There are so many legitimate reasons to hate the magic mouse.

Ergonimics, the polling rate, the way the glass gets greasy, the scratchy hard plastic on the bottom.

Truly, inferior to the Logitech MX Master in all ways except looks. (which is subjective).

But it takes literally a few seconds to get a days worth of charge out of the mouse, Apple clearly don't want you to leave it plugged in to use as a wired mouse: why? idk, because they hate choice, or perhaps its because they know it would overcharge the battery and bulge, or perhaps even still, people would get weird expectations about "wired being better for latency" despite the mouse not using the data connections on the wire.

We'll never know. But the charging on the bottom is such a non-issue in reality that it makes me wonder if anyone actually owned that mouse, or they just think it looks funny. Personally, I'd rather they fix the other issues with the mouse, the charging was legitimately never an issue.

The only reason they don't let you charge it is because it's a recycled design of the MM1 which used disposable batteries. The Magic Keyboard and Trackpad which came out the exact same day both let you use it plugged in and charging, even wired! The Magic Mouse shell was just not designed with a cord in mind at all.

I have personally been in meeting where my boss forgot to charge her magic mouse and we had to wait two minutes for her to open the stuff we needed to discuss. It happens.

>The only reason they don't let you charge it is because it's a recycled design of the MM1 which used disposable batteries.

But they've done incremental updates to the design since, they could have easily fixed that by now.

The track pad and keyboard don't need to move, which would introduce mechanical stress on the port and cable.

Those are both moving parts that must be treated as movng the same as a mouse, because they are not bolted to anything. Any mechanical designer will absolutely treat everything about the ports on those the same as for a phone.

Take the people in the room, and multiply their fully burdened rate by two minutes. I bet that was a lot.

It’s all about tension on the lightning connector imo - the connector isn’t designed for that level of flexibility, so it would break and it’s not like they’re going to use a different connector just for the mouse

This is the best steelmanning I've seen of the Magic Mouse charging port design; I'm surprised I never encountered it before. It actually makes a lot of sense considering how stiff the cables typically are, and it also then makes sense that the (immobile) Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad do have a charging port you can use while the device is in use.

It's nonsense -- plenty of people use phones and iPads while tethered to a charging cord. The port is well secured to the logic board of the device because it has to survive a lot of yanking, accidental falls, etc. It doesn't explain the Magic Mouse design.

It's not an issue anymore now that they would use usb-c.

> But the charging on the bottom is such a non-issue in reality

As I said, you rarely needed to remember to charge it. Till you would in the midst of something.

Anyway, I never liked the MM so when I had my iMac I bought a magic trackpad (which you could charge while using, small bonus).

Then you pop it on the charger for like 10 seconds, use it for the rest of the day, then leave it charging overnight when you go home.

Sure, but it was still an inconvenience to interrupt a presentation once, and another time a prod debugging session where everybody was anxiously breathing on my neck and staring at my screen.

To me the plug placement was an inconvenience, regardless of how invisible it is to you.

On top of that, it never charged in few seconds after years of use, mine would take longer just to connect to the iMac again.

I was glad to buy magic trackpad I could leave connected 24/7 and never think about it (also I liked it much more than the MM in general).

Totally fair, why did you ignore the low battery warning for 3 days though?

Because we're human and not behaving in a perfect way and the design of our daily tools should account for that.

I guess it's some sort of longevity paradox.

It lasted so long, even after the warning, that I never got any urgency.

"Clearly, it is the user who is wrong."

The point I'm making is that people are making a point out of ignorance.

People think it will be a problem, so make ignorant commentary about it being idiotic, yet in practice it's fine, and not the worst aspect of a terrible mouse.

Doesn't it tell you that the battery is low before it doesn't work anymore? When I used the Magic Mouse I never had any issues with the battery.

There are so many lulu ideas in this comment that don't hold up to the simplest examination.

Plugging in for a few seconds to get a days worth of charge is a stupid thing to actually require or consider normal.

I also want to use my mouse tomorrow, and even the next day, and do so without having to plan ahead "today I will leave my mouse plugged in overnight because I can tell by clairvoyance that it is about to run out" or "I have been tracking the calender like a menstrual cycle and it's time, tonight is the night!" or "I have set up a sheduled alarm on my wonderful Apple Watch to remind me to go look at the settings somewhere to check the mouse battery level and see if it's time to charge tonight"...

And if you don't plan, then you have a few choices, charge for a minute and have to do it again without warning in 2 days, a constant stream of unplanned forced trips to the coffee maker, or just charge for 30 seconds every single day as a part of your routine, or stop and wait for a full charge on the spot for however long that is, or the worst of both worlds, get on with your day by charging for a minute now, and then don't fail to remember to plug it back in before leaving several hours of busy-ness later, which you absolutely will of course.

There is no version of any of that that is remotely convenient or sensible, and certainly not an upgrade from every other mouse in the world. There is no version of this that isn't patently ridiculous. You can work around it and tolerate it because it's not as bad as having to dig ditches for a living. If there was something about mice that the tech just didn't exist for it to work any other way, then sure it's possible to live with, because humans are adaptable. But it's not good, and it's not better than the already norm for $2 mice sice 20 years ago.

It's baffling weird to even try.

The mouse gives you like 3 days heads up that you might want to think about charging it though.

If you disable all notifications and it really runs out, waiting 10 seconds for it to charge is... fine...

I doubt you're using a wired mouse, and most wired mice are actually worse at charging than the magic mouse- the only difference is that you can use them while plugged in, so it's not as annoying that they charge so slow and use more power.

