This is ridiclous
Don’t worry, there will be suitable USB accessories available for this.
Only $299!
“that’s insane!”
gets wallet out
“I can’t believe this!”
gets out card
“unbelievable!”
And a $199 stand for it, sold separately.
The generic Chinese version that does the same thing: $12
No, it’ll be paired to specifically to your computer and doesn’t work on anyone else’s computer.
It’s going to Bluetooth since the Chinese version does not want to pay for the licensing fees.
Just like a Raspberry Pi needs a dongle for a power button, except the Mini has one already.
Does macOS respond to external keyboard power button presses because if so this could very well be as easy money-making real product
Part of the new Apple power bottom design strategy.
Apple is finally appealing to my interests
Hello.
Yes, and if you complain to much they’ll put the power input on the bottom too next year.
Guess the Magic Mouse design team was getting bored
Asahi Linux 👀
Apple insider are already framing this as not a design flaw but an advantage somehow
it opens up a whole new surface for things. Soon there will be a dozen USB C ports on the bottom and you’ll need to buy special apple right angle cables to access them that they charge $30 per 1m cable.
The have active electronics in them so that if any non-apple right angle connectors are used it limits them to usb 1.0 speeds and 5v 0.5A power delivery. It’s for your safety.
It’s for your safety.
That new surface is very risky, and if you don’t use the right connector it might catch the whole mini on fire!
Trust us. We’re THE design company!
Yeah… I used to sell Apple gear.
When Apple announced the Mighty mouse 20 years ago, everyone was super excited. There wasn’t much info, and we were almost wondering if it was a touch sensitive button on it.
What we got though was a mouse which gave you RSI any time you clicked the right button.
Now, I have a Mac Studio. Every PC has the power button on the top or front. This guy? Nah, lets put it on the back! And the M2 is a professional machine, so lets ship with 8GB ram only… And MAKE IT SHARED VIDEO MEMORY!
And lets stick an ARM chip with no raytracing on it, because thats what people crave
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It is convenient when you don’t hit that button accidentally, only by lifting the thing up.
Seems consistent with the Apple justification of “ape users shouldn’t be physically able to do something stupid, then they won’t blame the computer”.
I can’t wait for Apple to reveal a desk, with a keyboard built-in underneath the back side of it.
I wonder how many people will just have the thing upside down?
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That’s genius
design consistent with the Magic Mouse
So many people referring to using the button to turn the computer off, but more than 95% of the time, you use the OS to turn a computer off. It’s only when there’s a malfunction you would need to turn it off with a hardware button.
This button is primarily for turning the computer on.
Sure but you still need to turn it on though?
This button is primarily for turning the computer on.
Sure but you still need to turn it on though?
?
I’m trying to say that it’s still a useful button to have in an accessible spot because, exactly as you said, it is still used to turn it on.
Not even 0.5% of the time you’re interacting with the computer would you even think about the power button. Maybe in the first week because “lawl it’s on the bottom, Apple so stoopid.” Then you’d just get used to poking under the bottom of the computer and it turns on.
IMO this is infinitely better than on the back like the old Mac mini. My mini is behind my headphone amp, and under a monitor so any time I need to hit the power button it’s a LONG awkward reach.
That’s assuming there’s sufficient space. Even then if you look at the picture, you can see that the power button is on the bottom of the back side of the device. This makes it even harder to reach than if it were simply on the back since you’d need to contort your finger on top of a long awkward reach.
I turn off my computer everyday maybe I’m one of those crazy ones. I think they did that so people would be discouraged to turn it off. They want the users to use their new AI feature. My other thinking is marketing if people talk about your product that’s probably a good thing.
Can’t listen in if the computer is turned off!
I assume there will be a power button on the keyboard or mouse. This is just sort of a backup.
You assume everyone uses Apple keyboards
I don’t, but apple does. This is why the touch ID is in the keyboard. To be fair it does come as a unit if you buy the mac new.
A short press of the power button shuts down almost any computer in existence, why would you use the OS?
It’s still the OS doing it, it’s just reacting to the power button press like any other input device.
Not if you hold the power button. Yeah if you single press a power button, the os can divert that, but long press, the SMC will cut power. Similarly how, pressing and holding the power and the volume down button on a phone, cuts power, even if the OS is hard frozen. Sometimes you just need an emergency exit.
True but that’s extremely rare for people to do.
True but if you can’t do it, you are pretty screwed.
Someone who isn’t a pedant would interpret “using the OS” as going through the start menu, or equivalent.
You are unbelievably pedantic.
I was going to downvote you when I realized
Yeah, that isn’t a important distinction in a discussion about power button locations
He really is pedantic
excellent marketing strategy to get us talking about their stuff that would otherwise get almost completely under our radar.
i mean fuck where the power button of a product ill probably never need is.
This is the epitome of a first-world problem.
exacly. like how is this even news.
Just be thankful they didn’t put the power cord there like they did with the mouse.
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I think they call that Windows.
As someone who has to use heavy/taped-on little toys to cover the power buttons on my PCs or else my cat invariably opens a shutdown dialog in the middle of something… Thank you.
I don’t know how to windows, but in Linux I just disable the power button on my laptop. Long press still works, this was to avoid accidentally putting the laptop to sleep when accidentally pressing the power button
I’ll just stick with covering it up. Without fail, if I leave it uncovered my cat will press it. She’s even held it long enough for a forced shutdown twice that I can think of.
That is hilarious.
I spent a while trying to figure out how a cat could possibly long press a power button, even pressing it at all should be a challenge…
Then I remembered that most people use laptops.
I would be impressed if a cat could hold the power button in for several seconds on my tower, you have to depress the button about a 1/4 inch.
I would be impressed if a cat could hold the power button in for several seconds on my tower, you have to depress the button about a 1/4 inch.
My friends cats do this all the time. Their paws are small enough to be able to push the button down easily.
They’re all towers. But the buttons are all pretty shallow with very light actuation force required.
And they all happen to be situated such that the corner which has the button is the corner furthest away from the desk, so when she jumps up onto the PC as a platform to get ready to jump onto the desk, her feet are all grouped up right in that corner.
And you can imagine that if she’s crouched down ready to jump, and I put my arm out to prevent her from jumping from the tower to the desk, that’s a lot of pressure all applied to her little toe beans.
It’s an unfortunate coincidence. But that experience, together with seeing this Mac Mini design, has made me wonder why we tend to put a button with such drastic effects right out in the open like this.
I’m not going to get a mac anytime soon, but at least it would stop my cat from powering down everything spontaneously
So they created more vertical space on the case, which would be a perfect spot for a power button - or even more ports… and then didn’t use it.
True to form, if I’m honest.
That aside, I love that they’re getting rid of the idiotic 8GB baseline spec.
When Think Different turns into differently stupid.
Stupid Differently. Apple’s new slogan.