Magic Mouse battery only lasts 30 days?

Probably because the point is to reduce wires and clutter on your desktop, not increase it.

I had a third party wireless mouse and it was a pain when the batteries went on them. To me a wireles mouse just means freedom of moving the mouse without a wire toughing along. To have a dock to set the mouse at the end of the day and not worry about he batteries going when I'm working on something imortant would not be clutter to me.

I'm just pointing out that this is Apple we are talking about. Having a wired dock connected to a USB port was probably not acceptable for a "wireless" mouse.

Apple has always provided third parties ample opportunities to design and sell alternative input devices, going all the way back to first Macs with ADB ports. This tradition continues...

Solution: rechargeable batteries. Mine last a little longer, but right around that.

Rechargeable Nicad batteries a noticeably heavier than regular disposable batteries, so it may affect the feel of the mouse.

Kenichi Watanabe wrote:
And unfortunately, NiCad re-chargeables will not last very long on a charge, and they are heavy compared to disposable batteries; your Magic Mouse may not feel quite right with a pair of NiCads inside.

All of which is why I prefer a simple mouse with a wire.

The best type of rechargeable batteries to use for these wireless peripherals are NOT NiCad but rather NiMH (Nickel Metal-Hydride). They last much longer than NiCad.

mwrogers wrote:
Second, the cost of batteries would cut into your bottom line.

That's why you go for rechargeable batteries such as the NiMH and not regular batteries.

Johnhoiii wrote:
I had a third party wireless mouse and it was a pain when the batteries went on them. To me a wireles mouse just means freedom of moving the mouse without a wire toughing along. To have a dock to set the mouse at the end of the day and not worry about he batteries going when I'm working on something imortant would not be clutter to me.

Unfortunately, for others it does mean clutter because some of us use laptops and don't want to have a dock to bring along in order to just recharge the built-in battery. I rather have this current set up where you can use rechargeable batteries or regular batteries.

Frankly, in this day and age, there is almost no reason to use regular cell batteries and instead to use rechargeable cell batteries. There are a few applications where rechargeable ones are not as desirable but in most cases that is not true.

Exactly. Use NiMH rechargeable batteries. Preferable over to NiCad in these cases.

From Jerry123456 in the companion thread on Keyboard battery life for those using the Magic Mouse:

"I had the same problem. I have both the 3aabattery keyboard and the new 09 2aa battery keyboard. The 2aa keyboard keeps the battery strength up when not using it but turned off. The 3aa keyboard would lose battery power. So I checked out and found out that the magic mouse somehow changed the meter reading on the strength of the battery level but when tested with a volt meter it showed the batteries had not ran down at all. Apple knows about this problem and is working on a fix(update)."

I am wondering if anyone else has actually checked the batteries before replacing them as it appears the level indicator could be wrong. Or at least ignore the warning sign and keep using them and see if they continue to function much longer.

Well, I still have the ones I replaced two weeks ago (keep 'em in a box in a drawer which I take to the Rat Shack when full for recycling). They are the only Energizers in the drawer and they just measured 1.130v and 1.114v. Seem pretty well drained to me.

My mouse is down to 86% after 10 days, so it looks like about 2 months per set. Although I will start using rechargeables after these die. (I just checked, they are NiMH).

The keyboard still says 100%

Note that since the rechargeables have a different initial voltage and discharge curve they won't indicate the correct percentage in the battery meter.

I can officially report that the Magic Mouse that came with my new i7 iMac and Apple's supplied batteries, lasted exactly 25 days. This time frame takes into account suggestions that the low battery indicator may be incorrect and the batteries may still have power, as I used the mouse until it completely died. Furthermore, It was my observation that the meter was extremely accurate as the mouse drained of power and disconnected in conjunction with the low readings. During this same time frame my keyboard currently reads 69%. My use of the computer has been moderate (roughly 4 hours per day).

Scott et al, thanks for the updates on the poor battery life for the Magic Mouse with moderate usage. I would think my usage will be similar to yours in terms of 3 or 4 hours per day. My Magic Mouse may arrive today attached to an i7 (finally arrived in Victoria as I'm writing this) so we all hope the Apple can provide some sort of software update or firmware update to resolve this problem. Looks like in the next week though, it will be wise to buy four of the best rechargeable AA batteries I can find for the mouse and the keyboard.

Rick Lang wrote:
we all hope the Apple can provide some sort of software update or firmware update to resolve this problem. Looks like in the next week though, it will be wise to buy four of the best rechargeable AA batteries I can find for the mouse and the keyboard.

I can't really say this is a problem as I have never had a wireless mouse that really did any better.