5 ms·

I don't think the lightning plug being on the bottom was really that big of a deal since a full charge lasts 2 months.

untog 7y ago
It still means the thing is unusable when charging, no matter how long a charge lasts. In the grand scheme of things, no, it isn't that big of a deal. But it showcased a stereotype people associate with Apple: aesthetics over function. The plug could have gone in the top of the mouse, so you could use it just like you would a wired mouse while it charged. But no, the plug must be invisible, damn the inconvenience.
- garmaine 7y ago
  Actually it's worse--it's explicitly inconvenient to the point of being impossible to use in a wired fashion. The inconvenience of the user is a designed-in feature. They purposefully screwed over the user for aesthetic reasons. That's messed up.
  - crehn 7y ago
    Don’t use it wired; it lasts a very long time. A port on the side would break its continuous curve, the sharp contrast of a dark port would be visually jarring (especially since the mouse is small and the overall tone is bright and smooth; it’s relative), and invite unnecessary long-term imperfections (e.g. deformities to the sharp aluminum cut, dust, etc.). I’m very thankful Apple doesn’t always listen to what “people” want. True creativity (especially in a pervasive aesthetic sense) is rare and most can’t envision new concepts or feelings before experiencing them.
    - untog 7y ago
      > A port on the side would be break its continuous curve, the sharp contrast of a dark port would be visually jarring This is literally the stuff people make jokes about when they talk about Apple.
      - crehn 7y ago
        Yes, it sounds silly to most. Most people would also say an asymmetric phone notch and chin doesn’t bother them. That’s why pushing pragmatic and perfectionist design (it’s a delicate balance, and Apple isn’t perfect) is difficult. But on a deeper level, most people feel good design and experiences without ever noticing them. It’s much more pervasive than you think.
        solarkraft 7y ago
        I dislike Apple for many of their user hostile decisions, but for this I love them. I'm bothered by phone bezels not being consistent, for one example, and Apple are the only ones who seem to care about it as well.
  - nseggs 7y ago
    Please. "Purposefully screwed over" is pretty dramatic and almost certainly not true. The mouse is sold as wireless. That seems to me a more likely reason it's impossible to use in a wired fashion. It also eliminates the need for a me to keep a giant pack of AA batteries at both my office and home office. It does require power occasionally, but then very briefly and almost never. The OS will also remind you almost comically early that the battery is getting low, and then you just plug it in when you go for lunch or a coffee run. When you get back you're good for another month or something like that.
    - garmaine 7y ago
      My time has value. It has particularly high value when I'm in the middle of working on something. Interruptions in this state have especially high opportunity cost. We could live in a universe where, when the "battery low" notification pops up I take a few seconds to plug in my mouse and go back to whatever I was working on. Instead, Apple purposefully chose to make me unable to use my mouse for a significant duration of time, at a moment that is NOT of my choosing. On a laptop this is fine as I have the trackpad. On a desktop workstation (where my time is more valuable!) this means getting up and taking a walk, or getting a cup of coffee at the very least. Those are good activities to do, but only when they fit into my routine. As a sudden abrupt interruption, it is actually a cost. And at my hourly rates, a particularly high one greater than the amount I paid for the mouse in the first place. So yeah, I do consider that "purposefully screwing over" the user. They could have made another perfectly reasonable design choice that would have had greater functionality, but opted not to for purely ephemeral reasons of branding and image.
- dbt00 7y ago
  Seriously I never ever ever found this to be a problem when I was using one. It charges from zero to usable in as long as it takes to type “ha ha this mouse charging port is on the bottom” on the internet, and a full charge lasts a long time. The bad keyboards and no hardware escape key are real problems. Magsafe was a real loss (although of course they lost MagSafe to standardize on a third party standard with usb-c).
  - sneak 7y ago
    The rumor is that USB-C was an Apple invention, quietly pushed into the USB-IF so that it wouldn't have the Apple stink on it, and so that it would become a global hardware standard in the way an "Apple Thing" never could: power and high speed data, in a convenient and reversible plug. Now they're on Chromebooks, WinTel machines, and the Raspberry Pi. If the rumor is true, it was a really smooth move by Apple. It would be an extremely Apple-esque thing to hack an industry-wide movement just so that your laptop could be charged by any power brick made by any manufacturer at any time (even if your competitors get this functionality too).
    - izacus 7y ago
      "The rumor" sounds like rather common history rewriting to from Apple fans. Do you have any sources for that rumor?
