If there’s something weird about Apple’s design that we can’t get around to, it’s the Magic Mouse. The original magic mouse I used two AA batteries and in 2015 Apple released a rechargeable battery Magic Mouse 2† Since then we had to hold it upside down to charge it, rendering it unusable until it was full again.
Thanks to an intrepid YouTuber, we now know why. On the Unnecessary Inventions channel, Mate Benedetto wanted to revisit “Apple’s greatest design” by designing a way to charge a Magic Mouse and use it at the same time. The result was an L-shaped Lightning cable for a slimmer profile and 3D printing an arc with a few metal balls and cable so that the mouse “would stay slim on the floor and the laser beam would still work on the desktop” .
The final product isn’t pretty, but it’s functional and shows how Apple was able to design a Magic Mouse with a charging cable that worked without having to flip the thing on its back. But there’s a big problem: when Benedetto plugged it in during use, the mouse stopped working. Unlike the Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard, which both work while charging, the Magic Mouse does not work while charging.
Now we know why you should flip it: Apple never wants people to use it when they plug it in. If you can’t physically use the mouse while it’s charging, no one will wonder why it isn’t working, saving you a lot of unnecessary suffering. (some readers Don’t buy this theory I believe Apple disabled features because The charging port is on the bottom, which may very well be true.) But either way, Apple has gone to great lengths to make sure you don’t use a Magic Mouse that has a wire attached.
Sure, Apple could come up with a way to let people use a mouse while charging, but 13 years later, this ship may have left — apparently Apple doesn’t want us to use it while it’s plugged in. And as long as the Magic Mouse works this way, we’re probably stuck with the dumbest charging method ever created. But at least we have a good reason for that now.
Update March 26: Reader comments have been added.
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