You don't have to flip this Magic Mouse hack over to charge
An engineer has hacked Apple's Magic Mouse to give it a USB-C charging port -- in a better place -- and also given it a more ergonomic case.
Ivan Kuleshov''s hacked Magic Mouse
Ivan Kuleshov has previously hacked Apple's Mac mini to be powered over Ethernet, and has now reworked the Magic Mouse. Basically unchanged since its 2009 debut, the Magic Mouse has been criticized chiefly for how it can't be used while being charged.
That charging was and still is done by a Lightning cable -- despite expectations of a change to USB-C -- and it's done with a connector on the underside of the mouse.
Kuleshov has addressed that, but also worked on the other occasional criticism that the Magic Mouse is ergonomically awkward. Together, these issues mean that the Magic Mouse has been described as one of the worst of Jony Ive's designs.
In Kuleshov's new design, Apple's Magic Mouse appears to simply sit in a wider, deeper base. In practice, there's a lot more engineering work involved to make that happen, and it included wiring the battery connectors "so the mouse doesn't turn off while charging."
How it works pic.twitter.com/77oh7eM9kN
-- Ivan Kuleshov (@Merocle)
As well as the demo of the revamped Magic Mouse in use, the complete thread on Twitter/X shows multiple different casing designs that Kuleshov tried. Plus he details the steps needed to make a USB-C connector that lets users continue working with the mouse while charging.
Kuleshov says he will release all of the specifications and details on GitHub shortly.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Whether you liked Jony’s approach or not, he always stuck to his guns and saw that his vision for a product met his design and aesthetic goals. Anything that deviated too far from what he envisioned was seen as a failure. One can argue that what comes across as a single-minded and arguably narrow focus on the primary functionality, like using the device and how it feels in the hand, led to functional compromises when it came to ancillary functionality, like charging the device. The Magic Mouse is imo pleasant and efficient to use, but yeah, there is no getting over the clunky recharging scenario. The rationale must have been something like “you obviously only recharge the device while you’re not using it.” This makes perfect sense only until it doesn’t.
His design philosophy of form over function is the reason I don't care for his designs in general. He was a good (not great) product designer when kept reined in, but a disaster when let loose.
The reality is that the port was put on the bottom of the mouse quite intentionally, because it's a wireless mouse, and Ive didn't want users to leave it plugged in, using it as if it were a wired mouse. The OG Magic Mouse had to be flipped over to swap out the batteries. It doesn't take much longer than that maneuver to get a day's charge on the rechargeable one.
It's not hard to imagine the next iteration won't have a port at all, and will simply charge via a watch charger and/or an iPhone MagSafe wireless charger. You won't be able to use it while it's charging that way, either. Whatever will people do?
IF, as you assert, "Ive didn't want users to leave it plugged in, using it as if it were a wired mouse" it would have been because that would ruin his perceived aesthetic beauty of the design. What we end up with is a design which looks horrible and is completely non-functional when charging.
Do you get this worked up about not being able to drive your car while you're filling up the fuel tank? I've got news if you're thinking about driving an EV...
It's still interesting that someone would put in the effort to demonstrate that a concept is possible, like the PoE Mac mini, or that something we generally assume to be undoable, like a way to charge the Magic Mouse while using it, can actually be done. But it this case, it only became doable because the designer eliminated one of the major constraints that drove the original design. By doing so he added another degree of freedom that opened up additional functional opportunities. It still comes down to the design following the vision and intentions of the designer, functionally and aesthetically. It has nothing to do with designer oneupmanship because the two designers aren't playing by the same set of rules and constraints.
The Magic Mouse's designer obviously did not intend to built a thick, slab sided mouse. He or she converged on a final design that left no obvious place to stick in a charging port without compromising the design aesthetics. Fortunately, there are many designers out there and each one of them has their own design vision and imperatives that define their unique design signature. Unique doesn't always mean functionally better or even aesthetically better to everyone. For example, people who have lived in Frank Lloyd Wright homes, or worked in one of his building designs, have often reflected on the functional challenges and compromises that are involved despite the recognized beauty and uniqueness of his designs, by many, but not all.
One thing I still wonder about is why more wireless mouse and trackball designers have not gone after using an inductive charging mechanism. Perhaps it has something to do with the need to periodically park the mouse exactly on top of a charging coil built into the desk, desk pad, or a mouse pad. Perhaps as far-field wireless power transfer technology becomes more mature and widely available it can be used in conjunction with precision UWB localization to allow all of the wireless devices sitting on your desk, or even all wirelessly charged devices in a room, to be charged simply because they are within line-of-sight proximity to the charging station or broadcast beacon. Seems doable in the not too distant future.