Just as there are plenty of Mac features that Microsoft never bothered to steal, there are a few useful features in Windows that never made it to the Mac. One of them is the Snap To feature which sticks the mouse pointer to the default window button. Using LazyMouse Mac users can bring that same, simple, elegant function to OS X.
Silly Competition
Sometimes large companies refuse to do the right thing because of pride. Microsoft obviously has less pride than Apple so it doesn’t mind stealing more features from the Mac.
On the other hand, Apple, for many years coveted the Not Made Here Syndrome™ and refused to implement obviously superior features just because they were invented somewhere else.
For example, what was Apple’s position on the two-button mouse? For about 20 years Apple stuck the corporate head in the sand and pretended that a two-button mouse didn’t exist, despite widespread adoption among both Windows and Mac users.
Then, all of a sudden, Cupertino was struck with a Marketing Moment and announced the Mighty Mouse with two buttons. With all the noise Apple made of the Mighty Mouse enhancements, you would have thought that Apple invented the two button mouse.
Lazy or Efficient?
To click a default button on most OS X pop up windows Mac users must move the mouse from wherever it is on the screen to click the button. Over 90-percent of the time the default option will be clicked.
Over time, that’s plenty of extra mouse movements and clicks. That’s hardly efficient, so kudos for whoever at Microsoft decided to create the Snap To feature in Windows.
Apple still doesn’t recognize the need for such a feature, though you can get nearly the same function as Snap To with LazyMouse.
LazyMouse is a Preference Pane that moves your cursor to the default button whenever a dialog box appears on your screen. In other words, it will save you time moving the mouse to dismiss dialogs.
That really means that LazyMouse makes your Mac use more efficient, saves time, saves effort; especially so for Mac users who are more mouse centric (clicks) than keyboard centric (shortcuts).
Mouse & Beefs
LazyMouse is a cool addition to the efficiency minded Mac user. It’s simple to install, with a minimum of options, one of which lets you exclude specific applications from using the Snap To feature.
Maybe I’m being unduly influenced by all the great 99-cent, and $2.99 apps for my iPhone, but $10 for LazyMouse seems a little over the top (especially when compared to Mac OS X Snow Leopard which will retail for a mere $29), but who am I to argue with someone else’s business model.
LazyMouse does what it does because Apple gets very selective about acquiring features that is has ignored for decades.
That brings up a good question. What similar features have appeared on Windows versions long before they were adopted by Apple for the Mac?