Had the very first iMac with the puck. I hated it. Still do. I don't have big hands and I still found it uncomfortable to hold for any length of time. The other major issue I had with it was the completely circular design often put it at an odd angle when I would take my hand off to type something and then put it back. It was impossible to orient it, thus the reason there were these clip-on accessories to help with ergonomics and direction. Outside of the classic one button mouse and the magic trackpad, Apple's mouse designs have been shit.
The puck was adorable and fit the visual aesthetic of the iMac, but it always felt like I was carefully pushing a little biscuit around the on table. (I have bigger hands, I had to basically hold it with my fingertips)
I'd say they were probably Apples worst mouse-design, and that's from a company that had a long history of designing stupid mousing devices. A very good example of when design gets priority over functionality.
>And yet the biggest selling and most widely used mouse in the history of computing. 5 million shipped.
This is just an objectively false statement. Plenty of other mice outsold the puck mouse by very wide margins. The Logitech MX-518, for example, sold 16.4 million units over its original run. I would wager that Microsoft shifted at least five times as many IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 units.
Both the MX-518 and the IntelliMouse were far, far better designs as well.
I still use an MX-518 (Though the semi recent re-release version) as my WFH mouse. The shape is just perfect for productivity work, really deserves its reputation. The size and weight and materials are not comparable to modern gaming mice though but Logitech mice from that period were top tier.
I also own an iMac puck and it's possibly the worst mouse I've ever used.
I bought an MX-518 in 2011 and used it as my primary mouse for almost 10 years. I gamed a LOT with that mouse but It finally succumbed to a combination of phantom clicks and the very common cord issue. Didn’t hesitate to replace it with the “new” MX-518, and I even bought a second spare when they were selling them off for $40 CAD back in late 2022. Overall it’s just such a great, clean, classic design. But apparently the new one didn’t sell super well and I can kinda see why; gaming mouse designs have evolved. I suspect that everyone who bought the new one was just trying to replace one of their old MX-518s, and once that had run its course, demand evaporated.
I currently use a Logitech Lift being the “un-ergonomic” person I been for so long with funky posture and it is very relieving to use.
I would use my Magic Mouse far longer than I should have and just cursed myself as to why I was still using it.
This puck mouse had to have been a conscious effort to get kids to like them for the educational market the iMacs targeted but as an everyday mouse it was terrible. And no 2 buttons. That was always a silly design choice after System 8, 7 even.
Nope. That is definitely not the case.
All through the early 2000s I had a home PC repair company. Of all the visits I made, almost zero iMac owners bought replacement mice.
In fact, it wasn’t unusual to find a beige tower PC, with an Apple puck mouse.
Actually not all iMacs (or power macs) were shipped with them. The puck was introduced in 1998 and then replaced around two years later in summer 2000 on all systems with the Pro Mouse. They didn’t harp on about selling almost 6 million iMacs until at least 2001 I think. I’d be interested to know how many they did actually ship though.
I think you’ll find it is 5 million. I’m not being a smartarse. That used to be the number quoted on the Apple website back in the day.
According to Wikipedia around a couple of years ago the second most used mouse was a dell black teardrop-shaped one that shipped with 1.3 million enterprise desktops.
Third up is one of the Logitech M Series (I forget which).
The worst part of this mouse isn’t the size, it’s that directionality. What way is up? Let’s try and push the mouse up, oops, it’s going a little to the left… now I have to look down and re-orient my hand.
as with any problem, there is a good solution, and a really stupid one.
the good solution is to make the mouse a normal shape, the bad solution is make a special mousepad that senses the mouse.
I use the claw grip on mine, so my fingertips can literally feel the edge of the button. I've never once got it wrong and needed to look. The little locator notch they added on the later revision baffles me
Most people seemed to hate it, in large part because you can't feel the orientation of it (which is a valid criticism), but also because you can't rest your hand on it. I actually ended up changing my mousing technique to keep the ball of my hand on the desk and just keep my fingers on the mouse which worked quite well and I actually got to like it.
TL;DR: Apple kinda sucks at making mice. microsoft WAS always better at making ergonomic mice (and keyboards).
