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I Hacked the Magic Mouse

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Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#111

Post by ladberg »

tonymet wrote: post #108

The Magic Mouse charge port is deliberate. Apple knows that people would leave the cable connected if it were placed at the edge. that would undermine the wireless aesthetic.

Additionally, all the existing lightning cables would not make good mouse cords because of their length, flexibility, and lack of strain relief.

Apple chose not to allow people to keep a cable connected not just for the aesthetics but also to keep them from reusing existing cables (instead of an hypothetical lightning mouse cord) and getting a poor UX.

Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#112

Post by krater23 »

narrowtux wrote: post #66
zozbot234 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's only one microswitch Classic Apple mouse design. They never change, do they?

Think about having one plane (the entire glass) pressing 2 microswitches. Debouncing one switch is hard enough, now you've got to debounce 2, and detect if the user was doing a really fast double click, or just pressed in the center of the mouse.

Debouncing buttons is a solved problem at all. Thinking that Apple is so good that they put the charging port out of a reason to the bottom but aren't able to debouce two buttons is silly.

Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#113

Post by grishka »

karmakaze wrote: post #25

The photos show why every magic mouse I've had always wore funny with the 'right button' getting mushy. There's only one microswitch and the right one is just a leaf spring.

It only needs one switch because it detects which button you're clicking by where you're pressing down on the surface.

Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#114

Post by dreamcompiler »

mig39 wrote: post #110
tonymet wrote: post #108

The Magic Mouse charge port is deliberate. Apple knows that people would leave the cable connected if it were placed at the edge. that would undermine the wireless aesthetic.

And if people left it plugged in all the time, it messes with the battery life? The idea that Apple did this because they didn't know what they were doing is weird. Of course they knew what they were doing. You can charge it in a minute or two.

It wouldn't mess with the battery life if the charger were smart, but not all of them are. Including Apple's.

Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#115

Post by grishka »

softskunk wrote: post #2

i think i recall reading somewhere that apple designed the mouse in the way they did in order to prevent people just leaving the mouse on charge 24/7 and hence not using its wireless capability while negatively affecting the battery. i’m not saying i agree with apple’s decision, but i find the perspective interesting.

The first-gen magic trackpad is even worse. It sits so close to a USB port, it's on the same spot on my desk 99.999% of the time, it has no valid reason to be wireless, yet it needs 2 AA batteries just because. Charging and swapping them is cumbersome and it always dies when you least expect it. Bluetooth is finicky too at times. I was looking forward to a USB-C magic mouse to replace it yet it didn't come.

Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#116

Post by Karrot_Kream »

Epa095 wrote: post #53
ryandrake wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tried the vertical mouse, but no help. My wrist seems to be permanently fucked. I use a trackpad 100% now, no problems.

My 2 cents: I had rsi, then I started bouldering. At first I got more pain. The original rsi, but also the 'forearm pump'. But then after maybe half a year the pain dissappeared. Not just the new pain, but the old pain as well.

Me too posts are frowned upon on HN, but vote counts are hidden so I'll say for others: me too. I developed RSI as a teen from spending too much time at a desk with bad posture and have dealt with flare-ups into my adulthood. They were miserable and some days I had to take off work. Once I started bouldering, it went away within months. It's probably the forced blood flow in the area, but whatever it was helped tremendously. I can still hurt my wrist if I type in a terrible position, but it only hurts a bit and doesn't turn into the sustained RSI I had.

Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#117

Post by rtaylorgarlock »

jxdxbx wrote: post #88
ryandrake wrote: post #36

Good for this guy, wow. Nice project. I always thought that the Magic Mouse was really the ideal technology for interacting with a Mac--just too bad that it's so unergonomic. I can't prove it, but I blame a decade of Magic Mouse use for my very painful RSI, which I now have the pleasure of experiencing using any mouse at all. Apple's input devices are beautiful, but they totally blow comfort. It's as if their industr…

I find mice that are too “ergonomic” to be difficult to use.

The opposite for me, except that I'm in the 'larger than normal hands' camp. Ergo-optimized devices for the masses don't fit my hands, but they're close enough that I've adapted. Parametric 3d-printable ergonomic desk stuffs on my to-do list for a few years now.

Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#118

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

Tagbert wrote: post #19
shepherdjerred wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be hard to fit AA and even AAA in the profile of the Magic Mouse. The obvious response is that the mouse should be thicker to accommodate those batteries, but that goes against Apple's entire ethos.

The reason for the thinness of the Apple Mouse is so that gestures can be used on the top like a trackpad. If it were domes like a typical Logitech mouse, you couldn’t do that. Whether those gestures turned out to be useful is another question but that was the reason.

I imagine they also wanted to make 1 mouse ambidextrous. Maybe they should just tilt it and ask the user to choose handedness. I use a track ball and split keyboard and it has never been an issue no one can use my setup except me.

The constant need to have lithium ion is really terrible. Battery life is less of an issue when I can swap batteries quickly with common sizes.

Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#119

Post by GuB-42 »

firexcy wrote: post #50

My contrarian view is that the Magic Mouse _can_ be ergonomic as long as you use to be keyboard-centric and treat the Magic Mouse primarily as an extra-large scroll wheel. Then you'll find the scrolling experience with the Magic Mouse is even better than one with a traditional mouse or a trackpad because you can speed-scroll with any finger, at any angle, and with minimal frictions. I especially enjoy scrolling with…

Which is a bit ironic given how Apple is known for its mouse-centric UIs, complimented by excellent trackpads, and poor keyboards.

Re: I Hacked the Magic Mouse

#120

Post by tzs »

KerrAvon wrote: post #106
tzs wrote: post #104

In practice most people don't care about the charging port being on the bottom because even if you forget to charge it for several weeks and it actually stops working it only takes two minutes to charge it up enough for 8 hours of work. As far as ergonomics goes, I've never had any more problems with a Magic Mouse than with any other mouse including ergonomic mice. People make fun of "you're holding it wrong", but re…

A lot of us care about the charging port being on the bottom. It’s ludicrous. I can leave any top of the line Logitech mouse plugged in all the time and never have to even think about charging.

I'd bet that people who leave a wireless mouse plugged in all the time are a very tiny minority of mouse users. Most people want to use their wireless mouse wirelessly.

For that vast majority the only consequence of the Magic Mouse port being on the bottom is that if they forget to charge their mouse for weeks and it dies in the middle of the day with the Magic Mouse they have to stop using the mouse for two minutes to get through the rest of the day whereas with the other mouse they would not lose those two minutes of mouse time.

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