The moment it runs out of power isn't when you're you're taking a break, but while you're using it. You may change what you're doing and go take a break. But you also may be in the middle of a presentation.

Sounds like it’s not for you. And that’s ok.

I’m a long time MM user and have one at every computer I use (work and multiple personal). My first one was one with the AA batteries. Never had a problem with this.

If you have a car, you have to fill it up with gas (or charge the battery) too and you can’t use it while doing that. Similar deal.

Thing is, their is literally the only mouse on the market that has this weird limitation - and there's no obvious good reason for it.

I haven’t done the research to know if that’s true or not, so I will assume it is.

But it is such a non-issue to me that I really don’t care that it exists. I also would not care if they made it possible. But as an actual user of multiple of them, it really, truly is a non-issue for me.

My issue is that mine are all lightning and I have fewer and fewer lightning devices, so I’ll have to keep around a lightning cable (regardless of whether I can charge while using it or not). But that was bound to happen.

It'll warn of a low battery for weeks in advance of fully going dead.

And I'm going to ignore it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41974645

In the same way people miss meeting reminders ahead of the meeting and Google meet/calendar combo still fails to do a reminder at 0 minutes by default. It's a bad design that doesn't account for real behaviour.

> And I'm going to ignore it.

Sure, and you might forget the mouse at home. Or the cord!

They can't solve every problem.

We're lucky then that people only complain here about the issues they can fix (like the port position) and not about all the ones they can't.

> They can't solve every problem.

But this one. This one they certainly can.

The ridiculous amount of warning time and the ridiculously quick time to get an entire days charge are good design.

And all of that doesn't change the fact that I ended up without a charge a few times and threw the MM in the bin. With the replacement, I just plug the cable in and continue using it. I don't even know how fast it charges / how long it lasts, because charging doesn't disrupt the usage.

Given that it has a lithium ion battery and you’re very much not supposed to put it in a bin, i’m not surprised you ignored a low battery warning for weeks.

If you're unable to acknowledge basic information like "battery is low" and respond accordingly within several days nor able to wait a few seconds to get enough charge to last through your super critical meeting/whatever, I guess Apples mouse just isn't for you.

That's fine. It's why we have choices.

Now if you'll excuse me I must get back to complaining ad nauseam to strangers about how much I hate a mouse I don't use. Oh wait no I don't.

Yup, that mouse isn't for me. It's also not for a number of people who end up buying it. That's how reviews work: people who had negative experience talk about it so others like that (you know who you are) will not buy that mouse. We also talk about software/hardware design here. Acknowledging that wider accessibility means designing for people behaving in different ways and it saves you from years of repeated complaints - that's also important.

This isn’t an accessibility issue, this is a “stop putting your head in the sand” issue.

But what you're doing is even worse - complaining to strangers about legitimate complaints of strangers

As evidenced by other responders, no it isn't a legitimate complaint.

Every time it's mentioned people come out of the woodwork to complain about "how can I use it while it's charging".

Meanwhile the people that actually use one know that isn't an issue - and rebut the complaints.

Right, imagine how much better my Magic Trackpad would be if I had to leave it unplugged while I was using it!

...not.

That isn't good design, it's a bandaid on bad design.

But still doesn't excuse the bad design of the port location

I'm personally not saying that excuses it, but I've once read that it was an absolutely conscious decision by Apple to put the port where it is.

A lot of people tend to simply leave the mouse plugged into a cable when using it, even once it's charged. Apple is famous for the image that they would like their products to convey. They don't want people leaving the mouse plugged in because it's convenient or they're unable to act on a month-long warning. They want to force you to use the mouse as it was designed -- wireless.

I'm not saying it's good, I don't have one myself and I plainly don't like the ergonomics of it. I like the look and I think I would be able to work around the port-location constraint, but it just doesn't feel nice to hold.

Pretty to look at, though.

Buddy, if you can’t charge your mouse once after weeks of notifications, that’s a you problem.

Yup. Me and many other people. Which Apple can either ignore, or fix their design to address a bigger market - without making the product worse for others.

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

They can't correct for low IQ unfortunately

> It's a bad design that doesn't account for real behaviour.

Not sure it's bad design as much as a design decision. I like the shape of the current MM. It works for my hands and usage. It's also slim enough to make it both a great desktop mouse and travel mouse (I used to have both!). Could Apple keep the exact same design and add a port to one of the sides? Sure, but it remain almost unusable when plugged in and not change much.

So when people complain about the port on the bottom, what they are really complaining about is the overall design of the MM. The want the MM to be thicker and have a port on the front or back, but that's no longer the MM we have. For people who want that mouse, there are plenty out there to chose from.

> ... this is more of an excuse to make fun of the design than it is a real world show stopper.

It's still a shitty design born of hubris.

Wow, that's longer than it takes me to find a working Lightning cable most days.