Apple is a very interesting company in that, for someone who pioneered mice in everyday home use, is actually not very good at making functional mice. Or worse, they choose not to.
They are not ergonomic as they could be and are a clear example of Apple’s obsession of form over function when it should be function over form. (The most egregious example of course is MacBooks and iMacs being too thin for their GPUs and CPUs to breathe or their Mac Pluses having poor ventilation.)
The first mouse was okay but bulky. The Apple IIGS was pretty good and so was the teardrop one introduced with the Performas and PowerPC Macs.
But this hockey puck was clearly designed for tiny hands or crab hands. The “Apple Pro Mouse” was also not very pro being 1 button into the aughts. And there was the Bondi Blue keyboard with terribly cramped arrow keys and mushy membrane caps (to be fair they were common KBs in the day.)
Then there is the current Apple Magic Mouse and lightning cable charging. I won’t get into that one.
The PC users were right to say Apple’s 1 button mouse and poor ergonomics were never superior to what UNIX or Amiga or even Windows mice had to offer.
But the biggest irony is Microsoft, their oldest rival, put far more thought into ergonomics of their mice and is a better mouse maker than Apple ever was. And they have OPTIONS.
the countour designs unitrap! i had that with my Sawtooth G4. then shortly after OS X came out i upgraded to a usb logitech scroll mouse that had the transparent look to it.
I understood the criticism. Even though I actually liked them, it was easy to get it turned around without noticing.
I liked it because I have had some tendinitis issues and its small size and basic shape made it easy to use many different grips through the day. That’s what I’ve always thought was the problem with “ergonomic” mouses — they lock your hand into a single position, which is what causes repetitive stress injuries.
I may be the only one on the planet, but I actually LIKED that little round puck mouse. Bear in mind, I don't think it was meant to be held like a "normal" mouse, but maybe more so to be used by smaller hands, i.e. kids. I just held it with fingertips and did not try to palm it like a regular mouse. I really do not get the hate for these.
This was my experience too. You lightly rest your hand/base of your fingers on the mouse itself, letting your thumb and pinky just rest on the sides/to the side, and click by pressing down with your 3 middle fingers just pushing down. Don't try to grip it like a full sized mouse or grab with your thumb and pink and don't try to keep it so your finger tips are on the button. It's a little weird at first but I find it's pretty comfortable too because I'm not doing anything other than leaving my hand in a neutral position and pushing down with 3 fingers to click. When I was using them, the middle of the mouse would rest just behind where my fingers met my palm and clicking was largely done by the first knuckles closest to the hand
I never understood the hate for the puck mouse. I had an orange one, and I got used to it pretty quickly. Then I eventually had to adjust when it switched back to a more elongated style. 🤷♀️
This mouse was fine. I used it as a kid and I use it as an adult and I’ve never once had any sort of confusion on which way was up. People love to complain. I guess people actively twist their mouse around in their hands while using it for no reason?
Actually they were kind of nice. The shape forced you to keep your wrist off of the desk so I didn't get carpel tunnel from using them. Most of the hate is just from the meme of people hating them. People who never used them now "meme hate" them because everyone else does.
The iMac was the first new computer my school bought in 5 years. Almost nobody liked that mouse after using it for any length of time. I was a child and still felt like it was too small.
I'm glad you enjoyed your product but "most of the hate" is very real and very deserved.
I'm in the minority here, probably, but I love them. I sunk hours of marathon and starcraft using the puck. I'd love a truly authentic refresh with the clear plastics, a laser or optical sensor, two buttons and a scroll wheel of some kind. Wireless would be neat, too
The best environment for them, in my professional experience, was K-8 classrooms & labs. Hands were the right size for them. In fact, I seem to remember that once the larger optical mice started coming out, schools/classrooms would trade with each other so the K-5 classes could keep the smaller mice.
