All the ports on the mini are in the back, right? If you need to frequently plug things in and out of the mini ports, how about positioning the mini with the ports facing forward? Or perhaps sideways, whichever way that leaves the ports more accessible.
This attitude is why I included the third option to take the battery out of the MacBook and just use it plugged in, like the Osborne 1 “portable computer” that plugged in, or like my old white MacBook after the battery died and I taped the MagSafe cable to it. Couldn’t use it without plugging it in, and had to power off to take it to the coffee shop (remember 2010’s when people were always looking around for a seat near an outlet, asking ”can you plug this in for me please?” I was that guy every day, it sucked), but I used it like that for a while until I got the new Air. I preferred having a battery, but maybe you would prefer the no battery option for less cost and complexity.
A UPS doesn’t protect against the cord getting caught and getting pulled out by pulling it forward. It just sits there thinking everything is hunky dory. If it has never happened to you it means you live a repressed life of walking on eggshells, and your wife is having an affair.
I found out about the difference between laptop and desktop chips when I naively bought a MacBook Pro i7 to run Pro Tools, thinking I’d get the same performance as an i7 desktop. It was a disaster, airplane noise fans coming on immediately, and could not handle my sessions recorded on aging Dell Pentium (which was super fast, with DDR4 ram that made it faster than Mac towers. Producer Paul Kolderie came by one time and told me it was faster than the Mac’s he was using at the time). Everyone was like, dude of course a laptop isn’t as fast as a desktop, it’s a MOBILE version of the chip! You need the DESKTOP version! It was common knowledge apparently but I just thought an i7 was an i7. I quickly returned it and built a Windows machine with a desktop i7 that I used until I got my iMac (i5 but still faster) in 2020.
Sounds like a human problem and not a problem with the desktop computer being a desktop computer.
Maybe, but the way Apple released M1 on low end machines first, and stuck with Intel desktop chips in their pro machines, made me think I’d be taking a step back in power from my high end Intels with lots of RAM. Now the M3 apparently beats my machines, but they still are forcing me to buy two very expensive and limited machines instead of realizing the benefits of AS eliminating the distinction between desktop and mobile (that you guys are now telling me never existed).
Yes, most recording studios have semi-domesticated humans running loose in them. Maybe yours doesn’t.
I had an Apple //c. It has vents on the bottom, using it flat like that would over heat up and burn out the motherboard. The LCD display and battery were awful and no one bought them.
Definitely agree with this - one big attraction of the desktop Macs is no battery that will need eventual replacement.
Yes, it would be the next generation Mini (some suggest a name change to Mac Nano reflecting the new smaller and portable design), it would need a new case and new battery and motherboard forms from what is used in the MacBooks and iMacs and Mini currently. My point was that Apple has already worked out the battery circuit design for M3 Pros in MacBooks and iPads, so it isn’t something impossible. Apple has computer designers still working for them, don’t they? I bet they could design the new Mini in a day.
The Mac mini is already niche. There’s even less of a market for this thing you’re describing (and it would likely be more expensive than the Mac mini).
You seem to think the Mini draws more power than the MacBook Pro, which is happily powered with USB C to a power brick, that also powers a bright 16” screen. The Mini uses the same chips and same clock speed and specs as the MacBook Pro, and it doesn’t have a screen, so of course it could easily be powered over USB C too. But it isn’t, because old perceptions are still stuck.
I joined this forum to share my idea for a this product, before the M came out, and I was really expecting a “one more thing” Mini with a battery, to highlight the new AS line of chips. But it didn’t happen then so I am still keeping the idea alive, and I’ve heard the mystified response over and over from the same people so I am a little fed up and mocked them in my latest plea.
It’s like trying to argue with a conspiracy theorist, he’s always got an answer that defies logic.
It's not persuasive. Just get a laptop if you want a battery. There's barely a market for desktops mac nowadays anyway. One with a battery would be so niche that it would be an absolute failure.
I'm actually thinking of a compact and power efficient Mac - something like a Raspberry Pi. The idea being that if you really wanted to have a cheap UPS you could add a high power USB-C power bank.
