Apple USB Mouse

Every veteran Mac user’s least favourite input device, the Apple USB Mouse takes pride of place in the pantheon of Apple mistakes and missteps.

Launched alongside the Bondi Blue iMac in 1998, the ‘hockey puck’ mouse was a nightmare to use. Its small size and round shape made it hard to orient, and the sole button was difficult to find without stopping your work and looking down at the device. Its short cable was the icing on the cake.

So great was the user irritation with the USB Mouse that it spawned a thirdparty market for adaptors, cables and even shells to change its shape to make it easier to use.

It was Apple’s first USB mouse, meant to take people into the future of input devices, but instead drove many back to their old Apple Desktop Bus mice instead. Oops.

We have a blue Apple USB Mouse at MacFormat Towers. But it’s only for posterity – we don’t dare use it.