It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire” at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]
Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]
New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.
Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]
Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]
11:13 pm, January 13th, 2009, Nicole Martinelli
Ah, the dead mighty mouse. Who hasn’t been there once or twice?
This pic made me smile, my last Apple mouse had too many trackball issues and I’ve used no-name one ever since…
Photo used under Creative Commons license, thanks to riddle on Flickr, who also tagged the photo of the deceased mouse “fifty bucks on a rope.”
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Humor, Quickies | Comment on this article
Nicole Martinelli was born in San Francisco and has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. Cultish tendencies and love for DIY increased while living on the Old Continent, where tech came late and cost more in Big Mac index terms. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek, and since 1999 on her site, Zoomata. If you're so inclined, friend her on Facebook or connect on Linked in.
Email the author | Read more posts by Nicole Martinelli.
Ninja Assassin the movie is an anticipated Hollywood swords and sandals epic from James McTeigue, director of V for Vendetta, with a story from J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5 and the only Spider-Man comic in which Dr. Doom cries (though the artist allegedly came up with that last bit).
It’s also now an [...]
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Hit the game’s icon and you’re [...]
New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.
Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]
Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]
If you jailbreak your iPhone, the first thing you ABSOLUTELY MUST DO is change the default filesystem password.
When you jailbreak, the filesystem’s password is set to the common password “alpine.” As people usually don’t bother changing this password after performing a jailbreak, it’s really easy for hackers to get access to any jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch [...]
Convert your mild-mannered Mac Pro into a hard drive speed demon. Stuff it with drives fast enough to work with full-quality, uncompressed video. Get more than 300 MB/s on your internal drives! It’s so easy even I can do it!
I’ve been working in video production for the last 20+ years. When you’re working with video [...]
Some readers might remember the fuss a few weeks ago, when Snow Leopard came out and people noticed that it did something screwy to the way files behave.
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George Hotz a.k.a GeoHot has released blackra1n RC3, which is an update to a 1-click jailbreak that adds activation options and an add-on blacksn0w, which unlocks latest iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS baseband version 05.11.07. To use blacksn0w, make sure you have this new baseband (check under Settings –> General –> About –> Modem Firmware) [...]
The Mighty Mouse sucks. In fact, the mouse is the one place Apple really falls flat. I love the Macs I’ve purchased, but I always end up buying a third-party mouse within weeks of getting one.
absconded, on January 14th, 2009 at 1:04 am
A week ago I would have agreed with you completely, but I visited an Apple store and asked if there was some cleaning service for the trackball since I was considering getting a wireless Mighty Mouse for the pure sex factor (I run a photo business so image really counts there). Anyway, I was told of two ways to fix the track ball that actually worked.
1) Q-tip with alcohol: roll the ball around and it will clean up any crud on the sensors
2) Air can blown at full force on ball: clears out any dust on the sensor.
After this both of my failed scroll balls started working instantly. Now I am a bit more careful about eating with my mouse hand but if I do get a problem, a spray or two and the mouse is good as new.
That being said, the photo is cute and made me chuckle because, as you noted, we have all been there.
Nicolas Duarte, on January 14th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Don’t tell me about it! My second Mighty Mouse is…dead. Again, the reason is the damn trackball. Lesson learned: if you’re a hardcore mouse user like a designer, Mighty Mouse will drive you nuts! It’s a beautiful piece of hardware, but it doesn’t work.
Funny pic! Made me smile too!
Nick, on January 14th, 2009 at 5:34 am
[...] oh Mighty Mouse: http://cultofmac.com/dead-apple-mouse-a-real-hang-up/7012 « elÅ‘zÅ‘ | Nitzan Lindenberg — 2009. 01. 14. [...]
Turulcsirip - Nitzan Lindenberg, on January 14th, 2009 at 7:24 am
[...] give us this day our daily kool-aid Posted in January 14th, 2009 by dizzle in sheer kool-aid kool pic from cult of mac: [...]
» give us this day our daily kool-aid i drank the kool-aid: clutching my dixie cup of apple goodness, on January 14th, 2009 at 8:48 am
You have to take the mighty mouse apart and clean it. There are wheels on 4 sides of the track ball that get lint wrapped all around it and once you see it there is no way cleaning the ball from the outside will get this off. I was pulling it off with my fingers.
But I must warn, there are 8 small pieces that could be lost. As well as you loose your warranty when taking the mouse apart.
BUT!!! Its been months and I haven’t had one problem with my track ball. It feels brand new!!!
Johnny Sousa, on January 14th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Great picture to let every one see that it doesn’t do his job probably.
I had it with the Mighty Mouse (also I writen an article in my magazine). Never ever i’m going to buy this one again. Got disappointed a lot!
Still looking for a good replacement. Now I’m using a laptop mouse. I’m very happy that it works. But I miss the everyway scrolling.
And the Shift key and the scroll wheel to scroll horizontal. But still it doesn’t feel natural.
My advice don’t take it apart!
Elice82, on January 14th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
A trick to cleaning the Mighty Mouse that is very easy and costs nothing. Take a piece of paper and put it on a flat surface. Flip your Mighty Mouse upside down and roll the trackball on the paper in a circular fashion. The paper picks up minute pieces of dirt and the trackball will work again.
thedzy, on January 15th, 2009 at 5:26 am
[...] Dead Apple Mouse a Real Hang-Up (cultofmac.com) [...]
GIVEAWAY: TrackballWorld & The Dirty Shirt are Giving Away A Trackball Mouse | MiscellaneousFinds4u, on February 23rd, 2009 at 9:24 pm