Comment by 98codes
16 hours ago
We do still need it. Any time to need to scroll through any extremely long list in order to find a single particular item, the scroll wheel beats the manual binary search of scrollscrollscroll... too far... scrollscrollscroll back... too far... etc.
I would, unironically, use a device that had that iPod interface as a music device until my dying day. Make it only able to stream from Apple Music, make me load up songs through USB -- I'll do it.
I have a logitech mouse that allows you to unclick the scroll wheel so you can scroll at tremendous speed (the scroll wheel has a bearing). I highly recommend this both because it's surprisingly useful and because it's incredibly satisfying.
The only problem with this scroll wheel is that the clicked mode does not actually guarantee a scroll event per click. There is a disconnect between the mechanical click and the actual event sensor. This is usually a non issue but if you try to use the scroll up/down as a bind in a game (fps jump for instance) it becomes painfully obvious.
Oh and also scroll click isn’t a thing (but there is the middle button to bind)
For normal work I absolutely love the unlocked flywheel scroll and won’t go back
Another problem is that applications that try to implement smooth scroll for wheel events will actually drop events or screw up the animation, making the unlocked scroll useless or just as slow as normal.
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The one that uses a semi-permanent magnet for that mechanism? It's the only use I'm aware of a switchable permanent magnet (alnico and rare earth half-cylinders wrapped in a coil; pulsing the coil switches the alnico to be either parallel or anti-parallel with the neodymium, turning the whole assembly on or off) in a commercial product; I bought it just for that.
They have multiple that can do this.
It sounds like you are talking about the style in the MX Master, which is electromagnetic and controlled via software.
They also have a physical version in the M720. I do not know how the mechanism works, but it is controlled by a mechanical switch on the mouse.
I had a Logitech MX master or sth like that and it had one of those. Too bad it was made like crap. I went through two of them in two years.
> I have a logitech mouse that allows you to unclick the scroll wheel
Yeah, I've had one for few years now. It was always annoying to accidentally unlock the scroll wheel...
> so you can scroll at tremendous speed (the scroll wheel has a bearing)
...but I never once gave the unlocked scroll wheel a whimsical flick until I read this part.
I learned a thing! It works great. Thanks!
I’ve used G502 mice for a decade now and the scroll wheel is central to how good they are. The MX Master mouse also has this but instead of a mechanical clickclack it has a button that switches an electropermanent magnet or something to enable/disable the free spin mode. It’s witchcraft.
I use AHK to bind XB2 (the top side mouse button) + scroll to scroll fast, I agree that it is very useful. I got inspired by VS Code using alt+scroll for fast scroll and wanted that everywhere.
The Onion has you covered https://youtu.be/9BnLbv6QYcA
That's basically how Apple TV works and it drives me nuts.
And miss me with the "but you can use your iPhone", because that's exactly what is wrong with Apple products. I don't want an iPhone, and there is absolutely no technical reason to not have a better virtual keyboard or supporting non-Apple devices as remote controls.
Pretty much all tv / steaming remotes don’t have keyboards though?
"Everything is only a few hundred clicks away!"
The Steam Controller uses its left trackpad in exactly this way on the desktop, it's very satisfying to use with haptic feedback and a bit of inertia.
Once your music library gets to hundreds of artists and albums, scrolling through all that with a scroll wheel is so much slower than an interface where one can just type in a few characters and get the desired artist/album/song.
Just before Covid I got nostalgic for the iPod and got a used one and put in bigger storage and Rockbox, but it was precisely the cumbersomeness of the scrollwheel that caused me to give it up and go back to my phone.
You may enjoy
https://www.innioasis.com/products/y1
which is loosely modeled on the iPod Classic. It doesn't have internet, though.
Someone is working on a drop-in modern motherboard replacement for old iPods that will do all that:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xwB0ohq2xYk