Ultimately it comes down to effective utility, people harping on about the placement of the charging cable without respect to the actual usability of the device holistically have quite literally missed the forest for the trees.

Like I said, theres plenty of reasons to dislike the mouse, but this ranks among the lowest and honestly the weird hate-boner for that decision just makes people look like they don't know what they're talking about to me.

Wired mice don't need to charge. Most modern wireless mice charge just as fast, you just don't NEED it because you can keep the cable plugged in. One minute of charge gets 3 hours for the Logitech MX 3S for example.

ive had a magic mouse and only had to plug it in and charge it and walk away for 10 minutes... maybe... 5 times in the past three years? like it's annoying when it happens, but you also only have to charge it once every couple months, and i mostly have this annoyance because i have notifications 100% turned off and i don't see the low battery notification.

however i will say three years in, either a software update or hardware issue is now killing the battery and i have to charge it every week or two and that sucks

salty that i now have airpod pros, an iphone 13, and the magic keyboard and mouse all with their dumb lightning bolt or whatever it's called. going to have to rebuy all this to forever rid myself of non-usb-c cables but at least in 2024 it's finally happened as an option

The battery may have degraded to be fair.

Each of those times you walked away, did you ever try plugging it in, counting to ten and then continuing to use it afterwards? That's what I used to do.

I use a trackpad now though.

ill give that a shot, thanks! im pretty sure it's just a dead battery though - after i charge it for 5-10 min it shows the percentage at like 3-5% which is enough for several more hours and then i just plug it in overnight

In my experience, it's slow to charge. I've been using the Magic Mouse for many years, because I otherwise like it. But charging it to last the rest of the day takes long enough that I lose track of whatever I was doing. And the low battery warning always comes so late that I must stop working immediately and plug in the cable.

It's probably just Apple's usual arrogance. They could have easily designed the mouse so that you can keep using it while it's charging, but the designer chose otherwise. And because this is a minor enough issue, Apple doesn't have to fix it and admit that they were wrong.

Right there that's my experience as well. I doubt the Magic Mouse defenders use their computer all that much or even use a Magic Mouse at all.

That thing charges annoyingly slowly and uses battery way faster than reasonable.

Interesting!

That's quite contrary to my experience, granted I've only used two magic mice, one for 2 years in 2014-16, and another from 2020-2023.

It's possible that your experience is much more common though!

Yeah this is something I thought was amazingly dumb until I used one, but it’s not actually a problem. Even a little.

I use this "charge port at the bottom hurr-durr" remarks as a sure sign of people who never used the product.

They are just lazy and cheap and can't admit they were wrong. That's it. Because the current Magic Mouse is basically a battery version of the previous Magic Mouse that used swappable batteries. As far as I'm concerned, they basically just used the same exact hardware and swapped the battery cradle for a LIPO + BMS and Lightning port. Which is actually a problem in itself because the sensor is really not great and could have used an upgrade at least.

I have had and used both and the first version was MUCH less annoying. Swapping is an instant activity and back to business; remember to put it to charge later when you get a message is an unnecessary mental load and unrealistic expectation from the user, the technology is supposed to work for the user not the other way around. The fast-charging bullshit everyone talks about is just displacement of the problem, the next day you will get another interruption and mental load to remember to charge.

On top of that, the battery life is actually terrible, it's crazy how little useful life you get from it considering how heavy it is and how terrible the sensor is.

Personally, I really like the ability to "free scroll" in all direction on the surface and the 2-3 finger swipes but it's really not worth the hassle.

People boast about Apple trackpads being good but as far as I'm concerned, they don't have much choice considering that's the only thing they seem to be able to work out ok. Nobody on PCs wants to use trackpads, it makes no sense compared to the performance of a mouse and gestures are unreliable compared to mouse buttons/keyboard shortcuts/macro keys.

The ergonomics were absolutely terrible. I now find using any mouse painful, to the point where I've replaced all of my computer pointing devices with trackpads. I blame the pain on a long history of Magic Mouse usage.

let's stop justifying this choice from Apple

it annoys everyone, it's a dumb design, you get a message from your Mac telling you that the mouse has no charge and suddenly you can't work anymore for a few minutes, it's idiotic, plain and simple

Wireless charging is also idiotic, to someone.

You don't like the mouse, that's fine, I also don't like the mouse.

But unless you've actually used the mouse for an extended period: I don't think you understood the point that you:

A) don't need it plugged in constantly

and

B) if you charge it for a handful of seconds it lasts the rest of the day, meaning you don't actually have to stop working.

Yeah, I've been using these on multiple Macs for a decade now and it's just not an issue.

If I get the warning the mouse is getting low on charge I just plug it in, go grab a drink or use the bathroom, and by the time I get back it's good for the rest of the day.

Then all I have to do is remember to plug it in overnight and it'll be good for months. YMMV.

Can’t remember where I saw the interview but that was a conscious choice given the long battery life and fast charging.

I get what they were going for: force the user to use it as intended because the battery really lasted long enough for most people. Otherwise people would just have left it plugged always, and the cable+port would have needed different mechanical strength. But that really annoys anyone who would have left it charging if not most of the time. I think it would have been a better experience by leveraging software instead: detect that it is close to the end of the day and battery is low, and notify the user thwt they need to charge it when they stop using it, if leaving the underside port, or use notifications to annoy people into disconnecting the mouse when fully charged, if the port was moved to the obvious place. You're still annoying people, but you're less likely to end up with an unusable belly up mouse midway through your day.