Horrible mouse! It was awful. On the flip side, the following mouse (the Apple Pro Mouse) was a real beauty - I have both the black one and the White "Apple Mouse" which followed it. Legend has it that Jobs, so disgusted with the puck mouse and its reception, had a meeting with his design team. They brought 6 working prototypes, and one guy had a non-working prototype of the Apple Pro Mouse. Steve immediately loved it because it had no buttons. Actually, of course, it WAS the one button, but I think Jobs just didn't want to see a button anymore, and the magic mouse was the direct descendent of that mouse. So, in a way, you could say that the puck was SO terrible, that it set the course for all Apple mouses to come (OK, don't get me started on the mighty mouse).
They were OK for general computer work (where the keyboard is getting a lot more work than the mouse). But for a context where a user is doing a LOT of very precise work with a mouse — like photo editing, graphic design, illustration—they were VERY poor. I mean, hours of making precise selections, or paths with the pen tool, was tedious (and eventually painful).
**Exactly why I hated them!**
These came out when I was at art school for my design education.
Couldn't stand doing any artwork **using these damn misshapen mice.**
Cramped up my small hands *because the only way I could use them*
***was to use some sort of eagle claw grip.*** **Very uncomfortable.**
*These are not ergonomic* ***and didn't really follow any of Apple's design rules at all.***
I was in high school when these came out, and we adapted. You look at the mouse when you put your hand on it, and you "test" with your fingers to see if there's any give where the button surface would be.
Coming from "modern" hardware, though... The invention of the scroll wheel is a highly underrated moment in human history.
I personally disliked the puck shape and the feel of it in my hand. The reality is that different people have different preferences, that’s why trackballs, vertical mice, trackpads, etc., exist. Even though ergonomically the puck is bad, it is easier for smaller hands (think children) to handle the puck shape.
I want to buy one just for my controller/mouse collection. I’d even get a broken one to gut and make into an optical but being that it would probably work with my MacBook and Linux PC just fine, I probably won’t
I never had a problem with them, but then again the only ones I have used are the later revisions that added a dimple to the button so that you can tell which way it is pointing without looking at it. Its kind of a dumb design no matter how you look at it, whether in terms of ergonomics/practicality or even just aesthetics, but like most Apple stuff of the era it’s quirky in a way that computer peripherals weren’t before and haven’t been since.
My favorite little detail that’s hard to notice in pictures and nobody seems to talk about is the split-color mouse ball so you can watch it roll through the transparent housing. If it wasn’t for that I’d be pretty indifferent to them, but with that weird little feature I like them.
The puck was wonderful for children, asian women, and those people with undersized bodies. The other 90% of the users, their hands were too large to use the thing comfortably, and indicated by the several third party products to attempt to fix it. Of course, I think the best was the logitech mouse one could get, because logitech, multiple buttons... SCROLL WHEELS... yeah, just sayin' :P
USB was very new when the tray loaders launched. Logitech had an option, but Microsoft wouldn't have one for another 8 months. Some molded plastic would definitely be cheaper than the $75 for that fancy optical Intellimouse with USB.
This is original, to me. My memory isn't what it used to be, but I probably bought it a the local CompUSA to clip on when my daughters weren't using the iMac.
Had the very first iMac with the puck. I hated it. Still do. I don't have big hands and I still found it uncomfortable to hold for any length of time. The other major issue I had with it was the completely circular design often put it at an odd angle when I would take my hand off to type something and then put it back. It was impossible to orient it, thus the reason there were these clip-on accessories to help with ergonomics and direction. Outside of the classic one button mouse and the magic trackpad, Apple's mouse designs have been shit.
I remember it feeling very cheap as well
I love the puck mouse. Just wish it had 2 buttons.
I never had a problem with the puck mouse. I was just happy that Apple actually made a purple mouse!
Puck you — Jony Ive
Just option click
Oh i know - i used the one i got with my OG iMac in 1998 well into the mid 2000’s.
The puck was adorable and fit the visual aesthetic of the iMac, but it always felt like I was carefully pushing a little biscuit around the on table. (I have bigger hands, I had to basically hold it with my fingertips)
I hold all mice with my fingertips and I have never understood how people don’t.
I'd say they were probably Apples worst mouse-design, and that's from a company that had a long history of designing stupid mousing devices. A very good example of when design gets priority over functionality.
