There is no reason to shut the it off. Unless the user wants to. Why the fuck should anybody care about how someone else uses it? Somebody doesn't want it drawing power that's their business their call. It doesn't concern anybody else.
It's a bad design regardless of how little or how much it may affect any individual user.
No, it's not in the front of the mini. It's in the back on the left side. And no most people won't be slipping their finger under the mini, they'll be tipping it. There will be workarounds simple, involved, innovative even. But they shouldn't be necessary.
So many people whined about the Magic Mouse charging port. A huge nothingburger. This isn't the same thing. It will bother some. Others will be bothered that someone is bothered. WTF. Objectively it's a bad design.That some people aren't bothered by that doesn't mitigate the dumbness of the move.
Apple hasn't had a keyboard that powers-on a Mac in decades, since what, the ADB days? Any keyboard can wake it from Sleep. I sleep my Macs for that instant gratification. My choice. If someone wants to power off their Mac that's their choice. Why should that bother me. Wait. It doesn't.
I have 2018 and 2012 minis and might replace at least one of them with an M4. Despite having large fingers I don’t see this as being a big deal at all. I’m sure the location of the power button is due to engineering constraints, and for people like me a suitably shaped spudger could be all that’s needed to access and press the power button. I might even leave the spudger in place, affixed to the power button with non-adhesive silicone tape and cleverly hidden from view. Or something like that. It may not be the most elegant of placements or solutions, but one of the reasons I get on well in life is that I don’t let insignificant issues become giant obstacles (aka, make mountains out of molehills).
I wonder if Apple put this here to assist those server farms that had to create some wacky setups just to handle the power on with current systems. I'd think you could create a more compact setup for server farms now with the 2024 Mac Mini. Space saved is money saved. Anyhow unlikely to be a deal break for 99.99% of people.
I dunno but now that the mini has shrunk almost to the size of an AppleTV, we might have a nice mount for the rear of a monitor to slip the computer in this making the power button ideally positioned. I could see this working out nicely.
I'm going to 3D print a riser for mine, but for now, I've started building a power button extension. Once it arrives, I'll finalize the design and share it on Tinkercad. For such innovative builders, they sometimes make odd design choices. The position of the button seems like an afterthought. If they intended for it to stay on, they should just say so. At least they are consistent with the plug port location on the Magic Mouse. Another solution I’m considering is to place it upside down.
Plenty of use cases (mobile cart for example) where the computer needs to be powered on/off routinely. Not the most common application, but to exclude large chunk of users because they want to focus on one use-case is not good design.
No one is being ‘excluded’ at all. If you must shut your computer down, mouse click on the Apple menu > Shut Down. To start up, press the button.
For over 15 years we have wall/under desk mounted Mac minis @ our office.
I was excited about the new version until i saw this ridiculousness. Out of 25+ Macs, at least one a day will need to be force shutdown/restarted (usually due to the Finder crashing/freezing0
It’s almost like they don’t want people pushing that button. And don’t want accidental pushes when trying to use the ports. And the machine is tiny and weighs practically nothing, so if you do have to push it tilting it slightly is hardly a problem, if even necessary.
Seems like making a mountain out of a molehill.
your use case is obviously not an office of dozens of mounted Mac minis.
One home user's molehill is a small business mountain.
Since nobody here has yet laid eyes, much less hands, on the new Mac mini, none of these complaints have any validity.
so are you saying we should give Apple's images no credence?!? the complaints have plenty of validity being that Apple has published plenty of photographs and specs
valid adjective (of an argument or point) having a sound basis in logic or fact; reasonable or cogent: a valid criticism.
They also put the exhaust ports on the bottom - is it possible that the bottom is actually the top? Functionally, leaving it black-side up makes more sense, right?
They also put the exhaust ports on the bottom - is it possible that the bottom is actually the top? Functionally, leaving it black-side up makes more sense, right?
i was thinking the opposite - that there may be some ?fluid dynamic? reason that airflow may be impacted if it is not on a hard surface? this i am just guessing at - but i remember the Apple laptops that couldn't be used on a lap because they would overheat.
about 1/3 of the way down, "Built to Chill", there is a good animation of the air flow - Apple says all the air "flows through the foot" so the power button and vents are definitely meant to be on the bottom.
They also put the exhaust ports on the bottom - is it possible that the bottom is actually the top? Functionally, leaving it black-side up makes more sense, right?
i was thinking the opposite - that there may be some ?fluid dynamic? reason that airflow may be impacted if it is not on a hard surface? this i am just guessing at - but i remember the Apple laptops that couldn't be used on a lap because they would overheat.
about 1/3 of the way down, "Built to Chill", there is a good animation of the air flow - Apple says all the air "flows through the foot" so the power button and vents are definitely meant to be on the bottom.
