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Comment by pushrax | Hacker News Reader

Apple’s own wireless trackpad and wireless keyboards work while being plugged in.

I think the sleek visual and ergonomic design specifically resulted in the charge port being put on the bottom, which resulted in their decision to disable the mouse when it’s charging. Not the other way around.

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Many people I know leave their trackpad and wireless keyboards plugged into the Lightning/USB ports all the time. This is basically fine for a keyboard or trackpad, since very little of the functionality of those devices benefits from mobility.

By contrast, a wireless mouse is fundamentally a different animal than a wired one. If (say) 90% of your users are going to leave it plugged in 100% of the time (to offset against the ~3 hours per year when they'll actually need to charge it), then a huge percentage of your users will experience an inferior product. It's like buying a mobile phone and then encouraging users to leave it plugged in by their bedside all day.

I’m not sure I understand this argument. Why can’t users simply use the mouse wirelessly even if it’s possible to use in a wired way. Are you claiming that people would end up leaving the mouse plugged in, like they do with the trackpad? If the point is that using a wireless mouse is a better experience, then why wouldn’t people use it wirelessly except to charge?

I have an Apple keyboard and trackpad that I use at my TV wirelessly but have benefited from the ability to use while charging a few times when the battery died. Doesn’t stop me from using it wirelessly 99% of the time because the experience is better.

By the way, I have an older phone I leave plugged in all the time by my bed, the battery life on it has deteriorated but it works perfectly for music.

> why wouldn’t people use it wirelessly except to charge?

For some users, the point of a wireless mouse is to be a portable mouse. You can take it on the go with your laptop without worrying about cables. When they are at home, they don't care about cable drag, and they want the peace of mind that the mouse will always have full battery when they need to go. They leave the mouse always plugged in when they can, so they can use the mouse unplugged when they need to.

I think most modern mouses have long enough battery life now, that more people can have the peace of mind without constantly docking their mouse. If the battery lasts weeks, it feels pretty secure.

By the same token, you could make it impossible to use your phone while it's charging, but that's rightly understood to be a terrible idea that's not even considered. Rechargeable game controllers pretty much all allow you to plug them in if you want while you use them, and in some cases to just drop the battery entirely and use them as wired. I recognize that neither of these are perfect analogs, mostly because both of these need to be charged much more often.

I can't really decide if the Magic Mouse thing was primarily an aesthetic decision to have no visible ports, or a decision that the user couldn't be trusted to use it "correctly" if it allowed itself to be plugged in normally, or an equal mixture of both. Either reinforces some typical Apple stereotypes which is why it keeps getting brought up even though it needs to be charged relatively rarely.

No one would assume that a mobile phone requires to be plugged in to work. With mice it is not as clear cut. And looking at my magic mouse, I wouldn't know where they would put a charge port without making its wireless use worse. So I prefer it as it is. Would be nice though, if wireless charging would be possible.

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