Apple adopting USB-C won’t change anything

The most important detail of Apple’s recently announced iMac wasn’t the introduction of a more-powerful, even more AI-friendly M4 chip, or a glare-free nano-texture display, but instead, new ports — and not even on the iMac itself.

Before USB-C, the Lightning port was Apple’s plug of choice for charging any gadget or accessory smaller than a laptop. Over the last few years, however, the company’s made the choice (under some duress) to switch to USB-C ports on nearly all of its products. The iMac marks the introduction of a USB-C version of all of its desktop accessories, including the Magic Trackpad, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Mouse. The penultimate tweak that needed to be made before all of Apple’s products used USB-C.

Apple’s been criticized for just how long it’s taken to bring the new port to all of its products, but avoiding redesigning the Magic Mouse has felt particularly egregious because, since it’s introduction in 2015, the only way to charge it is by turning it upside down. That hasn’t been fixed on the updated model, and the reason why gives us some key insights into the increasingly caustic way Apple operates.

The Magic Mouse “problem”

The charging port placement doesn’t make much sense

Apple

It’s worth saying up front: There are bigger problems with the Magic Mouse that Apple introduced alongside updated iMacs in 2015 than how it charges. Charging just became the issue because of how ridiculous it is visually. The Magic Mouse is a sleek sandwich of glass and aluminum that you have to turn upside down to access its charging port. For the duration of the time you spend refueling this essential accessory, it’s designed to sit upside down, a cable blooming out of its center, completely unusable.

Everyone makes mistakes, but what some otherwise satisfied Mac owners have found infuriating about the mouse is that Apple has also refused to change it. When the company introduced new black versions of the Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard, the port stayed exactly where it is. When Apple radically reinvented the iMac with its own custom silicon chips in 2021, the Magic Mouse got more colorful, but not more convenient to charge. It’s not like any of the company’s other accessories charge this way — both the Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard feature charging ports at the top, where you’d naturally expect a cable. But not the Magic Mouse.

But you don’t have to charge your move often

One reason why, is that you really don’t have to charge these devices all that often. Apple’s technical specifications for the Magic Mouse claim that its battery can last for a month or more on a single charge. Users have found that it takes around two hours to fully charge the mouse, but only a few minutes to get enough battery life to last you through a day of work. Your mouse really won’t have to look goofy for long before you’re back to using it as intended.

As some have speculated, Apple’s designers likely weighed the drawbacks of charging the Magic Mouse the other way and chose form over function. How the Magic Mouse looks and works — sleek, and with a touch interface that takes the place of back buttons or a scroll wheel — won out over common sense and convenience. Which might then prompt the question: If you don’t care what anyone thinks, why even go as far as to add USB-C?

Apple has a superhuman commitment to being right

Most recent positive changes have been encouraged by regulation

The answer, of course, is that the company was forced to. The European Commission decided in 2022 that “by the end of 2024, all mobile phones, tablets and cameras sold in the EU will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C charging port.” Hence, Apple introduced USB-C ports to its smartphones with the iPhone 15 and all iPads (instead of just Pro models) gained USB-C as of the launch of the 10th-generation iPad in 2022. That mandate is also supposed to apply to all laptops sold in the EU from spring 2026 onward, a simpler switch for Apple since it started using the port to create thinner devices.

The goal, besides making everything more convenient, is to reduce e-waste and require fewer charging cables and adapters to be purchased in the first place. It’s not clear that these rules would have applied to accessories like a mouse or keyboard, but switching seems to make everything simpler for Apple. It also captures the dynamic Apple has with its customers and now regulators in a nutshell. The company is always right, until it legally, or financially, is forced to be otherwise.

Is Apple opinionated or oblivious?

I said that charging wasn’t the only problem with the Magic Mouse, and depending on your perspective, the other one is pretty major: The Magic Mouse is an ergonomic nightmare. The mouse looks great on a desk, and swiping to scroll makes sense conceptually, but no one was supposed to use a mouse this flat. The Magic Mouse seems almost purpose-built to hurt hands, forcing you to constantly change positions to physically move the mouse and comfortably use its touch surface. You’d think switching to USB-C could have prompted a reconsideration of how the mouse works, but alas.

You can find similar examples littered throughout Apple’s recent product history. Like the way the first-generation Apple Pencil charged by jutting out the side of an iPad’s Lightning port or how Apple stuck with an ultra-fragile keyboard design for five years just to create thinner laptops. The company arrives at an idea, sometimes novel, sometimes just a more premium version of what already exists, and commits to it, because it genuinely seems to believe it’s right.

In a recent Wall Street Journal Magazine profile, Apple CEO Tim Cook described the company’s approach to creating new products as “not first, but best.” And when that works, it really works, but when it doesn’t, it makes the company seem out of touch. Especially when the large size and sticky nature of Apple’s business means that there are more people who will stay for the company’s bad ideas, because switching is too annoying or difficult.

The ports may have changed, but Apple hasn’t

Sticking to your guns isn’t inherently a bad thing

Whatever the reason Apple switched to USB-C, the move is ultimately a good thing — it just also serves as a reminder of the company’s stubbornness. It’s hard to get a trillion-dollar company to do anything, but this port change is at least proof it’s possible, and Apple has released some pretty great laptops, tablets, and smartphones while slowly making it happen.

With accessories taken care of, Apple just has the iPhone SE left to switch to USB-C. If you want to learn more about the updated version of Apple’s cheapest phone you can read about all the rumors here on Pocket-lint. And if you’re in the market for a new computer, there are articles on the new iMac or Mac mini, too.