5 ms·

For me, the charge port at the bottom is a clear case of design being more important than functionality. Of course, if you're the kind of person that always rem

by rob74 5y ago

For me, the charge port at the bottom is a clear case of design being more important than functionality. Of course, if you're the kind of person that always remembers to charge their mouse before the battery runs out, it's not an issue for you, but for the "rest of us", having the option to charge it and use it at the same time would sure be handy...

ambrose2 5y ago
This topic comes up again and again, and what I’ve noticed is that folks who use the mouse often find that it lasts for months and months without recharging. Folks that like the mouse (myself included) agree that the frequency of charging is very low, while folks that don’t like the mouse will say that it’s unacceptable.
- kalleboo 5y ago
  I use the wireless Apple keyboard and trackpad, which both have similar battery lives, but when the battery runs out it always somehow happens to be right before a meeting where I really need to plug it in and use it right now (and these days when everything else is USB-C, instead I'm scrambling to find where my damn lightning cable has gone) Although I get why they would not put the port on the back - their Lightning cables are not built for the repeated motion/strain of a plugged-in mouse. Anything more strain than plugging your phone in and setting it down causes the cables to break down in months.
  - fmajid 5y ago
    The cables don’t last because of pretty but ineffective strain relief. Another failure squarely imputable to Jony Ive.
  - _ph_ 5y ago
    I can only recommend using BetterTouchTool for adding more guestures to the mouse - and it comes with a nice feature, it reminds me when the charge of the mouse goes below 25%. This gives me several days to recharge it before it actually gets low.
  - Redoubts 5y ago
    > I use the wireless Apple keyboard and trackpad, which both have similar battery lives, ? The keyboard has 3-5x the battery life of the trackpad. Not sure how they can be similar to the mouse if they’re not even similar to each other.
    - kalleboo 5y ago
      Similar as in you're not recharging it on a daily or weekly basis, but only very rarely. A 3 or 6 month battery life doesn't make a big difference on that scale.
- KerrAvon 5y ago
  Some of us who use the mouse always want to keep it plugged in all the time because the extra cable on the desk is less important to us than (a) having it not occasionally glitch due to Bluetooth and/or (b) not wanting the extra burden of having to charge it. I guess scheduling the charging is minor if you don’t have ADHD, but it’s still one more stupid thing to take care of that really isn’t necessary.
  - ambrose2 5y ago
    I have ADHD, but it presents itself differently. For me, a more minimal desk free of the sight of cables (all the time) and free of annoyance of the tension of a cable or sound of a cable grazing against the desk (all the time) trumps plugging in a mouse twice a year when I stop working for the day. But I’m the type that can’t focus when I see a battery icon is low, and so I’ll just take care of it when I notice.
  - Someone 5y ago
    I, too, think that an extra battery isn’t worth it, but that there are people who want a mouse that is always plugged in doesn’t mean a wireless mice that can’t always be plugged in is badly designed.
- wonnage 5y ago
  It almost feels like the silly charging port was placed there on purpose. It tells users that you're not meant to use it plugged in, stop worrying about the battery, it'll be fine. And conversely it forces the engineers to build something that doesn't need to be charged constantly. ...I still prefer my Logitech mouse that works plugged in though.
- philwelch 5y ago
  In my experience it needed charging much more frequently than that, and often at completely unpredictable and inconvenient times. I resorted to keeping a spare plugged in at all times when I worked in an office.
na85 5y ago
People who complain about the charge port on the bottom don't use the mice. It's a stupid location for a charge port but the battery lasts for several weeks if not months; it's just not that much of an issue in real world use.
- tobtoh 5y ago
  > but the battery lasts for several weeks if not months; i In my experience, this is exactly why it's an issue. All my less tech savvy family who use this mouse forget to charge it because "it never needs charging" ... and then it runs out of juice whilst they are in the midst of something and now they can't use the mouse.
  - s__s 5y ago
    But MacOS warns you that the batteries are low several times before they run out.
  - carl_dr 5y ago
    macOS literally nags for days on end - easily an entire week - when the battery is running low before it actually runs out. It starts notifying when the battery level is 10%. I have no idea how this is a problem for anyone.