      - dannyw 7y ago
        The convergence of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 (an Apple standard) isn’t an accident, but I doubt Apple covertly pushed it behind the scenes.
      - sneak 7y ago
        John Gruber made the claim. https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/13/apple-invents-usb-c/ https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/13/apple-invents-usb-c/ https://www.cultofmac.com/315989/is-this-proof-that-apple-invented-usb-c/ https://www.cultofmac.com/315989/is-this-proof-that-apple-in... https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/14/apple-usbc https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/14/apple-usbc
- lyxsus1 7y ago
  > It still means the thing is unusable when charging, no matter how long a charge lasts. That was the whole purpose of putting it in a bottom. The thing works several months on a single charge and it takes just a couple of hours to recharge. And it starts giving notification at least a day before battery's depleted. It's not aesthetics over function mantra, but realisation that they can't be decoupled or developed by separate divisions. That's what concerns me about Ive leaving. He and Jobs evidently had enough courage to ignore public opinion to make things the right way and in most cases it turned to be excellent decisions. With no successor I'm seriously afraid they'll eventually resort to safe decisions and become another Samsung/MS/Android/whatever..
  - kkarakk 7y ago
    What happens when the battery conks out? throw away the mouse and buy a new one is what apple wants you to do but most people would prefer the safety net of being able to run wired in case the mouse battery started acting up. Remember this was a wireless mouse at a time when wireless was definitely not the preferred choice
    - lyxsus1 7y ago
      > What happens when the battery conks out? throw away the mouse and buy a new one That's the easiest thing to do, yes. But you can bring it to apple care, they do battery replacement for smth like $35 I guess. And if it's factory problem they just replace it, afaik. > Remember this was a wireless mouse at a time when wireless was definitely not the preferred choice At the time it had regular batteries you could replace by yourself and we were talking about latest versions. But anyway, I don't see how it can be relevant.
    - wastedhours 7y ago
      I think a lot of people forget the original wireless Magic Mouse was battery powered. I still have mine, and a couple of AAs (I think) will see it running for a good 'ol while. Nothing made me contemplate upgrading, and it's still a darn good experience.
  - izacus 7y ago
woutr_be 7y ago
I've used a magic mouse for over 3 years, and I've never ran into a situation where I couldn't use it because it was charging. When I see the battery is low, I plug it in during my next bathroom break, and then fully charge it over night.
- nkingsy 7y ago
  I had a Magic Mouse at work and I fought it for days at a time forgetting to charge it when I went home. Thinking about stuff like this is a waste of mental energy.
- mcv 7y ago
  I also never ran into a situation where I couldn't use it because I didn't buy it because it looked like a tremendously stupid idea. It's entirely possible the idea wasn't as stupid as it looked, but it still looked stupid enough that it cost them sales.
xienze 7y ago
That’s not the point. It looks completely ridiculous coming from a world-renowned designer and company (or anyone, really). It might be excusable if it were a case of “form over function“, but it’s not even that. It’s Apple going to great lengths to avoid putting the charging port in the most obvious place possible, lest someone try to use it as a wired mouse. That and sticking the Apple Pencil into the iPad’s Lightning port are two of the most baffling design decisions to come out of Apple in recent memory. Well, I take that back, I completely understand why they did the Apple Pencil that way. It’s because doing it the right way would require redesigning the iPad, so ehhh, just stick it in the Lightning port. Another brilliant design by Ive and company!
- jen20 7y ago
  Of course, the next generation of pencil and iPad charges differently - and without question in a more sensible manner. Are you QUITE sure you’re not attributing to incompetence what is obviously better explained by shipping schedule?
  - xienze 7y ago
    I never said it was incompetence, I said it was a rush job. Viewed without any additional context though, one would probably conclude that an incompetent designer had had their hands over such a goofy looking design.
mikeash 7y ago
That means you never build up a habit, but it still comes up fairly regularly. If you forget to charge it before it dies completely, then you either find another mouse or take a forced break. Not ideal.
taneq 7y ago
Time was when you'd never see a "poor choice but not that big of a deal" issue with an Apple product. Sure, there were things which would piss you off but they were big bold statements, not minor details.
mcv 7y ago
It's a big enough deal that I didn't buy it. I prefer replaceable batteries. Failing that, I want to be able to continue using it while it's charging.

