Why A le's Mighty Mouse is like the A le III

If you're old enough to remember the fiasco that was the A le III, you may know what I'm talking about. The A le III was su osed to be A le's busine computer. It flo ed, in part because Steve Jo demanded no fa were to be used in cooling the beast. The result? The machine would overheat, loosen the solder used to hold chi in place, and the machines became legendary for their craptacular performance. The fix by A le was to hold the machine a few inches off the table, and let it go, making gravity jam those chi back into place. Nice huh?

Well A le's done it again with the so-called "Mighty" mouse. Their 3 or 4-button wonder is great, as long as you don't get hooked on using the little scrollball. Never mind the fact that you can't move in X and Y directio at the same time (as you can using 2-finger trackpad scrolling)-- the trackball is a piece of junk. I mean, the build quality is nice (just like those A le III's had heavy-duty aluminum cha is), but after about a month of frequent use, the thing gets jammed with gunk, making it largely unusable. And yes, I wash my hands regularly...

A le's fix? Here's the parallel to A le III: the fix sucks. You can't remove the ball, so you really never can get i ide the mouse to properly clean it out. A le's own KB on cleaning the Mighty mouse says, "hold the mouse u ide-down and roll the ball vigorously while cleaning it to help dislodge any particles that may have collected on the internal hardware." You know, I'm getting tired of doing this every week, just to use a mouse. A le's i ovation is legendary, but sadly, they have lately been i ovating new a oyances. From 3rd-gen iPod batteries, to breaking iTunes 7 to locking up the Finder, A le's having a run of small but glaring mistakes in their otherwise newly-untarnished reputation. Or maybe I expect too much in the age of commoditized computing?