3 ms·

I’m curious: how is the bottom charge port not an issue for you? What happens if your mouse runs out of battery while you’re working?

by Ecco 4y ago

rmatt2000 4y ago
You get a low-battery notice when there are only a few hours of charge left. For me, there's always been enough time to finish up my work and let it charge overnight.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
b3morales 4y ago
For me, in 6+ years of daily use this has only happened to me twice or so that I can recall. I do check the level from time to time so I can be sure to charge it overnight. But even if you forget the trick is that the battery charges surprisingly quickly from 0 to "enough to get through the rest of the day". Coffee break quickly, 10, maybe 15 minutes. So I do keyboard-only stuff for a bit and/or step away for a breather. It's been a non-issue in my personal experience.
- dolni 4y ago
  > I do check the level from time to time so I can be sure to charge it overnight. So here's the rub, isn't it? Consumer mice from decades ago did NOT require you to check battery levels. There's no good reason for a charging/wired port on the bottom of the mouse. It may only be a problem rarely, but it could just not be a problem AT ALL.
SV_BubbleTime 4y ago
The only time it was an ever an issue when I used one, was I plugged it in, I went to the bathroom, I got a coffee. And it was charged enough to use it until I could charge it for hours later. The sleep cycle of a mouse microprocessor is 99.9%+. A few minutes charge will get you hours of use.
tikhonj 4y ago
That's what I was paranoid about with wireless mice: what if the battery runs out while I'm in the middle of a competitive, time-sensitive game? With my Logitech mouse, I can plug it in from the front, so it's a minor inconvenience. Of course, just thinking about using the Magic Mouse for FPS games hurts my wrists, so it in particular was never a real consideration anyhow :P
librish 4y ago
I get a battery notification when the power is running low. That means I usually have a couple of days of usage before it's completely out. So then I charge it while I go to lunch or overnight.
- teakettle42 4y ago
  I never remember to plug it in after I’ve finished my work and am ready to leave for lunch or for the day. Short of putting a post-it note on my screen, I don’t think I ever will. My brain doesn’t work that way, and the point of technology is to support me, not for me to support technology. Requiring users to perform their own async mental scheduling of a trivially forgettable pending task like “plug in the mouse” is bad design. Perhaps some people have an innate ability to perform that kind of task scheduling without it being a significant cognitive load, but many others do not.
  - Kon-Peki 4y ago
    I think you must be exaggerating a little bit, because if true then it doesn't really matter if the charging port is on the bottom. You need a corded mouse. Apple doesn't make any, but I've yet to see any 3rd party USB mouse that a Mac won't work fine with. I've got a Logitech connected to a USB-C dongle for the infrequent times that I want a mouse on my MBP. Mouse+Dongle is also cheaper than a Magic Mouse.
    - teakettle42 4y ago
      I’m not exaggerating at all. I can try to drill “remember to plug in the mouse” into my head, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll forget. The previous magic mouse worked fine; if I ran out of juice, I just swapped the batteries immediately and kept going. If the current Magic Mouse supported charging while in use, I’d just do that. Problem solved. The turtle-mode charging is a ridiculous design constraint for those of us for whom “remember this trivial and stupid task to be performed at some arbitrary later time” does not come at all naturally. My (ridiculous) solution is two magic mice. When one dies, I swap it for the other. No cognitive load, no breaking flow — but it’s silly to have to keep a spare $99 mouse around to solve this problem. My employer has plenty of spare magic mice floating around, or I’d probably just buy myself a Microsoft mouse that uses AA batteries.

I’m curious: how is the bottom charge port not an issue for you? What happens if your mouse runs out of battery while you’re working?

by Ecco 4y ago

I’m curious: how is the bottom charge port not an issue for you? What happens if your mouse runs out of battery while you’re working?

rmatt2000 4y ago

You get a low-battery notice when there are only a few hours of charge left. For me, there's always been enough time to finish up my work and let it charge overnight.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

b3morales 4y ago

For me, in 6+ years of daily use this has only happened to me twice or so that I can recall. I do check the level from time to time so I can be sure to charge it overnight. But even if you forget the trick is that the battery charges surprisingly quickly from 0 to "enough to get through the rest of the day". Coffee break quickly, 10, maybe 15 minutes. So I do keyboard-only stuff for a bit and/or step away for a breather. It's been a non-issue in my personal experience.

dolni 4y ago
> I do check the level from time to time so I can be sure to charge it overnight. So here's the rub, isn't it? Consumer mice from decades ago did NOT require you to check battery levels. There's no good reason for a charging/wired port on the bottom of the mouse. It may only be a problem rarely, but it could just not be a problem AT ALL.

SV_BubbleTime 4y ago

The only time it was an ever an issue when I used one, was I plugged it in, I went to the bathroom, I got a coffee. And it was charged enough to use it until I could charge it for hours later. The sleep cycle of a mouse microprocessor is 99.9%+. A few minutes charge will get you hours of use.

tikhonj 4y ago

That's what I was paranoid about with wireless mice: what if the battery runs out while I'm in the middle of a competitive, time-sensitive game? With my Logitech mouse, I can plug it in from the front, so it's a minor inconvenience. Of course, just thinking about using the Magic Mouse for FPS games hurts my wrists, so it in particular was never a real consideration anyhow :P

librish 4y ago

I get a battery notification when the power is running low. That means I usually have a couple of days of usage before it's completely out. So then I charge it while I go to lunch or overnight.

teakettle42 4y ago
I never remember to plug it in after I’ve finished my work and am ready to leave for lunch or for the day. Short of putting a post-it note on my screen, I don’t think I ever will. My brain doesn’t work that way, and the point of technology is to support me, not for me to support technology. Requiring users to perform their own async mental scheduling of a trivially forgettable pending task like “plug in the mouse” is bad design. Perhaps some people have an innate ability to perform that kind of task scheduling without it being a significant cognitive load, but many others do not.
- Kon-Peki 4y ago
  I think you must be exaggerating a little bit, because if true then it doesn't really matter if the charging port is on the bottom. You need a corded mouse. Apple doesn't make any, but I've yet to see any 3rd party USB mouse that a Mac won't work fine with. I've got a Logitech connected to a USB-C dongle for the infrequent times that I want a mouse on my MBP. Mouse+Dongle is also cheaper than a Magic Mouse.
  - teakettle42 4y ago
    I’m not exaggerating at all. I can try to drill “remember to plug in the mouse” into my head, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll forget. The previous magic mouse worked fine; if I ran out of juice, I just swapped the batteries immediately and kept going. If the current Magic Mouse supported charging while in use, I’d just do that. Problem solved. The turtle-mode charging is a ridiculous design constraint for those of us for whom “remember this trivial and stupid task to be performed at some arbitrary later time” does not come at all naturally. My (ridiculous) solution is two magic mice. When one dies, I swap it for the other. No cognitive load, no breaking flow — but it’s silly to have to keep a spare $99 mouse around to solve this problem. My employer has plenty of spare magic mice floating around, or I’d probably just buy myself a Microsoft mouse that uses AA batteries.