"Flows through the foot" just explains ventilation. It doesn't state, imply or demonstrate that's where it needs to be.
"Meant to be" ≠ "needs to be". Apple put the ventilation on the bottom for aesthetics. The intake and exhaust are on the same level. If the exhaust were higher than the intake there might be some advantage of hot air rising and aiding in air flow. It's not. Airflow is managed by fans. So there's probably no functional disadvantage to inverting it as far as cooling is concerned.
This also means this has nothing to do with the power button being on the bottom. Apple could have put it just about anywhere they wanted to. Their choice was most likely a balance of their aesthetic and the least difficult (read: expensive) place to put it. So it didn't need to be placed on the bottom or on the bottom in the back. It's what Apple chose to do. You could probably place it on a coaster to give enough space to press the button. Because the mini is lightweight it'll probably need to "squeezed" between the thumb and index (or whatever) finger to activate the button.
Putting it in the top of the case would have probably required a lot of clever circuitry and material placement depending on how the mini is assembled. iFixit will have a teardown and more will be known with much guessing eliminated.
On an unrelated note, I'd like to see a return to an illuminated Apple logo on all MacBooks. It's obviously something Apple could do if they wanted to. But like the location of the M4 mini's power button, it's probably an expensive manufacturing endeavor that while very cool looking, wouldn't make sense from a production cost standpoint.
Comments
It's a bad design regardless of how little or how much it may affect any individual user.
No, it's not in the front of the mini. It's in the back on the left side. And no most people won't be slipping their finger under the mini, they'll be tipping it. There will be workarounds simple, involved, innovative even. But they shouldn't be necessary.
So many people whined about the Magic Mouse charging port. A huge nothingburger. This isn't the same thing. It will bother some. Others will be bothered that someone is bothered. WTF. Objectively it's a bad design.That some people aren't bothered by that doesn't mitigate the dumbness of the move.
Apple hasn't had a keyboard that powers-on a Mac in decades, since what, the ADB days? Any keyboard can wake it from Sleep. I sleep my Macs for that instant gratification. My choice. If someone wants to power off their Mac that's their choice. Why should that bother me. Wait. It doesn't.
I'd think you could create a more compact setup for server farms now with the 2024 Mac Mini. Space saved is money saved.
Anyhow unlikely to be a deal break for 99.99% of people.
I'm going to 3D print a riser for mine, but for now, I've started building a power button extension. Once it arrives, I'll finalize the design and share it on Tinkercad. For such innovative builders, they sometimes make odd design choices. The position of the button seems like an afterthought. If they intended for it to stay on, they should just say so. At least they are consistent with the plug port location on the Magic Mouse. Another solution I’m considering is to place it upside down.
They should do this, and they should also make the apple logo on the phones the flashlight. Change my mind.
I was excited about the new version until i saw this ridiculousness.
Out of 25+ Macs, at least one a day will need to be force shutdown/restarted (usually due to the Finder crashing/freezing0
your use case is obviously not an office of dozens of mounted Mac minis.
One home user's molehill is a small business mountain.
the complaints have plenty of validity being that Apple has published plenty of photographs and specs
valid
adjective
(of an argument or point) having a sound basis in logic or fact; reasonable or cogent: a valid criticism.
https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/
I power on and off several times during the day for security when I’m not working on my Mac.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/744386?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0icq5HzTtbtLPrR6GCG1rLErGi5J3pRjGb_ALrRcj870GbcqyUF7pKqBc_aem_vqHOL7rX2lNy8y17UTGt1w#profileId-677132
https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/
about 1/3 of the way down, "Built to Chill", there is a good animation of the air flow - Apple says all the air "flows through the foot" so the power button and vents are definitely meant to be on the bottom.
This also means this has nothing to do with the power button being on the bottom. Apple could have put it just about anywhere they wanted to. Their choice was most likely a balance of their aesthetic and the least difficult (read: expensive) place to put it. So it didn't need to be placed on the bottom or on the bottom in the back. It's what Apple chose to do. You could probably place it on a coaster to give enough space to press the button. Because the mini is lightweight it'll probably need to "squeezed" between the thumb and index (or whatever) finger to activate the button.
Putting it in the top of the case would have probably required a lot of clever circuitry and material placement depending on how the mini is assembled. iFixit will have a teardown and more will be known with much guessing eliminated.
On an unrelated note, I'd like to see a return to an illuminated Apple logo on all MacBooks. It's obviously something Apple could do if they wanted to. But like the location of the M4 mini's power button, it's probably an expensive manufacturing endeavor that while very cool looking, wouldn't make sense from a production cost standpoint.