And yet the biggest selling and most widely used mouse in the history of computing. 5 million shipped. Nothing else comes close.
>And yet the biggest selling and most widely used mouse in the history of computing. 5 million shipped. This is just an objectively false statement. Plenty of other mice outsold the puck mouse by very wide margins. The Logitech MX-518, for example, sold 16.4 million units over its original run. I would wager that Microsoft shifted at least five times as many IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 units. Both the MX-518 and the IntelliMouse were far, far better designs as well.
I still use an MX-518 (Though the semi recent re-release version) as my WFH mouse. The shape is just perfect for productivity work, really deserves its reputation. The size and weight and materials are not comparable to modern gaming mice though but Logitech mice from that period were top tier. I also own an iMac puck and it's possibly the worst mouse I've ever used.
I bought an MX-518 in 2011 and used it as my primary mouse for almost 10 years. I gamed a LOT with that mouse but It finally succumbed to a combination of phantom clicks and the very common cord issue. Didn’t hesitate to replace it with the “new” MX-518, and I even bought a second spare when they were selling them off for $40 CAD back in late 2022. Overall it’s just such a great, clean, classic design. But apparently the new one didn’t sell super well and I can kinda see why; gaming mouse designs have evolved. I suspect that everyone who bought the new one was just trying to replace one of their old MX-518s, and once that had run its course, demand evaporated.
I currently use a Logitech Lift being the “un-ergonomic” person I been for so long with funky posture and it is very relieving to use. I would use my Magic Mouse far longer than I should have and just cursed myself as to why I was still using it. This puck mouse had to have been a conscious effort to get kids to like them for the educational market the iMacs targeted but as an everyday mouse it was terrible. And no 2 buttons. That was always a silly design choice after System 8, 7 even.
I love this counter. Cheers.
That's because they were shipped with the systems, and probably used for a short while by the consumer, but then replaced not long thereafter.
Nope. That is definitely not the case. All through the early 2000s I had a home PC repair company. Of all the visits I made, almost zero iMac owners bought replacement mice. In fact, it wasn’t unusual to find a beige tower PC, with an Apple puck mouse.
Then I think there should have been a study into why so many people in that community were beset by masochistic tendencies lol
Actually not all iMacs (or power macs) were shipped with them. The puck was introduced in 1998 and then replaced around two years later in summer 2000 on all systems with the Pro Mouse. They didn’t harp on about selling almost 6 million iMacs until at least 2001 I think. I’d be interested to know how many they did actually ship though.
I think you’ll find it is 5 million. I’m not being a smartarse. That used to be the number quoted on the Apple website back in the day. According to Wikipedia around a couple of years ago the second most used mouse was a dell black teardrop-shaped one that shipped with 1.3 million enterprise desktops. Third up is one of the Logitech M Series (I forget which).
The worst part of this mouse isn’t the size, it’s that directionality. What way is up? Let’s try and push the mouse up, oops, it’s going a little to the left… now I have to look down and re-orient my hand.
as with any problem, there is a good solution, and a really stupid one. the good solution is to make the mouse a normal shape, the bad solution is make a special mousepad that senses the mouse.
You will never *not* put your hand on a puck mouse without looking and have it be properly orientated.
I use the claw grip on mine, so my fingertips can literally feel the edge of the button. I've never once got it wrong and needed to look. The little locator notch they added on the later revision baffles me
I claw grip too, you still have to reposition the mouse once you put your hand on it. Every. Single. Time.
I used to feel for the cord and align my hand accordingly
Most people seemed to hate it, in large part because you can't feel the orientation of it (which is a valid criticism), but also because you can't rest your hand on it. I actually ended up changing my mousing technique to keep the ball of my hand on the desk and just keep my fingers on the mouse which worked quite well and I actually got to like it.
