Original?

"There is no such thing as a new idea." -Mark Twain. There are many designs and inventions that appear to be original, but they are actually shadows of old ideals. In other words, there are no new ideas in this world.

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Apple, a well-known technology development company, is widely regarded as one of the most creative companies ever. From its early products such as the Macintosh computer andipod to its newly developed gadgets such as the iphone and ipad, Apple's “new ideas” have never disappointed its fans due to the rapidly advancing technology and characteristics. However, all of the technologies used in the company's products are actually a more advanced form or combination of technologies that were developed a long time ago. Today, I want to talk about a device that almost all desktop computers have, the Mouse.

The Magic Mouse2 designed by Apple is a more advanced version of the Magic Mouse1. It completely replaced the old bottoms and rollers with a smooth and visible glass surface that has a multi-touch interaction system underneath. It is also wireless and rechargeable thanks to Bluetooth and a lithium-ion battery. However, most of the technologies that it employed were not invented by Apple itself, and its application is nearly identical to that of the first mouse ever created.

The first mouse was created in Stanford University Research Institution by Douglas Engelbart in 1968. It looks like a wooden box. It contains two vertical disks that can trigger the rheostat to generate displacement signals that can easily move the cursor on the computer screen in order to replace the intricate instructions of the keyboard. The mouse designed by Douglas Engelbart can perform tasks similar to those performed by modern mouse such as the Magic Mouse 2. So, while today's high-tech and beautiful-looking mouse look very different from the old wooden box , the purpose for creating the product is nearly the same.

On the technical side, the Magic Mouse 2 doesn’t really use any new technology. The multi-touch system, which contributed to the mouse's distinctive streamline appearance, has a long history. In 1984, the Bell Laboratory created a screen on which images can be manually resized. Then, in 1991, there was a major breakthrough in the technology, and laboratories were able to create screens that allowed more than one finger to corporate. Between 1999 and 2005, the company Fingerworks developed various multi-touch technologies, including Touchstream keyboards and the iGesture Pad. After 6 years, in 2005, Apple purchased the company and used this technology in some of its well-known flagship products, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. So, it is a technology that has already been mature when the Magic Mouse used it. In other words, Apple was not the first company to develop the multi-touch technology but the first company to combine multi-touch technology with a mouse. Apple uses this technology to entice customers to buy it because it appears to have a graceful design with features that have never been seen on the same type of device. Apple’s magic mouse also uses Bluetooth to make it wireless. However, this important technology was developed over three decades by Sweden's tech giant Ericsson in order to create a wireless headset. Then, other technology companies at that time such as IBM, Intel, Toshiba, and Nokia joined the technology Special Interest Group with the goal of incorporating useful technology into their own new devices such as IBM's Think Pad and Ericsson's T35 mobile phone. In recent years, the Bluetooth technical alliance has expanded to over 30000 companies, and the technology has been used on more than 8,200,000,000 technical devices worldwide. As a result, by the time the Magic Mouse 2 was released in 2015, bluetooth had become a widely used technology. Using Bluetooth technology on a mouse is also not a groundbreaking innovation. As early as 1995, Logitech invented the first wireless mouse called the Cordless Mouseman Pro . So Apple's role in the development of Bluetooth is not the first company to invent the technology, nor to use it on a mouse.

The rechargeable Lithium-ion battery is the final important technology used by the Magic mouse2. The history of the Lithium-ion battery is even longer than the Bluetooth technology. NASA created the first lithium-ion battery in 1965. Then, chemists Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham, Ratched Yazami, and Akira Yoshino began work on developing a more advanced Lithium-ion battery. Sony eventually developed a practical lithium-ion battery in 1991 and began using it in devices such as cell phones and laptop computers. This new type of battery can reduce the size of the gadget while increasing its service life. This technology quickly gained popularity in tech firms. Apple also took notice of the technology andincorporated it into a number of devices. Using Lithium-ion batteries in mouse, like Bluetooth, is nothing new. It had also become a necessity for all computer mice since decades ago. Apple uses rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries in its Magic Mouse2 not because it is a novel and useful technology that has never been tried before, but because the AA batteries that Apple Mouse1 used when it was first introduced in 2001 were totally out of date. ​ The Magic Mouse2 may seem to be a new and imaginative product from Apple, but it is actually a mixture of previously existing technologies and ideas. I believe that nothing is truly created by the imagination. I believe that everything on this vast world was created by what came before it. In my opinion, having the best imagination means being able to connect things you've seen to create something entirely new.