The resulting mouse proved mechanically and economically sound and was changed only slightly when adapted for use with the first Macintosh computer. The basic mechanism design is used in virtually all mechanical mouses produced to date. Mac Compatibility Mac Compatibility MacBook Air (M1, 2020) MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020). Wireless Bluetooth Mouse for MacBook Laptop Mac ipad Pro Air,Bluetooth Mouse for MacBook pro MacBook Mac MacBook Air Notebook PC Laptop(Grey-White) 4.2 out of 5 stars 803 $17.99 $ 17. Mouse Practice software tutorial for how to use the Mouse for Apple Macintosh computers.
Mac and Windows are the most widely used operating system, popularized due to the easy to use graphical user interface. Though you can't customize the Windows or Mac program code, they offer various customization options for mouse cursor and display. The mouse allows you to easily access the various programs that can be located with the cursor. Mouse cursor displays the current position where the mouse points. Sometimes due to its small size, and color, it can blend with the screen and user can't find it. So, you may want to learn how to change your mouse cursor so that it becomes more noticeable. Windows and Mac both allow easy customization of the mouse cursor and below you can learn how.
Part 1. How To Change Your Mouse Cursor Size and Color on Mac
Mac allows easy changing the mouse cursor size and color. Though, you can only change the contrast, grayscale, transparency, and inverting screen color so that the cursor becomes more noticeable rather than changing the cursor's color. But you can change cursor size. Mac allows you select a cursor size that suits you the best. Follow the steps if you want to learn how to change your mouse cursor size and color on Mac.
Original Macintosh Team
Steps to Change Your Mouse Cursor Size and Color on Mac (macOS Version 10.8 and later)
Step 1: Click on Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen and it will display a drop-down menu.
Step 2: Now, click on 'System Preferences' in the menu and it will open a new screen.
Step 3: Search for the 'Accessibility' option and click on it to open a dialog box.
Step 4: In the dialog box, click on 'Display' and it will show the Display options in the right-pane.
Step 5: Now, you can change the cursor size by dragging the cursor size bar.
Step 6: Also, check the shake mouse pointer to locate option. This will make the cursor temporarily larger when you shake the mouse.
This method of changing mouse cursor size is useful for Mac OS 10.8 and later. Below is the method to change mouse cursor size for macOS version below 10.8.
Steps to Change Your Mouse Cursor Size and Color on Mac (macOS version below 10.8)
Step 6: Also, check the shake mouse pointer to locate option. This will make the cursor temporarily larger when you shake the mouse.
This method of changing mouse cursor size is useful for Mac OS 10.8 and later. Below is the method to change mouse cursor size for macOS version below 10.8.
Steps to Change Your Mouse Cursor Size and Color on Mac (macOS version below 10.8)
Step 1: Click on the Apple Icon to display a drop-down menu. Then click on 'System Preferences' on it.
Step 2: Then find and open the 'Universal Access' in the System Preferences. This will open a dialog box.
Step 3: Click on the 'Mouse' or 'Mouse & Trackpad' option in the Universal Access dialog box. This will display the mouse options.
Step 4: Now, drag the cursor size slide bar to a point which makes the cursor comfortable to see.
Part 2. How To Change Mouse Cursor Size and Color on Windows Computer
Windows also allow changing the size of the mouse cursor but here you also get color and design scheme options. You can change it according to your choice in the mouse properties. You also get various accessibility options that you can set to find the cursor easily. Want to learn how to change your mouse cursor size and color on Windows computer? Follow the below steps.
Steps to Change Your Mouse Cursor Size and Color on Windows Computer
Step 1: Click on Start and then 'Control panel'.
Step 2: Then, click on View by on the top right position of the screen and select 'Large icons' to change the control panel icon size.
Step 3: Click on 'Mouse' option and this will open the Mouse properties. Alternatively, search for the mouse at the start and click on 'Mouse' and to open mouse properties.
Step 4: In mouse properties, click on 'Pointers' tab and click on down arrow under the scheme option.
Step 5: This will display the various style schemes for the mouse. Select the large or extra large cursor scheme that will change both cursor size and style.
Step 6: When you are done selecting, click 'OK' to save the changes.
The one disadvantage with Windows is that it only has a predefined set of cursor size that you can change. There are only three options- Normal, large and Extra Large. But here you get to change the color or style of the cursor with a different scheme.
Value Of Original Macintosh Computer
Related Articles & Tips
The Macintosh, or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers, manufactured by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced on January 24, 1984, by Steve Jobs (see the lower photo) and it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature two old known then, but still unpopular features—the mouse and the graphical user interface, rather than the command-line interface of its predecessors.
Production of the Mac is based on a vertical integration model in that Apple facilitates all aspects of its hardware and creates its own operating system (called System Software, later renamed to Mac OS, see the lower image) that is pre-installed on all Mac computers. This is in contrast to most IBM PC compatibles, where multiple sellers create hardware intended to run another company's operating software. Apple exclusively produces Mac hardware, choosing internal systems, designs, and prices. Apple also develops the operating system for the Mac, currently Mac OS X version 10.6 'Snow Leopard'. The modern Mac, like other personal computers, is capable of running alternative operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, and, in the case of Intel-based Macs, Microsoft Windows. However, Apple does not license Mac OS X for use on non-Apple computers.