It still means the thing is unusable when charging, no matter how long a charge lasts. In the grand scheme of things, no, it isn't that big of a deal. But it showcased a stereotype people associate with Apple: aesthetics over function. The plug could have gone in the top of the mouse, so you could use it just like you would a wired mouse while it charged. But no, the plug must be invisible, damn the inconvenience.

garmaine 7y ago
Actually it's worse--it's explicitly inconvenient to the point of being impossible to use in a wired fashion. The inconvenience of the user is a designed-in feature. They purposefully screwed over the user for aesthetic reasons. That's messed up.
- crehn 7y ago
  Don’t use it wired; it lasts a very long time. A port on the side would break its continuous curve, the sharp contrast of a dark port would be visually jarring (especially since the mouse is small and the overall tone is bright and smooth; it’s relative), and invite unnecessary long-term imperfections (e.g. deformities to the sharp aluminum cut, dust, etc.). I’m very thankful Apple doesn’t always listen to what “people” want. True creativity (especially in a pervasive aesthetic sense) is rare and most can’t envision new concepts or feelings before experiencing them.
  - untog 7y ago
    > A port on the side would be break its continuous curve, the sharp contrast of a dark port would be visually jarring This is literally the stuff people make jokes about when they talk about Apple.
    - crehn 7y ago
      Yes, it sounds silly to most. Most people would also say an asymmetric phone notch and chin doesn’t bother them. That’s why pushing pragmatic and perfectionist design (it’s a delicate balance, and Apple isn’t perfect) is difficult. But on a deeper level, most people feel good design and experiences without ever noticing them. It’s much more pervasive than you think.
      - solarkraft 7y ago
        I dislike Apple for many of their user hostile decisions, but for this I love them. I'm bothered by phone bezels not being consistent, for one example, and Apple are the only ones who seem to care about it as well.
- nseggs 7y ago
  Please. "Purposefully screwed over" is pretty dramatic and almost certainly not true. The mouse is sold as wireless. That seems to me a more likely reason it's impossible to use in a wired fashion. It also eliminates the need for a me to keep a giant pack of AA batteries at both my office and home office. It does require power occasionally, but then very briefly and almost never. The OS will also remind you almost comically early that the battery is getting low, and then you just plug it in when you go for lunch or a coffee run. When you get back you're good for another month or something like that.
  - garmaine 7y ago
    My time has value. It has particularly high value when I'm in the middle of working on something. Interruptions in this state have especially high opportunity cost. We could live in a universe where, when the "battery low" notification pops up I take a few seconds to plug in my mouse and go back to whatever I was working on. Instead, Apple purposefully chose to make me unable to use my mouse for a significant duration of time, at a moment that is NOT of my choosing. On a laptop this is fine as I have the trackpad. On a desktop workstation (where my time is more valuable!) this means getting up and taking a walk, or getting a cup of coffee at the very least. Those are good activities to do, but only when they fit into my routine. As a sudden abrupt interruption, it is actually a cost. And at my hourly rates, a particularly high one greater than the amount I paid for the mouse in the first place. So yeah, I do consider that "purposefully screwing over" the user. They could have made another perfectly reasonable design choice that would have had greater functionality, but opted not to for purely ephemeral reasons of branding and image.
dbt00 7y ago
Seriously I never ever ever found this to be a problem when I was using one. It charges from zero to usable in as long as it takes to type “ha ha this mouse charging port is on the bottom” on the internet, and a full charge lasts a long time. The bad keyboards and no hardware escape key are real problems. Magsafe was a real loss (although of course they lost MagSafe to standardize on a third party standard with usb-c).
- sneak 7y ago
  The rumor is that USB-C was an Apple invention, quietly pushed into the USB-IF so that it wouldn't have the Apple stink on it, and so that it would become a global hardware standard in the way an "Apple Thing" never could: power and high speed data, in a convenient and reversible plug. Now they're on Chromebooks, WinTel machines, and the Raspberry Pi. If the rumor is true, it was a really smooth move by Apple. It would be an extremely Apple-esque thing to hack an industry-wide movement just so that your laptop could be charged by any power brick made by any manufacturer at any time (even if your competitors get this functionality too).
  - izacus 7y ago
    "The rumor" sounds like rather common history rewriting to from Apple fans. Do you have any sources for that rumor?
    - dannyw 7y ago
      The convergence of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 (an Apple standard) isn’t an accident, but I doubt Apple covertly pushed it behind the scenes.
    - sneak 7y ago
      John Gruber made the claim. https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/13/apple-invents-usb-c/ https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/13/apple-invents-usb-c/ https://www.cultofmac.com/315989/is-this-proof-that-apple-invented-usb-c/ https://www.cultofmac.com/315989/is-this-proof-that-apple-in... https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/14/apple-usbc https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/14/apple-usbc
lyxsus1 7y ago
> It still means the thing is unusable when charging, no matter how long a charge lasts. That was the whole purpose of putting it in a bottom. The thing works several months on a single charge and it takes just a couple of hours to recharge. And it starts giving notification at least a day before battery's depleted. It's not aesthetics over function mantra, but realisation that they can't be decoupled or developed by separate divisions. That's what concerns me about Ive leaving. He and Jobs evidently had enough courage to ignore public opinion to make things the right way and in most cases it turned to be excellent decisions. With no successor I'm seriously afraid they'll eventually resort to safe decisions and become another Samsung/MS/Android/whatever..
- kkarakk 7y ago
  What happens when the battery conks out? throw away the mouse and buy a new one is what apple wants you to do but most people would prefer the safety net of being able to run wired in case the mouse battery started acting up. Remember this was a wireless mouse at a time when wireless was definitely not the preferred choice
  - lyxsus1 7y ago
    > What happens when the battery conks out? throw away the mouse and buy a new one That's the easiest thing to do, yes. But you can bring it to apple care, they do battery replacement for smth like $35 I guess. And if it's factory problem they just replace it, afaik. > Remember this was a wireless mouse at a time when wireless was definitely not the preferred choice At the time it had regular batteries you could replace by yourself and we were talking about latest versions. But anyway, I don't see how it can be relevant.
  - wastedhours 7y ago
    I think a lot of people forget the original wireless Magic Mouse was battery powered. I still have mine, and a couple of AAs (I think) will see it running for a good 'ol while. Nothing made me contemplate upgrading, and it's still a darn good experience.
- izacus 7y ago

