A neat rumor making the rounds last week was that Apple is looking to make significant improvements to the mouse. AppleInsider reported on how new patent filings concerning touch-sensitive housing and a multipoint touch detection mechanism might be targeted at an upgrade to Mighty Mouse, a buttonless mouse introduced in 2005 with its own touch-sensitive housing that could detect which side was 'clicked'.
The original Mighty Mouse had a trackball that could be used to scroll documents in any direction, but with Apple's new multipoint touch patents, they could be getting rid of this trackball in favor of a 'virtual' trackball that could detect finger swipes. Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices already have sophisticated multipoint touch mechanisms, and Apple is rumored to be taking these gestures to the next level with the oft-rumored iTablet.
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a re-imagining of the mouse to better fit the current computing landscape. Apple sells more laptops than desktops, and with netbooks being all the rage, it'd be nice to see a mouse designed for portable computing. I dislike the touchpads that come with laptops -- they aren't nearly as instinctive to use as the mouse -- and the idea of combining some of the motion-sensitivity of the iPhone into a mouse sounds pretty cool. Imagine a 3D mouse that you don't need to use on a surface that could detect up and down as well as left, right, forward and back. Pretty cool, huh?