- newaccount74 5y ago
  The battery degrades. My Magic Mouses battery only lasts for 5 to 10 minutes... if I could use it while plugged in I could still use it. As it is I can just toss it.
  - mattl 5y ago
    How long have you had it?
    - newaccount74 5y ago
      I don't know. I have several Magic mice, and I switched them between various computers often enough that I don't know which computer the broken one came with. The oldest one is probably from 2016.
dylan604 5y ago
With the example of the charger-on-the-bottom, where does the break down come from? Was this never even considered an issue? As in, did it just never get considered as something bad? Did it never get focus grouped in a wide enough range of users for someone to question this? Was it noticed, questioned, decided it was works as intended? It just seems like with a company the size of Apple who all work under draconian NDAs, why not have an internal employee focus group? Hubris of the design silos?
- peteradio 5y ago
  Have you used it and found an actual issue with the problem? If you randomly remember 1 time a month to plug it in when you go to lunch its effectively a non-issue. Consider it was well thought out.
  - taeric 5y ago
    The few times I've been asked to help my neighbors on the computer, it has been a non-starter because the mouse needed charging and we were unable to do anything because of it. :(
    - jonathankoren 5y ago
      Yeah, but how long did charging actually take? 5 minutes?
      - taeric 5y ago
        ? I don't actually know. Is an elderly neighbor and we couldn't find the cable at the house while I was there.
        Redoubts 5y ago
        This sounds like a comedy of errors.
anonymouse008 5y ago
What’s so wild to me about this, is that the Magic Mouse design is 100% evident there was meant to be a flush charging dock sister product that got nix’d just like the recent wireless charging pad — there’s intention and a continuity one can follow, but recently has been cut at the knees for operational efficiency.
cco 5y ago
Because pedantry is king at hn. Design was not the most important aspect of the magic mouse, _aesthetics_ was. A key difference in this conversation. Aesthetically the mouse is great, very beautiful, especially for the time it came out. The design of the mouse is amazing in several ways, but very lacking in others, specifically ergonomics and charging. In fact, had they made the mouse larger, in all dimensions, they could have solved two birds with one stone. The mouse is too small to comfortable use for most people, making it larger would fit the human hand better and decrease the amount of contortion your hand has to do to use it. And with this extra height they could have put a charging port on the front! Win win on the design side of things! There are several products you can buy that help with this, I have both wings and a palm bump added to my magic mouse that makes it much more comfortable. I tried to take one apart once to explore making a new case for it that addresses some of these concerns, but I ended up breaking it. I think that final bit really is the crux, the scrolling and gesture support is so good I'm sufficiently motivated to try and solve the problems with the mouse. A beautifully flawed product.
- cromka 5y ago
  > Design was not the most important aspect of the magic mouse, _aesthetics_ was. A key difference in this conversation. On point. People too often confuse aesthetics with design.
  - rob74 5y ago
    Thanks for pointing that out! I'm not a native speaker, and around here (Germany) the loan word "design" refers only to designing the aesthetic side of things. Again what learned (https://www.nicolabartlett.de/again-what-learned/ https://www.nicolabartlett.de/again-what-learned/)...
    - cromka 5y ago
      And thanks for the article. Funny it ends the very recent, diplomatically infamous "liver sausage" :)
- 8ytecoder 5y ago
twobitshifter 5y ago
I saw an article where someone rigged the magic mouse so that the cord was not on the bottom. They found that the mouse was unable to be used while charging. So putting the charge port on the bottom may have been driven by larger design decisions that made use while charging not possible. https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/25/unnecessary-inventions-magic-mouse-charging/ https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/25/unnecessary-inventions-magic-...
kergonath 5y ago
> having the option to charge it and use it at the same time would sure be handy That’s the theory. In practice, charging it whilst getting a coffee gives it enough battery life to finish the day. Sure, you need to remember to charge it then. But you never have to chose between using it or charging it for more than a couple of minutes in the real life.
scarface74 5y ago
How do you “forget”? You get plenty of warning notifications.

