Many people I know leave their trackpad and wireless keyboards plugged into the Lightning/USB ports all the time. This is basically fine for a keyboard or trackpad, since very little of the functionality of those devices benefits from mobility.
By contrast, a wireless mouse is fundamentally a different animal than a wired one. If (say) 90% of your users are going to leave it plugged in 100% of the time (to offset against the ~3 hours per year when they'll actually need to charge it), then a huge percentage of your users will experience an inferior product. It's like buying a mobile phone and then encouraging users to leave it plugged in by their bedside all day.
Which is insane.. do people really use the wireless capability of their keyboard or mouse? Especially when you can't use your freaking mouse when it's charging? Serious insanity.
Edit to add: of course I know people use those keyboards... I meant are people actually moving with them in ways that makes the wireless capability useful? Do most users not stay in a pretty close proximity the whole time?
How often do you put a wireless mouse or keyboard somewhere you wouldn't also put a wired mouse or keyboard? It seems to me the ergonomics are likely to be the same for most cases.
Fair enough if you think wireless is advantageous in this case but I personally don't. Or if it is, it doesn't outweigh the disadvantage of having a mouse that can run out of juice.
I still use a wired mouse and a wired keyboard for my laptop (since I prefer the size and of a standard keyboard to the little rubber chiclets HP calls a keyboard.) It has literally all the advantages of a wireless setup, without ever having to worry about batteries.
This trend in laptop design towards providing fewer ports for what seems to be little more than aesthetics seems a bit backwards.
I never really understood the benefits of a wireless keyboard. Do people usually carry their keyboard from their desk with them when they take their laptop somewhere else?
I guess I could maybe -- maybe -- see the convenience if you have some sort of small-form-factor keyboard that you stash in your bag. But still, the wire doesn't seem like much of a burden, and personally I'd find the annoyance of needing to ensure the batteries are charged/fresh to be... more annoying.
I can kinda see how a wireless mouse would be nice; the wire can get in the way of mousing around sometimes. But I'd still rather a wired one than wireless.
Wired keyboards are generally fine. But I generally prefer wireless mice because the wire sometimes gets in the way as I move it around.
As for the battery level, I just plug my mouse in when the LED is red. And plug it out when I have enough charge and the wire becomes annoying. I can use it while charging, like a regular wired mouse, so no big deal.
Likewise, I have no problem with it (for mouse, trackpad and keyboard, all in all-day use).
I'd still prefer wired for anything stationary (keyboard & trackpad in my case), just to eliminate the entirely superfluous batteries. In a world where that option isn't available, however, bluetooth works perfectly well for me.
I've never had a problem in my entire life with wired keyboards, mice, or headphones. I've had probably aggregate thousands of separate instances of problems with wireless devices across the last 20 years.
Wireless is awesome for when you're on the go, but if you're going to be sitting at a desk for hours anyway, wired is life.
A mouse is constantly moving relative to the computer its being used with.
I also prefer wireless mice on a lot of things because my main work machine is a laptop. Its way more convenient to just have it connected pretty much all the time. Its bluetooth as well, so I don't even have a dongle or nub constantly plugged into the laptop its just always there.
I'd really like to get a wireless mouse for my gaming desktop, but all the wireless gaming mice are pretty pricey, have relatively short battery lives, and sometimes have other oddities. Having a lower polling interval and normal DPI is fine for basic work stuff, but when I'm playing a twitch shooter like Counterstrike its just not going to cut it.
I have a wireless keyboard because it helps reduce desk clutter, and it pairs to multiple computers. Press F1, its on my personal machine. Press F2, its on my work machine. Press F3, its on my phone. This could kind of be done with a KVM switch, but why buy additional equipment when the keyboard can do it natively?
In the end the battery lasts months on a single charge, even with the backlight on. It charges with the same cable I have already on my desk for charging any USB-C device. Charging it for a few hours every few months isn't really a hassle at all. Meanwhile its normally cord free and can easily swap between devices very quickly.
People who enjoy latency free and battery free mice. If its at a desktop there is really no reason to not use a wired mouse. And a wired keyboard is basically essential since bluetooth doesn't work before the OS has booted.
I'm on both sides of this fence. I'm currently typing from a wired keyboard connected to my daily driver laptop. In my living room I have a full media PC where a wireless mouse and keyboard make more sense sitting on the couch.
The big reason? I have a love/hate relationship with wires. Wires are simple and work beautifully, but as the number goes up their management becomes necessary. Wireless can free me from this nest, but then it dumps me into managing pairing issues and sometimes sub-par electronics/software to translate between the two devices. In both cases I have to manage something I really don't care much about and would rather forget.
Regarding the article, I also have a suspicious attitude towards storing batteries. I keep all kinds of old electronics around because they come in handy every blue moon. It's much harder to keep batteries stored and useful long term, and many devices don't let you remove or replace the battery. I don't like fire risks in my cabinets.
For now I prefer wires because cable management is (usually) a one-time affair, where it seems wireless requires constant babysitting.
> Same for Bluetooth — I don't get the attraction — when are you taking your giant keyboard away from your desk? If you never needed to plug it in, that would be slightly better, but it still needs to be charged. Even if it's only a few ms of extra latency, what's the upside?
For many people the aesthetic advantage of not having cords on your desk is more than enough.
On keyboard it's easy enough to just put a USB-C port on the keyboard and let users either use an A-C or C-C cable.
For mice, having a hardwired cable probably still makes sense in terms of bulk and strain relief, but I suspect that wireless mice are also far more common.
For a keyboard, wireless buys me nothing but introduces a number of new potential issues.
For a mouse, wireless buys you some convenience and freedom of movement. However (and this is slightly niche so it really doesn’t apply in general) I use a trackball, so the wireless advantages are 100% negated.
This still sounds pointlessly inconvenient compared to a wired mouse, not to mention reliability and latency issues that come part and parcel with wireless peripherals.
I tried a wireless keyboard once and every 10 minutes it would hang and repeat the last key I pressed for 10 seconds. How much better is the situation today?
Using a wireless mouse is a much more pleasant experience than a wired one, which is always giving a little resistance in one direction due to the wire.
As for keyboards, a lot of people move their keyboard. For example, I move mine from my standing desk when standing, to a keyboard tray when sitting, since no one can seem to manufacture a standing desk converter with proper ergonomics when sitting. The keyboard always ends up at desk level, instead of just below. Unfortunately, they don't make a wireless version of my favorite keyboard, and the wire is always getting in the way when converting.
By contrast, a wireless mouse is fundamentally a different animal than a wired one. If (say) 90% of your users are going to leave it plugged in 100% of the time (to offset against the ~3 hours per year when they'll actually need to charge it), then a huge percentage of your users will experience an inferior product. It's like buying a mobile phone and then encouraging users to leave it plugged in by their bedside all day.
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