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Comment by kappuchino | Hacker News Reader

Question: After reading some comments here, I still think I might be in a bubble? I think its all becoming better now that Ive is not responsible for then mac design any more.

All the mac hardware (mini, imac, macbooks) became smaller, less repairable and overdesigned to the extent of being impacted in usability after steve jobs died and Ive was running without counterweight:

The magic mouse you could not use while charging. The horrible keyboard that died from merely a few crumbs. having only two ports on a computer so you would always need a couple of dongles. Just to name a few.

Sometimes clever design has to be combined with boring choices, like still having a hdmi port and micro sd slot. A decent, resilient keyboard. Now I long for a macbook that has replaceable/repairable memory (ram, ssd) again as well as a battery that is not glued in place ...

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> The magic mouse you could not use while charging.

I totally think they done this on purpose to prevent anybody to use the mouse while charging it. In that way, there isn't anybody continuously using the mouse without removing the cable, making the product look like is wired instead of wired, and breaking that minimalism design they want to.

Apple is a company that not only design product to look good in a shop window or an ad, but also in how other people will use the product and what image will give to the rest when its in use.

> In that way, there isn't anybody continuously using the mouse without removing the cable, making the product look like is wired instead of wired, and breaking that minimalism design they want to.

Is this a common problem? I only use wired trackballs but I notice other major brands of rechargeable wireless mice don't seem to care whether you use them plugged in or not.

What I think would have been better would be to put the charging port on the back instead of the bottom so you can still use it if you absolutely need to while charging but it's just awkward and uncomfortable enough to discourage doing so on a regular basis.

I haven't really seen other rechargeable wireless mice. They're usually battery powered so there is no cable to begin with.

I think the Magic Mouse's greatest design flaw is that it's entirely un-ergonomic. I swear I get carpel tunnel just looking at it.

It charges like 45m of use-time in like 30 seconds so I really don't think the port on the bottom is a bad idea. I've never used one long enough to truly say tho.

> I totally think they done this on purpose to prevent anybody to use the mouse while charging it. In that way, there isn't anybody continuously using the mouse without removing the cable, making the product look like is wired instead of wired, and breaking that minimalism design they want to.

There's no way apple is that petty or instructive. The wireless keyboard can be charged while in use, so your theory kind of falls flat.

I'm certain that apple just doesn't care. There were probably some tricky engineering problems during the design of the mouse which pushed the product team towards having the charging port on the bottom or it was a purely aesthetic decision — a recess / inlet for the lightning charging port probably didn't look great, and the designers rejected it.

So, they went with the port on the bottom. I'd wager the way Apple sees it, having to wait two minutes to get 9 hours of battery life if your mouse dies unexpectedly isn't the end of the world, and the battery lasts ~2-3 months on a full charge, so what's the problem?

I sort of agree with the hypothetical take I presented above. Yah, it would be nice to be able to use it while charging for those rare situations where you forget to charge it, but it's not the end of the world. Even if you disagree, it's astonishing to me how much ink has been spilled roasting apple for the magic mouse 2.

> The magic mouse you could not use while charging.

This is the biggest nonissue in computing. It takes literally 2 minutes to charge it enough for 8 hours of use so even if you forget for a month and are actually in danger of it dying, just stick it on the charger the next time you need to go pee and that will get you through the rest of the day.

It's one of those issues that nobody who's actually owned the bloody thing ever worries about. A couple minutes charge, it's ready. Then if you need more juice, charge it up again overnight or a lunch break.

Same as the first generation Apple Pencil: it spends 30 seconds in the Lightning port, it's ready to go for long enough. The only people who think it's a problem are those who've never owned one and assume Apple wants people to leave it there all the time.

> The magic mouse you could not use while charging

Do you think this just slipped past everyone at Apple?

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