woutr_be 7y ago

I've used a magic mouse for over 3 years, and I've never ran into a situation where I couldn't use it because it was charging. When I see the battery is low, I plug it in during my next bathroom break, and then fully charge it over night.

nkingsy 7y ago
I had a Magic Mouse at work and I fought it for days at a time forgetting to charge it when I went home. Thinking about stuff like this is a waste of mental energy.
mcv 7y ago
I also never ran into a situation where I couldn't use it because I didn't buy it because it looked like a tremendously stupid idea. It's entirely possible the idea wasn't as stupid as it looked, but it still looked stupid enough that it cost them sales.

xienze 7y ago

That’s not the point. It looks completely ridiculous coming from a world-renowned designer and company (or anyone, really). It might be excusable if it were a case of “form over function“, but it’s not even that. It’s Apple going to great lengths to avoid putting the charging port in the most obvious place possible, lest someone try to use it as a wired mouse. That and sticking the Apple Pencil into the iPad’s Lightning port are two of the most baffling design decisions to come out of Apple in recent memory. Well, I take that back, I completely understand why they did the Apple Pencil that way. It’s because doing it the right way would require redesigning the iPad, so ehhh, just stick it in the Lightning port. Another brilliant design by Ive and company!

jen20 7y ago
Of course, the next generation of pencil and iPad charges differently - and without question in a more sensible manner. Are you QUITE sure you’re not attributing to incompetence what is obviously better explained by shipping schedule?
- xienze 7y ago
  I never said it was incompetence, I said it was a rush job. Viewed without any additional context though, one would probably conclude that an incompetent designer had had their hands over such a goofy looking design.

mikeash 7y ago

That means you never build up a habit, but it still comes up fairly regularly. If you forget to charge it before it dies completely, then you either find another mouse or take a forced break. Not ideal.

taneq 7y ago

Time was when you'd never see a "poor choice but not that big of a deal" issue with an Apple product. Sure, there were things which would piss you off but they were big bold statements, not minor details.

mcv 7y ago

It's a big enough deal that I didn't buy it. I prefer replaceable batteries. Failing that, I want to be able to continue using it while it's charging.