by rob74 5y ago

ambrose2 5y ago

This topic comes up again and again, and what I’ve noticed is that folks who use the mouse often find that it lasts for months and months without recharging. Folks that like the mouse (myself included) agree that the frequency of charging is very low, while folks that don’t like the mouse will say that it’s unacceptable.

kalleboo 5y ago
I use the wireless Apple keyboard and trackpad, which both have similar battery lives, but when the battery runs out it always somehow happens to be right before a meeting where I really need to plug it in and use it right now (and these days when everything else is USB-C, instead I'm scrambling to find where my damn lightning cable has gone) Although I get why they would not put the port on the back - their Lightning cables are not built for the repeated motion/strain of a plugged-in mouse. Anything more strain than plugging your phone in and setting it down causes the cables to break down in months.
- fmajid 5y ago
  The cables don’t last because of pretty but ineffective strain relief. Another failure squarely imputable to Jony Ive.
- _ph_ 5y ago
  I can only recommend using BetterTouchTool for adding more guestures to the mouse - and it comes with a nice feature, it reminds me when the charge of the mouse goes below 25%. This gives me several days to recharge it before it actually gets low.
- Redoubts 5y ago
  > I use the wireless Apple keyboard and trackpad, which both have similar battery lives, ? The keyboard has 3-5x the battery life of the trackpad. Not sure how they can be similar to the mouse if they’re not even similar to each other.
  - kalleboo 5y ago
    Similar as in you're not recharging it on a daily or weekly basis, but only very rarely. A 3 or 6 month battery life doesn't make a big difference on that scale.
KerrAvon 5y ago
Some of us who use the mouse always want to keep it plugged in all the time because the extra cable on the desk is less important to us than (a) having it not occasionally glitch due to Bluetooth and/or (b) not wanting the extra burden of having to charge it. I guess scheduling the charging is minor if you don’t have ADHD, but it’s still one more stupid thing to take care of that really isn’t necessary.
- ambrose2 5y ago
  I have ADHD, but it presents itself differently. For me, a more minimal desk free of the sight of cables (all the time) and free of annoyance of the tension of a cable or sound of a cable grazing against the desk (all the time) trumps plugging in a mouse twice a year when I stop working for the day. But I’m the type that can’t focus when I see a battery icon is low, and so I’ll just take care of it when I notice.
- Someone 5y ago
  I, too, think that an extra battery isn’t worth it, but that there are people who want a mouse that is always plugged in doesn’t mean a wireless mice that can’t always be plugged in is badly designed.
wonnage 5y ago
It almost feels like the silly charging port was placed there on purpose. It tells users that you're not meant to use it plugged in, stop worrying about the battery, it'll be fine. And conversely it forces the engineers to build something that doesn't need to be charged constantly. ...I still prefer my Logitech mouse that works plugged in though.
philwelch 5y ago
In my experience it needed charging much more frequently than that, and often at completely unpredictable and inconvenient times. I resorted to keeping a spare plugged in at all times when I worked in an office.

na85 5y ago

People who complain about the charge port on the bottom don't use the mice. It's a stupid location for a charge port but the battery lasts for several weeks if not months; it's just not that much of an issue in real world use.

tobtoh 5y ago
> but the battery lasts for several weeks if not months; i In my experience, this is exactly why it's an issue. All my less tech savvy family who use this mouse forget to charge it because "it never needs charging" ... and then it runs out of juice whilst they are in the midst of something and now they can't use the mouse.
- s__s 5y ago
  But MacOS warns you that the batteries are low several times before they run out.
- carl_dr 5y ago
  macOS literally nags for days on end - easily an entire week - when the battery is running low before it actually runs out. It starts notifying when the battery level is 10%. I have no idea how this is a problem for anyone.
newaccount74 5y ago
The battery degrades. My Magic Mouses battery only lasts for 5 to 10 minutes... if I could use it while plugged in I could still use it. As it is I can just toss it.
- mattl 5y ago
  How long have you had it?
  - newaccount74 5y ago
    I don't know. I have several Magic mice, and I switched them between various computers often enough that I don't know which computer the broken one came with. The oldest one is probably from 2016.

