Apple has filed a patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a “Computer Input Device Including A Display Device.” It sounds like a computer mouse with a miniature built-in LED, LCD, OLED, or TFT glass touchscreen incorporated on top in place of the conventional mouse button(s) and scroll wheel. Fascinating concept.

The built in gestures for Apple’s Magic Mouse may not be enough for some users, and there is currently no way to create your own through Apple’s software. That said, a new little utility by the name of MouseWizard for Mac will “… give your Magic Mouse two extra buttons, ‘pinch’ and ‘bloat’ trackpad gestures, and special features such as ‘coverup’, to make your Mac go to sleep.”

The current word is that most Apple retail stores have received and begun to sell the new Magic Mouse. We reported earlier that Apple had started giving out shipping notices to customers who bought the Magic Mouse online. I haven’t actually gone to my local Apple retail store, but have also heard from friends that the new mice were there.

iFixIt is a widely known company that immediately gets their hands on Apple’s newest products solely to take them apart for our gratification. It’s no surprise, then, that they have already managed to do the same for the Magic Mouse just days after it hit the market. In their disassembly, the iFixIt team found the hardware to be held together by large amounts of glue versus screws. More interesting, though, was that they found the entire surface to be covered with touch sensors.

Without much fanfare, Apple this morning announced the Magic Mouse, “the world’s first multi-touch mouse.” Taking cues from the iPhone and MacBook track pad, the Magic Mouse takes advantage of multi-touch technology to deliver much more control than was possible with buttons and a scroll wheel. Instead the seamless surface reads gestures of one and two fingers to provide functionality. Hold down the control key on your keyboard, and you’ll enable even more multi-touch commands.

Apple Insider is reporting that Apple is preparing a new multitouch mouse for release, and that it will feature several improvement and changes from the current Mighty Mouse. “Apple’s next mouse is expected to do away with the Mighty Mouse’s problematic mechanical roller ball, using expanded touch sensitive housing and ‘multipoint touch detection mechanism’ technologies described in recent patent filings. “

You know Apple is doing something right when keyboard manufacturers are promoting their products with the phrase, “Inspired by Apple, Captured by i-Rocks.” Such is the case with the KR-6170 X-Slim Keyboard and RF-7550A 2.4GHz Cordless Optical Mouse from i-rocks. Unfortunately, although the designs may have been inspired by Apple, the functionality was not. Both products are missing a few features and design elements that make them perfect matches for your Macintosh desktop or laptops, but there’s still plenty here to like (not the lest of which is price).

Check out the reviews after the break.

Apple is usually at the leading edge when it comes to great design and usability for their products, but it seems like they made a terrible exception for the Mighty Mouse. This little input device is probably one of the worst products I have ever used with a computer. It does look nice and the buttons on the sides are really helpful, but overall this device needs a lot of work.

Man And Machine, a purveyor of peripherals for Hospitals and Labs, is suing Apple and CBS. Man and Machine claims that they started selling their “Mighty Mouse”, a chemical and water-resistant mouse, a year before Apple came out with their mouse with the same title. Man and Machine claims that when CBS sold the rights more »