Here's a better solution: good old rechargeable AA batteries. Keep a spare set sitting in a charger, and you'll never need to wait for your device to recharge.
If you're concerned about users falling back on disposables, bundle two sets of rechargeable AA's and a charger. Apple used to sell branded versions of these items.
I hate built-in rechargeable batteries for peripherals like mice, keyboards, and game controllers.
Similarly, I really like Thunderbolt docks and the like because it helps me cut down on the semi-permanent wire clutter on my desk.
I can't say I've ever had tracking issues with the Magic Mouse either. I certainly don't have any with the wireless Logitech G305 I use now, which was designed for gaming and feels particularly precise and responsive.
If we were talking about keyboards, I'd be more sympathetic to your viewpoint. Although even then, I like the clean look of my wireless keyboard, even if it means I have to swap batteries once every couple months.
(Yes, swapping batteries tajes some amount of time, but so does finding and plugging in a cable, so that’s a wash as far as I’m concerned.)
All of Apples mouse designs have been absolute train wreaks since the horrible “puck” mouse on the original iMac.
I have a 10 year old Logitech mouse that still works perfectly fine.
Yet their trackpad is the best in the entire industry. I've switched to the Magic Trackpad on my desktop and it's brilliant. The impetus to change was concern for some occasional RSI-like pain in my left-click finger, but now that I've been using it for a couple of years, I don't miss the traditional mouse at all.
I came to appreciate the Magic Mouse quite a bit. I found it perfectly comfortable, and having what is effectively a super long scroll wheel is great. I also appreciated the easy horizontal scrolling, and the ability to switch spaces with swipe gestures.
I switched only because I discovered how nice the tracking quality of gaming mice is.
It's great for spreadsheets. I even use the Macbook trackpad for 3D CAD. I used to use a spaceball and mouse, but the trackpad plus modifier keys is more convenient because it keeps the hands to the keyboard.
I know many people that use a mouse and Magic Trackpad and fluidly switch between them depending on the task. I did exactly that for about a year—before eventually ditching the mouse altogether.
I think a docking/charging station for the mouse would be more elegant and nice to have, though more expensive too of course.
That's still so much better than using with the cable attached (if it was possible), or the belly-up charging.
I remember getting one at work, this was the only time I liked a product at work so much that I immediately picked one up before coming home.
Why should that be a problem?
Li-Ion batteries aren’t designed for that use-case.
Also the Magic Mouse has fast charging. You’ll get a full day of battery in 2min.
With a full charge, you’ll get 2+ months of usage.
Do the math. You’ll most likely charge this thing less than 20 times in it’s entire life.
That’s why the battery port design is both really smart and elegant. Unfortunately people don’t take the time to understand the purpose of design choices and jump to the easiest meme that reinforces their beliefs.
If a full charge lasts 2 months, then why keep it topped up while plugged in? Just charge it to 85%, then let it discharge to 50%, then charge it again. The circuit to do this can't be that hard to design.
Can anyone more knowledgeable confirm?
What they would need to do is detect when the port has been has been connected regularly for days and let the charge level drop to some announcement proportionate to the frequency and duration.
> With a full charge, you’ll get 2 months of usage.
> Do the math. You’ll most likely charge this thing less than 20 times in it’s entire life.
These things don't make sense as a whole.
Why put a fast charger in (to get your day's worth of charging) if your use case is "charge it to full, get 2 months", so you "likely charge this thing less than 20 times in its life"?
Most likely, you'll go to one extreme or the other, and I think the "less than 20 in its life" is entirely optimistic, and based on a use case that the design doesn't represent.
Fast charging is more intensive on the battery - you don't want it to be running on fast charge the whole time.
It's for scenarios where you might forget to charge or it's been sitting unused for a while but you still want to get to work quickly. It minimizes failure scenarios.
It's meant to be a wireless mouse. Emphasis on wireless.
There simply is no good reason for the port placement.
It actually works really well. I still don't like the mouse because my hands are big and the ergonomics are absolutely terrible for me, but the charging design is well considered.
I've never heard this before. What's the explanation? Is it related to battery health? Why does it only apply to Apple products?
This happens a lot with Apple. Good, bad or otherwise, they constantly solve customer issues when the customer isn't really having an issue.
The bottom charging is kludgey, and there was probably a more elegant solution. But you only need to charge the mouse once ever couple of months, so it's not a huge problem.
However, I would guess my hands are not the same size as your hands. You don't have to be a design genius to understand there's a ton of variation in hand size, and one-size-fits-all products don't.
A genius product would be a resizable mouse with an auto-resizing guide to help you pick the right size and curve for your hand size and grip style.
Scrolling without a wheel took a bit of learning, but in the end, being able to seamlessly move vertically and horizontally with a single finger is highly useful in design or music software. I haven't seen a mouse that could handle it as well as the Magic Mouse.