Apple Macintosh GUI
The Macintosh project started in the late 1970s with Jef Raskin (1943–2005) (see the nearby image), an Apple employee, who envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer. He wanted to name the computer after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh, but the name had to be changed for legal reasons. In September 1979, Raskin was authorized by the management to start hiring for the project, and he began to look for an engineer who could put together a prototype. Bill Atkinson, a member of Apple's Lisa team (which was developing a similar but higher-end computer), introduced him to Burrell Smith, a service technician who had been hired earlier that year. Over the years, Raskin assembled a large development team that designed and built the original Macintosh hardware and software; besides Raskin, Atkinson and Smith, the team included Chris Espinosa, Joanna Hoffman, George Crow, Bruce Horn, Jerry Manock, Susan Kare, Andy Hertzfeld, and Daniel Kottke.
The first Macintosh board, designed by Burrell Smith, had 64 kilobytes (KB) of RAM, used the Motorola 6809E microprocessor, and was capable of supporting a 256×256 pixel black-and-white bitmap display. Bud Tribble, a Macintosh programmer, was interested in running the Lisa's graphical programs on the Macintosh, and asked Smith whether he could incorporate the Lisa's Motorola 68000 microprocessor into the Mac while still keeping the production cost down. By December 1980, Smith had succeeded in designing a board that not only used the 68000, but bumped its speed from 5 to 8 megahertz (MHz); this board also had the capacity to support a 384×256 pixel display.
Smith's design used fewer RAM chips than the Lisa, which made production of the board significantly more cost-efficient. The final Mac design was self-contained and had the complete QuickDraw picture language and interpreter in 64 Kb of ROM and 128 KB of RAM. Though there were no memory slots, its RAM was expandable to 512 KB by means of soldering sixteen chip sockets to accept 256 Kb RAM chips in place of the factory-installed chips. The final product's screen was a 9-inch, 512x342 pixel monochrome display, exceeding the prototypes.
Original Macintosh Keyboard
The design caught the attention of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. Realizing that the Macintosh was more marketable than the Lisa, he began to focus his attention on the project. Raskin finally left the Macintosh project in 1981 over a personality conflict with Jobs, and the final Macintosh design is said to be closer to Jobs' ideas than Raskin's. After hearing of the pioneering GUI technology being developed at Xerox PARC, Jobs had negotiated a visit to see the Xerox Alto computer and Smalltalk development tools in exchange for Apple stock options. The Lisa and Macintosh user interfaces were partially influenced by technology seen at Xerox PARC and were combined with the Macintosh group's own ideas.
The Macintosh 128k (see the lower image) was announced to the press in October 1983 and was introduced in January 1984. It came bundled with two applications designed to show off its interface: MacWrite and MacPaint. Although the Mac garnered an immediate, enthusiastic following, some labeled it a mere 'toy.' Because the machine was entirely designed around the GUI, existing text-mode and command-driven applications had to be redesigned and the programming code rewritten; this was a time consuming task that many software developers chose not to undertake, and resulted in an initial lack of software for the new system. In April 1984 Microsoft's MultiPlan migrated over from MS-DOS, followed by Microsoft Word in January 1985. In 1985, Lotus Software introduced Lotus Jazz after the success of Lotus 1-2-3 for the IBM PC, although it was largely a flop. Apple introduced Macintosh Office the same year with the lemmings ad.
Apple Macintosh
For a special post-election edition of Newsweek in November 1984, Apple spent more than $2.5 million to buy all 39 of the advertising pages in the issue. Apple also ran a 'Test Drive a Macintosh' promotion, in which potential buyers with a credit card could take home a Macintosh for 24 hours and return it to a dealer afterwards. While 200000 people participated, dealers disliked the promotion, the supply of computers was insufficient for demand, and many were returned in such a bad shape that they could no longer be sold. This marketing campaign caused CEO John Sculley to raise the price from $1995 to $2495.
In 1985, the combination of the Mac, Apple's LaserWriter printer, and Mac-specific software like Boston Software's MacPublisher and Aldus PageMaker enabled users to design, preview, and print page layouts complete with text and graphics, it was an activity to become known as desktop publishing. Initially, desktop publishing was unique to the Macintosh, but eventually became available for IBM PC users as well. Later, applications such as Macromedia FreeHand, QuarkXPress, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator strengthened the Mac's position as a graphics computer and helped to expand the emerging desktop publishing market.
The limitations of the first Mac soon became clear: it had very little memory, even compared with other personal computers in 1984, and could not be expanded easily; and it lacked a hard disk drive or the means to attach one easily. In October 1985, Apple increased the Mac's memory to 512 KB, but it was inconvenient and difficult to expand the memory of a 128 KB Mac. In an attempt to improve connectivity, Apple released the Macintosh Plus on January 10, 1986 for $2600. It offered one megabyte of RAM, expandable to four, and a then-revolutionary SCSI parallel interface, allowing up to seven peripherals—such as hard drives and scanners—to be attached to the machine. Its floppy drive was increased to an 800 KB capacity. The Mac Plus was an immediate success and remained in production, unchanged, until October 15, 1990; on sale for just over four years and ten months, it was the longest-lived Macintosh in Apple's history.
At its introduction, the Macintosh was targeted for two primary markets: knowledge-workers and students. Referring to the telephone as the first desktop appliance, Steve Jobs hoped that the Macintosh would become the second desktop appliance. As Bill Gates stated, To create a new standard takes something that's not just a little bit different. It takes something that's really new, and captures people's imaginations. Macintosh meets that standard.
Through the second half of the 1980s, the company built market share only to see it dissipate in the 1990s as the personal computer market shifted towards IBM PC compatible machines running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows.