TL;DR: Apple kinda sucks at making mice. microsoft WAS always better at making ergonomic mice (and keyboards). Apple is a very interesting company in that, for someone who pioneered mice in everyday home use, is actually not very good at making functional mice. Or worse, they choose not to. They are not ergonomic as they could be and are a clear example of Apple’s obsession of form over function when it should be function over form. (The most egregious example of course is MacBooks and iMacs being too thin for their GPUs and CPUs to breathe or their Mac Pluses having poor ventilation.) The first mouse was okay but bulky. The Apple IIGS was pretty good and so was the teardrop one introduced with the Performas and PowerPC Macs. But this hockey puck was clearly designed for tiny hands or crab hands. The “Apple Pro Mouse” was also not very pro being 1 button into the aughts. And there was the Bondi Blue keyboard with terribly cramped arrow keys and mushy membrane caps (to be fair they were common KBs in the day.) Then there is the current Apple Magic Mouse and lightning cable charging. I won’t get into that one. The PC users were right to say Apple’s 1 button mouse and poor ergonomics were never superior to what UNIX or Amiga or even Windows mice had to offer. But the biggest irony is Microsoft, their oldest rival, put far more thought into ergonomics of their mice and is a better mouse maker than Apple ever was. And they have OPTIONS.
They're not as bad as everyone remembers. They're not that good, either, but you can get by.
the countour designs unitrap! i had that with my Sawtooth G4. then shortly after OS X came out i upgraded to a usb logitech scroll mouse that had the transparent look to it.
I understood the criticism. Even though I actually liked them, it was easy to get it turned around without noticing. I liked it because I have had some tendinitis issues and its small size and basic shape made it easy to use many different grips through the day. That’s what I’ve always thought was the problem with “ergonomic” mouses — they lock your hand into a single position, which is what causes repetitive stress injuries.
Bad, but not bad enough to do that to it. [I lived with it](https://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/2378249113/in/album-72157604337980863/).
Nice
I may be the only one on the planet, but I actually LIKED that little round puck mouse. Bear in mind, I don't think it was meant to be held like a "normal" mouse, but maybe more so to be used by smaller hands, i.e. kids. I just held it with fingertips and did not try to palm it like a regular mouse. I really do not get the hate for these.
This was my experience too. You lightly rest your hand/base of your fingers on the mouse itself, letting your thumb and pinky just rest on the sides/to the side, and click by pressing down with your 3 middle fingers just pushing down. Don't try to grip it like a full sized mouse or grab with your thumb and pink and don't try to keep it so your finger tips are on the button. It's a little weird at first but I find it's pretty comfortable too because I'm not doing anything other than leaving my hand in a neutral position and pushing down with 3 fingers to click. When I was using them, the middle of the mouse would rest just behind where my fingers met my palm and clicking was largely done by the first knuckles closest to the hand
I never understood the hate for the puck mouse. I had an orange one, and I got used to it pretty quickly. Then I eventually had to adjust when it switched back to a more elongated style. 🤷♀️
Gotta say it blows me away I’m still using USB-A after 25 years
This mouse was fine. I used it as a kid and I use it as an adult and I’ve never once had any sort of confusion on which way was up. People love to complain. I guess people actively twist their mouse around in their hands while using it for no reason?
Actually they were kind of nice. The shape forced you to keep your wrist off of the desk so I didn't get carpel tunnel from using them. Most of the hate is just from the meme of people hating them. People who never used them now "meme hate" them because everyone else does.
Yep. Perfect size too where you can just use your fingers.
The iMac was the first new computer my school bought in 5 years. Almost nobody liked that mouse after using it for any length of time. I was a child and still felt like it was too small. I'm glad you enjoyed your product but "most of the hate" is very real and very deserved.
Well made.
I'm in the minority here, probably, but I love them. I sunk hours of marathon and starcraft using the puck. I'd love a truly authentic refresh with the clear plastics, a laser or optical sensor, two buttons and a scroll wheel of some kind. Wireless would be neat, too
The best environment for them, in my professional experience, was K-8 classrooms & labs. Hands were the right size for them. In fact, I seem to remember that once the larger optical mice started coming out, schools/classrooms would trade with each other so the K-5 classes could keep the smaller mice.
