Why Steve Jobs Hates Buttons

Steve Jobs hates buttons whether it be on an iPod, MacBook or even the humble mouse. John Murrell of Silicon Valley online comments as to why.

If buttons had an anti-defamation league, there would be permanent pickets outside Apple HQ. Steve Jobs hates buttons. On mice, on phones, on remotes, on elevators, on shirts, whatever — the Apple CEO, perhaps scarred by some early and unspeakable horror, regards the common button as an offense to good taste, inelegant and overly complex with its tricky up-and-down movement.

So among the assorted upgrades to the MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup that Jobs unveiled today, you have to figure his favorite is the new glass trackpad, which has gone from a minimalist one-button configuration to a positively Zen no-button design. Instead, the multitouch trackpad becomes button-like, responding with tactile feedback when pressed with some intent.

Beyond that design statement, the new MacBooks are shinier (with aluminum unibody construction), greener (fewer toxins in the innards and new LED-backlit displays), and graphically more powerful (with a new Nvidia GPU and chipset). And while the company did not make a dramatic new play for the low-end market with a new machine, as some rumors speculated, it did knock the price of the original white plastic 13-inch MacBook down to $999. Also offered for your consuming pleasure was a new 24-inch, LED-backlit Cinema Display. Oh, and there was also a Steve Jobs health update: According to one of the slides in the presentation, his blood pressure is 110/70.

For more John Murrell comments see www.siliconvally.com