132 points

Mac Mini’s are cool, and I appreciate that Apple has some of the most experienced and talented designers in the world… But they put the power switch on the bottom. You have to lift it up and turn it over to turn it on and off.

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97 points
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Remember these are the same engineers who put the Magic Mouse charging port on the bottom, making the mouse unusable while you charge it

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22 points

Honestly, the mouse charger screams marketing or management. Apple’s brand is partially form over function.

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6 points

It was very likely a designers decision. It forces the use the use case they wanted; wireless mice should be used wirelessly. I would bet they fought marketing and management to get this on the final product.

Marketing would want the mouse they can advertise as being useable with and wireless. Female ports are easier to mount and manufacture with they have depth to set the socket. So a plug on the front is much cheaper and easier to manufacture.

The fact the charging cable doesn’t get used in motion means it will last longer and you wouldn’t have people useing fraying cables on the front of their mouse.

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1 point

PARTIALLY!? The Vision shipped without a lens cover. It did ship with a cover for the outside face.

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1 point

What marketing genius uses a mouse upside down.

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19 points

People treat it like a mistake but not be able to use the mouse while it’s plugged in is the entire point of the design. Right or wrong the Apple designers thought a cord drag was a bad experience and designed to prevent it.

They probably looked at their target audience and realized there was a certain percentage of folks that would just leave the mouse on the cord 24/7 and wanted to prevent that.

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22 points

They also know their target audience has plenty of people who gobble up every bad design decision and even defend it online years later.

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9 points

People treat it like a mistake, but the Emperor has no clothes and people are catching on.

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4 points
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I don’t understand what was wrong with the original version that just took 2 AA batteries. Reaching for the AA charger and swapping cells not awkward enough or something?

Smart and elegant design would be hiding a battery charger in the iMac it self (maybe even use something smaller than AA), not expect you to flip and plug in your mouse every time ya leave it. The Nintendo Switch, while a completely different form factor, is a great example of an elegant (you could even say “wireless”) charging solution.

I’m getting really sick of the Apple esthetic of sticking out wires, be it the mouse or the dozen dongles for every portable device they now make. Uh! Can’t forget the world’s only pen that needs charging, for seemingly no reason.

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-8 points

I don’t understand why this is so hard to understand. You’re supposed to stop using the mouse while it is charging, and use the mouse unplugged. That’s the purpose. It’s not a stupid decision, it just prevents some user’s preferred operation of using the mouse while it is charging

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5 points
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Yeah and I hear they might bring that back lol. Why haven’t there been any wireless mice that use wireless charging? They could include a super thin coil that you could place under any mouse pad. It doesn’t even need to charge fast so heat shouldn’t be an issue. Just trickle charge when it’s not being used.

Edit: guess I should have searched first. Of course it was Logitech

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0 points

Even worse, that was done intentionally. They wanted to prevent retail stores from leaving them plugged in at all times.

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1 point
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Deleted by creator
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33 points

What.

The fuck.

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18 points

In case it wasn’t a joke, I imagine it would be high enough for your finger to just poke under it to push the button, like you would a monitor with buttons on the bottom of the screen.

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8 points

Doesn’t look like it is.

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3 points

You’re using it wrong: Just place the whole computer upside down on your desk.

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2 points

A reporter at the Verge just had a hands on with it and confirmed that you do, unfortunately, have to lift it up.

there’s no way to reach the power button, which is on the underside of the computer, without lifting it up.

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1 point

Apple reported to say that you don’t need to use the power button because Mac Mini is not required to shut off.

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13 points
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The new design seems more lifted, I think it should be fine to fit your finger below there without having to lift it up yourself. At least for most people.

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11 points

Power Bottom

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9 points

The previous model has it in the back, you can’t even feel it properly because it’s not recessed.

On the other hand the last time I turned off my M1 mini was when we moved. It’s 100% silent and takes less power than a lightbulb when it sleeps, so why would I bother powering it off.

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6 points

So while it sleeps, it still wastes electricity on literally nothing. Gotcha

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2 points

So does anyone’s desktop PC that they’re too lazy to power off and I can guarantee those will waste even more.

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5 points

Why would you run a lightbulb 24/7?

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2 points

A prior model Mac Mini uses 7W at idle.

