[Caution: Los Angeles Times/Washington Post spoiler below.]
A clue-and-answer pair in today’s Los Angeles Times (or Washington Post ) crossword has me baffled: 49-A, thirteen letters, “Peripheral with a dongle.” The answer: WIRELESSMOUSE. A wireless mouse needs no dongle. Or am I missing something?
*
I was missing something. It may be that my Mac use led me to think that a wireless mouse needs no dongle.
[Post title with apologies to dangling participles.]
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
A dongling peripheral
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comments: 5
It's something of a naff clue, I agree, but strictly correct in part. Some wireless mouses (wireless mice?) do indeed need a dongle, but it's increasingly rare and certainly not the thing one might think of. On the other hand, the number of peripherals that might actually need a dongle (usually for security rather than communication, I suspect) is sufficiently large that you'd have to work out the answer from other letters inserted from other answers.
Thanks, Richard. I suppose the dongle would function as an antenna of sorts for the mouse to connect to (?). I automatically think of a dongle as a way to plug in a peripheral, so the idea of a wireless mouse with a dongle seemed like a contradiction in terms.
Yes, exactly - once upon a time I had such a device where you plugged a mini antenna gizmo into a USB port, and the mouse then talked to that. Nowadays most of them are either Bluetooth or else talk directly to the wireless card in the machine, but not all that long ago you couldn't make the assumption that either of those options were routinely available. In fact a quick look on Amazon reveals that there are a surprising number still on sale - apparently the main motive is that they have a very slightly faster response speed, which (I suspect) only really matters if you are gaming. Longer term they will probably die away on the assumption that the larger size original USB-A ports will gradually disappear in favour of smaller sizes.
I had a mouse with a dongle for years. Now I have the Bluetooth Magic Mouse. The other mouse still works, but the dongle has wandered off (and was an earlier version of USB).
It seems retrograde that a dongle is now needed for so many other Mac peripherals. I suppose the only solution is to buy new peripherals. :)
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