It’s 2022 and the Magic Mouse nonetheless fees from the underside

Apple launched a new Magic Mouse today, March eighth, 2022. It’s a slick-looking black model. It additionally nonetheless has its charging port on the underside — which means that six and a half years after its introduction, Apple nonetheless appears to assume that the easiest way to cost the mouse is by flipping it over (rendering it ineffective) and plugging in a Lightning cable.

Here’s just a little secret: I copied and pasted most of that final sentence from an article I wrote about this actual concern practically a yr in the past, when Apple launched an entire line of colourful Magic Mice and had the chance to alter how they cost, however didn’t. Apple has saved this charge-on-the-bottom design since October 2015.

My former Verge colleague Nick Statt ridiculed the mouse’s design the December after it was launched, mentioning that Apple asks the mouse customers to “flip the device on its back like a beetle with its legs in the air and plug in the cable.” I included a part of that quote in my article final yr, too, and am mentioning it as soon as once more right here as a result of I nonetheless assume it’s a superb metaphor for a way foolish all of it appears to be like.

Most rechargeable wi-fi mice allow you to plug them in, so you should use them whereas charging. But for some cause, Apple steadfastly refuses to place a charging port anyplace however underneath the Magic Mouse. The firm has proven a willingness to repair lots of its different odd design choices — the newer Apple Pencil doesn’t want to stay out of a Lightning port to cost, for instance, and the brand new Apple TV Siri Remote dumped the previous touchpad for a scroll wheel and a clickpad.

With the brand new Mac Studio, Apple even put a pair USB-C ports and an SDXC card slot on the entrance as an alternative of shoving all of them within the again, reflecting Apple’s current willingness to provide individuals ports they need in apparent locations (see additionally: the numerous ports on the brand new MacGuide Pros). But the underside charging port for the Magic Mouse lives on.

To be truthful, Apple claims on its web site that the Magic Mouse’s battery will “power your Magic Mouse for about a month or more between charges,” so that you received’t need to plug the mouse in each week. But in my previous experiences with wi-fi mice, I might use them till their batteries have been utterly drained, after which would scramble to discover a charging cable so I may use them wired for a short time as they charged. With the Magic Mouse, I wouldn’t be capable of try this; I’d need to shove it off to the aspect whereas it rested on its again to get some extra juice and hope that I’ve one other mouse or trackpad mendacity round that I may use within the interim.

If you continue to need the black Magic Mouse regardless of its irritating charging state of affairs, you may order one from Apple’s website right now — however you must know that like the brand new black trackpad, it’s $20 costlier than the white one.