People treat it like a mistake but not be able to use the mouse while it’s plugged in is the entire point of the design. Right or wrong the Apple designers thought a cord drag was a bad experience and designed to prevent it.
They probably looked at their target audience and realized there was a certain percentage of folks that would just leave the mouse on the cord 24/7 and wanted to prevent that.
I don’t understand what was wrong with the original version that just took 2 AA batteries. Reaching for the AA charger and swapping cells not awkward enough or something?
Smart and elegant design would be hiding a battery charger in the iMac it self (maybe even use something smaller than AA), not expect you to flip and plug in your mouse every time ya leave it. The Nintendo Switch, while a completely different form factor, is a great example of an elegant (you could even say “wireless”) charging solution.
I’m getting really sick of the Apple esthetic of sticking out wires, be it the mouse or the dozen dongles for every portable device they now make. Uh! Can’t forget the world’s only pen that needs charging, for seemingly no reason.
They can fit a bigger rechargeable battery in the same space as a battery bay for replaceable batteries. Plus it eliminates the waste of throwing away batteries, and has longer battery life than similarly sized alkalines.
Honestly don’t feel like a slight reduction on a month long battery life is of much concern. As for waste, I’d say being able to replace a dead battery should reduce waste if anything, also nobody said it must be a AA (on a side note, you seem to imply the use of non-rechargeable AA, which holy shit, if they’re still a thing, must be purged, sweet jesus…who’s dumb enough to waste money on em???). Personally, I’d much prefer having a second battery charging separately somewhere, ready to swap, as opposed to being forced to stop using my computer. Or like the Nintendo Switch I mentioned before, have some spot I can put it away for charing, that way the mouse is also cleaned up and not fucking dangling and wobbling around freely on the table.
I don’t understand why this is so hard to understand. You’re supposed to stop using the mouse while it is charging, and use the mouse unplugged. That’s the purpose. It’s not a stupid decision, it just prevents some user’s preferred operation of using the mouse while it is charging
You’re supposed to stop using the mouse while it is charging, and use the mouse unplugged.
Why? Says who? There’s been a few times where I’ve booted my work laptop up in the morning and my mouse is dead and I’ve had to plug it in. Once it’s charged I unplug it. What’s the harm in that? I’d be way more furstrated if I had to open up my laptop (I keep it closed with an external monitor) and use the trackpad instead.
I’m 100% OK with that; Apple is heavy on design aesthetics. If a user doesn’t like that, they can just use their own preferred mouse - wired or otherwise.
I’m the reverse. As I get older, all the things I used to consider deal breakers just don’t matter as much. I don’t really care about how upgradable or repairable the device is, I’m just gonna pay Apple for the upgrade and pay them again to fix it. Whenever I have to solve an issue on my gaming PC I get an inch closer to just throwing it out and buying whatever overpriced gaming laptop comes working out of the box.
If I could game on my MacBook Pro I already would be. There’s a decent library of games that can run but it’s a lot more work than a windows or Linux box if you want to venture beyond 64-bit native ports.
People treat it like a mistake but not be able to use the mouse while it’s plugged in is the entire point of the design. Right or wrong the Apple designers thought a cord drag was a bad experience and designed to prevent it.
They probably looked at their target audience and realized there was a certain percentage of folks that would just leave the mouse on the cord 24/7 and wanted to prevent that.
I don’t understand what was wrong with the original version that just took 2 AA batteries. Reaching for the AA charger and swapping cells not awkward enough or something?
Smart and elegant design would be hiding a battery charger in the iMac it self (maybe even use something smaller than AA), not expect you to flip and plug in your mouse every time ya leave it. The Nintendo Switch, while a completely different form factor, is a great example of an elegant (you could even say “wireless”) charging solution.
I’m getting really sick of the Apple esthetic of sticking out wires, be it the mouse or the dozen dongles for every portable device they now make. Uh! Can’t forget the world’s only pen that needs charging, for seemingly no reason.
They can fit a bigger rechargeable battery in the same space as a battery bay for replaceable batteries. Plus it eliminates the waste of throwing away batteries, and has longer battery life than similarly sized alkalines.
Honestly don’t feel like a slight reduction on a month long battery life is of much concern. As for waste, I’d say being able to replace a dead battery should reduce waste if anything, also nobody said it must be a AA (on a side note, you seem to imply the use of non-rechargeable AA, which holy shit, if they’re still a thing, must be purged, sweet jesus…who’s dumb enough to waste money on em???). Personally, I’d much prefer having a second battery charging separately somewhere, ready to swap, as opposed to being forced to stop using my computer. Or like the Nintendo Switch I mentioned before, have some spot I can put it away for charing, that way the mouse is also cleaned up and not fucking dangling and wobbling around freely on the table.
They also know their target audience has plenty of people who gobble up every bad design decision and even defend it online years later.
People treat it like a mistake, but the Emperor has no clothes and people are catching on.
I don’t understand why this is so hard to understand. You’re supposed to stop using the mouse while it is charging, and use the mouse unplugged. That’s the purpose. It’s not a stupid decision, it just prevents some user’s preferred operation of using the mouse while it is charging
Why? Says who? There’s been a few times where I’ve booted my work laptop up in the morning and my mouse is dead and I’ve had to plug it in. Once it’s charged I unplug it. What’s the harm in that? I’d be way more furstrated if I had to open up my laptop (I keep it closed with an external monitor) and use the trackpad instead.
Says the designer or design team, backed by whoever is over them who approved the decision.
As for why? For design reasons. To make it prettier so it sells more units. To fit in with the brand’s minimalist theme they’ve got going on.
…
It’s not a stupid decision, but a stubborn one.
I’m 100% OK with that; Apple is heavy on design aesthetics. If a user doesn’t like that, they can just use their own preferred mouse - wired or otherwise.
Yes. Disagree with their decision, fine. But it was thought out and purposefully done.
I used to buy Macs when I was a teenager and young adult, but finally grew tired of the “my way or the highway” approach to design.
Windows is guilty of this too, but it’s more subtle, but getting worse all the time with w11.
Linux has more of a “you break it, you buy it” approach to design lol
I’m the reverse. As I get older, all the things I used to consider deal breakers just don’t matter as much. I don’t really care about how upgradable or repairable the device is, I’m just gonna pay Apple for the upgrade and pay them again to fix it. Whenever I have to solve an issue on my gaming PC I get an inch closer to just throwing it out and buying whatever overpriced gaming laptop comes working out of the box.
Not an Apple one, for sure.
If I could game on my MacBook Pro I already would be. There’s a decent library of games that can run but it’s a lot more work than a windows or Linux box if you want to venture beyond 64-bit native ports.