an ergonomic design. That super slimline, ground-hugging shape took some getting used to. But aesthetic and ergonomic matters aside, I think the thorniest issue isn’t with the hardware at all. The problem, as I see it, is one of user perception.

You see, users accustomed to the touchy-goodness of an iPhone or MacBook trackpad lament the lack of similar functionality in their supposedly ‘magic’ mouse. The major criticism is usually expressed in the form of common questions, like, Why is there no pinch to zoom functionality? Why do we have to click, when we could tap? Why aren’t more swipe-gestures supported?

“It’s just a software fix,” reviewers on popular Apple tech sites have concluded, “Apple will likely add that functionality later in a software update.”

Well, I don’t think so. In fact, I think Apple will intentionally avoid adding further touch functionality to this mouse, and I think I know why.

Be Careful What You Wish For

In the relatively short time since the Magic Mouse was released in late October, several third-party applications have appeared, both free and paid, that (ahem) ‘tap’ into the Magic Mouse software and foist upon the device all that pinching, swiping, multi-touch functionality people think they want. Well, I also thought I wanted those things…until I got them.

Remember how, with the Mighty Mouse, you had to handle it with care because those side-buttons could be way too sensitive? They were so sensitive, in fact, many people disabled those buttons entirely because they proved such a nuisance. Turns out, having multifunctional touch-sensitive controls all across the surface of the Magic Mouse turns the thing into a far greater nuisance than its “mighty” predecessor ever was.

I swiftly discovered that controls I wanted to trigger (say, a three-finger-tap) often wouldn’t register. I’d spend an inordinate amount of time obsessive-compulsively tapping the mouse with minimal success. Pinching and zooming was literally painful, transforming my hand into a deformed claw of knotted knuckles and cramp. Yet, for all my efforts, it still never zoomed in a controlled, predictable manner.

Worse still, functions I didn’t intentionally invoke would trigger while I was doing something else entirely. It got to the point where simply moving the pointer across the screen — an action so natural and normal I normally give it no conscious thought — was now an event demanding deliberate care and attention. I tried two of the most popular apps and got the same results each time.

In short , it’s not a software problem, but rather, a limitation imposed by the very form factor of the mouse. As long as Apple wants its flagship pointing device to be small, svelte and sexy, it’s just not going to be the right shape and size for full-fledged multi-touch controls.

Software like MagicPrefs introduces hugely varied additional functionality

Apple, I’m sure, did a lot of R&D to determine what were the most appropriate default touch controls for the Magic Mouse. Therefore, a feature’s absence is a deliberate choice. It makes perfect sense. One of the most celebrated aspects of Apple’s user-experience is its consistency; across all Macs the user experience is predictable and dependable. There are rarely unexpected (or unwelcome) surprises. Much of the time, that’s made possible by Apple’s minimalist, ‘less-is-more’ approach to interface design.

That is why so many people disliked the Mighty Mouse. In trying to do so much it was just too unpredictable and ruined the user experience. And that is why the Magic Mouse is so limited. It’s better this way.

I just wonder if all those new Magic Mouse owners will agree?

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