dylan604 5y ago

With the example of the charger-on-the-bottom, where does the break down come from? Was this never even considered an issue? As in, did it just never get considered as something bad? Did it never get focus grouped in a wide enough range of users for someone to question this? Was it noticed, questioned, decided it was works as intended? It just seems like with a company the size of Apple who all work under draconian NDAs, why not have an internal employee focus group? Hubris of the design silos?

peteradio 5y ago
Have you used it and found an actual issue with the problem? If you randomly remember 1 time a month to plug it in when you go to lunch its effectively a non-issue. Consider it was well thought out.
- taeric 5y ago
  The few times I've been asked to help my neighbors on the computer, it has been a non-starter because the mouse needed charging and we were unable to do anything because of it. :(
  - jonathankoren 5y ago
    Yeah, but how long did charging actually take? 5 minutes?
    - taeric 5y ago
      ? I don't actually know. Is an elderly neighbor and we couldn't find the cable at the house while I was there.
      - Redoubts 5y ago
        This sounds like a comedy of errors.

anonymouse008 5y ago

What’s so wild to me about this, is that the Magic Mouse design is 100% evident there was meant to be a flush charging dock sister product that got nix’d just like the recent wireless charging pad — there’s intention and a continuity one can follow, but recently has been cut at the knees for operational efficiency.

cco 5y ago

Because pedantry is king at hn. Design was not the most important aspect of the magic mouse, _aesthetics_ was. A key difference in this conversation. Aesthetically the mouse is great, very beautiful, especially for the time it came out. The design of the mouse is amazing in several ways, but very lacking in others, specifically ergonomics and charging. In fact, had they made the mouse larger, in all dimensions, they could have solved two birds with one stone. The mouse is too small to comfortable use for most people, making it larger would fit the human hand better and decrease the amount of contortion your hand has to do to use it. And with this extra height they could have put a charging port on the front! Win win on the design side of things! There are several products you can buy that help with this, I have both wings and a palm bump added to my magic mouse that makes it much more comfortable. I tried to take one apart once to explore making a new case for it that addresses some of these concerns, but I ended up breaking it. I think that final bit really is the crux, the scrolling and gesture support is so good I'm sufficiently motivated to try and solve the problems with the mouse. A beautifully flawed product.

cromka 5y ago
> Design was not the most important aspect of the magic mouse, _aesthetics_ was. A key difference in this conversation. On point. People too often confuse aesthetics with design.
- rob74 5y ago
  Thanks for pointing that out! I'm not a native speaker, and around here (Germany) the loan word "design" refers only to designing the aesthetic side of things. Again what learned (https://www.nicolabartlett.de/again-what-learned/ https://www.nicolabartlett.de/again-what-learned/)...
  - cromka 5y ago
    And thanks for the article. Funny it ends the very recent, diplomatically infamous "liver sausage" :)
8ytecoder 5y ago

twobitshifter 5y ago

I saw an article where someone rigged the magic mouse so that the cord was not on the bottom. They found that the mouse was unable to be used while charging. So putting the charge port on the bottom may have been driven by larger design decisions that made use while charging not possible. https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/25/unnecessary-inventions-magic-mouse-charging/ https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/25/unnecessary-inventions-magic-...

kergonath 5y ago

> having the option to charge it and use it at the same time would sure be handy That’s the theory. In practice, charging it whilst getting a coffee gives it enough battery life to finish the day. Sure, you need to remember to charge it then. But you never have to chose between using it or charging it for more than a couple of minutes in the real life.

scarface74 5y ago

How do you “forget”? You get plenty of warning notifications.