Wired has an interesting profile out this morning on Jim Yurchenco, a now-retired engineer whose career virtually started with the task of helping create the first mouse for Apple and Steve Jobs:
Probably most interesting in Yurchenco’s account of his time working on the first Apple mouse is the influence the Atari gaming system played on it. The Xerox mouse that predated the Apple mouse was too expensive and too complex to meet Apple’s needs, and the Atari’s trackball served as influence in solving that:
Aside from the Atari influence on the Apple mouse, the profile also describes Yurchenco’s task of making the product both affordable to build and easy to use. You can read the full profile on Yurchenco’s career at Wired then stare at your Magic Mouse and admire how far we’ve come.
