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Magic Mouse: Analysis on Why It Drains Battery So Fast


alvin777
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Hi. The Magic Mouse is great especially with scrolling and moving between pages quickly. The low profile at the front is also very ergonomic coz' your hand is as close to its natural position as possible using the comfortable palm grip style with the right button feature OFF and if you're versed with the keyboard shortcuts (right clicking using the Control key is faster)- see Razer for grip styles. But the Magic Mouse seems to drain battery too fast I think because the multi-touch and laser at the bottoms needs to be constantly ON a little so that it immediately knows if you're using it. The multi-touch sensor mostly I think is the one that drains the battery so quickly (I've only used my iMac for 16 days at about 8 to 12 hours a day. The iMac's sleep mode for everything is ON) because other wireless brands also have laser but no multi-touch sensors like the Magic's. The battery only has 7% and I had removed the batteries for fear of leaking if it discharged too deeply. OS X warns you to change it when it reaches 10%. I'm using my Wacom pen at the moment).

 

No problem with this iMac i7 and the Wireless keyboard though (this iMac was made in March 2010 according to the serial), it's battery efficient, only using 7% of the alkaline per 16 days and it's always ON. At this rate [ [[(90% / 7% ) x 16days = 205.7] / 30days] = 6.8mos. It's only 90 coz' OS X tells you to change batteries when it's at 10%] the keyboard could last 7 months under very heavy use. The keyboard's key sensors should be always ON as well but I guess it's not bad at draining battery compared to the multi-touch and laser sensors of the Magic Mouse. I guess Magic Mouse's battery drain is a hardware thing that's why I think there's no workaround through a firmware for it (but I hope there will be). Since it's the only multi-touch mouse of its caliber so far, if compared to other wireless mouse brands, it will look bad. But still it should last at least last 3 months (3 is a good number, a quarter of a year) or so if you're using it 8 hours a day heavily at least.

 

Possibly the only way it will last significantly longer is if it switches itself OFF completely and only when you press its physical button will it switch ON (just like how Windows 7 in Boot Camp detects the mouse as well as how Ubuntu Linux detects the Magic Mouse) and only then will the sensors switch on. If this is synced to the iMac's sleep mode or screensaver then clicking the mouse every so often to turn it ON won't be that much of a hassle. An additional "shut down and sync with the iMac i7's screensaver and/or sleep setting" feature for the mouse's system preferences could make the alkalines last longer (the bluetooth battery meters seems to be more accurate with alkaline they say). The Magic Mouse's preferences should also be smart enough if it needs to shut down half to 2/3s of the sensor's surface depending if you use your mouse palm grip style or in the middle with a claw grip or with a finger grip (if you use the control key to simulate a right button click), There should also be a mapping for the mouse's surface if you want to turn off parts of the muti-touch sensors (especially the area beyond half of the mouse where it is unclickable).

 

Unless the mouse is used constantly for hours like when you're Windows 7 gaming (all work for me now. OS X is the only one in the partition coz' Steam later this month might have the games anyway. Boot Camp drivers need another update anyway), then a firmware to make it significantly efficient with battery could be the only solution but a combination of firmware and the added shut down feature in the mouse's preferences would be best. Thank you for reading. Gbu.

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