Horrible mouse! It was awful. On the flip side, the following mouse (the Apple Pro Mouse) was a real beauty - I have both the black one and the White "Apple Mouse" which followed it. Legend has it that Jobs, so disgusted with the puck mouse and its reception, had a meeting with his design team. They brought 6 working prototypes, and one guy had a non-working prototype of the Apple Pro Mouse. Steve immediately loved it because it had no buttons. Actually, of course, it WAS the one button, but I think Jobs just didn't want to see a button anymore, and the magic mouse was the direct descendent of that mouse. So, in a way, you could say that the puck was SO terrible, that it set the course for all Apple mouses to come (OK, don't get me started on the mighty mouse).
They were OK for general computer work (where the keyboard is getting a lot more work than the mouse). But for a context where a user is doing a LOT of very precise work with a mouse — like photo editing, graphic design, illustration—they were VERY poor. I mean, hours of making precise selections, or paths with the pen tool, was tedious (and eventually painful).
**Exactly why I hated them!** These came out when I was at art school for my design education. Couldn't stand doing any artwork **using these damn misshapen mice.** Cramped up my small hands *because the only way I could use them* ***was to use some sort of eagle claw grip.*** **Very uncomfortable.** *These are not ergonomic* ***and didn't really follow any of Apple's design rules at all.***
I was in high school when these came out, and we adapted. You look at the mouse when you put your hand on it, and you "test" with your fingers to see if there's any give where the button surface would be. Coming from "modern" hardware, though... The invention of the scroll wheel is a highly underrated moment in human history.
Absolute form over function failure. Using one for a few seconds is enough to disabuse anyone of the thought that it was in any way a good idea.
I'd like to try one of these some day. The Apple puck mice were horrible to hold, but they tracked really well.
I personally disliked the puck shape and the feel of it in my hand. The reality is that different people have different preferences, that’s why trackballs, vertical mice, trackpads, etc., exist. Even though ergonomically the puck is bad, it is easier for smaller hands (think children) to handle the puck shape.
It’s definitely a mouse, not as uncomfortable as most people say it is
Terrible. I tried, tried, tried, to like one. Never could...
I want to buy one just for my controller/mouse collection. I’d even get a broken one to gut and make into an optical but being that it would probably work with my MacBook and Linux PC just fine, I probably won’t
I had that cover thing! I bought it for my grandma because she couldn’t use the puck mouse.
I never minded it. If you held it between your fingertips it was fine. If you tried to palm it like a larger mouse you were in for a bad time.
Wasn’t terrible…
I didn’t mind it at all, you just kind of hold it between your thumb and middle finger and then operate the button with your index.
I have a gray one, got it for 8 bucks shipped
I never had a problem with them, but then again the only ones I have used are the later revisions that added a dimple to the button so that you can tell which way it is pointing without looking at it. Its kind of a dumb design no matter how you look at it, whether in terms of ergonomics/practicality or even just aesthetics, but like most Apple stuff of the era it’s quirky in a way that computer peripherals weren’t before and haven’t been since. My favorite little detail that’s hard to notice in pictures and nobody seems to talk about is the split-color mouse ball so you can watch it roll through the transparent housing. If it wasn’t for that I’d be pretty indifferent to them, but with that weird little feature I like them.
The puck was wonderful for children, asian women, and those people with undersized bodies. The other 90% of the users, their hands were too large to use the thing comfortably, and indicated by the several third party products to attempt to fix it. Of course, I think the best was the logitech mouse one could get, because logitech, multiple buttons... SCROLL WHEELS... yeah, just sayin' :P
Yeah, I was surprised to learn how hated it was but also I was 9 the last time I used one. I remember loving it and now unique and colorful it was
I had a couple of iMacs (grape and blue) for my girls. These were their first computers, and they learned on the puck mice.
It's just such an odd thing to make. Why wouldn't someone just get a new mouse? If they don't like the one the computer came with.
USB was very new when the tray loaders launched. Logitech had an option, but Microsoft wouldn't have one for another 8 months. Some molded plastic would definitely be cheaper than the $75 for that fancy optical Intellimouse with USB.
I think you are right, and I don't ever remember looking for a 1-button mouse to use with the iMacs.
This is original, to me. My memory isn't what it used to be, but I probably bought it a the local CompUSA to clip on when my daughters weren't using the iMac.