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1 point

so you don’t have to turn it on when you enter a room

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9 points

But once its on why would you ever turn it off? /s

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8 points

This but non-sarcastically. I have a Mac mini and I don’t think I’ve ever touched the power button (except after plugging in of course, but then you’re already fiddling)

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8 points

I bought my iMac in March 2020… since then it’s been powered down maybe half a dozen times (a couple of those were power cuts) and rebooted (outside of macOS updates) maybe ten times.

It just sits there reliably doing its thing and sucks little juice in power saving so 🤷🏻‍♂️

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6 points

We used to have racks of these things for automated testing …. And eventually they stop responding, so someone needs to power cycle them. In the computer room. In a rack

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5 points

I seriously don’t understand why Apple won’t make server macs, with proper server features like IPMI, rack mounting support, virtualization. As a software developer, macs are horrible to work with.

Beyond the nightmare that is code signing and certificates (required even for debug builds), the physical devices are special snowflakes. Getting them to play nicely in a CI/CD system is really difficult. They often freeze or misbehave requiring physical access to fix. Also, if you want to target older OS X or iOS versions, you need to use an older version of XCode (that Apple makes really difficult to find) and an older version of MacOS.

There are many other use cases beyond software development, such as render farms, network storage, backup etc.

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3 points

Assuming the desktop takes the same power saving techniques from their laptops, there is no real reason to turn it off.

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8 points

But WHY??

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7 points

The side with the power button is now the top. There is no ports or io on the bottom.

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2 points

You’re holding it wrong!

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5 points

You’ll be able to fit a finger under it I bet.

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5 points

Is it meant to stay on forever once you set it up?

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4 points

who let the magic mouse engineers loose

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3 points

I’d just get two toothpicks and make a seesaw to press it, although I pretty much never turn off my computers so I still wouldn’t mind too much

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16 points

Don’t worry, there will be suitable USB accessories, for just 99$.

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5 points

That’s trippy. Try following the cable from end to end.

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2 points

I assume that the plinth lifts it high enough for your finger to comfortably fit under.

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1 point

The next 900$ monitor stand will attach the monitor at the bottom with the screen facing the desk.

You need to buy the ar/vr set to see what the screen is displaying.

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1 point

So how do you figure the designers are that good?

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1 point

It looks to me like the center part is thicker than the edge so the corner might not be flat against the desk. But I’m completely sure if it’s enough.

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0 points

At the very least, the keyboard functions for power.

There is plenty of room on the front for a power button. Should have removed the headphone jack.

Lol, lmao.

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0 points

Why didn’t they put the headphone port on the back…

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3 points

Or on the keyboard?

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50 points

Most, if not all, Apple devices look almost exactly the same as their sibling devices.

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46 points
*

Well, it would be

  • more confusing if they shaped it like an iPhone,
  • more unstable if they shaped it like the magic mouse with the power port at the bottom,
  • super cute if they kept the exact mac pro tower design but super smol,
  • actually useful as a vase of they used that cylinder mac pro design from 10 years ago
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26 points

That cilinder Mac Pro was a fever dream but I still love the design

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20 points

Smol Mac Pro would have been the best possible reality here.

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5 points

Imagine a lil tiny ornamental CD drive that just pops out!

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8 points

more unstable if they shaped it like the magic mouse with the power port at the bottom

Sounds like someone didn’t wear their Brave pants today

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6 points
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  • way sexier if they shaped it so it could wear tight little brave pants
    (and the ‘turn on’ button would have been covered by pants in this case as well, which sounds proper)
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42 points

Implying Mac Minis haven’t looked like Apple TVs from the beginning?

Mac Mini (2005-2009):

Apple TV (1st gen, 2007):

Mac Mini (2010, first redesign after Apple TV came out):

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5 points

Exactly my same thought, it’s just a smaller Mac Mini.

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37 points

The price of the storage upgrades. Jesus.

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5 points

It’s because they launched this product with an actual reasonable amount of ram (16gb) compared to the 8gb they are still selling MacBooks with. So, if they can’t charge you $300 for a little bit of ram now, they instead are going to rape you on storage. Apple is still apple.

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-14 points
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Deleted by creator
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28 points

Because we shouldn’t have to pay such prices to upgrade to a normal storage amount without dongles and external storage.

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21 points

Why care when we talk about desktops?

Because it’s $600 and velcroing an external HDD to a nice new sleek piece of hardware makes it look ugly. Typical Apple bullshit, I’m surprised they didn’t develop another proprietary connector.

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2 points

I think you’re confusing desktops with laptops.

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